Using Language to Persuade - Unit 2
Sample Oral Presentation Below is a high level point of view on an issue. See the assessor comments that follow to see why it would score well in an assessment task, and try to incorporate these strengths into your own point of view pieces. ISSUE:
Whether homework has any real benefits
ASSESSMENT: High
‘TIME TO BURY THE HOMEWORK MYTH’ Increasingly, Australian schools are reconsidering traditional homework policies, due to a growing recognition that homework serves little purpose, particularly for primary school-aged students, and in fact can be associated with a range of negative consequences. The Victorian Department of Education's guidelines suggest no more than 30 minutes per day homework for years Prep to 4, rising to 1-3 hours a weeknight in years 10 to 12. The traditional rationale behind setting homework has been that it reinforces and builds upon what children are learning at school, that it helps to instill good work habits and that it improves academic achievement. However, a closer examination of these supposed benefits reveals that there is in fact very little evidence to support the purported worth of homework, and a number of sound reasons to be wary of the practice. Educational writer Alfie Kohn is an outspoken critic of homework, arguing that no proven benefit has been found for homework before high school and after that point, only dubious benefit has been found. While test scores in high school students do seem to be higher among those students who do homework, the difference is slight and the correlation with homework is yet unproven. In his new book, The Homework Myth, he argues that the clear costs to children, families and schools of homework in any case far outweigh any slight potential benefit. Authors of The End of Homework, John Buell and Etta Kralovec, agree. They mention the trade-off in terms of time to play to volunteer, to do sport, to simply be with the family that is the price of insisting on homework. It is the divisive effect on families that homework can have which is perhaps of most concern. Too often parents are placed in the role of having to police their children's homework after school, which leads to conflict with their kids and dissension in the household. Instead of coming together at the end of the work day to share some quality time, having a
VCE ENGLISH UNIT 1&2
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Using Language to Persuade - Unit 2
quiet chat over a hot drink perhaps, or making the evening meal together, or having a kick of the football in the back yard, parents and children too often end their days at loggerheads with each other over homework. For a fortunate few, the homework battle is not a nightly occurrence. But even these families would have to concede that time spent doing homework is time not spent playing sport, reading a book, volunteering in the community being with friends or family or just simply having time to relax and unwind after a demanding school day. If there were clear and demonstrated benefits to doing homework, this might be a reasonable trade-off. But while proof of homework's worth is so hard to come by is it really sensible to steal children's time in this way? Surely today's society is rushed and time-poor enough as it is. We can ill afford to let still more of our precious downtime slip through our fingers. Studies have proven that stress has long term psychological and physical consequences. We all suffer from a lack of time just to relax; there is also the extra stress homework can cause for young people who may be having difficulty at school, only to find that their home is no haven from this pressure but instead is just another venue for it. One has to wonder how our rates of heart disease and stroke might decrease if this significant cause of ongoing stress were removed from vulnerable young people. But what about the other benefits of homework? There are those who argue that even if academic benefit can't be proven, at least the practice of sitting down to busywork nightly instills a sense of responsibility, a solid work ethic and a habit of patience in students. Actually, it doesn't, or at least no study exists to verify this oft-repeated justification. Again, can it be worth exhausting students, sowing dissension in families and taking time from activities with proven benefits to young people such as sport and reading, in the pursuit of such dubious gain? Of course there are other less drastic but still negative consequences to homework. One is the extra workload it creates for teachers, who must waste time devising and marking largely pointless worksheets. Another is the health risks to students who must carry overloaded schoolbags to and from school, putting them at risk of back and neck damage. It is astounding that the myths surrounding homework have endured so long in the face of so little evidence, and at so great a cost to the health and wellbeing of generations of young people. It is high time that we did away with this archaic and ill-conceived practice. Young people are too precious a resource to use as guinea pigs in an experiment whose abysmal failure has gone far too long unnoticed.
Assessor comments The student demonstrates superior language control and evidence of investigation and intelligent reflection on the issue of homework. A number of persuasive techniques, such as rhetorical questions, use of evidence and statistics, expert testimony and emotive language, have been employed to convey the student's point of view to the reader. At 810 words, it is a good length which allows room for the student to consider and rebut alternative points of view, and to discuss the main points made in reasonable depth. The links between paragraphs and the way in which the student builds their argument are very effective.
VCE ENGLISH UNIT 1&2
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