Homework
Homework Policy
Students will be expected to do a little math and reading homework daily. Students will receive a math homelink daily for practice. It shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes per evening. Families will receive a family letter given to your child before each unit that will have the answers to the math homework study links. These are practice opportunities for the lessons taught in school. Please grade these at home. Students are expected to draw a star on each problem they get right. Please circle the problems that are incorrect and rework the problem to attempt to get it correct. Students will turn their homework in the next day. I will pass all the homework from each unit back before each unit assessment for review. If time permits, I will allow students to do their homework during choice time. It still needs to be graded at home, but that way there will be more time to do other things.
Students are encouraged to free read at home every night for at least 20 minutes. Please have them read from a variety of genres including non-fiction and fiction. Change it up sometimes and read to each other out loud, talk about the text, discuss the characters, discuss the author's meaning, look up words that your child doesn't understand together. There are lots of ways to engage students in reading.
I will have a little homework here and there other than math. Any unfinished classwork that students had time to work in at school but didn't complete will be sent home to finish that evening and return completed the following school day. If a student is struggling with a concept, I may assign some extra practice for mastery but I will let parents know.
I find that other than a little homework a night, there is more to life than homework!
The homework that is proven to correlate with student success is to read together, eat dinner with your family, play outside, garden, and go to bed early!
Students are encouraged to free read at home every night for at least 20 minutes. Please have them read from a variety of genres including non-fiction and fiction. Change it up sometimes and read to each other out loud, talk about the text, discuss the characters, discuss the author's meaning, look up words that your child doesn't understand together. There are lots of ways to engage students in reading.
I will have a little homework here and there other than math. Any unfinished classwork that students had time to work in at school but didn't complete will be sent home to finish that evening and return completed the following school day. If a student is struggling with a concept, I may assign some extra practice for mastery but I will let parents know.
I find that other than a little homework a night, there is more to life than homework!
The homework that is proven to correlate with student success is to read together, eat dinner with your family, play outside, garden, and go to bed early!
Reasons to support this policy:
- Kids already have seven hours of school. They start school at 8:53 a.m. and go home at 3:59 p.m. That’s a full day of school. Most adults work similar lengths of time at work and come home exhausted. So please understand why kids have trouble focusing at the end of a full day of learning.
- It’s counterintuitive to make children spend too many hours studying. If an adult has attention problems, that’s nothing compared to a kid. Children are still growing, their brains aren’t yet fully developed, and it’s crucial that they get a lot of exercise and free time. Something that they could do in thirty minutes if fully rested and energized will drag on for four hours if they’re restless and can’t focus because they left seven hours of school to directly jump into hours of homework.
- Getting a little sun and exercise are crucial for health. If students are cooped up in school during the day, then have to do homework when they get home, they can develop poor health. A much better solution would be to do all the learning they need to do in one place and in a short amount of time. When school is over, that’s the time for students to play and go outside and get exercise.
- Seven hours of school should be enough to learn anything. Sure, let’s say that students have recess and lunch--there’s still a good five hours where they’re studying. If a student can’t learn what they need in that time, then we can have a discussion around that. Rather than giving them lots of homework after school to compensate, I make the most of the time they have in school and believe me, they do a lot! :0)
- Having a family and social life is important. Everyone should have a balanced life. Many adults get frustrated if their work-life spills over into their personal life. They like to go out after work and spend time with friends and family. But children should get to do the same. Burns Park Elementary School is a time for learning, and it takes up much of the day. After school is the time for pursuing hobbies and personal pastimes.
