The flexible homework designed by many teachers is mostly research, operational and practical, with more diverse forms and more flexible contents, which is called "fancy practical homework".
Especially in the first and second grades of primary school, there is no written homework. Many teachers will arrange more hands-on exercises besides reading exercises.
For example, in order to let children better understand the shape and internal structure of fish, a teacher in a school asked children to find a crucian carp, observe and describe the shape, steam the fish, eat the fish, then keep the fish bones, clean them, piece them together into a complete skeleton and post them on the exercise report.
The children are very enthusiastic about this unusual task. They not only did it seriously as required, but also described their feelings in practice. The childlike tone amused the teacher.
For example, a child said that when he was practicing, he should "beware of the cat at home to make trouble."
Another child said that "ribs are the hardest to put together", but he overcame the difficulties and perfectly restored all parts of the fish, revealing a sense of pride between the lines.
There is even a little top student who not only pieced together a complete skeleton, but also marked all parts accurately and added some knowledge about fish.
In his practical experience, he also said that he likes such practical activities very much, because he can learn while playing and enjoy the fun of learning.
In the biology class of senior one, there are always some similar assignments from time to time. Soon after I entered the first year of high school, I was assigned to do the homework of cell model. These students are of high quality. In addition to the cells of animals and plants, they also made paramecium, COVID-19, paramecium and so on. A student even made a heart model with sweet potato lines.
I also arranged for students to draw mind maps, collect and identify plants on campus, and asked students to draw schematic diagrams of human organs in the second semester of Grade One.
I have also seen some subject teachers have similar assignments, such as maps hand-painted by geography teachers, especially a school map hand-painted by a student, which is very interesting. I also organized history teachers to arrange for students to restore ancient historical relics and make ancient cultural relics with plasticine and other items. Students have indeed learned knowledge from these assignments that are not available in books, and have also exercised their abilities in the process of hands-on practice, which is still helpful and enlightening for children.
I visited a primary school some time ago and saw that the school had new arrangements for practical work. Every week, there are rich homework contents such as moral education practice, scientific experiment, scientific creation, aesthetic education practice, labor practice and physical exercise, which can improve children's ability:
1. Explore scientific knowledge and experience scientific process. For example, the arrangement of "planting and observing the growth process of soybeans" and "feeding and observing the development of silkworms", as well as extracurricular inquiry homework in physical chemistry and other disciplines, "observing the boiling phenomenon of water", making "Kongming Lantern" and "earth phone" can make children have fun and learn a lot of biological and physical knowledge unconsciously.
2. Improve hands-on ability and cultivate labor literacy.
Let children learn to clean the house, do housework, sort out garbage, learn to do manual work, knitting, weaving and so on. It also allows children to change their spoiled bad habits, master many practical skills and become more and more capable.
3. Improve ideological and moral quality.
Students participate in practical activities and housework, learn to respect teachers, learn to help others, and cultivate children's good moral sentiments.
4. Improve the aesthetic ability.
In practical work, there are also aesthetic-related contents, such as making biological models, designing class badges for classes, matching clothes, designing sports games, etc., which are helpful to improve children's ability to discover and appreciate beauty.
Most students like these colorful practical assignments very much. They are not only entertaining, but also conducive to cultivating high-quality talents with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique and beauty.
However, some parents hold different views, especially those in senior grades and junior high schools. They think that children's urgent task is to learn scientific and cultural knowledge. These assignments are a waste of time, a "meaningless thing" and a teacher's "fancy" homework for the sake of the results of the senior high school entrance examination. There is no actual homework for students to grade.
Therefore, teachers should really prevent the trend of "fancy homework" when designing practical and operational homework. The operation of design must be meaningful, and we can't simply pursue external forms and superficial stimuli.
Activity homework should first be based on learning objectives. Just like our research experiments, we all have certain experimental purposes, and our activities are all purposeful, and they all revolve around the goal of cultivating students' core literacy.
Second, it is clear that all assignments and goals are the fundamental task of Lide Shu Ren and the implementation of students' core literacy.
Therefore, our homework design should set homework objectives, all activities should be carried out around the objectives, and different gradient activities should be designed for students at different stages, which should not be too naive or beyond the acceptance of students. Don't take stimulation as the purpose of evaluation, don't do it for publicity, it must be meaningful and effective.
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