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Middle School Teachers Chatboard

Thoughts on homework

by razmum

Aug 16, 2012

This is a subject that I really struggle with. I always believed students SHOULD have some homework and be held accountable for it. I feel that English and Math require more practice necessitating more HW in those areas, therefore I tend to only give HW once or twice per week (I teach science). Unfortunately, over the past few years, I have started to question if it's really worth the fight to assign HW. The questions in our text require a lot of analyzing data with a well written explanation supported by evidence. I am not trying to be mean here, but even the brightest and most capable students often do a horrible job when these questions are given as homework. They just want it DONE. Two lines is "enough" in their minds even when a paragraph is really needed. the students with good grades know homework won't majorly impact their grade (5-10%)and those with lower grades often don't even try. Though I hate to give up class time, I started giving them more time in class last year to do ...See More

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have nots You're still making decisions on only one group - in every class there are the haves and have nots. The have nots have not got a functioning home in which to do homework.

The other kids do - it's two groups. What you're saying makes no sense - you are still making decisions based on only one group - the kids who have functioning homes to ...See MoreYou're still making decisions on only one group - in every class there are the haves and have nots. The have nots have not got a functioning home in which to do homework.

The other kids do - it's two groups. What you're saying makes no sense - you are still making decisions based on only one group - the kids who have functioning homes to do homework in.

The question that's been plaguing us in education is not how to educate the kids who do their homework. The question is how to educate the kids who have shattered home lives - how do we educate the have nots?

Your principal was stabbing around in the dark trying to come up with some answer to that and what you did in response was talk to him about the kids with whom we're already doing a good job. You resisted his attempt- however inept it may have been - to work toward innovative solution for the kids we aren't getting through to.

What if the same thing happened in a hospital? What if the poor kids admitted to wards in the hospital required more stringent care given their poor diets at home? Would the doctors and nurses rise up and say "But what about all the kids who are admitted who don't need anything special? Why should we do something special for the group of kids who need something different? Why should we change our daily practice in any way just because some kids need something different?"

Your response to your principal seems very unthinking to me. I get the curriculum thing but as you out of hand rejected his suggestion, what's yours?

> > He had a small uprising on his hand from the teachers. > Led mostly, by math but lots of support from others. > They pointed out that the elimination of homework would > reduce their curriculum by at least 20%. I know this > would be true in my classroom. Just having the students > preread the chapter at home saves substantial amount of > time in the classroom that can be used for much better > things. > > One of the big things that the teachers pointed out was > that the principal was making a decision to limit the > eduation of every single student in the building, > because some students didn't have support at home. They > demanded to know why other kid's education was being > sacrificed. It is worthy to note that several of these > teachers had kids/gradnkids/nieces and nephews in the > building.

Sep 23, 2012

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Melissa I think teachers need to remember that these kids have several other classes that also have homework and when they are overloaded some will most likely be unmotivated to do any of it. I think we need to take the amount of time we expect them to spend on homework each night, divide that by the number of classes they have. For example, if we think th...See More

Oct 8, 2012

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delehla I believe that work done at home is best left to that which requires rote memorization--spelling words, multiplication tables, practicing math steps, etc. Otherwise, it is best to keep instruction in the classroom where students can be guided and topics discussed with time for questions and answers.

Nov 20, 2012

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mrjim On 11/20/12, delehla wrote: > I believe that work done at home is best left to that which requires > rote memorization--spelling words, multiplication tables, practicing > math steps, etc. Otherwise, it is best to keep instruction in the > classroom where students can be guided and topics discussed with time > for questions and answe...See More

Dec 24, 2012

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Debbie On 12/24/12, mrjim wrote: > On 11/20/12, delehla wrote: >> I believe that work done at home is best left to that which requires >> rote memorization--spelling words, multiplication tables, practicing >> math steps, etc. Otherwise, it is best to keep instruction in the >> classroom where students can be guided and topics d...See More

Dec 26, 2012

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