A classroom teacher’s view on homework

Research can be a dissentious subject in the education community, and we hope you can value this teachers point of view. How do you interact with families about research?

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I do see homework as having a role in the instructional procedure and I do not concur with Alfie Kohn (see post), who appears to think research is useless, or even worse, has a negative effect. While Kohn asserts there is almost no research study that shows homework to be beneficial, I did not see a convincing amount of difficult information to support doing away with all homework.
Yes, the amount of homework need to be based on the students age and grade level. As a lot of Kindergarten-3rd grade teachers are self-contained, it needs to be fairly easy to offer math homework one night, spelling or checking out one night, and so on to prevent overwhelming 5 to 8-year-olds. Homework can be a dissentious topic in the education community, and we hope you can value this instructors point of view.

When believing about research, teachers discover it helpful to interact their policy with the families of their trainees. After recently finishing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a fourth grade teacher from Pennsylvania, showed on her homework viewpoint which includes the purposeful roles teachers and families play.

LE: What is your position on the problem of homework?
I address as a teacher and as the moms and dad of school age children when I answer this question. I do see research as having a role in the educational process and I do not concur with Alfie Kohn (see post), who appears to think research is worthless, or worse, has a negative impact. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research that shows research to be useful, I did not see a persuading quantity of hard data to support doing away with all research.
Yes, the amount of research should be based on the students age and grade level. As the majority of Kindergarten-3rd grade teachers are self-contained, it should be relatively simple to provide math homework one night, checking out or spelling one night, etc to prevent overwhelming 5 to 8-year-olds. Students need to not end up being annoyed or bored if instructors are creative with projects and in communicating the purpose of the assignment. Those are my objectives as a fourth-grade instructor. I see homework to extend knowing. Would I assign 30 math issues to trainees who I understand would battle with them, or to trainees who have shown their understanding of the skill? No, in those cases, it is my task as the instructor to customize the assignments.
Our book mentions it can take 24 repeatings of a skill for a trainee to reach 80% competency. I believe practicing skills is worthwhile. Kohns contrast with tennis does not make good sense to me. There are skills in tennis you should practice to enhance. There are fundamental mathematics skills kids must practice to construct a solid foundation before proceeding to higher-level math skills. Kohn points out how students might end up being much better at remembering, but not believing. I see this as two different things; we need students to keep in mind particular facts and after that proceed to utilizing those abilities as thinkers and problem solvers.
As a parent, it can be difficult to squeeze in research some nights! My own kids have actually brought home projects I believed improper or too prolonged for one night. We do the very best we can, and if we have problems or issues, I connect to the teacher. Understanding some students have little or no support in the house should be recognized by educators. Once again, great teachers make it an indicate understand what some house situations might be like and to customize accordingly. When possible, colleagues can work together, as described in 2 additional course articles, by establishing a discovering laboratory or including “Drop-In” times during the school day
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