Jon Neil has been experimenting with TakeAway homework. This is an idea from Ross McGill’s (@teachertoolkit) book, copies of which can be found in the school library.
The original idea can found here: http://teachertoolkit.me/2014/01/28/takeawayhmk-is-unhomework/
…and as Jon explains:
HOW IT WORKS.
Each student has to choose one starter and one main course activity to complete (they have 1 week to get it done).
There are 4 starter and 8 main course activities to choose between.
Both the starter and main course activities are differentiated. I have used a Nando’s menu format to give the students a choice of extra hot, hot, mild/medium and extra mild activities.
BENEFITS OF TAKEAWAY HOMEWORK.
1) DIFFERENTIATION – The students select their own homework, so they can select a starter or main course that reflects their abilities. The approach also encourages risk taking. For example, a lower ability student may decide to select an extra mild main course activity but then couple that with something hotter from the starters section.
2) DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES – The takeaway homework approach recognises that students learn in different ways. Students can self-select a homework which corresponds with a learning style that works best for them. Just remember to build in lots of varied methods into the menu.
3) THE MARKING PROCESS – To be honest there is nothing duller than marking 25 sets of essays which are nearly identical. The benefits of the Takeaway approach are that students will be handing in (or sending links to) lots of different resources.
I am not convinced that I will be adopting the Takeaway approach every week, but as a way of doing things differently from time to time, I think it could be highly rewarding. When I unveiled it to the students this morning, they certainly were very interested and suggested it was very different to anything they had done before
[credit to Nadia Anderson @ItsNads88 for the template]
Word Version: Takeaway homework
RGS Learning 
TakeAway Hmk is long term planning and not something that should be set every week. By offering a larger range of options, students can complete a curated list of homework that they select (or are directed to complete). This has nothing to do with learning styles, but differentiation and meaningful homework that adds value to what is already going on in the classroom.
A final point that many miss from this idea is the assessment criteria; how can teachers consider marking such a wide selection of work/return?
Thanks for the blog.
Ross
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