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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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[/quote]
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). [/quote]

+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. [b]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[/b]. [/quote]

You've succinctly summarized why you are the worst type of person. [/quote]

I'd be curious if the kids who take extra classes outside of school where homework is assigned outperform the kids who don't get assigned work.[/quote]
It depends on how you are evaluating performance. Schools/districts are very focused on SOL performance, so Id imagine you wouldnt see much difference there. Grades are very subjective these days with the various policies and approaches. Content and breadth of coverage is less important. Id probably put the enrichment kid up a notch in trivial pursuit, but as it comes to college admissions, you probably wont see much difference.

Personally, I want my kids to learn more and prefer large reading assignments and homework. Our goal is education first, grades/scores second and would gladly accept reduced grades reflected in poor performance in those preferences than no assignment or consideration of those things and therefore no impact on grades.[/quote]

Well, hw wouldn't have that effect on your kids' grades.  It would actually fluff up their grade by giving them completion points vs. proof of understanding.  It can't be graded for correctness because the teacher has no idea if your child did it or you did it for them.[/quote]
I dont care about graded homework. If it is graded I will gladly accept negative scores related to that responsibility. If isnt graded and just assigned as enrichment, that is good too. I want a larger and more complete curriculum that extends beyond the days schedule. I understand that is not the way of education now, but as i said, education first, so the comment about grades and this weird parents doing homework/fluff thing doesnt apply to my preferences in a curriculum. And that is why some families provide external enrichment. I guess some do it to get "ahead" on things like Math, but that is just a small component of education. 
[/quote]

One of my favorite professors in college had this same attitude.
He assigned homework every night, and he would correct and hand back any homework that was turned in the next class.  But none of it was "graded"
He said after a few years of teaching, he realized that the kids that wanted to do well would do the hard work to do well, and that grades on the test would reflect it.  And he saw that for some of his most diligent and honest kids, their 'Homework" score was actually pullling down their final grade, which is the opposite of what he'd want.  
So instead, he gave all students the opportunity to do more work and to get more feedback.  Take that opportunity or don't take it - didn't matter to him.
Those that did take it almost always did better in class than those that didn't.

So I'd like to see more of that in high school too.  Here are some things you can do to better understand the material, and I will give you meaningful and timely feedback.  
Do it, don't do it - that's your own choice.  [/quote]

Ahh, I do this. Every day when I post the notes and activities to schoology I will link to relevant problem sets on khan academy, mathspace, or delta math. All electronic so feedback and checking is built on. Usually 1-2 kids utilize it during the year (usually with their tutor when they need something to work on). More often I use it when I am pulling kids in for tutoring because they were absent for a significant time and need to catch up on a lot of different topics.[/quote]

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