DHMS HW Notice if missed??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They lowered the HW requirements because studies have shown that homework doesn’t significantly improve student performance.

So what I read was the APS goal was about 15/min per core course, so 45 min of homework? Are DHMS students getting 45 min of homework plus 30 minutes of reading??

For middle school recommendations are about 1.5 hrs of homework, but they may be modeling for just more courses.

The issue with home work and performance came about when there was so much that kids lost sleep. Performance improves with enough homework that build their independent study skills, ability to focus, and repetition of skills such as math computation or grammar rules.

There is no world where college will not have significant homework, because the sheer quantity of skills and knowledge that must be conveyed in 4 years. For non college bound students, homework may have little value in middle and high school, sure, hence why the importance of college and non college track courses even at that young age.

You can look at private schools, whose real measure of performance is not test scores but college acceptance; they assign significant homework still. Maybe parents demand it, but if it was a negative for student performance they would educate the parents.

https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/what-research-says-about-homework/

In fact, for elementary school-age children, there is no measureable academic advantage to homework. For middle-schoolers, there is a direct correlation between homework and achievement if assignments last between one to two hours per night. After two hours, however, achievement doesn’t improve. For high schoolers, two hours appears optimal. As with middle-schoolers, give teens more than two hours a night, and academic success flatlines.

Homework's effect on performance is tough to measure because so many variables are in play. Research shows ambiguous effects in elementary but that may be influenced by the fact that struggling emerging readers take longer to do their homework. There is a positive linkage shown for middle and high school. Some argue the beneficial effects plateau after two hours but research study design can play a role in these findings. With grade inflation, perhaps additional study doesn't boost course grades beyond a certain point. But if you look at AP scores, the additional time could help. If studies measure performance only with school grades, they would miss the benefit of 2+ hours of homework on AP performance. The fact that AP, IB, and DE courses are exempt from the limit undercuts the idea that there is a threshold for homework's positive impact on performance. If effectiveness peaks at two hours, why exempt AP from any limits? It seems likely that more than two hours total may be needed to perform well for AP and IB. However, this is just looking at performance. A two hour limit could be optimal from a stress perspective but that's a separate question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homework makes more sense when the classes are not block scheduled. With a block schedule the time in the class is so long that it makes more sense for them”practice” portion of the subject be done there so teachers can assist with questions. You can only sit there so long being talked at.

If teachers can’t make use of block schedule for anything other than homework time, why have it?

Good question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homework makes more sense when the classes are not block scheduled. With a block schedule the time in the class is so long that it makes more sense for them”practice” portion of the subject be done there so teachers can assist with questions. You can only sit there so long being talked at.

If teachers can’t make use of block schedule for anything other than homework time, why have it?

Good question.

The vision for block was to allow for 1/3 lecture, 1/3 discussion, 1/3 small group project work. Not to append a study hall to every class ; they already HAVE phoenix time!!

[Anonymous]

My APS middle schooler has “instructional studies” which teaches study skills and provides a time to do homework with teacher assistance. It takes the place of the elective. You need an IEP to get in, although there might be a version that is not special ed.

You say your DD is being assess for ADHD, but don’t say if it’s through the school or privately. If you haven’t already, you might want to ask the school to assess for special education. It’s a months long process that you can do concurrently with private assessment.

[Anonymous]

OP - "BTSN" poster here. No I was not trolling you as you can see from the other informed parents. You can't base your knowledge off a policy posted on a website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - "BTSN" poster here. No I was not trolling you as you can see from the other informed parents. You can't base your knowledge off a policy posted on a website.

You said they don’t have homework. Which is not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homework makes more sense when the classes are not block scheduled. With a block schedule the time in the class is so long that it makes more sense for them”practice” portion of the subject be done there so teachers can assist with questions. You can only sit there so long being talked at.

If teachers can’t make use of block schedule for anything other than homework time, why have it?

Good question.

The vision for block was to allow for 1/3 lecture, 1/3 discussion, 1/3 small group project work. Not to append a study hall to every class ; they already HAVE phoenix time!!

It’s still early in the year and the lessons are light. They will have less time during the day as they start digging into the material and start bigger projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - "BTSN" poster here. No I was not trolling you as you can see from the other informed parents. You can't base your knowledge off a policy posted on a website.

You said they don’t have homework. Which is not true.

You're still not understanding. There are assignments in class, there is no longer homework. At home:you finish assignments, complete projects and have an option to read 20-30 min each night but its not required. This is APS-wide. The recommendation is that the "homework" not take longer than a certain amount of time per subject; its not saying you will have that much homework each night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They lowered the HW requirements because studies have shown that homework doesn’t significantly improve student performance.

So what I read was the APS goal was about 15/min per core course, so 45 min of homework? Are DHMS students getting 45 min of homework plus 30 minutes of reading??

For middle school recommendations are about 1.5 hrs of homework, but they may be modeling for just more courses.

The issue with home work and performance came about when there was so much that kids lost sleep. Performance improves with enough homework that build their independent study skills, ability to focus, and repetition of skills such as math computation or grammar rules.

There is no world where college will not have significant homework, because the sheer quantity of skills and knowledge that must be conveyed in 4 years. For non college bound students, homework may have little value in middle and high school, sure, hence why the importance of college and non college track courses even at that young age.

You can look at private schools, whose real measure of performance is not test scores but college acceptance; they assign significant homework still. Maybe parents demand it, but if it was a negative for student performance they would educate the parents.

https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/what-research-says-about-homework/

In fact, for elementary school-age children, there is no measureable academic advantage to homework. For middle-schoolers, there is a direct correlation between homework and achievement if assignments last between one to two hours per night. After two hours, however, achievement doesn’t improve. For high schoolers, two hours appears optimal. As with middle-schoolers, give teens more than two hours a night, and academic success flatlines.

There is mixed research on homework.

Anyway, they do have homework. Some kids get it done faster than others for a variety of reasons.

And the school year has just begun. They will have more to do and less time to do it in school in the coming weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - "BTSN" poster here. No I was not trolling you as you can see from the other informed parents. You can't base your knowledge off a policy posted on a website.

You said they don’t have homework. Which is not true.

DP. It depends how you interpret the word "homework". For some, the 11 minutes/class of homework is done at school so there is no work coming home. Thus, is there homework or not? Some view the in-class "homework" as classwork.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - "BTSN" poster here. No I was not trolling you as you can see from the other informed parents. You can't base your knowledge off a policy posted on a website.

You said they don’t have homework. Which is not true.

You're still not understanding. There are assignments in class, there is no longer homework. At home:you finish assignments, complete projects and have an option to read 20-30 min each night but its not required. This is APS-wide. The recommendation is that the "homework" not take longer than a certain amount of time per subject; its not saying you will have that much homework each night.

I’ve had two kids there so I definitely understand it.

They give assignments actually called homework. Sometimes there is time during the class to finish, many times not, especially as the year progresses and in 8th. And when the bigger projects occur.

Phoenix time (aka study hall) gives some time to work on it but there isn’t always time then either if they have something else to do then.

And reading is definitely required. They even track # of pages.

That recommendation about max homework time has always existed, even if the #s changed. My kids never had the max amount of homework every night in every class. That’s not new.

Who specifically at DHMS do you think said there “isn’t homework”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - "BTSN" poster here. No I was not trolling you as you can see from the other informed parents. You can't base your knowledge off a policy posted on a website.

You said they don’t have homework. Which is not true.

You're still not understanding. There are assignments in class, there is no longer homework. At home:you finish assignments, complete projects and have an option to read 20-30 min each night but its not required. This is APS-wide. The recommendation is that the "homework" not take longer than a certain amount of time per subject; its not saying you will have that much homework each night.

I’ve had two kids there so I definitely understand it.

They give assignments actually called homework. Sometimes there is time during the class to finish, many times not, especially as the year progresses and in 8th. And when the bigger projects occur.

Phoenix time (aka study hall) gives some time to work on it but there isn’t always time then either if they have something else to do then.

And reading is definitely required. They even track # of pages.

That recommendation about max homework time has always existed, even if the #s changed. My kids never had the max amount of homework every night in every class. That’s not new.

Who specifically at DHMS do you think said there “isn’t homework”?

To clarify, you've HAD kids there, or you HAVE kids there now? Policy/approach changed this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - "BTSN" poster here. No I was not trolling you as you can see from the other informed parents. You can't base your knowledge off a policy posted on a website.

You said they don’t have homework. Which is not true.

You're still not understanding. There are assignments in class, there is no longer homework. At home:you finish assignments, complete projects and have an option to read 20-30 min each night but its not required. This is APS-wide. The recommendation is that the "homework" not take longer than a certain amount of time per subject; its not saying you will have that much homework each night.

I’ve had two kids there so I definitely understand it.

They give assignments actually called homework. Sometimes there is time during the class to finish, many times not, especially as the year progresses and in 8th. And when the bigger projects occur.

Phoenix time (aka study hall) gives some time to work on it but there isn’t always time then either if they have something else to do then.

And reading is definitely required. They even track # of pages.

That recommendation about max homework time has always existed, even if the #s changed. My kids never had the max amount of homework every night in every class. That’s not new.

Who specifically at DHMS do you think said there “isn’t homework”?

To clarify, you've HAD kids there, or you HAVE kids there now? Policy/approach changed this year.

Both.

My kid had an assignment called homework this very week. At BTSN, we heard about expectations for homework. And I have a syllabus in my hand that includes info on homework. It’s a % of the grade along with classwork, projects, and tests/quizzes.

Who specifically at DHMS do you think said there is “no homework”? A teacher?

[Anonymous]

Part of the rationale for homework is that there is a delay between the lesson and doing the homework. If you do the "homework" a few minutes after the lesson while definitions and formulas are still posted on the board, the student may not fully process the concept and put it into long-term memory. When done at home, students may realize they forget what was done in class, review their notes and then work it through. That can help with better retention and understanding. The latter won't happen if everything is done as immediate classwork.

[Anonymous]

https://wtop.com/arlington/2022/06/arlington-co-students-to-spend-less-time-on-homework-school-board-votes/