A classroom teacher’s view on homework

When thinking about research, teachers discover it helpful to communicate their policy with the families of their trainees. After just recently finishing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a fourth grade teacher from Pennsylvania, reviewed her homework approach which consists of the purposeful functions teachers and families play.

LE: What is your position on the concern of research?
I respond to as an educator and as the moms and dad of school age kids when I address this concern. I do see homework as having a role in the educational process and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see article), who appears to think research is useless, or even worse, has a negative impact. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research study that proves research to be advantageous, I did not see a convincing quantity of hard information to support eliminating all homework.
Yes, the amount of homework ought to be based on the students age and grade level. As a lot of Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it ought to be fairly easy to offer mathematics research one night, checking out or spelling one night, etc to prevent straining 5 to 8-year-olds. If instructors are innovative with assignments and in interacting the function of the project, students must not become frustrated or bored. Those are my goals as a fourth-grade teacher. I see research to extend learning. Would I designate 30 mathematics issues to students who I know would deal with them, or to students who have demonstrated their understanding of the skill? No, in those cases, it is my task as the teacher to customize the projects.
Our book explains it can take 24 repetitions of an ability for a trainee to reach 80% proficiency. I think practicing skills is beneficial. Kohns comparison with tennis does not make sense to me. There are abilities in tennis you need to practice to enhance. There are fundamental mathematics abilities kids should practice to develop a solid foundation prior to proceeding to higher-level mathematics skills. Kohn points out how students might end up being much better at keeping in mind, but not believing. I see this as 2 various things; we require trainees to keep in mind certain facts and after that proceed to using those skills as thinkers and problem solvers.
As a parent, it can be tough to squeeze in research some nights! We do the finest we can, and if we have concerns or issues, I reach out to the teacher. Once again, excellent teachers make it a point to understand what some house situations might be like and to customize appropriately.

Homework can be a dissentious topic in the education neighborhood, and we hope you can value this instructors perspective. We would like to hear your thoughts about homework. What is your viewpoint? How do you interact with families about research?

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I do see research as having a role in the instructional procedure and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see short article), who appears to believe homework is useless, or worse, has a negative effect. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research that shows research to be beneficial, I did not see a convincing amount of hard information to support doing away with all research.
Yes, the quantity of research should be based on the students age and grade level. As most Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it needs to be relatively basic to offer math homework one night, spelling or reading one night, etc to avoid overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. Research can be a dissentious topic in the education neighborhood, and we hope you can value this instructors point of view.

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