Homework and Teacher Expectations

One statement that the text book says about homework it that, "it may be inappropriate to assign summative letter grades from the results." I would have to agree with this statement. I believe as teachers there are so many other ways to assess students through teacher-made tests and quizzes, projects, papers, etc... that homework may count towards the students' participation, but I think its harsh to give it a grade. To me homework is where a student should feel comfortable with the material that was taught that day in class and is a chance for the students to step outside of the classroom and outside of the teacher's guidance and support, and for the student to think on his/her own and either grasp the concept or question the concept if he/she does not understand it. If it's graded I believe students would be afraid to question the work and that they would feel more frustrated and pressured in trying to get the right answer(s) and trying not to make mistakes than actually thinking about what they are doing. I feel that as a teacher you can evaluate the pattern of errors or the pattern of successes in the students' homework and classwork, because there should be no pressure on them and they should feel at ease to make mistakes and try to apply the concept to other aspects of their work.
Teacher expectations I believe are to make a clear learning target, that the teacher clearly understands and can present/explain it to his/her class, so that it is clear to their students and also for their students to understand why they will need to know this information. I think that teacher expectations also form around assessment of the students. The reason being, the teacher has learning targets to reach and he/she cannot reach these targets until the students reach them, so through proper feedback, that is clear and specific, letting the students understand what they need to improve on and what they excelled at, helps them to reach these learning targets.