"... study after study has shown that homework has little to do with achievement in elementary school and is only marginally related to achievement in middle school."At the last PA meeting, the general rule that was discussed for Wilma students was 30 minutes per subject. That could mean up to 3.5 hours of homework per night! That plus a 6 hour school day is 9.5 hours. That's a long work day for anyone let alone a young teen. For parents who are encouraging their children to lead well rounded lives with sports, music, social circles, quiet time (reading for enjoyment, movies, video games), and family events; that kind of time commitment for school is simply too much.
To be fair, not all teachers at Wilma will give 30 minutes of homework per day as a rule and will often only assign homework for special projects or even not at all. But some classes/teachers are definitely pushing that 30 minute guideline on a daily basis.
What has been your experience? Do you feel your child is getting enough to do at home? Or too much? Fill in the comment or send an email - the PA and the school appreciate your feedback.
10 comments:
I am in grade 8 and the only subject I have been getting too much homework in is Humanities, I often get an hour or even more
I'm in Grade 8, and I do almost two hours of homework every night. I would hate to think everything I do passed the 1 hour and 20 minute mark is for nothing!
I agree Humanities seems to be the subject at fault in our house as well. I can't remember the last time my daughter didn't have Humanities homework? Would a night off be too much to ask? It's not unusual for my daughter to have an hour of writing followed by an hour studying for a social studies test. In my opinion, more time should be allocated in class to finish these projects or the scope of the projects should be altered.
In grade eight, and I hate how much homework we have each night. its pathetic, projects here, homework there just please make it stop!
Hi, Im in the eighth grade and I think its ridiculous that I spend over and hour and a half each night ONLY on my humanities homework. Math is not as big a deal, but my LA & Social homework should not take me this long, ever. single. night.My teacher never gives us any time to work on it in class unlike my math teacher,and she assigns way to many projects.
From a parent perspective on this; I have noticed that a kid's so called "hour" of homework is often interspersed with facebook, texting, tv watching, music listening, quick dance breaks, phone calls, snacking, etc. I have to wonder if a solid half hour of concentration would be all that was needed.
Wow! Great to see all this feedback. The "homework issue" seems to come up every year - usually around this time as we are in the "meat and potatoes" portion of the curriculum. As I mentioned at the meeting, in my experience this seems to be something particular to Grade 8 and not necessarily related to specific teachers. Both my boys who are now in high school had very high volumes of homework in their Grade 8 year, especially from Jan through March. My daughter has also struggled this year to complete work on time and balance exam prep for one class with assignments due in another. However, she hasn't had much in the way of project work, which is in stark contrast to some of her friends. Which reminds me of another interesting tidbit that I have noticed this year. Her peers who are not in her class are working through the various curriculum units in a different order. For example, when she is learning about the states of matter in science, her friends are learning about cell structure. A big part of homework used to be getting together in study groups or calling friends if you were stuck on a question. That rarely happens now and I find that my husband and I have taken a larger role to support her. Do you notice the same thing?
I know that the school staff communicates as a team to try and get the big picture of the entire work load and not just what is happening in their own classrooms. Of course, feedback from parents and students is also part of that big picture and I have usually had positive results when I have approached a teacher with this type of concern.
Part of my "homework" would be to keep better track of where my daughter stands and be more timely with feedback to her teachers, but I, like most parents, am busy with other things too and find I don't always have time to finish my "homework". Ironic, eh? The best I can offer would be that if you have a concern, try keeping a log of your child's workload for a week. If it looks like there is a problem, set up a meeting with the teacher (NB - interviews are coming up next week!) and see if something can be worked out. Both my boys survived Grade 8 - I may have gray hair as a result though.
My daughter is in grade seven. So far, she has very little homework and I am thankful for that. She works hard at school and then has time after school for her other interests and activities. Reading these comments from the eighth graders is a concern for me about my daughter's up and coming year. I personally feel an hour tops, (all subjects combined) each night is plenty of homework for this age group, especially if they are working hard during class time.
I'm in eighth grade and I often have more then 1 hour and 30 minutes of homework each day, and that is straight, concentrated work without music, tv or any other distractions. I mostly get homework in humanities, its crazy, I can't remember a time when I didn't have humanities homework..
Hi I'm in Grade 8 and I could not believe when I heard that you were only supposed to do 80 mins a day of homework! At least 2 times a week I have to do homework from the time i get home (4:00) to the time I go to bed, (10:00) and that includes working through dinner. When I do homework I make sure I have no distractions like music or tv. I spend my class time wisely, and I hate to think everything I do past the 80 minute mark is useless..
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