Homework 2: Check it or correct it?

An even larger lesson for homework is:
Can he remember to bring the paper home, have the discipline to complete the assignment in full, and get it back to the teacher?

You'd be surprised how many adults are unable to complete such an assignment.

1 Reply

@PUNKEY,

PUNKEY wrote:

An even larger lesson for homework is:
Can he remember to bring the paper home, have the discipline to complete the assignment in full, and get it back to the teacher?

You'd be surprised how many adults are unable to complete such an assignment.

True enough =)

1 Reply

@manored,

PUNKEY wrote:

An even larger lesson for homework is:
Can he remember to bring the paper home, have the discipline to complete the assignment in full,
and get it back to the teacher?

You'd be surprised how many adults are unable to complete such an assignment.

manored wrote:

True enough =)

maybe if thay were on commi$$ion

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In today's boston.com:
http://www.boston.com/community/moms/blogs/child_caring/2010/10/how_much_homewo.html?p1=Well_Community_links

Quote:

The parents need to be thehomework coach. It is your job to:

1. Support and endorse the importance of homework. If you complain about the amount of homework, that it interferes with football practice or family life, you are not-so-subtly telling her, "It's not a priority." Homework is your child's single most important job. Any other message is sabotage. If extra curriculars make her too tired to do her homework, rethink the activities. That you check the homework site with her shows you consider it a priority.

2. Create a schedule and routine with your child , that is, don't impose the homework schedule on her. The routine doesn't have to be the same every day, but it should be consistent through the week. Every Monday, she does homework after piano; Tuesday, she does it after dinner, etc.

3. Help her to be organized. What location is to real estate, organization is to homework. Create a place that she can call her own with good lighting, desk space, and tools of her trade. Most kids prefer to do homework in the kitchen (I always thought that was a compliment) but sometime in middle school, they tend to want privacy and will find some other place. It's a rite of passage, go with it.

4. Arrive at rules together. Some kids really do a better job if they are listening to music but most kids don't; most kids can't concentrate on homework if the computer or cell is on in front of them. Agreeing to computer/texting breaks (use a timer, it's objective) is one way to compromise.

5. Don't hover but be available. Some children like to check it and show you their work, some don't. Reach a compromise, depending on which extreme you have. When my son reached middle school and wanted to be independent in his work, he would often ask me to read a report but only put a check in the margin if I had a suggestion or saw a problem. Then it was up to him to figure out what the problem was and whether he wanted to fix it.

6. Be in touch with the teacher. Bugaboo, since it sounds like you are probably already doing much of what I've outlined above, this is the one thing you might want to consider. Have a conversation with the teacher so that he/she knows what your philosophy is about homework and you know what his expectations are, including how much time it should take to complete homework, so you have some idea if your child is outside the bell curve on either end.

I am just reposting. Don't necessarily agree with everything here.....

4 Replies

@littlek,

I don't really agree with anything there.

I think research agrees with me.

There was a recent study that completely contradicted #3.

I think whoever wrote this just goes along with the "accepted wisdom" and hasn't bothered to actually do her/his homework.

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@littlek,

Did you read the comments that follow that post?

Almost every one agree with me.

I especially liked this one:

Quote:

1.I am a mom of three children and have worked as an educator (teacher and administrator) for 25 year and I have learned in that time and through those experiences that NOT ALL HOMEWORK IS CREATED EQUAL. Many teachers assign tasks that are simply not worthy of children time and effort. They assign them these to do "on their time" as a way of demonstrating their compliance to an arbitrary (and mostly faulty) set of ideas about what constitutes a "quality education". There are few, almost no, people I know who spend their whole day at their job and then come home and do another 2-3 hours worth of work at home after the work day is over. Mundane tasks that don't have value for learning when assigned for homework are MALPRACTICE in my opinion. Give families back to themselves and we will have a much better society. I am waiting for the HOMEWORK OPTIONAL school policy to emerge. I believe we are on the verge of this. Families need to revolt against a culture that is turning children into pawns in the games of a competitive global society. That's too much for them. Let children have a life!

Homework has ruined the last two nights of our lives. Mo is completely stressed out and miserable after a couple of the kids caught sight of his "easy" homework and made sure the whole class knew about it so that he got teased and now he's mad at me. I want my happy child back.

1 Reply

A lot of people commenting mentioned Dr. Cathy Vatterott so I looked her up.

Interesting stuff! http://www.homeworklady.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=13&Itemid=34

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Did you read the comments that follow that post?

Almost every one agree with me.

I especially liked this one:

Quote:
1.I am a mom of three children and have worked as an educator (teacher and administrator) for 25 year and I have learned in that time and through those experiences that NOT ALL HOMEWORK IS CREATED EQUAL. Many teachers assign tasks that are simply not worthy of children time and effort. They assign them these to do "on their time" as a way of demonstrating their compliance to an arbitrary (and mostly faulty) set of ideas about what constitutes a "quality education". There are few, almost no, people I know who spend their whole day at their job and then come home and do another 2-3 hours worth of work at home after the work day is over. Mundane tasks that don't have value for learning when assigned for homework are MALPRACTICE in my opinion. Give families back to themselves and we will have a much better society. I am waiting for the HOMEWORK OPTIONAL school policy to emerge. I believe we are on the verge of this. Families need to revolt against a culture that is turning children into pawns in the games of a competitive global society. That's too much for them. Let children have a life!

Homework has ruined the last two nights of our lives. Mo is completely stressed out and miserable after a couple of the kids caught sight of his "easy" homework and made sure the whole class knew about it so that he got teased and now he's mad at me.

I want my happy child back.

I dunno how much u control qua homework. Do your best, but I suggest that u think creatively
to do something unrelated to education n unexpected,
to distract Mo from his eMotional misery: give Mo a HAPPINESS ATTACK.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I'd like to give him a happiness attack by making sure that he and the other kids never had homework!

The more I read about the idiocy of homework the madder I get.

For the meantime I told him to tell those smart ass kids that his mom is a lunatic who thinks homework is bad for kids so I won't let him do the other homework.

He thought that was pretty funny.

2 Replies

@boomerang,

I can see homework being helpful in the sense of getting kids ready for high school and college. In the way that they need to learn organizing and preparing for tests and projects that will benefit them in their later years.

That being said, it should be age specific and gradual. For example, first grade 5 minutes of work a few nights a week and slowly and gradually increase over time - and also the length of the assignment to grow longer ie, a report/project that is due in a week (that may take a half hour to do) in lower grades vs a report/project due in several weeks that would require more time. This teaches more than just the project itself, but planning/prioritizing etc.

My daughter learned the hard way on this last year. She missed out on a basketball practice (thus losing playing time in the next game) because she did not plan out her homework schedule well as school assignments come first. That was the first and last time she did that and has since learned to prioritize better.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I'd like to give him a happiness attack by making sure that he
and the other kids never had homework!

The more I read about the idiocy of homework the madder I get.

For the meantime I told him to tell those smart ass kids that his mom
is a lunatic who thinks homework is bad for kids so I won't let him do the other homework.

He thought that was pretty funny.

I wish u the BEST OF LUCK !!!

David

1 Reply

@Linkat,

I don't know, Linkat.

The site I linked earlier has an interesting bit about homework myths that kind of address' this -- at least it makes you think twice about the "responsibility" angle of homework assignments. It's "read only" so I can't repost any of it here.

A big chunk of her book is available on googlebooks and I've been picking though it this morning. She has some good points and it's worth reading (I think I may have to pick up a copy).

In the book she talks a bit about the value of sports and other non-academic pursuits in helping shape a well rounded person. I truly agree with her yet I still find myself coercing Mo into getting homework done under the threat of missing football. I kind of hate myself for that.

She has a lot to say on the classist nature of homework -- a point that was hotly debated on my other homework thread. I've thought about reviving the argument but don't know if I'm up to the onslaught since that's not really why I hate homework so much.

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

Thank you!

I'm not afraid of being the school weirdo.

Frankly, I'd love it if just one parent asked me why I thought that so I'm hoping the kids take Mo's lunatic mom's ideas home for discussion.

2 Replies

@boomerang,

I don't disagree that other activities are important, however, even her sports teams (and these are competitive teams) state that academics come first.

I don't mean to say that homework should be so much that they have little time for other activities. What I am saying is, it helps them learn they need to plan their time to meet more than one obligation. In this instance where she missed practice, she had plenty of time to complete her school assignment - she was notified earlier in the week. She did not plan accordingly and then had to do the report the night before it was due thus missing practice. She could have done it several days before.

My husband coaching last year had the same thing happen to one of the players. She was in my daughter's class so he knew she had this assignment for a project a week or more before, but waited until the last minute to complete and so missed practice. She used the excuse that school comes first (which it does especially as this was a school team). But knowing that the assignment was given in plenty of time in advance - she was kept out of the first half of playing time.

I did have difficulty with one teacher that would give them too much last minute so my daughter could not plan for other activities. We did speak with her a bit about it and had my daughter talk with her that she needed more notice of her schoolwork (ie need several days prior to prepare for a test).

It teaches balance and priority.

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@boomerang,

I agree on the school weirdo thing - sometimes you need to discuss this with a teacher - why we did this two years ago. We told the teacher, because our daughter, as well as many other kids in the class, are involved in other activities outside of class, we need more notification of projects/tests.

We also taught my daughter to ask the teacher of upcoming tests/projects and their due dates and any unclear instructions. She has learned this helps her prepare better and to manage having outside activities that she does not want to give up.

It also will better prepare her for high school - when there is a high possibility she will be involved in varsity sports as this is a huge interest of hers. Her teacher have complemented her this year - her first year in middle school about her always being prepared for class as a result.

0 Replies

@boomerang,

Yeah, I'm kind of iffy on time management and all that too. As a kid I always did my homework and got all A's. When I got to college, though, I didn't have the study skills required. I just didn't know how to do "real work".

I mean, I'm all about kids taking on their own responsibility for homework, I'm just not sure how much of that translates into something useful.

1 Reply

@FreeDuck,

You didn't have any tests that you needed to prepare for? Longer term projects and stuff?

Those are the items are talking about that I have found that teaches my daughter time management.

For example, they are told on a certain day that they will have a science vocabulary test on next Thursday. That is it. They are expected to go into their science book and study the vocabulary words. Prior to middle school, they would give the kids the words and definations.

For a project, they are given a sheet of paper with instructions on the project - what is required and the due date. The one thing I've noticed is they always tell them to make their project appealing and to use creativity. I've noticed this a bit more in the public schools too - as I am a pen pal to a boy in a local school. It seems there are more "open-ended" type of projects than I remember doing.

1 Reply

Great - now I get an email from my daughter's reading teacher - seems almost all the kids failed their reading vocb test. This is given them toward the beginning of the week to study for a test by the end of the week.

The students are expected to study the definations on their own. I went over them with the daughter before the test and she knew them. This is more tested like an understanding rather than spit out the definations - they match definations and also match according to its use in sentences.

Now they all have to use flash cards and hand them in even those that did not fail - they are exempted once they have brought their grades to over 85%. I have to see what her grade is - because her average was an A a couple of weeks ago.

Grr - hopefully she finished this homework in aftercare as she has practice tonight.

Now these are the type of things that get me angry especially if she were one that did not fail.

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@Linkat,

Sure. I had time management skills as they pertain to school. But I had few independent thinking/problem solving skills unless they were math problems. I'm not saying I didn't learn responsibility and all that, just that what I was learning was how to be an elementary/middle/high school student. College was different. Work was different. School was different. Yes, I did my homework and turned it in on time. Yes I prepared for tests. No that wasn't enough to succeed in college. At least not on my first try. I didn't do well until I had more or less unlearned myself.

2 Replies

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Thank you!

I'm not afraid of being the school weirdo.

Frankly, I'd love it if just one parent asked me why I thought that
so I'm hoping the kids take Mo's lunatic mom's ideas home for discussion.

That 's WONDERFUL!

U 'll be a hero!

The students shoud put up a golden statue to u!
Thay shoud celebrate your birthday with a day off!

David

0 Replies

Homework 2: Check it or correct it?

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