October 23, 2009
Dear Parents/Guardians:
As a district and as a school we continue to look at “Best Practice Teaching Strategies” in order to support students’ academic achievement in all classes. One of the areas that we have looked at critically at Somonauk Middle School is how we utilize homework. At SMS we view homework as an opportunity for students to practices skills in specific content areas in order for them to show mastery of the Illinois Learning Standards. In addition to assigning the homework, we believe, that it is extremely important to provide consistent and ongoing feedback on how students have done on the homework so that they can make improvements in order to be better prepared for the various assessments we give.
In order to instill in students greater
accountability in
completing their homework in a timely fashion we have developed a
systemic plan
that we will begin implementing with all students at the start of 2nd
quarter called ZAP (Zeroes Are not Permitted).
As a result of this plan it our intention to assist students in
becoming
more self-directed in their learning and thus achieve greater academic
success.
Sincerely,
Mr. Jeffrey