Quality Education: Helping with Homework

I used to blog for my old company, but they took the blog down. I am
not actually allowed to own the writings I put up on that blog, but as
I reference them on occasion in my writing I am putting those articles
up in my archives here for reference sake. I'll put the tag GS on those
articles noting that they were originally published on the http://schoolfinder.globalscholar.com/blog/

Quality
Education: Helping with Homework

May
12, 2008 – 4:06 am by Brendan

There seems to be
quite a bit of debate over homework. I never really thought about it.
As a student, I remember doing most of my homework either in the last
few minutes of class or in the hall just before class. As a teacher,
I assigned homework I thought would illustrate the skill we learned
that day. I also tried to keep the total homework time my students
would spend to less than an hour.

There are some who
feel that homework should be banished.
There are others who feel we just don’t give enough. The pendulum
of more homework and less homework seems to be fully into the less
homework side at the moment. I judge this because a quick web search
shows articles galore on experts explaining why we should reduce the
amount of homework in our schools, but none on why we should have
more.

The reality of the
matter is that either as a teacher or parent you will probably have
to deal with homework. As a teacher, I would personally suggest
giving homework that includes a small percentage of practice and a
bit of illustration of the skill taught that you didn’t have time
to cover in class. What that actually means is up to you to decide.
As a parent, remember if you want more homework for your child you
can get plenty of worksheets online or at the book store
(homeschooling books are actually good supplements most of the time).
If as a parent you think your child has too much homework I wouldn’t
suggest cutting it out right away, I would suggest a bit of
investigation first.

In my own humble
experience I have found that the vast majority of students who think
they have too much homework actually waste valuable homework time.
Almost every teacher will leave a couple of extra minutes at the end
of class. It is possible to get a very good start on homework here
(you get more done faster while it is fresh in your mind). Even when
I require students to work on homework during this time, some avoid
it at all costs. The next largest group are students who are
legitimately having difficulty with the skill and need help. Parents
can obviously help at this point, but sometimes an expert really is
needed.
Global Scholar does
have some excellent tutors. Finally, there are those times when I
actually do give out an assignment that takes too much time.

Now that I have
wasted too much space talking about the amount of homework given,
let’s get on to helping with homework. I think they are pretty
basic, but perhaps that is just because I’m in education.

• 
  Required homework
  time: 30 minutes up to third grade, 60 minutes up to high school, 2
  hours in high school. If your child finishes early let them read.

  
  

  • If
    baseball practice can be 3 hours, homework can be two. So that
    means 6 or 7 hours in school, 3 hours at practice, and 2 hours of
    homework – leaving 4 or 5 hours of travel, eating and goofing
    off, in a 16 hour day.

    
    
  
  

• Don’t
  help until until after your child has actually tried to do the work.
  If he/she can’t do the first few problems, then they are probably
  having trouble with the concept. If it is a later problem then it
  may be a matter of perspective.

  
  

  • Usually
    homework starts with easy problems and gets progressively harder.

    
    

  • When
    possible guide instead of show.

    
    
  
  

• Turn
  off the TV and any music with lyrics.

  
  

  • Some
    people need noise in the background, but words require us to listen
    and distract from our ability to concentrate.

    
    
  
  

• There
  is no shame in hiring a tutor

  
  

  • Insert
    shameless plug for
    Global Scholar here.

    
    

  • Your
    school district may also have a tutor list.

    
    
  
  

• Check
  the homework.

  
  

  • Even
    if you don’t understand it you will know if your child put effort
    into it or not.

    
    
  
  

• Keep
  a dialogue open with your child’s teacher.

  
  

  • It
    is big news when a teacher complains about too much parent
    involvement, because it is so rare.

    
    
  
  

• Keep
  a dialogue open with your child.

  
  

  • Homework
    is practice of a learned skill or the illustration of different
    ways to use a skill, it should not be fundamentally difficult.

    
    
  
  

• Do
  your own homework at the same time.

  
  

  • Read
    a book, write a letter, balance the checkbook, all that stuff you
    don’t have the time for.

    
    

  • At
    the same time you can keep an eye on your child and see frustration
    brewing before it boils over.

    
    
  
  

• Remember
  this is a life skill as well, there are entire college courses on
  time management.