45 Minutes of Hamlet

Using a Homework Audit to Evaluate the Quality of Your Assignments by Megan Pacheco
Edutopia, April 15, 2025

What is 45 minutes of Hamlet? How much homework should we assign? What is the purpose of homework in the first place? A recent blog post by Megan Pacheco introduces a homework audit to help teachers reflect on these perennial questions – and the ways in which students interact with their homework. Pacheco is the executive director of Challenge Success, and her post draws upon insights from her organization’s school surveys that show homework as ranking among the top stressors for middle and high school students. She advises teachers to set aside 15-20 minutes at the end of a class for students to begin their homework; during this time, teachers can observe how students engage with the work (or don’t) and get feedback from them on their struggles and successes. As Pacheco writes, “a homework audit takes the guesswork out of assessment design.” Just as important, she adds, this approach can build relational trust between teachers and students. And while this approach alone may not tell us how much Shakespeare to assign, it can help us to better understand our particular students and to design learning environments that will challenge and support each of them.