Ms. Blackburn continues in Chapter 7 to discuss assignments (p. 121). She states, If something is important enough for you to assign it, then it should be important enough for a student to complete it. Let me clarify a key point. This is not just about the student's responsibility. You play a major role in his or her success. (Emphasis added.) First, it means we design assignments that are valuable, not just busy work. In addition to helping students understand the value of the work, we hold them responsible for completion. ...but requiring students to complete something means you also provide a structure and support to ensure they finish. What is your opinion of Ms. Blackburn's statements? Please justify.
I try to make my assignments and what we do each day as meaningful as possible. Yesterday we did a squiggle and this became their 3 min writing for the week. We also do as much hands on work as possible. As far as paper and pencil goes I do not have that hard of a time with completion but when I do the students do not earn extra recess or center time until their work is done. I assign little HW mainly b/c it does not always come back and a lot of my parents work nights. When HW is assigned I give a few days for them to finish it. I want everything I do to tie into other things and I also want students to build on new work with previous work. I would say this happens 95% of the time.