My Child is Spending Many, Many Hours Doing Homework.
What Do I Do?
The average child should spend an average of about two hours a day on homework, including the twenty minutes MINIMUM reading every child should do every day. A survey of every teacher found it came out to about an hour for core (reading and work) a half hour for math, and fifteen minutes for science each day, plus activity work, as in band practice.
1. They are below grade level in their work and/or reading, and thus the work is very hard for them. A student below grade level will have to take longer to complete work because they not only need to do required work, but they need to catch up.
2. They are not actually working. Very often when monitored, it is discovered that students are playing video games or on computers, daydreaming, doodling, or something else. There is surprising amount of this going on.
3. They are using their time very inefficiently, thus doubling or tripling their workload. Often they are repeating work over and over, or sitting there thinking instead of doing. You’d be surprised how effective it is to just DO something and get anything written down. At least it’s a start, and that is often the hardest part.
“Do or do not. There is no try.” –Yoda
4. They have put off a long term assignment and are trying to do ten or twenty hours of work the night before it is due, and thus have created the stress by not doing the work all along.
5. They are not doing any or most of their work in class, so now the hour or so of class time they had to do work is added on to homework time.
Things I Can Do to Help My Child Do Homework Faster and More Efficiently
1. If you do not know, ask the teacher whether your child is at grade level in his/her work. If not, just realize it will take longer until they get better at it. Practice makes perfect, and if they are behind in their practice, it will take even more of it to catch up.
2. Monitor your child carefully. Make a log that minute by minute shows what they are doing with their time. This can be amazingly enlightening. Find patterns in what they are doing and try to find ways to improve them such as:
--giving timed tasks, like saying they must have a half page written in twenty minutes. After they completed a set amount of work, they can take a break or switch to something else.
--have them DO something instead of “thinking,” or “studying.” Instead of “studying” for a test, make sure they are writing down the information over and over. Instead of “thinking” of what to write for an essay, they need to just start writing. It’s amazing how just DOING something can generate ideas.
--timing how long things should take, and get them focused on completing it in time given and then taking a break. Have them come back to it later and check it is done correctly.
--have a check-off system where they do the work in steps and come and get it checked by you at each step.
3. Make sure their calendar has the homework accurately written down for each class. Note when assignments are due, and how to divide the work over time. They should put when the work is due, and steps needed in the calendar. Some kids use color-coding or symbols for this.
4. Come and watch your child in class and see what they do in class. How much are they accomplishing with the class time given? Are they working 90 to 100% of the time, or gossiping, doodling, going off topic, or ?
Shareen Purcell, AMS
I just found this on how to be more successful in life, and I think it's really useful for what I'm seeing with the kids, too!
http://upliftconnect.com/13-things-to-live-life-you-want/
Grit in Education
In twenty-one years of teaching, I have never had a complaint from anyone about grading too easy or not giving enough work. I have had innumerable complaints about grading too hard and too much work, no matter how much I over grade or how little work I give.
From my experience of teaching successfully and improving student's abilities and test scores, making them feel good about doing little or lying about their real abilities, or lack thereof, is of no use. It sets students up for failure in the future when they will be faced with honest assessment. "Give a student an easy 'A' and make them happy for a day. Teach a student how to earn an 'A" and make them successful for a lifetime."--Purcell My students consistently make great strides in testing improvement every year if they do the work. It is a proven formula for success.
I am very good at assessing students in a variety of ways and coming to an understanding of their true abilities in comparison to state standards, which are a lot more difficult than most people think. We are moving in the next few years to common core standards, which means the same standards through the whole US, which are more streamlined, but even more focused on deeper thinking. This idea is not new as all good teachers I know have always taught this way. It's just that we now have a way to test this on a national level.
There are a variety of ways to assess students that are useful. There are many assignments where they just complete the minimum requirements, like journals or reading, and get credit. This assesses the ability to get something done in a certain time of a minimum standard. There are various sorts of tests to test recognition (the lowest level of thinking) such as fill in the blanks with a word bank or matching, to multiple choice, to higher level essay answers. There are things such as note-taking to assess the ability to read, comprehend, and note the main ideas rather than just copying. There are projects which assess time management, use of process, the ability to focus on the main criteria in a variety of ways, and break it down into parts that can be accomplished.
When given these assessments, it is important students come to a realistic understanding of where they are in ability. You cannot make improvements if you think everything you do is already great. It is not a bad criticism (which means to look at something closely and correctly and really understand it) or "mean" to assess something as a C, D or F. It is ACCURATE. When a student can accurately understand where their abilities are strong and weak, then they can improve, because they know what they need to improve on and aren't the embarrassing singer on American Idol claiming the "know" they are great because they have always been told so by people trying to make them feel "good."
NWEA (the reading comprehension test) is one way to assess the grade level they read. It is not 100% accurate, but it is another way to assess. If a student is not reading at grade level, it is very difficult for them to get average grades (C's. ) There is something wrong if a student is below grade level in testing, but is getting good to excellent (B's or A's) grades--those grades aren't accurately assessing the student's true abilities, and thus is setting them up for failure when they will have to demonstrate them. These are the results for the first SBAC (common core) test, which are at a higher level. 2/3rds of the kids are below grade level. http://caaspp.cde.ca.gov/sb2015/ViewReport?ps=true&lstTestYear=2015&lstTestType=B&lstCounty=01&lstDistrict=61242-000&lstSchool=6068266
My job is to teach the skills and knowledge students are supposed to acquire and master in the 7th grade, and accurately assess them on this. The student's job is to understand their abilities, and do their best to improve them, especially in the areas they are behind and the weakest. We do not get strong and make great strides by always looking for the easy way out. We do so by pushing ourselves always a little further and a little harder.
I'm hoping this "new" old idea in education will be the trend:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rock-center/49202614#49202614
http://insidedateline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/04/29/11412162-why-do-kids-cheat-facts-about-cheating?lite
Here is Will Smith lauding the necessity of failure to succeed:
https://www.facebook.com/EvolveBlog/videos/vb.1534703923494278/1814956788802322/?type=2&theater
In the future, I envision I will get complaints of giving too many A's and passing grades, not challenging students enough, asking too little, and giving too little homework!
Articles on grade inflation:
https://www.applerouth.com/blog/2013/10/23/when-a-is-for-average-the-high-cost-of-grade-inflation/
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov11/vol69/num03/Grade-Inflation@-Killing-with-Kindness%C2%A2.aspx
The need to fail in middle school:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/books/review/the-gift-of-failure-by-jessica-lahey.html
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/living/feat-brutally-honest-let-child-fail/
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/why-parents-need-to-let-their-children-fail/272603/
http://www.empoweringparents.com/The-Benefits-of-Natural-Consequences.php