Assignments "live" students "move"

"Come from life, go to life"

Reporter: Relevant experts have pointed out that the scope of homework design should break through the established limits of textbooks and teaching aids, link homework with students' lives, and promote students' application of knowledge, consolidation of knowledge, and self-development in the field of life. What do you think about this?

Ruming: I think that good homework is necessarily connected to the classroom at one end and life at the other. Taking advantage of the local regional resources, we excavated and organized the Yellow River culture, compiled the "Yellow River Culture Reader", "The banks of the Yellow River is the hometown" and other school-based teaching materials with great regional characteristics of the Yellow River, in different forms such as poems, idioms, proverbs, songs, and historical stories, so that the Yellow River culture into the classroom, into the homework, into the mind, building a teaching system with distinctive characteristics of the times and the Yellow River, 49,000 people primary and secondary school students were educated.

Combined with the classroom, following the principles of openness, diversity, practicality, and personalization, living and activity, we have designed social practice assignments for students around the Yellow River culture with unique Yellow River characteristics. For example, we organize students to visit people's homes along the Yellow River during winter and summer vacations, listen to old people's stories about the Yellow River's past, and explore old objects along the banks of the Yellow River; organize students to visit scenic spots along the Yellow River, investigate and research the geographical features of both sides of the Yellow River, and write a proposal of "Strengthening the ecological protection of the Yellow River and banning barbecues along the Yellow River", which was adopted by the county CPPCC. We invited old artists of the Yellow River Yangtze to guide students to rehearse their performance of the Yangtze, to pass on the Yellow River culture. Around the "Yellow River farming culture", the establishment of a labor practice base in Yaozhai town, has organized 25 primary and secondary schools, 34,000 students in batches to the base for labor education practice; organization of four schools to carry out the "protection of the 'Mother River I'll clean the 'Mother River" and other series of practical activities 12 times, picking up more than 1,500 kilograms of garbage, effectively protecting the ecological environment of the Yellow River, will The "Yellow River" "hometown love" quietly implanted in the hearts of students.

"Start from the independent, run interest, and go"

Reporter: homework is essentially the process of independent learning, but what kind of homework lets students become "to do" for "I want to do", there is a lot of learning. The implementation of the "five management" requires effective strategies to support it, can you talk about the school's specific practices?

Xiuhua: First, our school has made the "pocket questions" into a "menu of your choice" for the students. The teachers design the basic, extended or interdisciplinary project-based topics, which are printed on a piece of paper about 1/8 A4 size and carried in their pockets. The teacher will also provide guidance on interdisciplinary project-based inquiry topics. According to the number of students' "pocket problems", teachers select the "Pocket King" of the class every week. The "pocket questions", a "menu of your choice", are very popular among teachers and students, and not only achieve a hierarchy of assignments but also increase students' interest in homework.

Second, we made our extra-curricular schedule, which was a homework assignment for our students on the first day of school. The schedule is made under the guidance of parents, and the scientific nature of the schedule is reviewed by the classroom teachers one by one: do they get 10 hours of sleep? Is the schedule of after-school activities adequate? The schedule is used as a carrier to develop individual reading plans, physical exercise plans, chore lists, and specialty training plans to guide students to plan and manage their time wisely, to ensure adequate sleep time, to be little masters of time, to guarantee time for practical activities such as reading, physical activity, scientific inquiry, chores, and parent-child activities, to lead parents to accompany their children in activities and to keep them moving at home. In this way, the influence of electronic devices such as cell phones on children can be diluted. In this way, the "five management" is put into practice through a small extracurricular work schedule.

"To be literate, to walk with the good"

Reporter: From the perspective of the homework implementation process, homework includes design and assignment, submission and correction, evaluation and analysis, and improvement and optimization. There is no doubt that teachers are the main body of design and correction in these processes. How should teachers play a major role in improving the quality of homework?

Snow: The "double reduction" policy has posed new challenges to teachers, and teachers need to work hard on homework management, design, and other aspects of research. I did it from the following aspects.

Optimize the design. I actively participated in the teaching and research activities on homework design organized by the city and district and led the teachers in the group to optimize the homework design and conduct in-depth research on the content, type, form, and evaluation of homework. For example, after teaching the lesson on "perimeter and area", project-based homework was assigned to enhance students' comprehensive literacy through five small tasks.

Selecting "good" problems. Identify the volume of knowledge contained in a problem, and the path of regular problem-solving exercises is not only for students to "solve", but also for them to participate in the identification and selection of good problems.

A small amount of constancy. Daily oral calculations to practice skills and stimulate interest by competing for the "Calculation Top 10". The daily problem is expanded, and the "success list" is opened up for timely evaluation and motivation, so that students can have a satisfying and happy success experience.

Free choice. For example, in 2022, I have set a variety of assignments to suit different students' abilities and interests, including "Basic Calculation", "Mathematical Journaling", "Designing Mathematical Chinese New Year Greeting Cards or Cartoons", "Symmetry in Life", and "My Room", giving students the pleasure and right to choose.

Feelin: Our school uses cooperative group learning. In the classroom, each group actively discusses and communicates with each other. Each student can be a "Mr. Small" to the other students, and I benefit from it. I feel very proud and happy when I am the "little man" for other students because I am helping my classmates, getting along with them, and improving myself.

Because I learned well in class, I didn't have to go to tutoring classes; the teacher assigned less homework, and I had more free time, so I felt relaxed but not idle. With the reduction of heavy study tasks, I have enough time to do what I am interested in and what I want to do. This has made me realize the joy and happiness of learning! Now, in my free time, I like reading very much. Reading broadens my horizons, increases my insight, and lets me see a wider world.