New curriculum = no homework?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using class time for doing homework reduces instructional time.

It is also good to have homework occur later in the day as a way to reinforce concepts and provide additional practice.

If you do it in class, it’s called classwork and that’s currently what occurs.

Yes, that is the current approach. Displacing instruction for homework (classwork) may be a reason why students' standardized test scores are weak.

My kid went to private school where his classes were 45 minutes. I was surprised to see that many public schools have 90 minute classes but every other day. Maybe they should switch since the kids have shorter attention spans. I'd be pretty pissed if the teachers stopped teaching so kids could do HW every day.

The problem with the 45, or I think it was 47 minute blocks, is that it often wasn't long enough to complete tests or introduce more complex lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using class time for doing homework reduces instructional time.

It is also good to have homework occur later in the day as a way to reinforce concepts and provide additional practice.

If you do it in class, it’s called classwork and that’s currently what occurs.

Yes, that is the current approach. Displacing instruction for homework (classwork) may be a reason why students' standardized test scores are weak.

The positive and negative effects of homework have been proven to cancel each other out. Homework is not returning to FCPS anytime soon.

No. Research shows homework does have beneficial effects on achievement in MS and HS. It is less clear in ES but that may be because struggling readers take longer to do their homework and are given remedial homework assignments.

There’s also plenty of research that shows that there are significant negative effects.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homework improves learning:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1228867.page

Why is FCPS abandoning a practice which has been proven to improve student's learning? (it is not difficult to figure out)

It has been proven to NOT improve learning.

The general consensus is that homework does correlate with achievement in middle and high school. Results are less clear for elementary, however, that may be influenced by the fact that struggling readers are assigned additional homework.

Makes zero sense to me how extra practice could NOT be beneficial for ES kids. There must be some other things going on with these studies as they just does not make sense.

It’s not beneficial if they are doing the extra practice incorrectly.

Is it likely that they would do every single homework assignment incorrectly?

Is that really your objection or are you just trolling? Do you have kids? Have you ever done anything yourself in your own life? Some of it will be wrong and some of it will be right. That's how you learn.

It wasn’t an objection, but rather a reply to the question that extra practice could “NOT be beneficial”.

For example, if a third grader has 15 division problems for hw and does all 15 incorrectly (which is very realistic if they don’t understand the process), then that student has just further cemented their misunderstanding and an incorrect way of doing the math.

DP Teachers can provide an answer key which alerts students (and family/others at home) that the student is on the wrong track. Also, for third grade division, much of the homework could be checked with flashcards, assuming the school provided these to students.

Or they just copy down the answers and show their parents and teachers that they got everything correct… it happens all the time.

In that case, homework does those students no good or harm. But, other students will do the homework and benefit. So, on net, it's beneficial to assign homework to the class.

Or the parents could buy a workbook, that works too.

Requiring parents to buy to pay for reinforcement is a good way to ensure working class kids do not get a fair break.

Assigning homework, correcting it, returned the corrected version, but not having homework count much for the final grade is how to help bright diligent working class kids get to college.

Mind, the FCPS School Board is "no action, talk only" about having a level playing field, so we can be confident that will not happen here. Sigh.

Teachers already work too much, they’ll not going to correct/grade optional work.

What job requirements/responsibilities should be scaled back so that teachers do have the time to review homework?

Read this thread for the answer to that question. Also, consider that the people teachers are complaining about on this thread are also the people making the decisions re: homework policy:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1245093.page

This thread in fact does NOT give a concrete list of responsibilities that could be scaled back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using class time for doing homework reduces instructional time.

It is also good to have homework occur later in the day as a way to reinforce concepts and provide additional practice.

If you do it in class, it’s called classwork and that’s currently what occurs.

Yes, that is the current approach. Displacing instruction for homework (classwork) may be a reason why students' standardized test scores are weak.

My kid went to private school where his classes were 45 minutes. I was surprised to see that many public schools have 90 minute classes but every other day. Maybe they should switch since the kids have shorter attention spans. I'd be pretty pissed if the teachers stopped teaching so kids could do HW every day.

The problem with the 45, or I think it was 47 minute blocks, is that it often wasn't long enough to complete tests or introduce more complex lessons.

I had no issue taking tests in 45 minutes. I think it's the students who weren't prepared that had an issue with it. Midterms and finals were a week of no classes and the periods were longer to accommodate longer tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using class time for doing homework reduces instructional time.

It is also good to have homework occur later in the day as a way to reinforce concepts and provide additional practice.

If you do it in class, it’s called classwork and that’s currently what occurs.

Yes, that is the current approach. Displacing instruction for homework (classwork) may be a reason why students' standardized test scores are weak.

My kid went to private school where his classes were 45 minutes. I was surprised to see that many public schools have 90 minute classes but every other day. Maybe they should switch since the kids have shorter attention spans. I'd be pretty pissed if the teachers stopped teaching so kids could do HW every day.

The problem with the 45, or I think it was 47 minute blocks, is that it often wasn't long enough to complete tests or introduce more complex lessons.

I had no issue taking tests in 45 minutes. I think it's the students who weren't prepared that had an issue with it. Midterms and finals were a week of no classes and the periods were longer to accommodate longer tests.

It also makes it hard with students with accommodations. With 45 min, they can start and might need to finish in another block, possibly missing instruction in the next class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using class time for doing homework reduces instructional time.

It is also good to have homework occur later in the day as a way to reinforce concepts and provide additional practice.

If you do it in class, it’s called classwork and that’s currently what occurs.

Yes, that is the current approach. Displacing instruction for homework (classwork) may be a reason why students' standardized test scores are weak.

The positive and negative effects of homework have been proven to cancel each other out. Homework is not returning to FCPS anytime soon.

No. Research shows homework does have beneficial effects on achievement in MS and HS. It is less clear in ES but that may be because struggling readers take longer to do their homework and are given remedial homework assignments.

There’s also plenty of research that shows that there are significant negative effects.

There are studies showing results at both extremes. However, literature reviews that survey all studies find a positive effect of homework on achievement for MS and HS, with ES ambiguous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using class time for doing homework reduces instructional time.

It is also good to have homework occur later in the day as a way to reinforce concepts and provide additional practice.

If you do it in class, it’s called classwork and that’s currently what occurs.

Yes, that is the current approach. Displacing instruction for homework (classwork) may be a reason why students' standardized test scores are weak.

My kid went to private school where his classes were 45 minutes. I was surprised to see that many public schools have 90 minute classes but every other day. Maybe they should switch since the kids have shorter attention spans. I'd be pretty pissed if the teachers stopped teaching so kids could do HW every day.

The problem with the 45, or I think it was 47 minute blocks, is that it often wasn't long enough to complete tests or introduce more complex lessons.

I had no issue taking tests in 45 minutes. I think it's the students who weren't prepared that had an issue with it. Midterms and finals were a week of no classes and the periods were longer to accommodate longer tests.

It also makes it hard with students with accommodations. With 45 min, they can start and might need to finish in another block, possibly missing instruction in the next class.

Starting in 9th grade, we had at least one free period, other than lunch, every day. Students could use this free period to finish testing.

[Anonymous]

Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

Besides for the fact that that schedule would never work logistically, that doesn’t exactly work for the students that get the “time and a half” accommodation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

Besides for the fact that that schedule would never work logistically, that doesn’t exactly work for the students that get the “time and a half” accommodation.

Some private schools do follow the schedule noted above.

Then you work out an alternate solution for students needing "time and a half". Putting the majority of students (who don't need extra time) into blocks with less instruction is a sub-optimal solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

Besides for the fact that that schedule would never work logistically, that doesn’t exactly work for the students that get the “time and a half” accommodation.

Some private schools do follow the schedule noted above.

Then you work out an alternate solution for students needing "time and a half". Putting the majority of students (who don't need extra time) into blocks with less instruction is a sub-optimal solution.

Do those private schools have the same numbers (total students as well as IEP students)? No. It’s easy to solve these problems on a small scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

Besides for the fact that that schedule would never work logistically, that doesn’t exactly work for the students that get the “time and a half” accommodation.

Some private schools do follow the schedule noted above.

Then you work out an alternate solution for students needing "time and a half". Putting the majority of students (who don't need extra time) into blocks with less instruction is a sub-optimal solution.

Do those private schools have the same numbers (total students as well as IEP students)? No. It’s easy to solve these problems on a small scale.

If a subset of students needs additional time, find a solution for them. You don't change the schedule and reduce instructional time for all students to address an issue that does not affect the majority of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

Besides for the fact that that schedule would never work logistically, that doesn’t exactly work for the students that get the “time and a half” accommodation.

Some private schools do follow the schedule noted above.

Then you work out an alternate solution for students needing "time and a half". Putting the majority of students (who don't need extra time) into blocks with less instruction is a sub-optimal solution.

Do those private schools have the same numbers (total students as well as IEP students)? No. It’s easy to solve these problems on a small scale.

If a subset of students needs additional time, find a solution for them. You don't change the schedule and reduce instructional time for all students to address an issue that does not affect the majority of students.

Aw you familiar with the laws regarding special education? I suspect not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

Besides for the fact that that schedule would never work logistically, that doesn’t exactly work for the students that get the “time and a half” accommodation.

Some private schools do follow the schedule noted above.

Then you work out an alternate solution for students needing "time and a half". Putting the majority of students (who don't need extra time) into blocks with less instruction is a sub-optimal solution.

Do those private schools have the same numbers (total students as well as IEP students)? No. It’s easy to solve these problems on a small scale.

If a subset of students needs additional time, find a solution for them. You don't change the schedule and reduce instructional time for all students to address an issue that does not affect the majority of students.

Aw you familiar with the laws regarding special education? I suspect not.

Special education laws do not require block scheduling nor cancellation of homework. That is an FCPS decision. There are many school districts in the US that do not use block scheduling and do assign homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make one class per week one hour in duration to accommodate testing but keep other classes at 45 minutes. Students can't maintain focus for the length of the block periods which is why they have them do homework in class.

Besides for the fact that that schedule would never work logistically, that doesn’t exactly work for the students that get the “time and a half” accommodation.

Some private schools do follow the schedule noted above.

Then you work out an alternate solution for students needing "time and a half". Putting the majority of students (who don't need extra time) into blocks with less instruction is a sub-optimal solution.

Do those private schools have the same numbers (total students as well as IEP students)? No. It’s easy to solve these problems on a small scale.

If a subset of students needs additional time, find a solution for them. You don't change the schedule and reduce instructional time for all students to address an issue that does not affect the majority of students.

Aw you familiar with the laws regarding special education? I suspect not.

Special education laws do not require block scheduling nor cancellation of homework. That is an FCPS decision. There are many school districts in the US that do not use block scheduling and do assign homework.

But that is what FCPS has chosen. Take it or leave it.