New homework idea... ?

So here's one of my ideas for next year. A short while back, via the Carnival of Education, I read a blogpost by somebody - I think a math teacher? - who said he didn't give homework (or if he did it was very rarely) because the students who DID the homework were almost invariably the ones who understood the lesson and would have studied on their own if homework had not been assigned. That is to say, the students who did the homework were the ones who least needed the practice assigned.

So next term, almost all of my homework will be short(ish) freewriting thingies that lead into what we'll be discussing/reading about the next day. We'd done freewriting in class, but BOY could they dawdle. I mean, we are talking three lines in ten minutes. (Am I just expecting too much?) So anyway, this will allow those who like to take their time or ponder or whatever to have PLENTY of time to get their work done. It'll make cheating next-to-impossible, since all work should be original and copying will be ridiculously obvious. It'll personalize each homework assignment, making it less likely (at least a little??) that the students will see it as busywork. Plus it'll tie in to the next day.

And also, they'll need to have it first thing, because the starter will be a grammar revision/rewrite of the homework. Revisions will be done in red pen; rewrites on a separate sheet of paper that gets stapled to the first. As they're working, I can walk around and check to make sure that they're not just trying to bluff their way through. That'll also allow me to hit grammar more often AND not have it be just worksheets - the dreaded "grammar in isolation" that doesn't work for crap.

Any thoughts? (cricket... cricket...) *grin* CoE, here I come!