I saw this New York times article today on homework. The article looks at the debate around homework as some school divisions look to ban or restrict homework. The school system featured in the article will vote to put in place rules that limit homework to ten minutes times the grade level of the student. So a third grade student would have thirty minutes of homework and a twelfth grade student would have two hours of homework a night. I am not sure what K X 10 equals for a kindergarten student.
The question I have is this something that school boards should be making rules about? Doesn't that seem a little extreme? It would take away a teacher's ability to provide the right amount of additional practice for a student. How do you judge what thirty minutes of homework is when students work at different rates and speeds?
I did like the idea of having certain nights be homework free. I also liked the idea of having breaks be homework free, but I would like to know what my AP teaching friends feel about that idea. The idea of goal work was interesting and I would love to see that get tied into something similar to what the Khan academy is doing with math.
I know last year I was lucky to have 40 percent of my students turn in homework on a regular basis. They didn't really care about it. That might of had something to do with me being a first year teacher though.....
I was taught at Education School that you want students to have three points of contact with a certain topic or subject in a 24 to 36 hour period. For me, that meant in class, at home with homework, and then as a review the next day in class. I always saw homework as something where you could get a little more practice with the concept we learned in class. Very rarely did I give extensive homework assignments to those eighth grade students.
So where does that leave homework? In or out? Love it or hate? Let me know by adding a comment.
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