For many years teachers have been bringing all sorts of exciting things into class—slides, video, audio, additional documents, and other technologies and resources—to enrich the curriculum. But for homework, teachers have still relied on books and worksheets. As the Internet spreads to more homes, schools, libraries, and after-school centers, assigning homework online has become a more realistic option for many schools.
Online homework offers the promise of including a much wider variety of readings and assignments and, for the truly motivated teacher, an opportunity to end the tyranny of the textbook. Online homework can also enable persistent discussion outside the classroom and more collaboration among students after the school bell. Many of the ideas on this site can be adapted for short homework assignment. For ideas for longer projects, visit our innovative lesson and projects page.
Homework Ideas and links?
Our book, Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology, includes dozens of ideas for lessons and homework, including 25 examples of short term assignments in our homework chapter. The links for all 25 exercises are below, and the full instructions for the first 7 are as well.
1. Topic: Manifest Destiny Subject: United States History Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Primary Source Collection Teacher’s Note: Digital History is a great site for U.S. History teaching resources and includes short excerpts of primary sources that are handy for homework assignments. Digital History organizes the primary sources by topic and includes questions at the end to help students analyze them.
Read and answer the questions that follow the primary sources, and email your answers to the TurnInDaccord email account.
2. Topic: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Subject: American Literature; United States History Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Primary Source Teacher’s Note: Many publications over 75 years of age are in the public domain and are available on the Internet. Since The Jungle is freely available on the Web, Tom copied sections he wanted the students to read and pasted them into a Microsoft Word document. He then inserted his comments and instructions at select points in the document. In this way Tom guided his students to read select sections of The Jungle, along with his comments, without having to purchase a copy of the book.
Instructions for Students:
Read excerpts from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in the attached Word document. The full text of The Jungle is available online at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/SINCLAIR/toc.html
3. Topic: Louis XIV Subject: World History Grade Level: High School, College Resource Type: Online Documents-Based-Question (DBQ) Teacher’s Note: There are many DBQs available on the Internet. One of our favorite sources for history DBQs is HistoryTeacher.net at http://historyteacher.net. If you teach literature, EDSITEment offers many source-related lesson plans for American literature at http://edsitement.neh.gov/tab_lesson.asp?subjectArea=4.
“Was Louis XIV an enlightened despot?” Read the documents, create an outline to answer the question, and be prepared to discuss it in class.
4. Topic:Kurt Vonnegut Interview Subject: American Literature Grade Level: High School, College Resource Type: Podcast Teacher’s Note: National Public Radio is a great source for podcasts on various American and international topics. (For more on Podcasts see Chapter 8, Students Presentations.) In this interview from 1986, Kurt Vonnegut talks to NPR about writing, censorship, and the experience of war.
Be prepared to discuss Kurt Vonnegut’s approach to the writing process and his thoughts on censorship.
5. Topic:Judaism Subject: World History Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Primary Source Collection Teacher’s Note: PBS has many excellent educational Web sites and they often include lesson plans and activities. PBS Web sites often serve as companion sites to select PBS video series. The assignment below uses sources available at the PBS Heritage: Civilization and the Jews Web site, located at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/.
Click on Abraham Migrates to Canaan.
Read the introduction and then the primary source.
Next, click on The Covenant at Sinai. Read the introduction and then the primary source.
Answer the following:
1. How are the Israelites God’s “treasured possession,” and what is their “priestly kingdom?”
2. “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” What historical event is YHWH referring to?
Next, click on David’s Everlasting Dynasty. Read the introduction and then the primary source.
1. What evidence is there in the passage that YWHW rewards and punishes his people?
Next, click on Solomon’s Apostasy. Read the introduction and then the primary source.
1. “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods.” Explain this statement.
Next, click on Assyrians Conquer Israel. Read the introduction and then the primary source.
Then, do the same for Punishment from God
1. According to the author of the passages, why was Israel destroyed?
6. Topic:Acropolis 360 Subject: World History Grade Level: Middle School, High School Resource Type: Virtual Tour Teacher’s Note: There are many educational virtual tours available on the Internet. Some of these are photo tours, some include audio and video, and some use specialized software like Google Earth (discussed in Chapter 4, Guided Inquiry). The following tour uses panoramic images to allow the visitor to tour the ancient Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
Instructions for Students: Go to the following Web page:
Look underneath the image and make sure that the audio button is on. Turn up the volume loud enough on your computer to hear the audio commentary.
Scroll down and look for Enter the Tour Here. Select Broadband or Dialup depending on your connection and start the tour.Click the numbered links to see a panoramic tour of each location.(Tours appear in a pop-up window so make sure to allow pop-ups from this site on your browser.)
Use the arrows to navigate forward and backwards. You can also zoom in and out of the image.
Be prepared to answer the following: What was the purpose of the Acropolis? How do the varied structures and monuments reflect its purpose?
7. Topic: “9/11: Are We Safer Five Years Later?” Subject: United States History Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Blog Teacher’s Note: Tom gave this blogging assignment on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which coincided with the first week of school. Since educational blogs are most effective when students are given opportunities to express their ideas and feelings on topic that interest them, Tom’s objective was to engage his students on a current topic on a both a personal and academic level. It was also an opportunity to get to know a group of students he had just started teaching. Many students opened up on the blog and revealed deeply personal responses regarding the events of that day.
Instructions for Students:
In recent speeches President Bush has claimed that the United States is much safer now than it was before 9/11. “Many Americans look at these events,” Mr. Bush has said, “and ask the same question: Five years after 9/11, are we safer? The answer is, yes, America is safer. We are safer because we’ve taken action to protect the homeland.” 4 He and others point to air security improvements and revamped intelligence agencies that can share information more freely. Other cited improvements include the expansion of agents assigned to work on counterterrorism.
Others disagree. For instance, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Larry Korb says: “What has happened is, particularly with the invasion of Iraq, we have created a lot of al-Qaida wannabees, and there are more people now that are trying to do us harm than there were before we went into Iraq.” 5 Senator John Kerry concurs: “[President Bush’s] disastrous decisions have made Iraq a fuel depot for terror, fanning the flames of conflict around the world.”6
What do you remember of 9/11? Do you feel safer now than five years ago? Why or why not? Post your answer to your blog.
8. Topic: Creating a Diamante Poem Subject: Poetry Grade Level: Lower School, Middle School Resource Type: Online Interactive Tool
9. Topic:“Turning the Pages” - Jane Austen’s Early Works Subject: English Literature; World History Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Multimedia Presentation
12. Topic: Virtual Tour of Progressive Era Dwellings Subject: United States History Grade Level: Middle School, High School Resource Type: Virtual Tour
14. Topic:American Soldiers in the Philippines Write Home about the War Subject: United States History Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Primary Source Collection http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/58/
15. Topic:Debate: Should the U.S. Annex the Philippines? Subject: United States History Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Primary Source Collection http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6613/
17. Topic:Oral History of the Holocaust Subject: United States History Grade Level: Middle School, High School Resource Type: Online Oral Histories http://www.tellingstories.org/
18. Topic:WWII animations Subject: World History Grade Level: Middle School, High School Resource Type: Online Animated Maps
23. Topic:Martin Luther King, Jr. in His Own Words Subject: United States History; American Literature Grade Level: High School Resource Type: Primary Source Collection
25. Topic: White House Statements During the Watergate Investigation Subject: United States History Grade Level: High School, College Resource Type: Primary Source
For many years teachers have been bringing all sorts of exciting things into class—slides, video, audio, additional documents, and other technologies and resources—to enrich the curriculum. But for homework, teachers have still relied on books and worksheets. As the Internet spreads to more homes, schools, libraries, and after-school centers, assigning homework online has become a more realistic option for many schools.
Our book,