1. Homework Frequency KS3: Weekly KS4: Weekly
Homework is an integral part of the children’s learning experiences. The purpose of homework is to consolidate and reinforce skills and content prior to the following lesson. It also aims to encourage pupils to develop the confidence and independence needed to develop organisational skills & foster revision habits.
Homework Frequency
KS3: Weekly
KS4: Weekly
Homework Guidance
Department: English
HOD: Ms Williams
Bedrock Learning – Year 7
Students are required to log on to the Bedrock Learning website and complete two lessons per week.
Use unique login details and password to log on to the Bedrock website.
Once they are on the ‘My Progress’ page click the orange button that says ‘Continue learning’.
Work their way through the vocabulary based tasks until they are taken back to the ‘My Progress’.
Click on the ‘Vocabulary Notebook’ tab to review the words that they have learnt and the words that they need to revisit.
D.I.R.T
Students may be asked to reflect upon and improve work that has been marked by their teacher.
Students use a green pen to improve and develop work that has been looked at or assessed by the teacher. This type of homework will involve specific alterations suggested by the teacher in order to highlight and eliminate errors or gaps that prevent a higher grade from being attained.
Students could improve upon their work on the following ways:
Making spelling, punctuation or grammatical improvements using the teacher’s marking symbols as guidance.
Responding to a question a teacher has posed.
Using a target a teacher has set to go back and add in detail.
Extending a piece of work.
Completing a new, shorter version of task in which a particular skill is demonstrated.
Assessment Preparation
Students will be asked to revise for assessments during key points in the academic year.
Below are some suggestions on the most effective way to structure revision:
If the assessment question is known, students could:
Write an essay play to help them clarify their ideas.
Learn 3-5 key quotations that are key to answering the question.
Practise writing opening paragraphs or conclusions.
Use prompt cards to write down key arguments and get someone to test them.
If the assessment question is not known, students could:
Make a list of possible topics that could come up and use this to identify gaps in knowledge.
Review their class-book and highlight information that they have forgotten.
Take past papers.
Use a knowledge organiser to divide up their revision.
Make quote banks for key characters/themes/relationships in a text.
Write out basic essay plans for as many questions as possible.
Knowledge Organisers
Children will complete a chosen section of a knowledge organiser once per week.
1. Spend minutes learning the information in the knowledge organiser for homework.
Reading over it several times
Have someone test them on the information
2. Cover the knowledge organiser and write out everything they remember in blue or black pen.
3. Use the knowledge organiser to tick in green pen everything that they got correct.
4. Add any information that they did not know/remember in green pen.
Key Words Recall
Children will learn the definitions of a selection of key words
1. Spend 30 minutes learning the definition of key words for homework.
Read over them several times
Have someone test them on the definitions
2. Cover the definitions and write out everything they remember in blue or black pen.
3. Use the definitions to tick in green pen everything that they got correct.
4. Add any information that they did not know/remember in green pen after the test.
Challenge – try to use the words in their own writing to ensure they understand them in context. They could, for example, write a sentence for each word, or a paragraph where they challenge yourself to include as much of the vocabulary they are studying as possible.
Preparing for debates and discussions
Students may be given a specific focus to research so that they can contribute effectively to a debate that develops speaking and listening skills. They will be asked to use the research as a starting point for their verbal contributions.
Ways to prepare for tasks may include the following:
- Finding statistics that would help them formulate an opinion on a topic.
- Researching examples or case studies that support an argument.
- Gathering a range of viewpoints by interviewing their mothers, fathers or siblings.