Hamline University DigitalCommons@Hamline School of Education Student Capstone Theses and School of Education Dissertations Spring 2018 The Type Of Homework Assignment And Its Potential To Influence Student Motivation And Language Learning In A High School Spanish Language Classroom Sarah Spilde Hamline University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/hse_all Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Spilde, Sarah, "The Type Of Homework Assignment And Its Potential To Influence Student Motivation And Language Learning In A High School Spanish Language Classroom" (2018). School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations.edu/hse_all/4425 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Education at DigitalCommons@Hamline. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Hamline. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@hamline.edu, lterveer01@hamline.
THE TYPE OF HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT AND ITS POTENTIAL TO INFLUENCE STUDENT MOTIVATION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN A HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM by Sarah Spilde A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Education. Hamline University Saint Paul, Minnesota June 2018 Primary Advisor: Kim Koeppen Secondary Advisor: Allison Coalwell Peer Reviewer: Andrea Hogg 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: Introduction……………………………………………………………6 The Homework Debate……………………………………………………………8 My Homework Policy……………………………………………………………11 Research Question……………………………………………………………….14 CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review……………………………………………………15 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….15 History and Culture of Homework in the United States ……………….………16 The Negative Effects of Homework……………………………………………. 21 The Positive Effects of Homework ………………………………………….…25 The Type of Homework Assignment ……………………………………….26 The High School Learner and Motivation ………………………….29 Spanish Language Learning Methods and Computer Assisted Learning………. 33 Summary…………………………………………………………………………39 CHAPTER THREE: Methodology………………………………………………………40 Introduction………………………………………………………………………40 Research Paradigm and Method…………………………………………………40 Setting and Participants………………………………………………………….
42 Data Collection Tools and their Implementation……………………………….44 Survey……………………………………………………………………………44 Homework Assignments…………………………………………………………44 Google Document Worksheet……………………………………………………46 2 Schoology Online Graded Assignment…………………………………………. 46 Audio Listening and/or Visual Video Assignment………………………………47 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………….47 Hamline Human Subject Review……………………………………………….48 Summary…………………………………………………………………………49 CHAPTER FOUR: Results …………………………………………………………….50 Introduction………………………………………………………………………50 Initial Motivation Data Survey Collection……………………………………….50 Motivation Survey Results ………………………………………………………50 In-class Participation Data Collection in Unit 1 and Unit 2 …………………….56 Unit 1 Homework Data Collection ………………………………………….56 Unit 1 Exam Data Collection ……………………………………………………56 Unit 1 Data Results ………………………………………………………….57 Unit 2 Homework Data Collection …………………………………………….57 Unit 2 Exam Data Collection ……………………………………………………58 Unit 2 Data Results …………………………………………………………….59 Final Homework Survey ……………………………………………………….60 Homework Survey Results …………………………………………………….67 CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusions …………………………………………………………68 Introduction …………………………………………………………………….68 Reflections on Capstone Process ………………………………………………. 68 Limitations of Study ……………………………………………………………. 69 Importance of Data Findings ……………………………………………………70 Future Research and Practice ……………………………………………………73 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………….
74 APPENDIX A……………………………………………………………………………78 World Language Homework Policy……………………………………………. 78 APPENDIX B……………………………………………………………………………79 Student and Parent Permission Slip ……………………………………………. 79 APPENDIX C……………………………………………………………………………81 Initial Student Motivation Survey………………………………………………. 82 Google Document Homework Assignment ………………………………….84 Online Graded Schoology Assignment ………………………………………….90 Audio and/or Visual Homework Assignment ………………………………….91 Student Homework Survey …………………………………………………….91 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 1- Unit 1 Data Results ……………………………………………………………56 Table 2- Unit 2 Data Results…………………………………………………………….58 5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 I work hard at school…………………………………………………………50 Figure 4.2 It is important for me that I improve my skills this year…………………….3 I am good at staying focused on my goals………………………………….4 One of my goals in class is to learn as much as I can……………………….5 I complete my school work regularly……………………………………….6 I finish whatever I begin…………………………………………………….7 I can do almost all the work in class if I don’t give up………………………53 Figure 4.8 I try things even if I might fail……………………………………………….9 What we do in school will help me succeed in life ………………………… 54 Figure 4.10 Homework is important for me to understand and learn Spanish ………….11 The type of homework assignment given influences if I complete it or not 59 Figure 4.12 I learn best with on-line homework assignments………………………….13 I am more motivated to do online graded Schoology assignments…………60 Figure 4.14 I am more motivated to do homework assignments where I need to listen and/or watch a video and answer questions ………………………………….15 I am more motivated to do worksheet homework assignments…………….16 I am more motivated to do homework assignments on a Google Doc…….17 I learn best with worksheets……………………………………………….18 I think that different types of assignments help me prepare for a test………64 Figure 4.19 I feel more confident to speak up in class when I complete my homework.20 Different types of homework are important for me to understand and learn Spanish………………………………………………………………………….65 6 Introduction Introduction Homework is a topic that continually receives a lot of attention in the media and is discussed in schools across the country.
I reflect to when I was a high school student and homework was assigned every day. I attended a school with a four block class schedule and there were high expectations from teachers and administrators on academic performance. I remember nights staying awake until three o’clock in the morning studying for my classes, as well as participating in academic extracurricular activities and playing high school level sports outside of my school responsibilities. While I truly enjoyed my classes, teachers and the high school I attended, I experienced high levels of stress and anxiety about my grades and extracurricular activities.
I can say with confidence that my high school prepared me for college and I received a well-rounded education. Despite my academic success in high school and college, I have never forgotten that feeling of extreme anxiety about grades, assignments and high expectations. With my own personal experience in mind and my role as a high school Spanish teacher, homework is a topic that has continuously been in my life, either as the role of a student, or as the role of a teacher who assigns homework assignments. The purpose of this paper is to explore how homework and academic expectations set by high schools across the country impact the young learners of today.
The primary focus is to discover how the type of homework assignment given may influence motivation and confidence in language use for high school students, specifically in the Spanish language classroom. I aim to gather information for this topic through research and data collection by answering the research question, how does the type of homework assignment influence 7 student motivation and student use of the Spanish language in the classroom? Current research shows that high school students continually experience stress, anxiety and depression (Kralovec, 2000). Thinking back to my own experience, I completely understand the challenges that a young person may face about getting into the right college, being successful, passing standardized testing, lettering in sports or extracurricular activities and working at after school jobs, etc. Because of the high expectations schools place upon children, the mental health and wellbeing of students is a topic that is extremely important in relationship to homework.
Students are stressed out, disconnecting from learning, failing or performing poorly at school because of the stress of school and more importantly, the stress of homework (Kralovec, 2000). Despite my own personal feelings of homework based upon my experiences when I was a high school student, my role as a high school teacher has drastically changed my attitude towards homework. I remember my experiences as a student, yet as a teacher my responsibilities include preparing high school students for college and the world beyond the public education system. Because of this responsibility in my profession, it has been my practice as a teacher to assign daily homework as a tool to improve second language learning, based on the knowledge that homework can be a valuable tool for me to formatively assess student growth and engagement of Spanish language acquisition (Kidd & Czerniawski, 2011).
As a teacher, I want to prepare my students for their futures and teach Spanish in a way that is engaging, fun and also in a way that promotes a level of academic performance that is necessary when learning a language. Any teacher knows the difficult balancing act of teaching, which includes teaching many students with multiple learning 8 needs, following curriculum guidelines that follow the national standards, promoting a creative and positive learning environment and preparing students for college readiness. Homework has been a tool that is intended to help students learn and practice material outside of the classroom and teach important learning skills such as time management and responsibility of completing assignments (Cooper, 2007). However, I continually ask myself, is the type of homework I am assigning the best practice for my students? When I reflect on my own experiences in high school, the academic rigor and expectations from my own high school certainly helped me to be a successful student for college and to excel, yet I cannot help but wonder was it the actual homework assignments that helped me learn better? I often come back to this question as a teacher and wonder if the homework I am assigning students each night directly links to student achievement in my own classroom.
My personal struggle as a teacher on the topic of homework and the questions I ask myself have led me to identify the question, how does the type of homework assignment influence student motivation and Spanish language learning in the classroom? The Homework Debate Through my own personal experiences of both the positive and negative effects of homework, I have taken an interest in the “homework debate” that is trending in academics and the media which also includes social media platforms (Chan, 2016). In today’s society, the expectations of a student are becoming more and more demanding and many scholars, teachers and parents are questioning what role homework plays in a child’s learning and academic development (Bennett & Kalish, 2006). The idea of assigning homework just for the sake that a child must take home homework every day is 9 being questioned by many stakeholders in this discussion, such as school administrators, teachers and parents. Many school districts are implementing a “no homework” policy and many teachers are initiating their own policies in their classrooms about homework that contradicts the traditional view that students need homework in order to learn outside of the classroom (Chan, 2016).
For example, in August 2016, a Facebook post went viral about a second grade teacher who sent a letter home to parents explaining that students will not have homework for the upcoming school year (Chan, 2016). The post stated, “Research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance. Rather, I ask that you spend your evenings with things that correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your child to bed early” (Chan, 2016).
The post went viral and many parents applauded the teacher’s efforts in establishing a no homework policy in her classroom. Even though this example is specific to second grade learners, when I read this post online, I immediately thought of my own homework policy. While this post gained national attention and praise, the assumption that no homework is automatically a good thing, overlooks many families and students who may not fall into the “traditional” family this second grade teacher had in mind. I read the post and realized that while this teacher may have had good intentions, this philosophy overlooks and does not include diverse families.
For example, there are single families with one parent working multiple jobs to make ends meet, some students spend their time in multiple homes, some students may be homeless or worried about their next meal, so the assumption that every family is able to sit down at a dinner table and spend their nights reading overlooks the economic hardships many families face and fails to 10 recognize family situations that do not fit the “traditional” model this teacher had in mind. This philosophy can single out students who have personal, emotional and financial situations that impact their ability to complete homework. It continues to create a divide in the public education system and is not necessarily an answer to the homework debate. With the many platforms available for both educators and parents, the discussion of homework is reaching many stakeholders and allowing continuous discussion of the multiple viewpoints of the topic.