In short, I believe that homework can be an important part of your child’s academic day and can serve as an excellent means by which your child can practice the skills he or she learns in school at home while fostering good study habits. However, I also believe that homework can create more problems that it solves. Much of the current research related to homework indicates that other than reading at home, most homework assignments fail to positively impact a child’s academic performance up until 6th grade. Regardless of what we believe, research shows that homework in the elementary grades does not reinforce learning and even fails to assist in the establishment of good work habits in children. In short, until your child is 10-12 years old, he or she will not learn very much from homework. If you’re looking for information on this topic, The Homework Myth by Aflie Kohn is an excellent read.
Keeping this in mind, my goal is to ensure that each homework assignment is a meaningful exercise that will promote as much learning in the home as possible. To this end, piles of worksheets, word-finds, and crossword puzzles will not be sent home for homework. Homework will be academically, socially or ethically beneficial to your child and will relate directly to something we are doing in class. I will modify and individualize homework when a student’s unique academics needs warrant such efforts. Most important, I will try my best to remain alert as to how homework assignments are impacting you and your child at home.
I will be sending home the week’s homework assignments on Monday, so that students have all week to complete their work. In doing this, I hope to help you avoid situations like the dreaded “Scout night” by allowing your child to complete the assignments at his or her pace on the nights when it is most conducive. This approach has always been well received. Kids were able to work on their assignments on the evenings when they or their families were less busy, and a few of my more industrious students would spend a couple hours on Monday completing their assignments so that they had the rest of the week to themselves!
Every Monday I will include an explanation of the week’s assignments in a newsletter and will post the assignments on the website.
If I do not have a meaningful and beneficial homework assignment prepared, I will not send home busy work but will instead give your child a night off. I will also adjust the amount of homework sent home on Monday in the event of a school concert or similar activity. Your child will be working extremely hard in the classroom, so I have no desire to overwork your child at home as well.
Homework should take your child about 30 minutes to complete (but this will vary on the assignment, but every child should feel free to stop after 30 minutes and play), and your child is expected to read for AT LEAST 30 minutes every day as well (weekends too!). He or she should ideally be doing this reading silently, but spending the half hour reading to your child is fine too. In my mind, this half hour or more of reading is more important than anything I may send home, but because I cannot be there to ensure that it is happening, I depend on you to make certain that it is done. If your child has a good book that he or she loves, this should not be a chore but a pleasure. I also encourage you to spend this half hour silently reading as well, modeling good reading habits for your child. I do it every day in the classroom. I guarantee that having your child watch you enjoy reading a good book will make a positive impact on your child’s perception of reading.
If a child does not complete a homework assignment, the situation will be dealt with on an individual basis. For a child who has never forgotten his or her homework before, a disapproving glare followed by a wink might be all the punishment that the child receives. For a child with a habitual problem, more concrete steps may be taken, usually involving the loss of a privilege in the classroom until the assignments are being completed in a timely manner.
If a situation arises where your child is unable to complete a homework assignment before Friday for whatever reason, please send in a note and he or she will be given the weekend to complete the assignment. I won’t think that you are a bad parent. I understand that kids today have very busy lives, and even an extra-inning baseball game or an unexpected dance rehearsal can make completing homework a nightmare for you and your child. Let’s avoid situations like that this year by not pressuring your child to complete an assignment at the cost of losing sleep, sacrificing family time, or a rushing through dinner. As I’ve said before, if your child is reading for at least 30 minutes each night, they’ve done their most important job. As for the rest, there’s always tomorrow.
Information on the assignments for the week will be published on every Monday via the Shakespearean Sonnet as well as on the classroom webpage.