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CommentsDiablo's Homework Resource Guide
Tips for parents on the homework load:
In any debate about homework, parents have at least one question: What the heck is our role? Experts say kids benefit when parents are constructively engaged in homework and they suggest these tips:
• When it comes to how much you should help, educators say it depends on the child’s age. Listening to a first grader read aloud and then asking questions to make sure he understands what he read is different than building your fourth grader’s California mission replica or typing an essay for an 11th grader at midnight.
• If you’re worried that your child is buried by homework, Duke University researcher Harris Cooper suggests that you should first make sure she’s studying when she goes into her room at 6 p.m. and remains in there past 10. How much texting and IM-ing is going on? If she’s really struggling all those hours to complete the work, don’t be afraid to approach the teacher in a non-confrontational way that acknowledges the teacher’s best intentions.
• Check in with other parents, Cooper adds. If a lot of you have the same complaint, and the teacher refuses to consider a change of course, the parents should go as a group to the principal and say, “this is out of whack.”
• Stanford University lecturer Denise Pope, who leads the Stressed Out Students project and has written a book about students and homework, says homework that regularly exceeds three and a half hours correlates with increased level of stress-related symptoms. Not only should parents take action if the workload becomes excessive, they should be careful of over-scheduling their kids and should promote their need for sleep and downtime. “Families and schools need to work together,” says Pope. “It takes a concerted effort on both sides.” — Andrea Lampros
Homework on Homework
Suggested books by top homework experts:
Sara Bennett, The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do, www.stophomework.com
Harris Cooper, The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents, Corwin Press, 2001,
Alfie Kohn, The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, Da Capo Books, 2006, www.alfiekohn.org
Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock, Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, 2001,
www.marzanoandassociates.com.
Expert web resources:
www.alfiekohn.org. Website for Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing,
www.stophomework.com. Website for Sara Bennett, author of The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do.
www.marzanoassociates.com. Website for Robert J. Marzano, co-author of Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, 2001.
Articles:
In Defense of Homework: Is There Such a Thing As Too Much? A former teacher stands by her assignments, by Lisa Morehouse, www.edutopia.org/defense-homework.
After years of piling it on, there’s a new movement to … Abolish homework, San Francisco Chronicle
Links to homework policies available on district websites
Reader Comments:
Here's a link to a great homework policy in Toronto, in case anyone's interested:
http://c2.libsyn.com/media/987/Homework_Doc.pdf?nvb=20080717225926&nva=20080718225926&t=09a845645be941a352b2a
I really like it because the time guidelines are reasonable and the wellness of the family and child is really taken into account.
Why do we still have 3 months of summer vacation? This concept was put in place when we had children working in the fields on farms in rural America. We should have two weeks off for President's Day and two weeks off in August, and school should be in session the rest of the time. This is the way to get rid of cramming all the learning into less than 9 months of actual face-time in school.