Homework is an emotive topic. I would like to go on record early in this blog by stating that I believe it would make things a lot easier both at school and at home if homework was abolished.
Having stated this though I am truly of the belief that as educators we would be doing students a disservice if we abolished homework.
Homework serves an important purpose. It is required to reinforce concepts and ideas done in class. It is required as preparation for exams and to complete assignments. If we did not have homework in the primary years students would not learn the importance of using their own time for school purposes. How would they survive in secondary school and university if they have not established healthy routines at a young age?
Over the years I have earned somewhat of a reputation for being tough on homework and a teacher who gives too much homework (a reputation I do not deserve). My current school has a policy that states a Year 6 student should be doing 60 minutes of homework between Monday and Thursday nights. All I am doing is following this policy. Currently our homework is distributed on a Monday and is due Friday. This allows a student who has an extra curricular activity on any particular evening or afternoon plenty of extra time to complete the set tasks. These tasks usually include Maths mentals, some spelling and grammar work and generally either a literature based or Inquiry Studies based activity. Combined with this our students also get Chinese homework each week.
Through this approach to homework students also get to learn the important skill of time management. It is absolutely fine if they complete all of their set work on one night as long as it is all handed in completed on the Friday.
Homework being an emotive issue really struck home to me when I first started teaching in Hong Kong. Finding a balance between the desires of parents was difficult. There were many parents of a Chinese background who wanted more homework whilst the Australian parents wanted less homework as they wanted their children outside playing sport and being with their friends of an afternoon.
In this situation it was incredibly beneficial to me to have a school policy on homework. My answer to both groups of parents was that I was simply following the school policy of the set amount each day. For those wanted more homework I directed them to websites and books which could give them what they wanted but I was not going to offer a reduced amount of homework as some desired.
It is important that there are consequences in place for students who do not complete their homework tasks. For me this generally involves missing out on our set Friday free time.
The difficulties that homework can create really struck home to me when my daughter last year started to be given work in Year 2 that needed to be done at home. She is a beautiful yet stubborn girl who would only do her work at the same time each week. I did not hesitate to tell her to redo her work if it was of an unacceptable quality.I know some of the parents of the students I teacher laughed when I told them of the issues I had with my daughter's homework. They simply replied "Now you know what you have put us through over the years".
To sum it up I believe that homework is a 'necessary evil'.
Having stated this though I am truly of the belief that as educators we would be doing students a disservice if we abolished homework.
Homework serves an important purpose. It is required to reinforce concepts and ideas done in class. It is required as preparation for exams and to complete assignments. If we did not have homework in the primary years students would not learn the importance of using their own time for school purposes. How would they survive in secondary school and university if they have not established healthy routines at a young age?
Over the years I have earned somewhat of a reputation for being tough on homework and a teacher who gives too much homework (a reputation I do not deserve). My current school has a policy that states a Year 6 student should be doing 60 minutes of homework between Monday and Thursday nights. All I am doing is following this policy. Currently our homework is distributed on a Monday and is due Friday. This allows a student who has an extra curricular activity on any particular evening or afternoon plenty of extra time to complete the set tasks. These tasks usually include Maths mentals, some spelling and grammar work and generally either a literature based or Inquiry Studies based activity. Combined with this our students also get Chinese homework each week.
Through this approach to homework students also get to learn the important skill of time management. It is absolutely fine if they complete all of their set work on one night as long as it is all handed in completed on the Friday.
Homework being an emotive issue really struck home to me when I first started teaching in Hong Kong. Finding a balance between the desires of parents was difficult. There were many parents of a Chinese background who wanted more homework whilst the Australian parents wanted less homework as they wanted their children outside playing sport and being with their friends of an afternoon.
In this situation it was incredibly beneficial to me to have a school policy on homework. My answer to both groups of parents was that I was simply following the school policy of the set amount each day. For those wanted more homework I directed them to websites and books which could give them what they wanted but I was not going to offer a reduced amount of homework as some desired.
It is important that there are consequences in place for students who do not complete their homework tasks. For me this generally involves missing out on our set Friday free time.
The difficulties that homework can create really struck home to me when my daughter last year started to be given work in Year 2 that needed to be done at home. She is a beautiful yet stubborn girl who would only do her work at the same time each week. I did not hesitate to tell her to redo her work if it was of an unacceptable quality.I know some of the parents of the students I teacher laughed when I told them of the issues I had with my daughter's homework. They simply replied "Now you know what you have put us through over the years".
To sum it up I believe that homework is a 'necessary evil'.
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