The Plan

My action research will take place in a city school with a population of approximately 450 students.  Many of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch.  I am interested in how student choice and rewards in homework impact student attitudes towards homework.  I currently teach 3rd grade.  I have taught 3rd grade for the past 3 years, and I have had problems every year with students who do not complete or turn in homework.  I want to look into the role of student choice as well as rewards for the completion of homework assignments.  I want to see what happens to student attitudes about homework and homework completion rates with these changes.  Previously students were required to turn in spelling, math and reading homework.  I will no longer require that homework be completed each night, instead, I will offer homework each night (in the fashion it was previously offered) and reward students with one "stick" upon the return of each homework assignment.  The "stick" that I speak of is only a popsicle stick.  In my classroom once a month I open up "Stick Store" which is where students can purchase things such as grippers, erasers all the way up to rings, gliders and so on.  Previously students could only earn "sticks" for good behavior each day.  Now, students will be able to increase their "sticks" by completing homework assignments.

I plan to record the attitudes and completion rates of all of my students.  I will have all of my students write in a journal once a week describing how they feel about homework.  I plan to give them some questions to get them started in this journal process.  I will be selecting a few students to interview to gain more insight into the attitudes of my students on homework. 

My approximate timeline is shown below on the calendars courtesy of Win Calendar.  I have listed tasks on specific days, however, those days are not necessarily the day the task will be completed.  Each task will be completed within that week (in a perfect world)! =)