The second week of 7th grade, still no homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

I wouldn't call reading a novel at home for in-class analysis and discussion, useless. This kind of homework was fairly common 15 years ago in any middle school English class (7/8).

Yeah, even a 200 page book takes time to read. Idk how you’d do it without homework. MS teacher PP - do you just have your kids spend hours reading silently in class?

[Anonymous]

I had 2 kids who went through fcps middle schools before pandemic, and 2 kids who went through during/post pandemic closures.

Before pandemic, the middle schools seemed like they did nothing the first two weeks except play get acquainted games, team building and get organized lessons.

With my oldest, I was completely annoyed by the lack of rigor and what I perceived to be a waste of 2 weeks.

But...

Those seemingly pointless fun lessons ended up really benefiting the students in terms of behavior and general culture of the school. The team building helped to get the kids off their devices and seeing each other as real people. The bullying was a lot less than now and the behavior was more of the normal type of disruptions instead of the crazy, destructive and violent behaviors of post pandemic, when they stopped doing this stuff at the start of the school year.

If I had a middle schooler now, I would be thrilled that fcps is spending this time at the beginning of the year on establishing a warm culture at the school instead of diving right into work.

I did not realize the value of those 2 weeks with my first kid. With 20/20 vision looking back now, I definitely support starting the middle school year that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's 6th grade teacher told parents that middle students would get home work. In order to help her students better fit in future study, DC's 6th grade teacher gave her students homework. After her 2023 students graduated from ES, she quitted her Job from FCPS.

Today is the first day of DC's second week of middle school. Still no homework. I was guessing probably, teachers gave the some class practice after teaching them new stuff. But DC said no. History and Spanish teacher started to teach a little new stuff. Other classes still have not start new lessons. A lot of games in each subject, Math, English...... "All About Me" in every class, not just oral introduction, students needs to make PPT for this topic for multiple classes.

Kinda feel confused. This is different from what we expected.

She “quitted?”

I have an assignment for you …

[Anonymous]

They are given lots of opportunities in school day to complete work assigned to be done outside of class.

[Anonymous]

My kid is a senior in high school. The most homework he had was in elementary school. He’s had some homework throughout middle and high school, but not every night. He tells me that he gets most of it done at school, but there have been times where he had homework at home.

Elementary school teachers assigned way more and it was always a battle to get him to complete it.

His grades were mediocre in elementary school but he’s been an honor roll student since middle school. So I don’t think the homework was very helpful towards his learning or grades 🤷‍♀️

[Anonymous]

If you want HW, then ask your child to read or to practice Spanish (listening to vocabulary; saying the words into a recorder of some type: iPad or phone or Audacity on the school computer). Those are the types of enduring HW that a teacher doesn't even have to assign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

As a student, as we all were once, I don't understand this 'research' on homework. It certainly helped me. For example, it is hard to cover all possible variations in a geometry lesson during class, so students are give problem sets as homework. The students do the homework and the teacher can see where the students are struggling and address the issues. Saying that some students won't do it or will do it wrong is no excuse for not giving homework. Doing it wrong could very well be the teacher's fault. We could certainly debate the AMOUNT of homework.

Perhaps as a teacher you don't want to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

We don’t get homework until after BTSN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

+1
Incorrect practice does not make perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

I wouldn't call reading a novel at home for in-class analysis and discussion, useless. This kind of homework was fairly common 15 years ago in any middle school English class (7/8).

+1
I also recall working through math problems designed to have me practice what we learned that day for repetition/reinforcement. We'd then go over answers in class the next day.

I also had to do writing for HW, various things for science. I frankly do not believe the "research" that HW is pointless. It makes zero sense to me and doesn't square with my own experiences.

So what happens when a student repeatedly completes the math incorrectly? The misunderstanding is what’s being reinforced and ingrained making it more difficult to correct later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

I wouldn't call reading a novel at home for in-class analysis and discussion, useless. This kind of homework was fairly common 15 years ago in any middle school English class (7/8).

+1
I also recall working through math problems designed to have me practice what we learned that day for repetition/reinforcement. We'd then go over answers in class the next day.
I also had to do writing for HW, various things for science. I frankly do not believe the "research" that HW is pointless. It makes zero sense to me and doesn't square with my own experiences.

So what happens when a student repeatedly completes the math incorrectly? The misunderstanding is what’s being reinforced and ingrained making it more difficult to correct later.

The teacher, doing their job, corrects the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

I wouldn't call reading a novel at home for in-class analysis and discussion, useless. This kind of homework was fairly common 15 years ago in any middle school English class (7/8).

+1
I also recall working through math problems designed to have me practice what we learned that day for repetition/reinforcement. We'd then go over answers in class the next day.
I also had to do writing for HW, various things for science. I frankly do not believe the "research" that HW is pointless. It makes zero sense to me and doesn't square with my own experiences.

So what happens when a student repeatedly completes the math incorrectly? The misunderstanding is what’s being reinforced and ingrained making it more difficult to correct later.

The teacher, doing their job, corrects the students.

I think it’s better for the practice to happen in class so that if the student is doing it incorrectly the teacher can intervene and correct it then. Spending time outside of class repeatedly doing math incorrectly will do more harm than good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is zero vertical articulation between elementary and middle schools. 6th grade teachers are basing their view of 7th grade on who knows what—certainly not the input of the 7th grade teachers.

Research has shown homework to be relatively useless. Those who need more practice either don’t do it, or do it incorrectly. Those who do it don’t need it. Kids are stressed enough. Little/no homework is a good thing.

—MS teacher

I wouldn't call reading a novel at home for in-class analysis and discussion, useless. This kind of homework was fairly common 15 years ago in any middle school English class (7/8).

+1
I also recall working through math problems designed to have me practice what we learned that day for repetition/reinforcement. We'd then go over answers in class the next day.
I also had to do writing for HW, various things for science. I frankly do not believe the "research" that HW is pointless. It makes zero sense to me and doesn't square with my own experiences.

So what happens when a student repeatedly completes the math incorrectly? The misunderstanding is what’s being reinforced and ingrained making it more difficult to correct later.

The teacher, doing their job, corrects the students.

I think it’s better for the practice to happen in class so that if the student is doing it incorrectly the teacher can intervene and correct it then. Spending time outside of class repeatedly doing math incorrectly will do more harm than good.

And yet it has worked for decades. Teacher covers a topic. HW is given on that topic. Teacher checks homework and covers topic again (in class), particularly in areas where students struggle. Why are we constantly going with the new thing in education instead of the tried and true?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don’t get homework until after BTSN.

That makes sense. People are still switching classes.