OT: 2nd grade project a bit much?

[StitchBuddy]

Sounds pretty standard these days. My daughter had to do the same thing and make a person to hang on the wall that was dressed etc... like the person she reported on. The report was the easy part, the person not so much. Good luck!

I am at teacher and I agree with NO homework on a long week-end. I don't care what grade they are in. Give them a break!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

IMO, when a child is in 2nd grade - the teacher should be assigning things that can "mostly" be completed by the child. In other words, I would bring my child to the library and assist in finding a book, maybe offer suggestions of topics, but the ACTUAL WORK (writing of all the sentences, all the facts, the poster) would all be done by my child.

I think that's part of the problem with this assignment. The Wednesday to Wednesday, with a long holiday weekend in between.

In my city, the libraries are dealing with big cutbacks, two are closing entirely this weekend or next, and the rest of them are already on reduced hours, going even more reduced because they are closed Friday through Monday. Since the big one is already closed on Monday, I think they might be taking Tuesday for the holiday as well.

So that leaves the Wed it was given, and Thursday, and then Tuesday IF I'm remembering wrong. Add in shortened library hours thanks to Winter and budget problems.

IF my son were given this in this time frame, and especially if I worked outside the home, it would actually probably be impossible for me to even get my son to the library.


My mom worked, mainly retail, while I was growing up, and this sort of schedule with a long weekend (this holiday wasn't around when I was in elementary school, so just go with any holiday) would have been pretty much impossible.

Just a heads up-if your daughter is not a computer kid by now, she will need to become one soon. Basic internet research and keyboard skills are taught at my daughter's school starting in k-4.

Key words..."skills are taught" in your daughter's school. Whereas the OP's daughter hasn't yet (it seems) but has to already BE one for this assignment. Teaching a skill to be used in school is always really nice instead of just assuming that kids are already up to speed on it.

 

[hereyago]

BUT: the OP is not in the classroom. I really don't think a teacher would give students this kind of project without them knowing how to READ and find basic information. Honestly, the teacher would just be "spinning her wheels" and wasting her own time if that were the case.

Op said her DD isnt internet savy yet, ok, the mom can google and help direct dd into the right direction. I am sure the girl can read a birthdate, etc.

 

[dfarner]

I never give my students projects that they don't have at least 2 weekends to complete the project. I know how busy families are, I have 2 kids myself.

Does the teacher have children who are in school, playing sports, etc? It makes a world of difference in what you assign and how much time you give when you are walking the walk!

I agree with this. I am a mother first, elementary teacher second. I don't assign home projects, because many times they become parent projects and authentic learning is not going on. I've read this thread with interest, and have a couple of questions/comments to make.
-For true learning to occur, the child must realize the importance and relevance of the assignment to his/her own life. As OP stated, her child has not shown any interest in the subject. Frankly, although she can sing and perform, what true impact has Carrie Underwood had on society? Ben Franklin, yes, but Carrie Underwood? Really?
-Has the child been taught what true research is? Does she know how to use nonfiction text? Has the teacher shown the class how to be safe internet users?
-Has the child been taught how to paraphrase the information she finds? I laughed at the post that suggested just printing off material and letting her write about it. A second grader generally does not understand how to paraphrase. Plagiarism is still illegal, and therefore mom would have to help out there.
-Was a rubric given? What are the expectations of each part of the project?
-The time given to work on the report sounds more like poor planning on the part of the teacher. Yes, I understand scope and sequence. I teach to the rule every day. I still believe it is unrealistic to expect a second grader to go home every night, after her "work day", and work some more. How many of us like to do that? Apparently not many of us, because we spend lots of time on the DIS!

 

[pacrosby]

IMO, when a child is in 2nd grade - the teacher should be assigning things that can "mostly" be completed by the child. In other words, I would bring my child to the library and assist in finding a book, maybe offer suggestions of topics, but the ACTUAL WORK (writing of all the sentences, all the facts, the poster) would all be done by my child.

I can tell you if MY 2nd grader was doing this - it would look, very much, like a 7 year old did it.

I would hope that's what the teacher is expecting.

Oh and my kids do not get anything resembling this in 2nd or 3rd grade and those are their current grades - neither one has had one this extensive. I would be VERY surprised too, OP.

For those who have seen this type of assignment in a younger grade like 2nd - what percentage would you say your child did completely independently? What percentage would you say others in his/her class did independently?

That's the part that truly annoys me - these projects are SUPPOSED to be done by the kids (unless otherwise stated by the teacher as a 'family' project or other) - and what little I've seen I KNOW that a child at that grade level did NOT do it.

I'm going to agree wholeheartedly.

Could it be that YOU are assuming that the teacher is expecting a much more polished project than perhaps she is? I know I made that mistake with my first child and sometimes gave perhaps more assistance/direction than I should have. Like the above poster said, she is 7/8 years old and the project should therefore LOOK like a 7/8 year old did it.

I can assure you the projects my 3 boys do (will do) look alot different than hers did. They are on their own! LOL

I happen to love projects. I think kids get alot more out of projects than they do memorizing facts for some silly test (facts that will often leave their heads before the school year is out - there is a reason most adults are never "Smarter Than a 5th Grader" LOL). A project requires them to really get into a topic. What a natural (and generally much more interesting) way to learn.

Good luck. I hear ya. And I agree. Too much focus on trying to make the schools look good. Funny how most adults complain that kids 'these days' are without a clue in life....can't make change, can't spell, can't craft a letter etc. etc.? Makes you wonder what exactly all this pushing is really accomplishing LOL

 

[pacrosby]

Um, dissecting owl pellets, why?

OMG!!

My 5th grade dd dissected a squid's eye in the Fall.

She'll be doing the owl pellets in the Spring




I'm actually finding it very interesting that so many of our kids have had similar assignments. My dd did a similar assignment as the OP in third grade. She did Molly Pitcher (I distinctly remember her trying to come up with an appropriate outfit for the oral presentation).

 

[hereyago]

OMG!!

My 5th grade dd dissected a squid's eye in the Fall.

She'll be doing the owl pellets in the Spring




I'm actually finding it very interesting that so many of our kids have had similar assignments. My dd did a similar assignment as the OP in third grade. She did Molly Pitcher (I distinctly remember her trying to come up with an appropriate outfit for the oral presentation. Funny huh?

Squid's eye, WHAT?! Do they have a plan b for the kid's who couldn't bring themselves to do this? DD hasn't dissected anything yet. The last time I dissected was 10 grade,baby pig and frog-try being the only female of a table with dumb boys who liked to do wierd things to the dissect animals, fun times.

 

[Nicolepa]

I would have loved an easy project like this in 2nd grade. I can't remember her projects in 2nd grade (I was pg, dh delt with most of them). But for 3rd grade she had to memorize every state in the US and EVERY country in the world INCLUDING Spelling. We're talking close to 300 states countries!

I know in 2nd grade she was doing research & book reports that were 2+ pages.


Our teacher purposly assigns all homework on Friday because and I quote "you have all weekend". She also assigns harder assignments for long weekends/ 1/2 days because they have more time. Our weekends are very packed with sports, church etc so this is very inconvient for us. But it is what it is. At least I know what day to expect homework to come home.

 

[hereyago]

I would have loved an easy project like this in 2nd grade. I can't remember her projects in 2nd grade (I was pg, dh delt with most of them). But for 3rd grade she had to memorize every state in the US and EVERY country in the world INCLUDING Spelling. We're talking close to 300 states countries!

I know in 2nd grade she was doing research & book reports that were 2+ pages.


Our teacher purposly assigns all homework on Friday because and I quote "you have all weekend". She also assigns harder assignments for long weekends/ 1/2 days because they have more time. Our weekends are very packed with sports, church etc so this is very inconvient for us. But it is what it is. At least I know what day to expect homework to come home.

Is your DD in public school? Or is it Montessori school,etc? Good grief, I am not smarter then even a 3rd grader, US and every country? with correct spelling?

 

[pacrosby]

Squid's eye, WHAT?! Do they have a plan b for the kid's who couldn't bring themselves to do this? DD hasn't dissected anything yet. The last time I dissected was 10 grade,baby pig and frog-try being the only female of a table with dumb boys who liked to do wierd things to the dissect animals, fun times.

Yup...gross huh? I just asked dd if anyone was able to opt out. She tells me that only one child in her class seemed to have a problem with it. Apparently she was fine until she had to cut it open (ick) and then she freaked out and had to go to the nurse.


I think I had to do a frog but can't remember. I do however remember the cat I dissected in college. Not fun.

 

[hereyago]

Yup...gross huh? I just asked dd if anyone was able to opt out. She tells me that only one child in her class seemed to have a problem with it. Apparently she was fine until she had to cut it open (ick) and then she freaked out and had to go to the nurse.

Who thinks of this stuff? Oh baby pigs and frogs are boring, I know, Squid's eye. I mean really, what if you are inland? have to truck in the Squid's lol.

 

[dougsmom98]

I only read one page of responses and based on those, I know I am in the minority, but my kids didn't have projects like that in first grade. My kids weren't that good at reading in 1st grade to be able to truly research without it being mostly their dad and I doing the research for them. I wouldn't be totally opposed to a project like this, if the teacher was able to send home some non fiction age appropriate books for each kid. Finding age appropriate books for that age level is difficult. Given that the kids would a need a lot of help from parents, I think a deadline of a week or two would have been better.

 

[disykat]

To me, this sounds like a three or four week assignment with probably several weeks of preteaching involved.

If I were teaching this with 2nd graders, notice would be going out in my newsletter that we were learning this skill. It would include some info about our class project so far and a heads up that each child needed to be choosing a topic for their own project.

Then, the first week's homework would include finding their topic and writing their 10 fact sentences. (Some time would be dedicated to this in class as well.) The next week would be writing the first draft of their report. The following week would be making their visual aide. (In class that week, we would be editing, etc.)

Yes, my own kids did projects in second grade. Happily, they had great teachers who broke down the projects step by step and taught them how to organize themselves for success. This enabled them to be doing projects on their own when they were in the upper grades.

 

[MNdisneymom]

My son is in second grade. At the curriculum meeting at the beginning of the school year, they discussed the "big" research project for the year--which is going to happen in a few weeks in February. It is a project involving some library research (they are asking for a lot of parent help for that) and it will be stretched out over two weeks.

He doesn't have a whole lot of homework any way (one math sheet a night, usually), so this is a really big deal for them. Sounds like we're in the minority for the amount of work expected though....(and I'm glad.) Boy, school is sure a lot different than it was when I was younger.

 

[juliebean]

Always interesting to see what the 4th graders find - that's why they do it. To see what an owl eats and how scientists find that info out. I always wonder if they "stack" the owl pellets - they always seem to find a whole mouse skeleton, among other things. They glue it to posters and hang them in the hall - it's always a little freaky to see. Good project actually, but still something that is post-owl...I'm not even sure which end it comes out of..

I do remember dissecting a lot of things in school - never went well - my worm split in half I recently finished taking anatomy 1 & 2 and have become better with the scalpel!

 

[bwilcox]

about the ear, I almost spit my milk out on that one, i needed a laugh.

Um, dissecting owl pellets, why?

When I taught 4th grade, we dissected owl pellets. It was actually very interesting, and the kids LOVED it! Owls swallow the entire animal when they eat, and "pass" the bones. When you dissect the pellet, you carefully get the bones out and use a diagram to figure out what animal the owl ate. It's a very hands-on way to learn about predator/prey, digestion, skeletal systems, etc., and much more interesting than sitting at a desk reading about all those things from a textbook.

 

[southern_redhead]

Nope sorry not over the top, right on course. You are kidding when you think that would be a project for an upper elementary student?

It may be right on course for the way academics are going but I think we are leaping over lessons to accelerate where our children are. Does her daughter know how to research? Does she know how to write a paper?! Our second graders don't.

My 6th grade DS just did this nearly identical project and I was still a bit ticked. The teacher wanted it in essay form with a bibliography but, to date, they have not taught that in school. If you've covered the material, fine, but if not don't assign it. Putting the cart before the horse has never done anyone any good.

 

[momto2inKC]

I would have loved an easy project like this in 2nd grade. I can't remember her projects in 2nd grade (I was pg, dh delt with most of them). But for 3rd grade she had to memorize every state in the US and EVERY country in the world INCLUDING Spelling. We're talking close to 300 states countries!

I know in 2nd grade she was doing research & book reports that were 2+ pages.


Our teacher purposly assigns all homework on Friday because and I quote "you have all weekend". She also assigns harder assignments for long weekends/ 1/2 days because they have more time. Our weekends are very packed with sports, church etc so this is very inconvient for us. But it is what it is. At least I know what day to expect homework to come home.

Oh wow! The states/countries were done in 5th grade here (if i'm remembering correctly) and my daughter struggled so much with it then

 

[hereyago]

When I taught 4th grade, we dissected owl pellets. It was actually very interesting, and the kids LOVED it! Owls swallow the entire animal when they eat, and "pass" the bones. When you dissect the pellet, you carefully get the bones out and use a diagram to figure out what animal the owl ate. It's a very hands-on way to learn about predator/prey, digestion, skeletal systems, etc., and much more interesting than sitting at a desk reading about all those things from a textbook.

I have honestly never heard of the owl pellets. Ironically, DD just finished a chapter in Science about food chain, predator prey thing. I think I may have been bad at that, because I couldn't even play the Operation game correctly. But thanks for explaining the signifigance of it, cause i was like WHAT?!

I also recall the worm dissection.

 

[pacrosby]

It may be right on course for the way academics are going but I think we are leaping over lessons to accelerate where our children are. Does her daughter know how to research? Does she know how to write a paper?! Our second graders don't.

My 6th grade DS just did this nearly identical project and I was still a bit ticked. The teacher wanted it in essay form with a bibliography but, to date, they have not taught that in school. If you've covered the material, fine, but if not don't assign it. Putting the cart before the horse has never done anyone any good.

You make a fabulous point.

Yes they are notorious for expecting the kids to use some skill that hasn't been completely covered as yet. And for moving way too quickly through a topic/skill. "OK, you've had 3 full days to learn XYZ, now let's move on to______"

I can only assume that they expect the parents to pick up the slack. Not possible for a lot of families where there may be multiple children. And what about those homes where there are 2 working parents? If I'm expected to be the teacher I may as well pull them out and homeschool

(don't think I don't think about it......often)