ADMINISTRACIÓN LOCAL AYUNTAMIENTO DE HUERTA DE REY

From the 28 lessons that were observed, it was in 11 lessons where teachers were seen to give home work to learners. Further, it was 4 out of five teachers that gave out homework to learners. Take home assignment was generally based on the work that was covered during the lesson. As such, homework reflected the Numeracy and mathematics curriculum. The following extracts from lessons exemplifies this.

66. Teacher- (When marking was through) everybody should pack his/her notebook. We will sing a song – sang the song alone and then sang it together with the learners). When we go home, everybody should write the number 2. Tell the people you stay with that you want to write 2. Tomorrow we will learn 3.

(Lesson 7, 21st _{September, 2016)}

89. Teacher – When you go home, draw 4 boxes and put objects as we did here and write the number corresponding to the number of objects in the box. Write the numbers below the boxes.

(Lesson 17, 29th _September

2016)

193. Teacher – I will now give you homework. Pluck six leaves and count them in front of your mother. You should also draw six eggs. I will look at what you will have drawn tomorrow. This is the end of the time for mathematics.

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Since learners were supposed to work on the homework, learning opportunity was therefore provided to them to reinforce what was covered in the lesson. As the take home assignment was being given to the learners, the teachers explained clearly what they expected the learners to do on the assignment. This means that there was to a small extent teaching involved.

When carrying out the take home assignment, tools were involved. The tools used were in most cases not different from what were used during either the whole class discussion or the group work activities. No special tool is therefore presented in this sub-section.

Some assignments involved generation of artefacts for example

In the extracts of both lessons 1 and 19 above, artefacts were generated. In lesson 1, 1 moulded with clay was to be made by the learners while in lesson 19, learners drew eggs in their notebooks.

A study of Table 4.2 reveals that for Teachers Y and A, giving assignments is one of the rituals in their classes. This is so because out of the 6 lessons that were observed in

193. Teacher – I will now give you homework. Pluck six leaves and count them in front of your mother. You should also draw six eggs. I will look at what you will have drawn tomorrow. This is the end of the time for mathematics.

(Lesson 19, 23rd _{January, 2017)}

55. Teacher – It is slightly bent. 1 should be straight. Let us clap hands for these two. (Learners clapped hands). Now when you get home, everybody should mould 1 with clay. What are you going to mould?

56. Learner – One

57. Teacher - Tomorrow, everybody should come back with and show me the 1 that you will mould with clay. Are you going to mould it for me?

58. Learner – Yes

59. Teacher – Ok. So bring 1 moulded with clay. Thank you so much. This is the end of the mathematics lesson.

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Alice’s class, it was in 5 of them where learners were given take home exercise. Out of 4 lessons that were observed in Yvone’s class, it was in 3 of them where learners were given homework. This means that after almost every Numeracy and mathematics lesson, learners were expecting to have a take home assignment. It was however sad that not all learners were doing the assignments. For example the extracts below show figures of learners who did the take home assignments for Alice;

It can be observed that out of the 91 learners who were part of lesson 20, only 9 learners did the homework as seen in the extract from lesson 21 above entry 4. Further, out of 96 learners who were part of lesson 21, only 23 learners did the home work as seen in the extract from lesson 22 above, entry 6.

This is why Xenia, after seeing this problem, introduced prize giving. Those who worked on the assignment were either promised or given a prize. This was in a bid to encourage other learners to also be carrying out the assignments. For example, in Lesson 1, Xenia asked the learners to mould 1 with clay. When she was beginning to teach during lesson 2, she asked those who moulded 1. Only 1 learner moulded 1 and the learner was given a prize.

For written work, the marking of the assignment was done during the time the days’ work was being marked. Learners who wrote the assignment were told to open where the answers to the assignment were written. The following extract is an evidence of such a practice.

5. Teacher – Those who did the homework I gave you, raise your hands 6. Learners – (23 learners raised their hands)

7. Teacher – Some of you forgot to write 7. Put down your hands. These will be given good. I will mark their work during the time of marking. Yesterday. We wrote a number. What was the number that we wrote?

(Lesson 22, 2nd _{February, 2017)}

5. Teacher – Those who did the homework I gave you, raise your hands 6. Learners – (23 learners raised their hands)

7. Teacher – Some of you forgot to write 7. Put down your hands. These will be given good. I will mark their work during the time of marking. Yesterday. We wrote a number. What was the number that we wrote?

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The episodic early grade mathematics life has been explained. It is now important to understand the type of learners that went through these episodes.