Schooling Central

Melissa has had homework everynight, about 2 hours, shes had brainteasers- which were even too hard for us parents- a project that was due in yesterday, reading, a maths sheet everynight and last night she bought home a sheet that had 5 questions on it, I had phone calls off two other parents asking if Melissa had done it yet, bloody hell, i finished high school, but it took me a hour alone just to get the answers, then another hour explaining to Melissa how to do it,
I went and saw her teacher today and asked if we were meant to help the kids, her answer was Yes, but very limited help.
Now, if thats not all, she has a homework book that she needs to write in everynight explaining HOW she got the answers to the questions, she gets points for writing in the book, but looses points for spelling mistakes, unruled margins, and incorrect answers.
I think this is far too much work for grade 4.
Does anyone elses kids do this much?
Kim

It really sounds to me as though she has too much for grade 4. I would have thought that at this age homework was more about getting into a good routine, than trying to cram hours of extra learning into the day. And really 10-20 minutes of something a day is enough to build up a good routine.

I would approach the teacher about the issue. You're probably not the only one who's concerned, and if she has feedback from several parents then she might get the message.

Good luck with it.

Annabel.

As a primary school teacher, I can say that I think that that is WAY TOO MUCH homework. I have taught Year 4 and Year 5 and always aimed for 1/2 hour homework per night MAX.

All too often, teachers forget that their students are still children, who need to have essential play time. They spend a good 8 hours a day at school, they don't need to go home and be stuck at a table for another hour or more.

In my opinion, if a teacher is doing their job properly there is no need for this amount of homework. All essential learning should be done in the classroom, and the lessons should be structured in such a way that they support the weaker students and extend those more gifted students.

As a general rule, I believe that reading should be done every night, for a number of reasons. Firstly, children can never read too much, as the more they read the better their vocab, fluency and confidence becomes. Secondly, while the teacher should hear each student read independently once a week, it is not time effiecient to do it every day, but on the other hand, it benefits the child to be heard every day, as then they can be taught reading strategies and their fluency and expression continues to improve, and thirdly, once reading is mastered, generallly, spelling and writing skills follow with ease.

Also, times tables should be practised each night, because unfortunately, the best way to achieve fast recall with them, is learning them by rote!

My homework requirements only asked the students to do homework Monday - Thursday, because again, they are children they need play time, and family time. I believe the weekends are family time, not school time.
Here is what they would do each of those nights:
10 mins read aloud to parent
5 minutes practice Timestables
10 minutes Spelling strategies (these were individualised spelling strategies to assist each child)

Sorry for my rant, but I hate hearing about homework like this!!! There is plenty of time in high school for children to be chained to a desk doig homework - at least let them have primary school to play, learn and discover!!!

Well, I think enough parents complained, the homework was way too hard for the kids- a couple of parents went to the Principal and asked her to answer the questions, she couldnt do it off the top of her head, she must have said something to the teacher because there hasnt been homework issued this week- as yet- except for her normal reading and spelling words.
this will show you how hard the work is... one of the questions was that tough NOT one CHILD or PARENT in the class got it right!, I will copy the puzzle here when i get Melissa's homework book back, and see if any one else can get it right.
Another question the kids had to go home and find out...'there are 3 words in the english language that end in "GRY" what are they? hungry
angry
whats the third?
does anyone know it?
Kim

Glad to hear the issue has been dealt with (and you get the week off from homework )

I asked dh about the 'gry' riddle (I knew he'd like the challenge), and he found this article online: http://word-detective.com/gry.html. Read down to the Postscript to see a succinct explanation. A pretty silly question for a grade 4 child's homework

Annabel.

Annabel, tell your DH thankyou!
Well after numerous calls to the school by parents, there was an apology in the newsletter, from her teacher, apologizing for making the parents and children work to find the answer. She had apparently received an email- asking her the gry question, and thought it would be good homework for the kids to find out the answer. Obviously it was a disaster.
This is her second year of teaching, and taught grade 6 last year, so I think it is a BIG learning curve for her.
She hasnt given the kids homework at all this week- except reading.
Kim

I feel that homework is very important. It's relative to the ability of the kids. Some kids can clean up the entire week worth of home work in 40 minutes, others need several hours. As far as I know homework is not used for assessment. It's perfect Ok for kids to just skip the hard questions or try an intelligent guess. I heard about parents trying to help their kids and end up doing all the work for the kids. That means they don't learn much at all. I always give a hint if my child needs help but I never solve a problem. I want teh teacher to know if my child gets something wrong no matter how silly it is so that the teacher know what to do to help her.

From my experience over 3 years I feel that teachers never gave her enough homework. She was always one of the best in her class and sometimes caught the teachers saying wrong facts. She also discussed with teachers about mistakes in the texbooks or wrong answers to questions.

Every kid's experience can be very different. In my child's case she is never bothered by homework as I lay down the rule that it's perfectly Ok to be wrong. She is just so fast at it. At 40 minutes per week to do homework, it's really nothing. She has so much spare time at home to read and do her own research on interesting topics. Since year 3, she often solved quite complex problems that adults struggled.

I think it's best to discuss directly with the teacher if there is any concern.

QUOTE:

I think it's best to discuss directly with the teacher if there is any concern.


I did discuss it with her teacher and the homework stopped being so challenging and became regular grade 4 homework. (my daughter is a above average student)
This term she started the 'challenging' homework again , and after ME taking it up to my eldest daughters high school Principal, who COULD NOT work it out either- I left it with him for a day, he showed other teachers and only ONE got the right answer. We decided that there will be no more homework being done in this house unless Melissa can do it by herself. Its not teaching her anything, she keeps saying that she is dumb for not being able to do it. I wont stand for that to happen. I do understand that homework and school work must be challenging, but she is in grade 4, and if high school teachers cant do it then what hope has a 9 yr old little girl got.

Kim

Wow Kim - how frustrating that the inappropriate homework has started up again. When you wrote about it at the beginning of the year it sounded as though it was just the result of the teacher's inexperience, but it seems hard to understand why she's started doing it again, especially given the negative feedback she got last time. Have you spoken to the teacher/school about it again? I hope you sort things out.

Annabel.