Homework with Integrity

Dec 21, 2015
By John Williams

When working with students, we try to stress “Homework with Integrity” and not just “homework”. Homework with integrity means doing homework the way it was meant to be done. It means attacking homework so you get out of it what you were supposed to – what the teacher was shooting for.

Here’s an example: The teacher of a Grade 10 math student assigns a series of questions for homework. Twenty minutes later, the student is “done”. Yes, the student might be done the homework, but did the student do the homework with integrity? A few questions can shed light on this. How did you do? Did you check your answers? Did you correct the ones you got wrong – do you even know how many you got wrong? If you’re stuck or don’t understand something from your homework, do you know what you need to ask your teacher about next class?

Students, in their desire to ‘finish’ their homework, will frequently rush through with little regard to the notion of doing the homework properly. We’ll often ask our students why they think the teacher assigned the homework in the first place. The answer, of course, is so the student learns the underlying concepts. So just finishing the homework doesn’t mean much if you don’t, at the end of it, understand the concepts being taught.

Parents can help shift the focus toward ‘homework with integrity’ by slightly changing the nature of their questions. Next time, don’t ask your children whether they’re finished their homework. Instead, ask them if they finished their homework properly. Ask them if they finished their homework the way their teacher expects them to.

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