Am I crazy or does this seem like a huge project UPDATE pg 3

[Ohiodislover]

My 5th grader gets out on June 18th. The last 3 days are 1/2 days with the end of the year ceremonies on the 16th. They will be doing nothing on the final 2 days.

This past week, she completed a project in reading. She had 10 or 12 days to complete it. She has to read "the hobbit" and write her own fantasy story, complete with maps, dictionary, make a prob sword, and poster. OK, a bit rushed but she really buckled down, missed a family trip over the holiday weekend, and got it done, and did well.

This past Thurs (3 days ago) they were given another book. I was shocked to see it was The Chronicles of Narnia. She is to read that book, and do a group project on the final 2 full days of school. They are to wirte an essay, with each child doing a part. And act out 2 chapters in the book. The chapters cannot be concurrent. Now--since it is a group project that means that unless the group can meet next weekend, they need to get this all done by Friday. 8 days after receiving it.

Is this a bit much for the final week and a half of school??

 

[Magpie]

My 5th grader gets out on June 18th. The last 3 days are 1/2 days with the end of the year ceremonies on the 16th. They will be doing nothing on the final 2 days.

This past week, she completed a project in reading. She had 10 or 12 days to complete it. She has to read "the hobbit" and write her own fantasy story, complete with maps, dictionary, make a prob sword, and poster. OK, a bit rushed but she really buckled down, missed a family trip over the holiday weekend, and got it done, and did well.

This past Thurs (3 days ago) they were given another book. I was shocked to see it was The Chronicles of Narnia. She is to read that book, and do a group project on the final 2 full days of school. They are to wirte an essay, with each child doing a part. And act out 2 chapters in the book. The chapters cannot be concurrent. Now--since it is a group project that means that unless the group can meet next weekend, they need to get this all done by Friday. 8 days after receiving it.

Is this a bit much for the final week and a half of school??

I think it is DEFINITELY a bit much. My 7th grade son may be LD, but he's also in the gifted program, so used to getting big projects, and he'd be melting down over this assignment. Eight days is barely enough time for him to read the book, much less write an essay and organize a bunch of other kids into an acting assignment.

If this was my child, I'd be e-mailing the teacher and asking: 1. How much writing exactly is he expect to produce, and how does he write part of an essay, anyway? If it's a paragraph or two, okay. Otherwise I'm going to be waving his IEP in her face, and telling her she needs to find an alternative, as per his Plan. And I'd also want to know 2. Is any of this going to be marked? Because if it isn't, then the kids can approach the acting out portion as a fun exercise in improvisation, and getting together at recess will be enough. It's possible this isn't as bad as it sounds.

Finally I'd sit down with my son and work out a reading schedule, so he can actually finish the book in the next few days. When he was working through The Hobbit he read it every morning and evening, and took it with him everywhere we went over the weekend so he could read in the car and at people's houses.

P.S. I read your letter to my husband and commented that our son would have been freaking out over your daughter's first project (the Hobbit), too. My husband said, "Never mind him, *I* would have been freaking out! That's not a project for a 5th grader. That's a Parent Project!"

 

[XYSRUS]

I've said it before and I'll say it again...teachers and their out of control-end of the year projects-just to have enough points to make up a grade-don't you know everyone's had it-deals have got to go. Every year we get sucker punched with one of these-UGH! My sympathies.

 

[Ohiodislover]

Finally I'd sit down with my son and work out a reading schedule, so he can actually finish the book in the next few days. When he was working through The Hobbit he read it every morning and evening, and took it with him everywhere we went over the weekend so he could read in the car and at people's houses.

P.S. I read your letter to my husband and commented that our son would have been freaking out over your daughter's first project (the Hobbit), too. My husband said, "Never mind him, *I* would have been freaking out! That's not a project for a 5th grader. That's a Parent Project!"

As for the reading, it is a good thing that she is an avid reader. She should be done by tomorrow evening. We have a copy of the book, so that she can take ours to the pool, and not worry about getting the school's copy wet.

And yes--My DH really enjoyed making the sword Sophie glued the gems on it and painted the handle. Dad had to cut it out of the cardboard and construct it. She actually did the rest of the project herself, with a small amount of help from her older sister to age the map. They burned the edges, and stained it a bit to make it look a bit more genuine.

I guess I was just assuming that The Hobbit would be the last one of the year.

 

[agnes!]

Sounds like the tea[Icher maybe didn't plan all that well and needs some more grades in their grade-book for the quarter....hmmmmm.

And is the actual assignment to read "The Chronicles of Narnia"? The complete *series* comprised of seven books is called "The Chronicles of Narnia"....did the teacher perhaps assign "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"? That's still a lot for a kid to process and then they STILL have to turn it into a performance/group project? Gack, these things never do go away, but as a parent of a HS Jr I truly do DESPISE so-called "group" projects...they should be called "I'm a slacker and he's a slacker and we'll stand back and let the one responsible kid in our group do all the work so we can get credit"

And yeah, I'm with you...it's too much. If I were you I would ask for some clarification from the teacher in this case.

And just when do your kids get their grades? Don't most teachers have to have their grades in to the school-office/central-administration at least a week before school ends? Will this grade even actually count ?

agnes!

 

[Ohiodislover]

And is the actualassignment to read "The Chronicles of Narnia"? The complete *series* comprised of seven books is called "The Chronicles of Narnia"....did the teacher perhaps assign "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"? That's still a lot for a kid to process and turn into a performance group (gack, they never go away, but as a parent I truly do hate them) project

And yeah, I'm with you...it's too much. If I were you I would ask for some clarification from the teacher in this case.

And just when do your kids get their rgades? Don't most teachers have to have their grades in to the school-office/central-administration at least a week before school ends? Will the grade even actually count ?

agnes!

Yeah--I misspoke. It is the first book. "The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe"

The project is to answer essay questions. One essay question per kid. Her group has 5 kids. The answer must be "several" paragraphs according to the directions I received in the email.

As for the acting. The directions say no costumes-only a few props. The group decides Monday which parts of the book they want to do.

And yes it does count as part of the grade. The essays are due Thursday to give the teacher time. Our kids get report cards mailed the following friday after the last day.

 

[agnes!]

I still think the teacher's somewhat insane...

agnes!

 

[MushyMushy]

That sounds like a reader's theater project. Honestly, not a big deal and kids have a lot of fun with it! I think it seems like a great end of the year thing to do.

Teachers can't win. If they work the kids until the end of the year, people complain. If they relax and let the kids do fun activities, people complain.

 

[Art 1]

Yes it's too much but seems to be normal course. My daughter stayed up to midnight to finish a project on the night before the last day of school this year and most of that week and she was a senior. All the kids were already signed up for college, it was silly. We were to buy a $200 book to do this project and refused to buy it as most parents also refused. I told her just to forget doing the project but that's no her nature. It was for AP Psych.

 

[golfgal]

Then there is a thread about kids not doing enough during the last weeks of school--can teachers EVER win????

Honestly, no, it isn't too much for the last weeks of school-they are STILL IN SCHOOL. Summer vacation doesn't start until the last bell rings. Our kids have a bunch of homework this weekend and finals at the end of next week. Again, summer vacation doesn't start for them until 2:30 on Friday. I would much rather they be doing something in school then having parties all day for a week.

Would you spend the week at work before going on a vacation doing nothing?

 

[Ohiodislover]

Then there is a thread about kids not doing enough during the last weeks of school--can teachers EVER win????

Honestly, no, it isn't too much for the last weeks of school-they are STILL IN SCHOOL. Summer vacation doesn't start until the last bell rings. Our kids have a bunch of homework this weekend and finals at the end of next week. Again, summer vacation doesn't start for them until 2:30 on Friday. I would much rather they be doing something in school then having parties all day for a week.

Would you spend the week at work before going on a vacation doing nothing?

I have no problem with doing things up until the end either. I never said that she should be doing nothing.

However this teacher poorly planned her lessons. The project previous to "The Hobbit" was a shorter book and smaller project. They were given over 3 weeks to complete it, which has been the norm all year. She also gave 1 -1 1/2 week breaks between the projects all year. The last two projects have been crammed into the last few weeks, and they are the longest books of the year.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Yeah--I misspoke. It is the first book. "The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe"

The project is to answer essay questions. One essay question per kid. Her group has 5 kids. The answer must be "several" paragraphs according to the directions I received in the email.

As for the acting. The directions say no costumes-only a few props. The group decides Monday which parts of the book they want to do.

And yes it does count as part of the grade. The essays are due Thursday to give the teacher time. Our kids get report cards mailed the following friday after the last day.

Sounds like an awesome project and my writer/actor/director dd can whip that out with no problem HOWEVER if she got this for the last days of school she would be pissed. Mainly because of the group aspect. She is a project manager and whips them together.

Hopefully the teacher devotes a huge block of time to the project and lets them complete it in class. If she does that then the project sounds reasonable.

 

[Ohiodislover]

Hopefully the teacher devotes a huge block of time to the project and lets them complete it in class. If she does that then the project sounds reasonable.

Well, considering that one day this week is field day, and another day they are going bowling, she will miss this class 2 of the 5 days.

 

[Magpie]

Then there is a thread about kids not doing enough during the last weeks of school--can teachers EVER win????

Honestly, no, it isn't too much for the last weeks of school-they are STILL IN SCHOOL. Summer vacation doesn't start until the last bell rings. Our kids have a bunch of homework this weekend and finals at the end of next week. Again, summer vacation doesn't start for them until 2:30 on Friday. I would much rather they be doing something in school then having parties all day for a week.

Would you spend the week at work before going on a vacation doing nothing?

I may have started that thread, but I wasn't complaining that the kids weren't doing enough - I was just surprised that grading was over already with three weeks still to go in the year and that nothing else they did for those three weeks was going to count for anything.

I did give the teacher full credit for coming up with an interesting project with real-world application (ie, find a solution to the oil spill and send it to BP). At least in science class, the kids should still be paying attention. But I know of at least one kid in my son's class, who the minute he realizes that the grades have been finalized, is simply going to stop coming to school.

We have no truancy laws, so if the kids don't see a point to coming, they won't. Unless they have mean parents.

(Though I did let my son blow off Sports Day, because he's flat footed and hopeless and he and his buddy wanted to spend the day building a roof on the shed instead.)

 

[JerseyJanice]

I'd be fuming mad over this, but what can you do?

Last year in seventh grade, my son had to a do a big project with a partner on ancient Greece that was assigned mid-May and due the second week of June. As per usual, he and his friend didn't do a thing with it until the first week of June. Then my son came down with probable swine flu and had to stay out of school for a week. The partner tried to get a time extension from the teacher, but she wouldn't grant it since it had been assigned a couple of weeks back.

It was a nightmare to get it done that week. Our internet wasn't working at home, and we didn't have a printer. The partner's family had only a Mac that wasn't 100% compatible with our Word 2007, then their printer broke. Plus I had a project due at work the same date that required many hours of my time. What a stressful week!

At 9:00 p.m. the night before the school project was due, we finished it, but couldn't print anywhere near because it was so late. Some major thunderstorms rolled in, but the partner's mother was nice enough to drive to a 24 hour Staples a few miles away and print it there. It did come out looking well, but the boys wound up with only a B after all.

In 4th grade, he had a big book report due the day after Mother's Day, and in 5th at the beginning of June, we had to partner with a couple of other families to bake a single layer cake, cut it with a template they supplied on copy paper into the shape of one of New Jersey's counties, and decorate it with symbols/landmarks of that county. They put all the county pieces together a school to make a giant New Jersey cake. Fortunately, he chose a good partner that time as the mother is an art teacher by professional.

So far, he hasn't been assigned anything outrageous between now and the end of the year, but the month is still young. I won't be surprised if he comes home with a crazy project this week.

 

[agnes!]

That sounds like a reader's theater project. Honestly, not a big deal and kids have a lot of fun with it! I think it seems like a great end of the year thing to do.

Teachers can't win. If they work the kids until the end of the year, people complain. If they relax and let the kids do fun activities, people complain.

Is it a good idea to assign a project that entails reading a book, which for many 5th graders would take a while to read, AND that has a group-performance/planning aspect to it and for the entire thing to be done within the space of 9 days? But yeah, I think it's STOOPID that one of my DD's AP teachers has the kids watching videos of TV shows in class every day until school is over - that's too far out of the pale to me - but come on....assigning 5th-Graders a book to be read, get it finished, work on scenes...reader's theatre can be fun, but give the kids time.

Then there is a thread about kids not doing enough during the last weeks of school--can teachers EVER win????

Honestly, no, it isn't too much for the last weeks of school-they are STILL IN SCHOOL. Summer vacation doesn't start until the last bell rings. Our kids have a bunch of homework this weekend and finals at the end of next week. Again, summer vacation doesn't start for them until 2:30 on Friday. I would much rather they be doing something in school then having parties all day for a week.

Would you spend the week at work before going on a vacation doing nothing?

I have no problem with doing things up until the end either. I never said that she should be doing nothing.

However this teacher poorly planned her lessons. The project previous to "The Hobbit" was a shorter book and smaller project. They were given over 3 weeks to complete it, which has been the norm all year. She also gave 1 -1 1/2 week breaks between the projects all year. The last two projects have been crammed into the last few weeks, and they are the longest books of the year.

^^^^^ YES .

Sounds like an awesome project and my writer/actor/director dd can whip that out with no problem HOWEVER if she got this for the last days of school she would be pissed. Mainly because of the group aspect. She is a project manager and whips them together.
...

^^^^ THIS.

agnes!

 

[BCDisneyFanatic]

Then there is a thread about kids not doing enough during the last weeks of school--can teachers EVER win????

Honestly, no, it isn't too much for the last weeks of school-they are STILL IN SCHOOL. Summer vacation doesn't start until the last bell rings. Our kids have a bunch of homework this weekend and finals at the end of next week. Again, summer vacation doesn't start for them until 2:30 on Friday. I would much rather they be doing something in school then having parties all day for a week.

Would you spend the week at work before going on a vacation doing nothing?

I agree. scared1

To be honest, it doesn't seem like all that much work. They have over a week to read a fairly easy book (it's rated as being for ages 9-12). They will then have to answer one essay question (which OP says is just a couple of paragraphs)...maybe an hour to two hours of work? As for the skits, I suspect the teacher will be giving the kids lots of class time to complete them. To me, it sounds like a really fun assignment.

 

[MushyMushy]

I agree. scared1

To be honest, it doesn't seem like all that much work. They have over a week to read a fairly easy book (it's rated as being for ages 9-12). They will then have to answer one essay question (which OP says is just a couple of paragraphs)...maybe an hour to two hours of work? As for the skits, I suspect the teacher will be giving the kids lots of class time to complete them. To me, it sounds like a really fun assignment.

Yep, this. Reader's theater (if that's what this assignment is) is EASY and a lot of fun. It's not too much to expect 5th graders to read an easy book in that amount of time, answer one essay question and do the theater part. That's a cake assignment, honestly. The performance part of it is basically, each child in a group reads a different dialogue or character, plus narration. It's honestly not hard. When I was in grad school, one of my professors was an expert on children's and young adult lit. We went to several book conferences to demonstrate reader's theater in the classroom, talking about what the value of it is and showing how it's done.

I think it just sounds like more work than it is in reality.

 

[Scurvy]

I don't think it sounds like a bad thing, except possibly for the group project aspect of it. If the teacher is giving them enough time in school to work together then I wouldn't have a problem with it. But if they are expected to get together outside of school then I would have a problem with that. There really isn't enough time left for all the kids in a group to coordinate their schedules in time to finish the project. It really doesn't sound like that much work, though. I think most kids could easily finish it if they have ample time in school to plan and rehearse their performance.

 

[ajk912]

I also have a fifth grader and they get out that same day of school, as well. I would be livid for a project like that, and I don't get the point, really. Don't grades need to be in soon so the kids get report cards on the last day of school? So it's not like it will be a graded assignment anyway- just busy work!!!