A classroom teacher’s view on homework

When considering research, teachers find it useful to communicate their policy with the households of their students. After just recently finishing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a 4th grade instructor from Pennsylvania, showed on her homework viewpoint which includes the purposeful roles instructors and households play.

Research can be a divisive subject in the education neighborhood, and we hope you can appreciate this teachers point of view. How do you communicate with households about homework?

.

I do see homework as having a function in the instructional procedure and I do not concur with Alfie Kohn (see short article), who appears to believe research is useless, or even worse, has a negative impact. While Kohn asserts there is almost no research that shows homework to be advantageous, I did not see a convincing quantity of difficult data to support doing away with all homework.
Yes, the amount of homework need to be based on the students age and grade level. As most Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it must be fairly easy to provide mathematics research one night, spelling or reading one night, etc to avoid overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. Homework can be a divisive topic in the education community, and we hope you can appreciate this teachers point of view.

LE: What is your position on the problem of homework?
When I address this concern, I address as an educator and as the moms and dad of school age kids. I do see homework as having a function in the educational process and I do not concur with Alfie Kohn (see post), who appears to think homework is useless, or even worse, has a negative effect. While Kohn asserts there is practically no research study that shows homework to be advantageous, I did not see a convincing amount of hard information to support doing away with all homework.
Yes, the amount of research ought to be based on the students age and grade level. As a lot of Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it should be relatively simple to provide math homework one night, spelling or reading one night, etc to avoid overwhelming 5 to 8-year-olds. Students should not end up being bored or frustrated if teachers are imaginative with tasks and in communicating the purpose of the project. Those are my objectives as a fourth-grade instructor. I see homework to extend learning. Would I designate 30 math issues to students who I understand would deal with them, or to students who have shown their understanding of the ability? No, in those cases, it is my task as the teacher to modify the projects.
Our book mentions it can take 24 repeatings of a skill for a student to reach 80% competency. I believe practicing skills is worthwhile. Kohns comparison with tennis does not make sense to me. There are abilities in tennis you should practice to enhance. There are fundamental math skills kids should practice to develop a strong structure before moving on to higher-level math skills. Kohn points out how trainees may progress at remembering, but not thinking. I see this as 2 different things; we require trainees to keep in mind particular realities and then carry on to utilizing those skills as thinkers and problem solvers.
As a moms and dad, it can be difficult to squeeze in homework some nights! We do the finest we can, and if we have concerns or issues, I reach out to the instructor. Once again, great instructors make it a point to understand what some home scenarios might be like and to customize accordingly.

You may also like...