Parents - Homework???

[gonemousin']

For example, I gave my students a syllabus with the next few weeks assignments on it, and it was up to them to have it done by the due dates, but because of the advanced notice, they could plan around jobs, sporting events, family events, etc. I told my students "if you know that you have late games on Wed and Thu, then do Friday's homework on Mon or Tue! It's all about planning".

What a great idea! A happy medium in my opinion and something the students will need to get used to for college.

 

[traceyr13]

What a great idea! A happy medium in my opinion and something the students will need to get used to for college.

Thanks! I taught 3 classes of seniors (and 2 of sophomores, but I did it for them also) and I used to tell my seniors all the time "this is how it will be in college...only you won't be reminded daily by the professor like I remind you!" lol.

Of course, partly it was for me because I am super-organized and always wanted to know what I was doing in advance, but I had many parents over the years tell me how much they appreciated the unit syllabus.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

This is probably a bad time for me to post because last night my third grader had 2 hours!! This isn't normal because he usually has about one hour, but about once a month, we get this!! I personally think about 30 minutes is appropriate. He is also involved in outside activities which I think are important plus we like to do lots of family things.

He even had optional homework over Spring Break! It wasn't due until Tuesday, but I knew he could get more Monday at school so I made him do half of it. Sure enough, he brought home something else!

I agree that schools have our kids so many hours so why can't they just be kids when they get home? I think reading for half hour would be the best thing in third grade.

To the OP, I think at your grade some homework should be expected, just don't go overboard. In our district middle school and high school get home at 3 as opposed to my kids getting home at 4, so it seems they have a little more time to do homework.

 

[DawnM]

If the homework I gave didn't count, noone in the school where I taught would do it!

Dawn

As the mother of 5 children... ages 26, 22, 17, 9 & 6, I've had a child in the school district for 22 years straight, and for 4 straight years, I had a child in elementary, middle and high school... (3 open houses, 3 Xmas concerts, etc., each year.) My thoughts...

I think homework is important...

• to reinforce material covered in school,
• to help to keep most parents aware, or involved, on some level,
• and teaches the student responsibility, the importance of following through, time management, etc.

However, I think homework...

• should never count towards the overall grade average, only a check for completion, (Too many parents are more concerned with the child's grade, than if their child is actually learning.)
• and it should be limited to 15 - 20 minutes per teacher/subject. (First-grades usually have 1 teacher, so... 15 - 20 minutes of homework, middle and high school students, 15 - 20 minutes per core subject.)

All of my children are good students, the 2 oldest graduated in the top 10 and have completed their 4 year degrees. In our house, family comes 1st, then, school and so on. They are/have been involved in numerous activities, and although their education is most important, there are other ways of growing and learning, that we feel are valuable. The school has my children for X hours a day... if they weigh them down with "busy work", it takes away from our family time and from other lessons learned outside of school.

 

[disneyandme]

I used to teach 3rd grade in a very underprivelaged school. I feel that home environment is not an excuse for not doing homework. I had kids who lived in complete poverty, drugs, violence, etc and told them to only way out of this is through education. I allowed for 2 excused missed homework per semester to cover those "family excuses". I provided paper and pencils for anyone who needed them and only sent home work that the child could do on their own. I was available after and before school for helping anyone who needed it or just providing a quiet place to do the work. I often provided snacks as well for those who never seemed to have enough to eat. Out of 33-36 students I had each year, only a few parents complained or refused to allow the homewok to be done at home. I figure that 30 mins of homework 3-4nights a week equals 54-72 hours of work over 180 day school year. Think of how far these kids fall behind their peers year after year by not having this as part of their education.

 

[wowsmom]

I agree here. Last night DD (16 & a sophomore in high school) had about 6 hours of homework and the bulk of it was just "busy work". She leaves the house at 6:30 a.m. to catch the bus and arrives home at 2:30 p.m.. She started her homework, took a break for dinner (5 pm-5:30 pm) and her dance class (5:45 pm - 7:15 pm), and then had to finish the rest of it when she came home from dance. It was 11 pm before she was finished. So, in effect, she's up from 6:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. and the only breaks during the day she's had is the 20 minutes she gets for lunch in school and half an hour for dinner. I think its really just way too much. She has way less free time than I do working full time. Most nights she has at least three hours of homework.

This sounds like my son - only he's in 8th grade and is into music, not dance. I feel so bad for him sometimes, only getting 30 minutes to eat his dinner, since he always has more work to complete.

I don't mind some homework, but sometimes, all of his teachers will give a huge assignment on the same day and it's just ridiculous. I wish the teachers would communicate with each other a bit more, so things could be spread out a bit more.

 

[rt2dz]

My knowledge is limited at best, but here is my opinion anyway. Sorry it is so long. Take it for what it cost you. I also haven’t read any replies, so it is completely unbiased.

I hate busy work homework. If my child needs to do homework, make it worth while. I think certain types of homework is necessary—certainly math worksheets. If they don’t practice, how will they remember? And, if it doesn’t happen immediately, how will one know if the concept wasn’t mastered? The stuff I think is absolutely pointless is when teachers have kids memorize lines from a play and recite them for an English class. I get it for a speech course, but that doesn’t teach you a thing about English literature, sorry.

I think homework shouldn’t be “new” work, but reinforcement of concepts taught in class. I don’t like homework that is stuff I actually have to do. Thank you very much, but I’ve finished school. I don’t need to do homework again when it doesn’t do a thing for my child. I have no problem helping my child, but when my child doesn’t even need to be present, we’ve got a problem.

I also believe that parents don’t have the right or ability to excuse their child from homework. If a kid can’t do both, well, too bad. In my family, the athletics will go. There are priorities in life and school is it for a kid, imo. And yes, my DH grew up in a low income area (and that is putting it very nicely) and only got into college from being a gifted athlete, but even he will tell you that if someone would have explained math concepts better to him or made him work on his writing skills, it would have served him much better in the long run. He had to play a lot of catch up and work 6x harder to get into a graduate program to get a good job. And he could have gone pro. Many of his friends did. And when they were injured, they went back to take low paying jobs because they didn’t have the actual education they needed. It wasn't sports that got him out, but education. But I digress… Point is if I was a teacher and I had a parent excuse my child, I would send home a note saying that they were receiving a zero for the grade and if that continued, they would fail the class. Period. I do, however, understand the troubles at home, but I think that just means that you find a way to work with the student, not what is actually doing them the bigger disservice in the long run.

In the end, you are caught between a rock and a hard place. My suggestion might be to lighten the homework load (if only for your sake) and institute a weekly quiz. That way it kind of fulfills all the needs and requirements. You might even decide that everyone who does not receive at least a C can make up the grade to a C by doing an extra credit homework assignment. Another idea is that you may also assign an entire unit of homework and require that it is finished by test day. That way students can figure out when they have time to do it; some will be in arrears and others will be ahead, but by test day everyone would have learned the same thing. And knowledge is the goal, at least in my book.

 

[srwarden1928]

I am a high school math teacher--Accelerated Algebra I, Pre Calculus, and Calculus. I assign what I consider to be the minimum amount of practice work for students to master the material. I give time in class to get started, but most students will have some to do at home most nights. I understand that sometimes students try their best and do not understand the first time. I go over selected problems from the assignment the next day in class and give the students ANOTHER day, if necessary, before the assignment is due to be graded. I have little tolerance for a lack of effort. Late work is half credit within a week and no credit after a week. No excuses. Two days is enough to get caught up, get questions answered, etc. If a parent wrote me a note "excusing" an assignment, I would simply throw it away and disregard it totally. I decide what is due and when. Also, addressing another post, if homework didnt count a small percentage of the grade (I use 10% for calculus and 20% for the others) many students would just not bother to do it, not learn the material, and fail the tests miserably.

 

[Goofy'slady]

I have two little girls ages. 9.5(4th grad) and 2.5. My oldest goes to what we here in Baltimore, MD call one of the "better public schools" and it's because of this higher than average ranking that I think this particular school loads up on the home assignments. On an average given night my 4th grader can come home with upwards of 4-5 assignments and that's every night. Then on Friday's she comes home with the same amount PLUS a weekend family assignment. The idea of a weekend family assignment bothers me because 1) they already get enough homework over the weekend then you're gonna give them more, huh? 2) The principal is assuming that we don't have a family structure in place in our home where we help our children with their homework during the week so it's up to the school to force us 3) Since these assignments aren't graded or apart of the Maryland Public school carriculum the kids do these "assignments" to please the principal 4) the principal of my daughter's school assumes that we have nothing else to do but burry our heads in books the entir weekend. Noooo, we don't have errands to run or housework to do, or we don't want to visit family or friends or just spend time together doing family stuff we actually want to do the 5page report on resources that our state never uses, complete with a picture bulletin and sclupture. YEAH!!!

EX: My daughter was sent home a Family Assignment to do a scavenger hunt for Black History Month and the packet listed 20 different things we would have to research and turn in. On paper it didn't seem to bad until I started reading things like make a sculpture, make a t-shirt, make a briefcase, a campaign sign, a poem, a song and the list went on and on. Not to mention most of the people on the list were Black people I'd never heard of, my mother had never heard of and the like. Now, on one side this was a great oppurtunity for my child to reseach these people and learn something new and we could do it with the help of the internet, but on the other side I had to ask myself what was this gonna do for her overall education. That following Monday there was a meeting at school for parents of 3-5th graders to come and pick up math and reading packets they were to take home and do a little every night in preperation of the BIG MSA test that would be going on in the month of April, on top of the nightly homework assignments, the Black History project they weren't getting graded on and then the cherry on top of all of that was a 7page report the teacher had given them that same day to do on some guy who lived in France a long, long time ago. All this for 4th graders! I never received that much work in HS.

So to answer you question (finally) I think in small doses homework can be a great benefit to kids no matter what grade they're in. If used as a reinforcement tool then it's great but now-a-days homework is weighing so many of our kids down that they don't even bother to do any. Like the old saying goes a little bit can go along way. It's all about balance.

T.

 

[bzzymom]

DS is in 5th grade at a private catholic school. He has had math to do every Mon-Thurs since 1st grade. Now that he is older, most of the time he gets finished in class. He is in several activities, but he knows that if he can't keep his grades up, something will be dropped. He is in school for an education. Sports and things are important in my opinion for kids to be active, make friends, and so on.

DS's teacher is absolutely fabulous. He has t je kids to do some studying every night. It isn't always papers to fill out. He just wants them to review their lessons and prepare for the tests. It doesn't take up much time. He does give projects, but they are given plenty of time to do it. We get weekly reports on what he is doing and what the project dates are. They have written DAR essays for social studies, written poetry and short stories in English and have entered 3 differed writing contests. His philosophy is to start to teach the kids how to have good study habits, so that they are prepared for the higher grades. In the earlier grades, they had review sheets to study that was almost identical to the tests. It was pure memorization. DS got a+ on everything. Now, he gives them some essay questions and really makes them think. I am proud to say that his class of 28 students are all either on the honor roll or high honor roll.

I wasn't good in math as a kid. I struggled with the lessons. My parents had a problem with the teaching style of the high school algebra teacher. He would do the first or second problem on the board and then let us do the assignment on our own. Then, the lessons were graded in class by the students and the teacher only recorded the grades. I was getting a D in algebra. My mom had a meeting with the math teacher and he had no idea why I was having trouble. He never examined the work to see what I was doing wrong. My mom told him that he wasn't teaching in her opinion. He then looked over my papers. The problem I had was that I misunderstood one concept and it affected everything I did. He explained it to me, and then I pulled my grade up to a B.

 

[QueueCT]

I can understand this turning into a free for all around homework for 1st graders but the OP teaches 7th grade. That's 11-13 year olds depending on the time of year, etc. I don't think it's unreasonable at all for kids this age to have homework. They are becoming more responsible, capable of managing their time more effectively and need to learn how to do both even better. That's part of what homework does.

I think there's this misunderstanding that homework is usually busy work. Is it useless for a student in Spanish class to have to learn vocabulary that they will be tested on? What about outside reading for an English discussion on a particular book? I would be disappointed if a teacher had a 7th grade class sit quietly for 30 minutes and read a book rather than spending that time on a discussion. Oh, the teacher may have a student read a paragraph out loud so it is fresh in students' minds prior to the discussion but that's about it.

Based on most of the responses here I can imagine the outcry if a social studies teacher decided to have his/her class learn all of the countries in Africa and their capitals. Busy work! Yet how can you have a good understanding of the political and economic realities of the African continent if you don't know where on the continent Sierra Leone is, or Djibouti. For those who will say you can always look it up, how many of us sit and read with a dictionary or atlas at hand? A few, I'm sure, but not many. Knowledge is a pre-requisite for critical thinking. Sometimes the best way to acquire that knowledge is through "busy work."

The final issue was when homework is due. I'm a big fan of turning in weekly assignments or having weekly quizzes. To get a good grade on those you have to study . . . at home. It gives everyone the flexibility to complete the assignment in one big chunk or over several days so that schedules can be accommodated. Assigning work tonight that's due tomorrow is not realistic in the 7th grade . . . unless it's a meaningless assignment.

 

[DAPford]

I have a 7th grader who is in the mid level accedemically at her school ( honors, mid, and low) and have no problem with homework that is to reinforce a concept, prepare for a test or as a long term assignment (report) with specific due dates that teach time management and check up that they are working on it. My problem is with things like a weekly current event that no one ever checks for content just completed or things that have no relevence to whats going on in the classroom I guess I am an odd parent because I feel that only our honors kids get homework at an appropriate( or more ) level and that the mid level kids are not challenged to do more or given the opportunity to go above the bar. I do think that completing homework every night is important and should count towards grades to help the student who constanty gives 100% effort but may not test well to have a level chance to succeed. My DD is twelve in 7th grade so she is the youngest in her class she also swims competitvely and is in our church choir however we go to no other activity in the evenings or weekends other than church on Sun am until her school work is complete yes I only have 1 so its easier to make that happen but both my DH and I work fulltime and him partime on Sat. That said we guard family time important and will be taking DD out of school at Christmas for our Disney Christmas land & sea Sorry this got long but its my job to be sure she learns both in and out of the classroom.

 

[rt2dz]

I know I’ve already posted, but after going and reading everyone else’s replies, I began to think about what homework I had in Social Studies in Jr. High. In both 7th & 8th grade, I had the same social studies teacher. We did have homework daily.

The first week of class, he taught us the note taking/reading method that I know a lot of college professors like and teach. He then assigned us to read the material for the next day’s class as our daily assignment. Of course, this was a standing assignment so you knew what you had to do around any other activities and absences. And we knew via syllabus the entire quarters reading assignments. No surprises. Anyhow, in addition to reading the assignment, we had to use the method he taught us to take notes on the reading.

He spent the first 5 minutes of class walking down the aisles and checked a portion of the notes giving us a completion grade. A if finished as directed; B if finished, but not as directed; C if half completed as directed; D if half completed, but not as directed; F if not done. Homework grades were 10% of our final grade.

It enforced what we were learning in class. Well, actually prepared us for the next day’s discussion. It taught us a great study habit. The notes were a fantastic study guide for the test; time needed for studying for tests was minimal. Definitely not busy work. Copying the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights is busy work. Reading them and understanding them is not.

We also had a quiz every Friday.

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful replies! I have some ideas to share in response, but DD (14) needs to work on Art homework online. No kidding. I'll share later.

 

[pigletliz]

This sounds like my son - only he's in 8th grade and is into music, not dance. I feel so bad for him sometimes, only getting 30 minutes to eat his dinner, since he always has more work to complete.

I don't mind some homework, but sometimes, all of his teachers will give a huge assignment on the same day and it's just ridiculous. I wish the teachers would communicate with each other a bit more, so things could be spread out a bit more.

I totally agree with this. My daughter is a high school and was given a syllabus for each class at the beginning of the year, so she is really good about keeping on track. She does her homework nightly and over the weekend and is rarely ever done before 11 pm. The teachers added extra assignments during what should have been her Christmas and spring breaks. She had so many extra projects and reading that she might as well have spent her vacation in school.

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

Wow - what a lot of feedback! I agree that part of the goal of homework should be to establish routines and strategies for responsible work completion, BUT without assigning work just for that purpose.

I sympathize with those of you who are overburdened by your child's homework. There are some characteristics of our school that alleviate that, luckily. The district has adopted a rule K-12, based on brain research, that teachers should not assign homework that takes more than 10 minutes per grade. For example, a 3rd grader should have no more than 30 minutes of homework in a given night. At the Middle School level the teaching teams are to coordinate their homework to make sure we aren't inadvertently exceeding that amount. Lastly, we use an A/B Day schedule with 80-minute classes, so students have only half their classes each day. They can decide whether to do their work the day it was assigned or wait until the night before it's due (I'm sure you can guess which option most kids choose). I guess our school is more thoughtful and purposeful than some - I'm lucky to be here!

Because of our A/B schedule, a Friday quiz doesn't work well. I liked the "bean counter's" suggestion of rewarding participation or effort, and I am considering an "Exit Ticket" approach, where students must demonstrate understanding before they can leave class without a homework/remedial assignment. I also like the Math teacher's directive to spend no more than 20 minutes on an assignment (any more means the student needs help) - that would be an excellent way to use our after-school help period more concretely as well as reduce the time burden on those kids who will keep plugging away even when they are confused. I do hand out a calendar at the beginning of each month that lists the class topics and (until this year) homework assignments so students had some idea beforehand. Some like it, others forget they exist. I'll keep doing that, though.

I shared your responses with my principal, who has been appreciative of the parents' (and fellow teachers') point of view. Again, thank you all!

 

[moxiecola]

My son is 11 so not at the 7th grade level yet. He has been doing an hour + of homework since 3rd grade. Homework I do not disagree with, the amount of homework I absolutely do. After spending over 6 hours in school and then have to come home and do that much more work I find to be unacceptable. My child is a straight A student so it's not that he's sitting there at the table because he's having trouble. Kids need some down time. They need to be able to go outside and play or spend time at sports or other activities. When this much homework is sent home there is no time for anything else. I find it stresses him out too. He's very structured and gets the things done that he needs to without me having to be on top of him. When he has that much homework I can see him getting stressed about it. He worries that it's getting late and he won't have it done before dinner or school in the morning. He worries that it won't be right or he loses concentration which causes him to break down. If he has a test to study for it causes him more grief because he knows that if he doesn't get the homework done he won't have much time to study before bed. Like I said, this started in the 3rd grade. I can see a more increased load by 5th but not in 3rd. It was too much too soon.

 

[U2_rocks!]

I accept that a certain amount of homework is necessary. There isn't enough time in a well-rounded school that values games, drama, break time etc. to get through the whole core syllabus and have each child practice enough to be proficient. Some kids get things right away and may not need to do the homework - but there are definitely kids that do need to practice their math or spelling/grammar. And if they are doing a project at school that requires that kids to do a little research, that may need to be done at home because of the logisitcs of everyone having enough school library time, or just because the research takes more time that they can really spare during school hours.

Yes, the school day is long - but I truly believe that kids need breaks during the day, the need exercise, and they a chance to be creative and to just have fun! So I actually wouldn't want my kids to work hard all day long at school in order to have no homework, even though it would be much easier for me!

Too much homework is a problem, though, for the younger kids - they need time in the evening for extra-curricular activities (though I don't believe in over-loading kids with those either), free play, time with their parents, dinner, baths, and still get to bed at a decent hour. Otherwise they are just going to be tired and burnt out.

I appreciate that it's a difficult balance to hit, and I applaud teachers and school that actually give ongoing thought to this issue and try to keep the balance right!

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> busy work
How many parents and how many students can actually identify busy work from exercises that are essential to learning? With that skill some of the busy work can be left aside until everything else is completed and perhaps left undone if time did not permit completion.

One caution, doing the busy work can improve the speed of completing other tasks including arithmetic and spelling. Although my present feeling, decades after finishing high school, is that kids should be able to put speed on the back burner.

Ph.D. in English needed: Relate the descriptions below:

1. (true story) I was on my school track team and on some practice afternoons we were in three groups going around the track. I did not have the endurance that the others had andfrom time to time I would lag behind "my group" and join up with the next group coming from behind for awhile. Sometimes this happened more than once.

2. A child for some reason or another did not turn in the monthly book report that was meant to be done independently as homework. Come May, he was missing two book reports but otherwise seemed to be up to date. Suppose he was relieved of the requirement to actually do the two missing book reports.

Disney hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[dougsmom98]

I am a high school chemistry teacher and a mom of four children. I have to say that I grumble with some of the homework my young children bring home. I am just as excited as they are when there is no homework. Even though I hate the homework, it does get them in the habit of doing homework after school and this is a good habit for high school.
In my own classes, I don't assign homework for the sake of having an assignment every night. If we are a good point and I want them to practice what we have learned, then I give a practice paper. If students don't have a chance to finish their class work, then they need to finish it for homework. I know some teachers will assign something every night, just to say that they do. If the OP has some students who aren't finishing things up in class, then I think that they should assign it to be finished for homework.