Reply to Atlantic piece: "My Daughter's Homework is Killing Me"

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Atlantic piece: "My Daughter's Homework is Killing Me""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Same teacher, adding one more point -- this is not something that has changed, but an observation about homework:

7.  On average -- of course there are exceptions -- the girls spend more time on the homework than the boys.  The boys are much more likely to "triage" their homework.  No English test the next day?  Put off reading "The Great Gatsby" in favor of other classes and read it or skim it in class.  Throw a little BS around in class discussion and see how it works.  Dumb assignment that won't really come into play on the test?  Maybe don't do it at all.  The girls are MUCH more likely to try to do every scrap of homework when it is assigned, and take longer on it (the old highlighting and annotating every margin thing).  If you have a "do every bit every night" student, maybe talk to them (gently, so as not to damage that laudable work ethic) about prioritizing and that sometimes the full night of sleep is morally and practically superior to reading the full chapter (with annotated margins).[/quote]

First, thanks for the long/thoughtful posts!

Secondly, what you're saying about girls vs. boys is what I heard a couple of years ago from one of DD's middle school teachers.  Apparently the parents of girls who were doing well academically were asking for less homework (during conferences), while the parents of boys who were blowing things off wanted more. (I guess their logic was "if he's only going to do x% of what's required, they need to require much more than what he actually needs to do.")

How, as a teacher, do you address that?  Do you assign a reasonable amount of homework or so much that the kids doing a fraction of it (or doing it in a half-assed manner) will be ready to participate in class?  Does homework get graded or do you check if it's been done or is it all honor system (or random inspection or pop quizzes)?  Have you ever said "here's what I want you get out of this homework -- do as much or as little as it takes for you to be in that position? or "I want you to spend x many minutes practicing this and I don't really care how many (or which of) these problems you do or how much you write in that time."

To me, both ends of the spectrum are disturbing (i.e. girls being dutiful and losing sleep and boys trying to do as little as they can get away with) and I wonder how much of it relates to very different understandings (or lack of a clear and common understanding and explicit discussion re what homework is for). [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics