Monday, October 8, 2012
The Homework Debate
As a mother of two middle school students, I got a little perturbed when I had to help my child with a cross word puzzle for class homework. I honestly could not see the purpose for it. My daughter learned absolutely NOTHING from the assignment. It was simply busy work. In my teacher training, I was told to give homework sparingly, and that there had to be a real purpose for it such as short reviews, practice, etc. I don't believe that cross word puzzles fall into that description. This article gives a good argument for at least limiting homework, and possibly disposing of it altogether. What are your thoughts on homework? How much do you assign each week? If you do assign it, what type do you assign?
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I agree that homework should have a purpose. What I don't like to see also is homework that is not only busy work but also can be done wrong or reinforces something the student is doing wrong. I assign reading every night and always encourage extension activities based on students interests. This morning I had a student and her dad come in and they wanted to share with me the homework they did together. They proceeded in telling me about a star that is in the process of gravitational collapse..both were excited about this which had me excited..again it should be fun and worthwhile which to them it was and this is where learning occurs...
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