Garit Skidmore

ERWC Per. 3

October 15, 2016

The Importance of the Right homework in Learning

 Skidmore 1

Table of Contents

I.Part one: Description.......2

II.Part two: Research.3

III.Part three: Reflection.....6

IV.Part four: Works Cited......8

V.Part five: Annotated Bibliography........9

 Skidmore 2

Senior Project Description

Introduction

My time at Santa Susana has influenced aspects of my life and future and inspired me on

a certain path because of the German program, more specifically my teacher Frau Newell. The

process of learning German has inspired me to extensively study German and inspire me to want

to either teach or go to school in Germany. I am one of the top students in that class and this

project will help me grasp the concepts even better by organizing it in such a way thatll help me

take my understanding of the language to the next level. I also think that doing this project will

help me learn how to interact with people in a new and better way and allow me to be able to

give speeches or lectures with more skill and in a more clear and concise manner.

Project Description

I plan on making lesson plans for and teaching a German 1 class at Santa Susana High

School. By doing this project I plan to accomplish helping kids learn and develop a passion for

learning German and hopefully encourage them to continue in learning languages. I plan on

talking to my German teacher on how she plans out lesson plans and take notes and plan my

lesson plans accordingly. Then observe how she teaches her classes and take some classes in

public speaking to be able to speak in a well put together way that will impart knowledge upon

the students because Im not hard to understand. My skills in my German class at being able to

memorize and understand the concepts that are taught would help me to teach these concepts

since I have a very good grasp on these concepts so i would be able to explain them adequately
 Skidmore 3

to a German 1 class to understand. I expect to encounter students who are unwilling to learn or

listen to me since I am still a student at the school and not an adult but i plan to overcome this by

if needed, with the teachers permission and authority of course, pass out mild punishments such

as detention. Hopefully this will keep the class in order and if not then ill have the teacher help

me out when it comes to that.

Research Paper

For my research paper Im researching does assigning a lot of Homework with a lesson

help students retain information or does assigning minimal homework help more? What type of

homework is best to help retain information? This can help me teach students better by figuring

out what homework to give students in order to help them retain information and move on faster

so we dont have to stay on a topic for a long time and waste time because the kids arent

memorizing the things they need to. This will help me mold students into lifelong language

learners who will continue to use the language they learned in school long after they leave the

class.

The first article that i could find that dealt with this topic was by Linda M. Wallinger in

their article The Role of Homework in Foreign Language Learning. Wallinger says that

homework is used to prepare students for upcoming lessons in class, to extend the knowledge

they learned to new situations, practice homework which reinforces what was learned in class,

and integration which requires the student to integrate all the student has learned into one project.
 Skidmore 4

Language teachers surveyed said homework is essential is important to learning a new language

but should reflect the maturity of the students as said, most successful foreign language

assignments varied according to the maturity of the students and the level of language study.

Teachers felt that beginning foreign language students, who were presumably younger, did not

have either the skills or the self-discipline to do long assignments that required them to process

information (Wallinger 3). Teachers felt that language homework should reinforce the reading

and writing skills as listening and speaking is reinforced in class. Research showed homework

helped improve test scores and comprehension in the classroom and led students to become more

interested in learning the language in their leisure time. It was found a majority of the homework

given by language teachers is practice homework and most found that this homework was very

important at lower levels but at higher levels a combination of all the homework styles should be

given.

This article is a good point of reference for knowing how to properly engage kids in and

out of classroom to better insure that the class isnt just a waste of their and my time. This will

help guide my senior project so that i can better tailor the work the kids do to maximize the

amount of engaged students listening to me teach and to better tailor my curriculum. So that i can

prepare the students better for upcoming lessons and not have to repeat a lesson over and over

again and just have the homework reflect the lesson so kids can come in the next day and take a

test or something like that. I think this will help me a lot in order to take full advantage of

teaching students.

Another interesting article that I found was The Importance of Motivation in Second

Language Acquisition by Leila Anjomshoa and Firooz Sadighi. They say that people have
 Skidmore 5

either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation which is either being motivated by yourself or having to

be motivated by other people or outside sources. This can affect how motivated kids can be to do

homework and schoolwork and into learning the curriculum. The research shows that motivation

is a very important part of learning a language and helps kids become immersed in the language.

It is important for teachers to motivate kids by giving them homework that will motivate them

into staying with the language.

This article can further help influence my senior project by helping me figure how to

better motivate a class so that they can become life long learners and become more engaged in

school. I can use the information to better prepare curriculum to motivate kids better and engage

them on a higher level in the classroom. This article also influenced my project in that ill have

to accept the fact that not all students can be motivated to participate effectively in class and i

just have to deal with that.

The final article that i found that was really interesting was Making homework Count:

Homework as a collective task for language minority families by Kathy R. Fox. In Foxs

research she found that families that actively participated together in learning a language

developed language skills and became fluent a lot faster and comprehend better. Even if parents

just stay on top of a kids homework can dramatically increase how students stay on top of

school and become more motivated in language learning.

This can influence my senior project by encouraging students to start groups with each

other to study the language and do homework together so they become more motivated to

continue learning outside of the classroom. Having them start little groups could better
 Skidmore 6

encourage kids to do homework and allow them to study together so that less kids are falling

behind.

Possible areas of further research i could do for my project if i were to continue with it

would be to research how to develop a curriculum properly for teaching students. Although i

hope to learn this from my mentor so i dont think that i need to research anything else for my

paper.

Reflection

I expect that things for my Senior Project will go well. I think this because the students in

my class seem to respect me and i think they would give the attention and time needed to teach

them without a huge amount of disrespect and kids not paying attention. This idea is further

rooted in my head because i have been a TA in the class and I have developed a sort of

professional but casual relationship with the kids so i know them well enough to keep them

under control.

I think the strengths of my project will be the curriculum and the homework that I assign

to the kids. I have done extensive research into the type of work that should be assigned to kids
 Skidmore 7

at this level so I know exactly what type of homework to give the students in order to better the

chances of having them retain the most information and be able to learn as much as possible.

With this knowledge i can tailor a curriculum with this knowledge in mind that utilizes this in

order get the kids as motivated as possible in and outside of the classroom, as well as to help

them increase their understanding and comprehension of German.

Problems that I think that I might encounter in my senior project are maybe kids that

become disrespectful and try to undermine my teaching by trying to use my status as a student to

try and use against me. Using this as an excuse why they dont need to listen to me. I would try

to combat this by, with the teachers permission, giving students appropriate punishments for

goofing off such as moving them away from their friends, giving standards, or if it persists or

gets worse then giving them a short lunch detention. I think these methods would be very

effective in preventing kids from acting up. Another problem that could occur could be not

having a lot control over homework assigned and i would adjust my teaching to accompany that.

Overall i feel very good about my senior project for a multitude of reasons. The first

reason I feel good about my project is because I think it will be an interesting opportunity to see

what it is really like to teach a class and i feel after this i may have a greater respect for some

teachers. The second reason i feel good about my project is that i feel i can increase my

knowledge of the german language since ill have to study it a little more closely in order to

teach the language well to new students to the language who are interested. The final reason is i

think ill get a lot of satisfaction out of trying to inspire and teach kids.
 Skidmore 8

Works Cited

Lina, Wallinger. The Role of Homework in Foreign Language Learning. Foreign Language Annals
Vol. 33, No. 5 (October 2000): Online

Fox, Kathy. Making Homework Count: Homework as a collective task for language minority
families. Journal of Praxis in multicultural Education volume 4 (fall 2009): Online

Anjohomshoa, Leila. Sadighi, Firooz. The Importance of Motivation in second Language

Acquisition. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature. February
2015, 126-137.
 Skidmore 9

Annotated Bibliography

Begley, Sharon. "Homework doesn't help." Newsweek 30 Mar. 1998: 50+. Professional Collection.
Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
The main purpose of the article is to convey that lots of homework at younger ages is

harmful to a developing childs motivation but can help kids with improving test scores at

middle school ages and higher. Bergley says that homework at younger ages can be harmful to

their motivation but at older ages is proven to help them remember information as long as it is

homework that involves implementing knowledge in a creative way but not too much homework

though. The possible audience for the work could be parents and maybe teachers. The relevance

of the information is that it tells me homework can be beneficial if done right and not too much
 Skidmore 10

homework either. There are no special features in the article. The author doesnt give a lot of

examples to support their arguments.

Lina, Wallinger. The Role of Homework in Foreign Language Learning. Foreign Language Annals
Vol. 33, No. 5 (October 2000): Online
The main purpose of this article is to examine the role of homework in foreign language

learning and instruction. The article looks at the varying levels of homework given in classes and

how it is implemented and shows that language given at higher level language classes integrates

what kids learned better in homework and may help them better learn languages but the studies

are inconclusive whether or not homework really helps. The possible audience for the article are

maybe upcoming and current language teachers. The relevance of the information is that it takes

an in depth look at previous studies about homework in learning and gives a better idea about

how homework can affect how much information students retain. There are charts in the article.

Bernard, Jaclyn. Motivation in Foreign Language Learning: The Relationship between Classroom
Activities, Motivation, and Outcomes in a University Language-Learning Environment.
Dietrich College Honors Theses, 14 April 2010, Online

The main purpose of the article is to see whether motivation to learn a language can be

gained through doing classroom activities and studying. The article discusses different types of

motivation that students have and how they are different in helping them learn a language and

talks about how instructional time can put motivation in students to learn a language and become

more immersed. The possible audience of the article could possibly be teacher or students

looking to become teachers. The relevance of the information is beneficial by giving hope to

teachers that they could turn bad kids around by giving them the motivation to turn their grades
 Skidmore 11

around. There are charts and graphs in the article. I dont note any weaknesses or defects in the

article.

Fox, Kathy. Making Homework Count: Homework as a collective task for language minority
families. Journal of Praxis in multicultural Education volume 4 (fall 2009): Online

The main purpose of the article is to show the importance of families in learning a second

language and what methods work best for helping people learn a second language. The article

follows hispanic families in learning a second language and uses different methods at home and

in the school to see which methods help people learn a second language better and more

efficiently. The possible audience for the article could be scholars and language teachers. The

relevance of the article is for people looking to better improve how effectively languages are

taught and how well people can learn the languages. There are some charts in the the article to

illustrate the studies. I didnt detect any biases or defects in the article.

Anjohomshoa, Leila. Sadighi, Firooz. The Importance of Motivation in second Language

Acquisition. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature. February
2015, 126-137.

The main purpose of the article is to convince teachers that they need to motivate their

students into learning another language. The articles goes on the look at the different types of

motivation that exist and theories people have at getting people motivated to learn. They look at

studies done into this and try to figure out what people really can do to motivate students. The

possible audience for the article are teachers. The Relevance of the article is to help better

understand what would make kids do better in school and actual do homework and work. There

are some charts in this article. I think maybe the people are a little bias to the idea that anyone

can be motivated to learn a new language.