muggins
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Post by muggins on Dec 5, 2019 22:48:16 GMT
DS just started the local middle school this year after moving from a large, private, international school in the UK. Every night and over the weekend he is swamped with hours of homework. It never seems to let up. The teachers were told not to give hw over the Thanksgiving break, so now they’re making up for it this week.
He’s in Algebra 1 and the hw seems excessive. Tonight, once again, he has to graph the answer to each question - 24 graphs in total. Then he gets to do worksheets for Spanish and continue an essay for social studies.
School starts at 7:25am and there’s a 25 minute beak for lunch. He gets home at 3, has a snack, then starts on hw which may take another 3 -4 hours.
Parents of local high schoolers say the hw is much less.
I used to be an elementary teacher and was always mindful of the amount of hw I assigned.
So, my question is, would you contact the school or the teachers to let them know the hw is too much? The other parents I’ve talked to agree that it’s too much, but seem to just accept it.
It probably shouldn’t be a side note as it’s important, but 2 HS students have already died by suicide this school year, and others have attempted it. Mental health in the district should be a priority and the kids are even taking it upon themselves to start support groups for those who are struggling. The district is also organising parent workshops on the subject. I should also note that this is not an area where people are struggling financially.
The hw the kids are receiving seems to be a never ending abyss of busy work that can severely affect their grade if not kept up to date.
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Post by ntsf on Dec 5, 2019 22:55:32 GMT
I would tell the math teacher that your child has too much.. will do 12 out of 24 problems. and tell other teachers that you are limiting homework to 2 hours for your child's health. stick up for your child. it is ridiculous.
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Deleted
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Apr 25, 2024 20:00:54 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2019 22:56:27 GMT
Homework should only be about 15 minutes per class, unless it is a huge project or studying for test.
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twinsmomfla99
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Post by twinsmomfla99 on Dec 5, 2019 23:01:08 GMT
Twenty-four graphs for homework? That’s crazy!
HW is supposed to reinforce what was learned that day. The problem with giving too much HW on a new skill? If they didn’t quite “get it” in class, they have now practiced it incorrectly a whole bunch of times. Now, not only does the student have to learn the skill correctly, he has to “unlearn” the information that was wrong.
Are some of the problems practice of past skills he should know already? Is he getting the problems right? Are they graphing by hand or using a graphing calculator.
I will kindly suggest a conference with the teacher about this. I would want to know why so many problems are required.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 5, 2019 23:13:20 GMT
As a parent I think 3-4 hours of homework daily is a lot and doesn’t allow for the kid to do much of anything else after school so that’s a problem. I could see having that once in a while for a special project or something, or maybe for extra credit if a kid’s grade was lacking, but every day? That really is too much.
I think I would want to have a conference with all of the teachers that are piling it on so they have an appreciation for the impact it is all having once it’s added up. I also think this is not the kid’s battle to take on alone because the teachers always think that the kids are exaggerating just how much time they’re spending on it. Hearing from a parent that the kid is trying to do it and is really struggling might help more than the teacher just hearing the kid grousing about it.
One of the things I remember from my own high school days was that many of the teachers weren’t all that mindful of the fact that EVERY teacher was assigning a ton of homework, and each one thought theirs should be the priority. By the time you have 6-7 teachers each assigning a half hour of work per night, it really adds up.
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Post by 950nancy on Dec 5, 2019 23:29:14 GMT
I would talk to the teachers first and see what they think. Sometimes kids are given time in class and don't use it. Some kids just need extra time because they work at a slower pace, and sometimes teachers aren't thinking that there are 4 or 5 other teachers also giving homework. Find out what you can and go from there.
ETA: My son ended up not playing sports his last two years in high school because he wanted to focus on his academics. It killed my husband, but in the end was a good idea.
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Post by freecharlie on Dec 6, 2019 0:03:37 GMT
I would talk to the teachers first and see what they think. Sometimes kids are given time in class and don't use it. Some kids just need extra time because they work at a slower pace, and sometimes teachers aren't thinking that there are 4 or 5 other teachers also giving homework. Find out what you can and go from there. ETA: My son ended up not playing sports his last two years in high school because he wanted to focus on his academics. It killed my husband, but in the end was a good idea.My son went opposite and his grades weren't stellar, but I think it was much better for his mental health so every kid is different |
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paigepea
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Post by paigepea on Dec 6, 2019 0:18:13 GMT
I have a dd in grade 9 who is super efficient and I have a dd in grade 6 who makes 20 min assignments take 2 hrs. Every child is different. One would think my dd in grade six has far more homework than my dd in grade 9 but that is not the case.
I’d connect with his teachers to ask how much time they’re expecting him to be spending on homework. If, for example, the math teacher is expecting him to be spending 30 min on math and it’s taking him hours you may all have to have a meeting to figure it out. I wouldn’t necessarily jump to the conclusion that it is too much homework. Math, Spanish worksheets and working on an essay sound normal to me. Perhaps the math practice is a lot(I don’t know what you mean by 24 graphs). And it’s always due the next day or does he have two nights to complete it?
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Belle
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Post by Belle on Dec 6, 2019 0:28:13 GMT
My DD is in 8th grade and is taking Algebra 1 and French - both classes are considered high school level not middle school classes in our district. On average, her homework for Algebra takes about an hour and she has Algebra 4 days out of 5 so does get one night off from math. French homework is much less than Algebra., maybe 10 minutes on the nights she is assigned homework.
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Post by Baseballmom23 on Dec 6, 2019 1:55:17 GMT
Does the school handbook outline the homework expectation for each grade? My sons school would outline it in the handbook so there were no questions.
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Post by myboysnme on Dec 6, 2019 2:32:06 GMT
All of it is too much. My husband and son are teachers and are anti homework, and many of their peers are going that direction as well. In one of our school districts there is no homework at all for elementary school. My DH teaches middle school. He gives out projects they have time to work on in class or in the library.
I wish the entire country would adopt no homework, reintroduce study hall and extend the school day or year if they have to get more work done than they currently can in the allotted time. I feel we should be encouraged to leave our work at work and not bring it home, and for kids, school work is their work, so do it in school and let home life be home life.
I recall telling some teachers for my boys they would not be doing homework and that if their grade reflected that so be it. Radical I guess but that's how strongly I feel about it.
My DH and I each have masters degrees and our sons are college graduates, one working on his masters in special education. I was an adjunct professor for a college class. We value education, but not homework.
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seaexplore
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Post by seaexplore on Dec 6, 2019 3:20:36 GMT
Middle school math teacher here. My kids are expected to do one hour of math a night. It may take some kids a half hour, others the full hour.
I also teach the same kids science. They have pretty much ZERO science homework.
They very frequently have time in class to work on their math HW. Today, I gave them 45 minutes to complete a very simple 4 part performance task (my lower performing kids were getting it right and finished in 25 minutes). I had 6 who refused to even do it stating “it’s too hard”. These are the same who refuse to do homework. I made the assignment due by the end of the period. Tonight their only homework was to finish their notes for their test tomorrow. I can almost guarantee kids will show up with incomplete notes tomorrow. They’ve only had a week plus and 3 class periods of time to do it.
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muggins
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Post by muggins on Dec 6, 2019 6:02:45 GMT
Middle school math teacher here. My kids are expected to do one hour of math a night. It may take some kids a half hour, others the full hour. I also teach the same kids science. They have pretty much ZERO science homework. They very frequently have time in class to work on their math HW. Today, I gave them 45 minutes to complete a very simple 4 part performance task (my lower performing kids were getting it right and finished in 25 minutes). I had 6 who refused to even do it stating “it’s too hard”. These are the same who refuse to do homework. I made the assignment due by the end of the period. Tonight their only homework was to finish their notes for their test tomorrow. I can almost guarantee kids will show up with incomplete notes tomorrow. They’ve only had a week plus and 3 class periods of time to do it. When you assign an hour math hw per night do you consider that the child may also have hw from every other subject to do the same night? Is it your school policy or does each teacher decide for themselves? Even if some kids are able to do it in 30 minutes, they may still have hw from every other class that day. It adds up quickly into 3+ hours each night, always to be turned in the next day. Im sure you’re aware that plenty of studies show that hw in elementary school isn’t very useful, and only quality hw in higher grades leads to academic success. I believe a lot of DS’s hw is busy work that is assigned simply to give a running grade. |
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The Great Carpezio
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Post by The Great Carpezio on Dec 6, 2019 6:05:34 GMT
That sounds like too much homework. I would make sure he is using class time and I’d check I with other parents to see if this is happening to other kids.
Seaexplore you really expect an hour a day? Wow.
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muggins
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Post by muggins on Dec 6, 2019 6:24:42 GMT
That sounds like too much homework. I would make sure he is using class time and I’d check I with other parents to see if this is happening to other kids. Seaexplore you really expect an hour a day? Wow. Yes, I’ve spoken to other parents and they seem to just accept that the MS kids get a ton of homework. I don’t know if any have complained to the school. There is nothing in the online parent/student handbook about the time allotted for homework. According to DS, some teachers spend the class time lecturing or giving presentations and assign the actual work for hw. Also, some teachers start a project in class and have the kids finish it for hw. Today SS hw was a packet of 6 worksheets with tons of questions requiring detailed answers found in the textbook. It was very time consuming to say the least despite DS having done some of it in class. |
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muggins
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Post by muggins on Dec 6, 2019 6:30:07 GMT
Twenty-four graphs for homework? That’s crazy! HW is supposed to reinforce what was learned that day. The problem with giving too much HW on a new skill? If they didn’t quite “get it” in class, they have now practiced it incorrectly a whole bunch of times. Now, not only does the student have to learn the skill correctly, he has to “unlearn” the information that was wrong. Are some of the problems practice of past skills he should know already? Is he getting the problems right? Are they graphing by hand or using a graphing calculator. I will kindly suggest a conference with the teacher about this. I would want to know why so many problems are required. He has to do each graph by hand on graph paper. He said it’s a new skill they learned today. Although he has had to do a similar amount of graphs for previous hw. He understands what he’s doing and is getting an A in the class. I just don’t feel like he needs to do so much practice of the same thing. I’ve emailed the teacher and explained the time issue. I have emailed before about the hw and she suggested that if he can’t cope, he should go back an redo pre-algebra. |
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Post by Basket1lady on Dec 6, 2019 13:40:45 GMT
That sounds like too much homework. I would make sure he is using class time and I’d check I with other parents to see if this is happening to other kids. Seaexplore you really expect an hour a day? Wow. Yes, I’ve spoken to other parents and they seem to just accept that the MS kids get a ton of homework. I don’t know if any have complained to the school. There is nothing in the online parent/student handbook about the time allotted for homework. According to DS, some teachers spend the class time lecturing or giving presentations and assign the actual work for hw. Also, some teachers start a project in class and have the kids finish it for hw. Today SS hw was a packet of 6 worksheets with tons of questions requiring detailed answers found in the textbook. It was very time consuming to say the least despite DS having done some of it in class. I could see SS homework taking longer for your DS if he hasn’t lived in the US for very long. Especially since schools love their local/state history! My kids are military kids who moved around a lot in their elementary school years. They frequently had to learn things like the state rivers and geographical regions that the local kids had known for most of their life. Your son is also still settling in and just learning how to live in another country. If you are in in an area of high achievers (including parents), school is a big deal. A very big deal. When we lived in Boston, we had a monthly parent coffee and the parents all lamented when a teacher didn’t give much homework. The ending lament was always that their kid would end up in community college or a state school. Those schools were awesome, but there was a lot of homework. And, as others have said, how much is your DS doing during school hours? I had one kid who hardly ever had much homework, but he did it during class, during lunch, and in study hall before sports practices. The other kid always had hours of homework, but never did any of it during school because she didn’t focus well with distractions and would talk to her friends (the distractions!) |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2019 14:01:15 GMT
Twenty-four graphs for homework? That’s crazy! HW is supposed to reinforce what was learned that day. The problem with giving too much HW on a new skill? If they didn’t quite “get it” in class, they have now practiced it incorrectly a whole bunch of times. Now, not only does the student have to learn the skill correctly, he has to “unlearn” the information that was wrong. Are some of the problems practice of past skills he should know already? Is he getting the problems right? Are they graphing by hand or using a graphing calculator. I will kindly suggest a conference with the teacher about this. I would want to know why so many problems are required. He has to do each graph by hand on graph paper. He said it’s a new skill they learned today. Although he has had to do a similar amount of graphs for previous hw. He understands what he’s doing and is getting an A in the class. I just don’t feel like he needs to do so much practice of the same thing. I’ve emailed the teacher and explained the time issue. I have emailed before about the hw and she suggested that if he can’t cope, he should go back an redo pre-algebra.But she's missing the point isn't she? It doesn't sound as if he can't cope with the work, it's the volume of work he's being given to do that is the problem. Good grief, I've never known any school here, private or state,even the upper school pupils preparing for their GCSE, getting four hours of homework a night and certainly not for one subject. It's counter productive for children whatever age they are to do that amount of homework. Their brains get too tired to concentrate. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2019 14:12:37 GMT
I am more a science and medicine person so forgive my ignorance...what journals or sources talk about homework and other education science based resources...I sometimes get books at the library but they seem useless. I know I can Google but anything that might help a parent navigate better.
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peppermintpatty
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Post by peppermintpatty on Dec 6, 2019 14:19:00 GMT
My kids generally had way more homework in middle school (8th grade was the worst) than in high school. That said, what you have described IS excessive. Talk to the teacher. The thing is that it is possible that the homework shouldn't take that long and either a concept isn't being understood or the child is goofing off while working. All kids do it (mine included). If this is a case of all the classes are overloading on homework, I would set up a meeting with your child's counselor.
There are days where my son (a junior) spends 6 hours on homework but that is rare. My dd spent a lot more time on homework when she was in school but it just happens that my ds is much more efficient in doing his. They are both really smart and pull all A's but they definitely worked at different paces.
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peppermintpatty
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Post by peppermintpatty on Dec 6, 2019 14:21:45 GMT
Twenty-four graphs for homework? That’s crazy! HW is supposed to reinforce what was learned that day. The problem with giving too much HW on a new skill? If they didn’t quite “get it” in class, they have now practiced it incorrectly a whole bunch of times. Now, not only does the student have to learn the skill correctly, he has to “unlearn” the information that was wrong. Are some of the problems practice of past skills he should know already? Is he getting the problems right? Are they graphing by hand or using a graphing calculator. I will kindly suggest a conference with the teacher about this. I would want to know why so many problems are required. He has to do each graph by hand on graph paper. He said it’s a new skill they learned today. Although he has had to do a similar amount of graphs for previous hw. He understands what he’s doing and is getting an A in the class. I just don’t feel like he needs to do so much practice of the same thing. I’ve emailed the teacher and explained the time issue. I have emailed before about the hw and she suggested that if he can’t cope, he should go back an redo pre-algebra. Seriously? If he is pulling A's then it isn't his lack of understanding, it is her lack of teaching. If she isn't willing to listen, I would go to whomever is the team lead for the math teachers. If it is her, then get the counselor involved. Generally if you contact the counselor, they will get all parties together, the team lead, the teacher, the parents, the student and the counselor to sit down and figure it out. |
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Post by monklady123 on Dec 6, 2019 14:25:09 GMT
Is this in the USA? Or did you mean he's moved from the larger school in the UK to a smaller one also in the UK? I think it's way too much. But, mostly I hate homework so take what I say with a grain of salt.  I would talk to the teachers. Or, if you know other parents feel the same way, have a conversation with the PTA and see if there could be a larger meeting about it rather than just you and the teacher(s). I'm pretty much anti-homework though because so much of it is busy-work. Longer-term projects or papers when they're older are fine, but the day-to-day stuff is often fairly useless. |
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seaexplore
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Post by seaexplore on Dec 6, 2019 14:32:36 GMT
Middle school math teacher here. My kids are expected to do one hour of math a night. It may take some kids a half hour, others the full hour. I also teach the same kids science. They have pretty much ZERO science homework. They very frequently have time in class to work on their math HW. Today, I gave them 45 minutes to complete a very simple 4 part performance task (my lower performing kids were getting it right and finished in 25 minutes). I had 6 who refused to even do it stating “it’s too hard”. These are the same who refuse to do homework. I made the assignment due by the end of the period. Tonight their only homework was to finish their notes for their test tomorrow. I can almost guarantee kids will show up with incomplete notes tomorrow. They’ve only had a week plus and 3 class periods of time to do it. When you assign an hour math hw per night do you consider that the child may also have hw from every other subject to do the same night? Is it your school policy or does each teacher decide for themselves? Even if some kids are able to do it in 30 minutes, they may still have hw from every other class that day. It adds up quickly into 3+ hours each night, always to be turned in the next day. Im sure you’re aware that plenty of studies show that hw in elementary school isn’t very useful, and only quality hw in higher grades leads to academic success. I believe a lot of DS’s hw is busy work that is assigned simply to give a running grade. My 8th grade students have 2 teachers (LA/SS & Math/science) plus PE (no HW) and “elective” which is also no HW. HW for my classes is usually able to be completed in class for the most part if they’re not screwing around. It is DIRECTLY related to the learning objective that day and not busy work. as to the running grade.... parents want to SEE grades constantly being entered. If I only put in projects, tests, notes, parents would be questioning me. I have a Classwork/homework category to covers everything else that is updated daily. |
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seaexplore
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Post by seaexplore on Dec 6, 2019 14:33:43 GMT
That sounds like too much homework. I would make sure he is using class time and I’d check I with other parents to see if this is happening to other kids. Seaexplore you really expect an hour a day? Wow. Yes, because they’ve usually got at least 30 min per day in class to get it going. |
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The Great Carpezio
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Post by The Great Carpezio on Dec 6, 2019 14:40:13 GMT
That sounds like too much homework. I would make sure he is using class time and I’d check I with other parents to see if this is happening to other kids. Seaexplore you really expect an hour a day? Wow. Yes, because they’ve usually got at least 30 min per day in class to get it going. So, if they are using their time in class, it is 30 minutes of homework? Still seems a bit high for every night, but that is much better. That is about what my one son has each night. The other one rarely has math homework. Same course, different teachers. |
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Post by Baseballmom23 on Dec 6, 2019 15:15:07 GMT
I wish the entire country would adopt no homework, reintroduce study hall and extend the school day or year if they have to get more work done than they currently can in the allotted time. I feel we should be encouraged to leave our work at work and not bring it home, and for kids, school work is their work, so do it in school and let home life be home life. ^^^^^ This is a good idea! |
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muggins
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Post by muggins on Dec 6, 2019 16:13:53 GMT
Yes, I’ve spoken to other parents and they seem to just accept that the MS kids get a ton of homework. I don’t know if any have complained to the school. There is nothing in the online parent/student handbook about the time allotted for homework. According to DS, some teachers spend the class time lecturing or giving presentations and assign the actual work for hw. Also, some teachers start a project in class and have the kids finish it for hw. Today SS hw was a packet of 6 worksheets with tons of questions requiring detailed answers found in the textbook. It was very time consuming to say the least despite DS having done some of it in class. I could see SS homework taking longer for your DS if he hasn’t lived in the US for very long. Especially since schools love their local/state history! My kids are military kids who moved around a lot in their elementary school years. They frequently had to learn things like the state rivers and geographical regions that the local kids had known for most of their life. Your son is also still settling in and just learning how to live in another country. If you are in in an area of high achievers (including parents), school is a big deal. A very big deal. When we lived in Boston, we had a monthly parent coffee and the parents all lamented when a teacher didn’t give much homework. The ending lament was always that their kid would end up in community college or a state school. Those schools were awesome, but there was a lot of homework. And, as others have said, how much is your DS doing during school hours? I had one kid who hardly ever had much homework, but he did it during class, during lunch, and in study hall before sports practices. The other kid always had hours of homework, but never did any of it during school because she didn’t focus well with distractions and would talk to her friends (the distractions!) He has been to 2 very high achieving private international schools since 2nd grade. Both teaching the American curriculum. So he’s familiar with some of the content. Although when we were in the U.K. he studied British history which he enjoyed. At the risk of offending some US peas, he finds the history of US taxes and the constitution deathly boring do the work is a slog due to the content and the way it’s presented. Unfortunately there is no time during the school day to complete any hw. They have 25 minutes for lunch and no study hall. Before school they are corralled into a portion of the hallway which is standing room only until ten minutes before school starts. |
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Rhondito
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Post by Rhondito on Dec 6, 2019 16:35:46 GMT
Middle school math teacher here. My kids are expected to do one hour of math a night. Sorry, but that's ridiculous. I know I don't want to leave my job after working 8 hours only to sit back down at the computer and start working again. As others have pointed out, if you're giving an hour's worth of HW and other teachers are as well then the kids are doing nothing but school work every single day. You said you assign an hour's worth of HW because you know they'll do 30 minutes of it in class. Why not just assign half the work so they can get it all done in class? |
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Post by 950nancy on Dec 6, 2019 17:40:26 GMT
I started all assignments in class. I wanted to know that my students knew how to do the skill (until they didn't). At the end of the day, my kids could have had 0-4 assignments to complete. I was their only teacher giving homework. Many took home nothing and some had hours according to their parents. It should never have taken (much) more than the class time given. Kids work at all different paces and learn differently. Some kids wanted to take home their papers and some parents demanded it. Some parents made them redo every assignment at home. At conferences I could always guarantee that there would be parents complaining that I didn't give enough and some complaining that I gave too much. It was a no win situation.
If a child doesn't/won't/can't complete the assignment in class, they needed to take it home. I wasn't assigning extra work to do at home. I was assigning work to prove to me they had mastered it. Kids' abilities or actions decided whether they took it home or not.
Do I think my kid had too much homework in high school? Maybe. He worked for hours each night and on weekends. He gave up sports to take advanced classes. He says it completely prepared him for college and work. I think it can be a fine line between preparing and pushing. My husband teaches at the college level and is sometimes shocked at how unprepared kids are for completing assignments on their own time.
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seaexplore
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Post by seaexplore on Dec 7, 2019 2:57:40 GMT
Yes, because they’ve usually got at least 30 min per day in class to get it going. So, if they are using their time in class, it is 30 minutes of homework? Still seems a bit high for every night, but that is much better. That is about what my one son has each night. The other one rarely has math homework. Same course, different teachers. 30 minutes of math a night is too much for an 8th grader? Really? |
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