A Tale of Two Students in the Land of No-Homework: Student 1

One of the classes I teach is called English 4.  This class is comprised of students with all ability levels from those with reading and writing IEPs to "gifted" students who thought English 4 would be easier than College Composition.  Regardless of ability, the end goal of English 4 is the same: build all students' reading, writing, and speaking skills as much as possible before graduation.  During Trimester 1, our main focus is on writing so students are given anywhere from 20-30 minutes of their 62 minute class to develop, revise, and edit their writing.  I thought 100-150 minutes of in-class writing per week should eliminate the need for outside of class writing work.

Student 1 has traditionally been painfully shy in class.  Reading and writing are equally challenging for him; although Student 1 has no IEP, his consistent struggles have lead to an insecurity and lack of confidence in himself and his abilities that is almost more crippling than the skill struggles themselves.  This student works nearly every day after school making homework a non-priority for him.  In the past two years when any writing not completed during class was expected to be completed as homework, Student 1 chronically turned in assignments late and barely completed. In addition, they usually resulted from intense teacher interventions and often several Saturday school sessions.

This year, in the Land of No-Homework, Student 1 has already written several pages of in-class quick-write entries.  After a 4-week unit, his final narrative writing was turned in on time, was 2 pages long, and showed proficiency in 3 of 4 categories (he is allowed to revise the "developing" category).  All of this happened with no prompting from me aside from occasional check-ins to see how his writing was progressing.  Although he struggled with his informative paper because of the amount of reading and analyzing necessary to adequately research his selected topic, it, too, was two pages long and turned in on time.  Does length of writing really matter?  Not necessarily, but this is a student who struggled in the past to write one paragraph on his own.  In his case, I see quantity as a mark of independence.

Student 1 is considering college for the first time in his high school career.  He is visibly more confident and smiles more in class.  He is no longer scared of writing.  Is his writing "career and college ready" yet? No, but he is writing more confidently every day, and this is one step closer to being ready.