A classroom teacher’s view on homework

When believing about research, teachers find it beneficial to interact their policy with the families of their students. After recently completing a Learners Edge course, Jennifer Lindsey, a 4th grade teacher from Pennsylvania, reflected on her research approach which includes the purposeful roles instructors and households play.

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Homework can be a divisive topic in the education community, and we hope you can appreciate this teachers point of view. We wish to hear your ideas about homework. What is your approach? How do you interact with households about research?

LE: What is your position on the concern of research?
When I address this concern, I address as a teacher and as the moms and dad of school age kids. I do see homework as having a function in the academic process and I do not concur with Alfie Kohn (see post), who appears to think homework is worthless, or even worse, has a negative effect. While Kohn asserts there is practically no research study that shows homework to be helpful, I did not see a persuading quantity of tough data to support eliminating all research.
Yes, the quantity of homework should be based upon the trainees age and grade level. As a lot of Kindergarten-3rd grade instructors are self-contained, it should be relatively simple to give math homework one night, reading or spelling one night, and so on to prevent overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. Trainees need to not become frustrated or bored if teachers are creative with tasks and in communicating the purpose of the assignment. Those are my objectives as a fourth-grade teacher. I see research to extend knowing. Would I appoint 30 math issues to students who I understand would fight with them, or to students who have demonstrated their understanding of the skill? No, in those cases, it is my task as the instructor to modify the tasks.
Our textbook points out it can take 24 repetitions of a skill for a student to reach 80% competency. I believe practicing abilities is worthwhile. Kohns contrast with tennis does not make good sense to me. There are abilities in tennis you need to practice to improve. There are standard math abilities kids must practice to build a solid foundation prior to moving on to higher-level math abilities. Kohn mentions how students may end up being better at remembering, however not thinking. I see this as 2 different things; we need students to remember particular facts and then proceed to utilizing those skills as thinkers and issue solvers.
As a parent, it can be tough to squeeze in homework some nights! We do the best we can, and if we have problems or concerns, I reach out to the teacher. Once again, great instructors make it a point to understand what some house circumstances may be like and to customize accordingly.

I do see research as having a role in the educational process and I do not agree with Alfie Kohn (see article), who appears to believe research is useless, or worse, has an unfavorable impact. While Kohn asserts there is nearly no research study that proves homework to be helpful, I did not see a persuading amount of tough 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 must be reasonably easy to give mathematics homework one night, spelling or checking out one night, and so on to prevent overloading 5 to 8-year-olds. Research can be a dissentious topic in the education community, and we hope you can appreciate this instructors point of view.

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