Homework vs No Homework

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher. Our county/school allows us the decision to assign homework or not. I would love to know what other parents think as far as their child being assigned homework or not. For what it is worth, I teach 4th grade Reading only.

[Anonymous]

Yes, in upper elementary school, least math and/or writing homework daily. Not a lot, but some.

[Anonymous]

I think a small amount is reasonable. It helps to see what they are working on in school. I never minded it, as long as it wasn’t hours worth.

[Anonymous]

4th grade I am fine either way. Maybe a little bit just to get them used to the idea of homework.

[Anonymous]

Homework, reinforcement is important

[Anonymous]

Some homework to reinforce what is happening in school, build good study habits, and let families know what kids are working on is really helpful.

I would check in with the math teacher and anyone else who might assign homework and see if you can coordinate with them to make sure kids aren't getting more than 30 minutes or so a night, or no more than 1.5 hours a week.

By the way, I think weekly assignments are much better for kids than nightly. It is less stress overall and is helpful for kids who have activities or other commitments some nights and not others. It also encourages building up time management skills as if they leave it all for Sunday night, it will be a pain to finish, so it encourages them to set aside time (with parents help) to work on it throughout the week.

[Anonymous]

Yes - I would like my children to read books and not passages. If you assign them books to read and book reports as HW, I will be forever grateful.

[Anonymous]

I prefer to assign my own reading homework.

[Anonymous]

We excuse our kids from doing homework through sixth grade with the following exceptions:

1. Group projects
2. If their grades go below 90
3. Studying for spelling/vocab tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes - I would like my children to read books and not passages. If you assign them books to read and book reports as HW, I will be forever grateful.

Can you just make your child read? Why does the teacher have to assign it?

[Anonymous]

Yes, homework. My kid is in lower elementary and they get a small amount of homework twice a week, along with ongoing "Here's a couple books to read this week. Daily/repeated reading is best, but do what you can" homework.

[Anonymous]

Yes. For reading we have a daily reading log. Kids have to read for 20 minutes and log the date, title, time and I initial that they did it. The teacher checks it daily, it builds a habit of reading. My kids read each night at bedtime as a habit now, even during breaks from school.

Sometimes there is an assigned book for a book club and they have to read X chapters and do an accompany worksheet. They have all week to do it but take it seriously as it’s a group project and each member of the book club has an alternating leadership role, so they don’t want to be the one who didn’t read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes - I would like my children to read books and not passages. If you assign them books to read and book reports as HW, I will be forever grateful.

Can you just make your child read? Why does the teacher have to assign it?

NP but it’s helpful to hear it from more than just me. Also the teachers at our school organize book clubs and reading competitions that help support reading and the peer pressure helps.

[Anonymous]

As a policy matter, homework is just one more way for the rich to get richer. On this forum with a bunch of rich people, people are going to be pro homework. It totally disadvantages kids who don’t have someone home after school or in the early evening to help them. I don’t support homework generally.

[Anonymous]

Assign meaningful homework. If it’s something that will actually help them learn and remember content/skills I support it. Homework is good for them to practice skills so that they can master them. If they need to practice spelling, grammar, etc., that’s fine. Doing research and writing is good. Studying material for a test is important.

I don’t appreciate:

busy work given just so my child has homework

art projects that aren’t for art class and are a pain in the neck while providing negligible educational benefit (dioramas, etc.)

“fun” activities designed to engage parents - again they tend to have negligible educational value but be unnecessarily time consuming, not to mention the homework should be for the child and not the parent. Parents may not be willing/able to devote the time that particular evening or they may have already planned something more meaningful and possibly even more educational that your activity is disrupting.

I refuse to require a daily minimum of reading time. While I agree that daily reading practice while learning to read is important to master the skill, and that reading assigned content for a specific purpose is beneficial (read a book and write a book report/essay, read the next chapter to prepare for a class discussion tomorrow, etc.), I think the only thing daily required reading accomplishes is to turn an intrinsically enjoyable activity into a chore. I can think of no faster way to get somebody to hate something, than to tell them they have to do it. It’s like Tom Sawyer’s whitewashed fence in reverse. Imagine being told you had to eat chocolate cake (or whatever your favorite treat might be) every day. The first day would be fantastic, and you’d probably enjoy it for a week or so, but then it would start to get old quickly. How long would it be before you loathed that cake?

I would ask that you keep in mind the total homework load and not make it excessive. The general guideline I’ve heard is 10 min/grade level, and a nightly average of about 40 minutes sounds about right. (That’s not 40 minutes for reading, 40 minutes for math, 40 minutes for science, and 40 minutes for social studies, but 40 minutes total). I understand, of course, that a special project may occasionally require extra time, and that’s fine. I’d ask though, that you don’t assign kids homework over holidays and breaks. Their time off is for them and their families, not extra time for homework.

Please grade the homework, don’t just check for completion. If there are errors, mark them all. Otherwise, the students are practicing and solidifying bad habits, completely unaware they’re doing something wrong.

If my child is having a problem, or is being a problem, let me know. I will want to help in either case, but I can’t do anything if I don’t know what’s going on.