Homework

Everything you wanted to know about homework!

September 7, 2010
We are partners in your child's successful educational experience. Together we will make it a positive one. Please read below to understand how "homework" is assigned. This outline will assist you to help your student achieve. In addition you can also go to this link for help with homework. []

The greatest thing anyone can do for a child's success in school is to help them become avid readers. Your child and I need your help and supervision to make this happen. Each student has 15 - 20 minutes of __daily__ reading homework to help your child achieve this goal. This daily reading is reported in their report card each term. This is the __only__ //__ daily assigned homework __// all year.

May I suggest you make this a part of your nightly bedtime routine? No more bedtime struggles when nightly reading is a time to snuggle, get comfortable and enjoy being together doing a shared activity. I promise if you set the stage this way, they will LOVE reading. __Please__, make the time to do this. 1. __Read__ for a minimum of 15 - 20 minutes every night. If your child is a reluctant reader, YOU read to them. Make this a positive, stress free, highly enjoyable experience. Remember, we want them to become avid readers who enjoy reading, not dread it. Slowly, as their reading level improves, ask them to read a sentence. As they progress and relax with reading, ask them to read a paragraph, and so on. Choose books on topics that have a high interest level for them. Next, keep track of this daily reading in their Orange Daily Homework Duotang each school night and return it to school on Monday. I record their reading each week and use this toward their reading mark on the report card.

2.//**__Occasional__**// Assigned Homework: From time to time there will be other homework such as a few special projects or an assigned review before a test. There will __always be advance notice__ of this __rare__ type of homework. It will never be assigned and due tomorrow. A good example would be the I Beam construction project given out on Friday and due the followiing Tuesday. Materials were sent home with an explanation sheet. 3.Leftovers: Leftovers are assignments not finished in class that day or week and are assigned because they did not finish this work, as other students. Leftovers keep your student up to date and to keep them from "falling behind" or "falling between the cracks." At this age and grade level, no one should have leftover homework beyond 40 minutes. Beyond this time frame homework becomes counter-productive. If you find your student has many frequent days with leftovers, please contact me and we will discuss strategies to minimize this. Some strategies we might try would be to reduce the amount of work, for example. Most students should complete most school work in school time. However, we want ALL students to feel successful. Working together, we can achieve this goal.

You can help by making sure that any occasional leftover class work is completed. Please ask to see their planners every school night and initial in the spot for parent's signatures. You can write notes there and I will see them the next day. If there is nothing written there or if you want to check their entry against mine, please log in to this site and check the "Davidson's Daily Notes" page. This will also give you reminders and information about up coming class events. Also please read Alfie Kohn's article about homework to get a broader peerspective on this topic. I have provided a convenient link for you below.

Can Homework Backfire? Author Alfie Kohn calls into question the long-held belief that homework is good for kids.
[]