LE: What is your position on the problem of homework?
When I address this concern, I respond to as an educator and as the parent of school age children. I do see homework as having a function in the instructional process and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see short article), who appears to believe homework is useless, or even worse, has an unfavorable effect. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research study that shows homework to be useful, I did not see a persuading quantity of tough information to support eliminating all research.
Yes, the quantity of homework need to be based upon the students age and grade level. As a lot of Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it needs to be relatively easy to give math homework one night, reading or spelling one night, and so on to avoid straining 5 to 8-year-olds. Trainees need to not end up being annoyed or bored if instructors are creative with tasks and in communicating the purpose of the assignment. Those are my objectives as a fourth-grade instructor. I see research to extend knowing. Would I assign 30 math issues to trainees who I know would have a hard time with them, or to students who have demonstrated their understanding of the skill? No, in those cases, it is my job as the teacher to modify the assignments.
Our textbook points out it can take 24 repetitions of a skill for a student to reach 80% proficiency. I believe practicing abilities is worthwhile. Kohns comparison with tennis does not make sense to me. There are abilities in tennis you need to practice to enhance. There are standard math abilities kids must practice to construct a strong structure before proceeding to higher-level math skills. Kohn mentions how students might progress at keeping in mind, but not thinking. I see this as two various things; we need students to bear in mind particular truths and after that move on to utilizing those skills as thinkers and problem solvers.
As a parent, it can be hard to squeeze in homework some nights! We do the best we can, and if we have issues or problems, I reach out to the teacher. Once again, good instructors make it a point to understand what some home circumstances might be like and to modify appropriately.

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When thinking of homework, teachers find it beneficial to interact their policy with the households of their trainees. After recently completing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a 4th grade instructor from Pennsylvania, reviewed her research approach that includes the purposeful functions instructors and families play.

I do see research as having a role in the academic procedure and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see article), who appears to think research is worthless, or even worse, has a negative effect. While Kohn asserts there is practically no research that proves homework to be helpful, I did not see a convincing quantity of hard data to support doing away with all homework.
Yes, the quantity of homework should be based on the students age and grade level. As most Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it ought to be relatively easy to provide mathematics research one night, reading or spelling one night, and so on to avoid overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. Research can be a divisive subject in the education community, and we hope you can appreciate this teachers point of view.

Homework can be a dissentious topic in the education community, and we hope you can value this teachers point of view. How do you communicate with families about homework?