Motivating students with homework stations

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Abstract

Older students often require guidance to complete homework assignments, but they are not receptive to traditional after-school programs. Homework stations empower students to take control of their own study habits. This effective practice was submitted by City Year Greater Philadelphia at the 2001 National Conference on Community Volunteering and National Service in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Issue

Completing homework can be a struggle for older students, whose after school hours are often filled with competing interests and activties.

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Action

Create stations for students to rotate through during after-school program hours. Stations include snack, educational subjects, and fun activities. Each student begins at the snack station.

Next students choose a station with an educational subject related to their homework. A program staff member is assigned to each station.

Students who are ready may work at an open station or help staff the other stations. 

Once students have completed their homework assignments for the day, they may choose from among the stations with fun activities.

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Context

The program is set in school cafeterias at junior and senior high schools in the Philadelphia area. The homework stations are geared toward 6th-9th graders.

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Outcome

Students feel less like children that need to be supervised and more like young adults in control of their own study habits.

They enjoy getting help in specific homework subjects.

The atmosphere of the after-school program becomes more comfortable and a place where students want to be.

Students get their homework done faster and more accurately because they focus on one subject at a time.

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Evidence

Program staff report that enrollment has grown since adopting the homework station practice and that the retention level is high. Additionally, student test scores are increasing.

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Posted On

August 29, 2001

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