Types of Homework

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The last homework thread got me thinking, and trying to remember what types of homework I had as a child. I rarely was stressed about it, and I rarely felt it was worthless, while my son is always stressed about it and almost always feels it is worthless.

My son's homework (6th grade) tends to look like this:

A sheet of math problems with a heavy language arts component (written out answers).
A sheet of science write up (again, a heavy language arts component).
2-3 sheets of grammar and spelling work.
1 chapter of reading.
1-2 paragraphs of other writing.
1-2 times a week test study.

Total time: 2 hours (all answers have to be written out and there is no multiple choice)

Basically, it's 90% pencil in hand for a child who has a physical issue with his hands, and for whom writing of any sort is physically painful. Some can be done on his Alphasmart, but that is still very slow for him.

As I recall it, my homework looked more like this:

Read a page or two in a math text book (my son doesn't even HAVE a math textbook, that I'm aware of); sometimes we might have a few challenging problems to "try out" instead.
Read a page or two in a history or social science text book.
Read a page or two in a science text book.
Either read a few pages in a novel or work on a writing project for language arts.
1-2 times a week study for a test.

Total time in Middle School: 1/2 - 1 hour

Nan posted that it is generally accepted among teachers while training that worksheets are busy work. And, yet, that is most of my son's homework. Is this because it is tangible, something that can be enforced and graded?

When are the kids doing their conceptual reading? In class?? Or are they just skipping this now? Why?

If my son's homework looked like I remember mine used to, he'd be fine with it, I really believe that. But it doesn't look like mine did at all. And almost all of it goes into his grade.

What are your observations on the way the concept of homework has changed?

That sounds like way too much homework.

Is there a "study hall" class he could have an hour a day to help him catch up throughout the day?

I would get in contact with the teacher(s) ASAP about that workload. There are parents of NT children that don't put up with that much work per day, and I don't think that much work should be expected of a kid with AS either.

How are his grades otherwise? Is he doing well on tests and larger projects? Perhaps you could eliminate homework from his grading and just focus on the larger grades like on tests and reports.

Mage, we're already going around and around with the school and the IEP team about the volume of homework and possible solutions. AND I have gotten myself added to a school-wide task force on the issue of homework, because what I've posted here isn't even the half of it. Part of the problem is that he is in advanced classes, and apparently they are not required to allow reduced assignments for IEP kids in advanced classes (we've been round on this already, too). But even "on level" the homework standard is 90 minutes a day, and not that different from what I posted; we would just be able to obtain parental discretion under the IEP to cut it without penalty. But my son doesn't want to switch to "on level" because, as you know, AS tend to need consistency and be resistant to change. The idea of change stresses him out more, so far, than trying to work 2 hours a night.

My son is actually floating at the moment (B to B- average) but is showing a lot of signs of stress, to the point that I am really worried about melt downs, and getting him through the work is taking a monumental effort from me, and hurting the entire family. But I've talked to parents; this isn't just an AS issue, it's a whole academic philosophy issue, and part of the school structure, which is why I volunteered for the homework task force.

So, what I'm really looking for here are ideas and concepts I can take into both IEP and task force meetings. I want to know what other schools are doing, and how other kids are affected. What the philosophies are, etc. And thinking back on my own education (also in advanced classes) made me realize what a huge change there has been just in the composition of work sent home, so that seemed like a good place to start the discussion.

Until I was almost 12 I didn't have any homework, at all, ( I went to a progressive primary/middle school; since then things seem to have gone backwards rather than forwards, by the sound of it ). When I started at girls' grammar school homework was, for a term or so, an entertaining novelty for me, ( if not most of the other girls who were weary of it already after years of it at more urban/traditional middle-schools ).

It was a mixture of about three-quarters written work and a quarter reading: including creative writing, grammar exercises, ( in english and french ), reading, ( mainly in history, english lit, and french ), many maths questions/exercises, science, ( chemistry, physics, and biology ), experiments to write up, and various projects involving writing and diagrams and glueing pictures etc.

It took me about an hour and a half to do each evening; more or less, depending on how much of it I could leave until the last moment on Sunday, when I sometimes ended up spending most of the day on it.
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I feel like grading a student with a handwriting disability, on their ability to write for long periods of time. Is like grading someone who is in a wheelchair, for their attempts at being able to walk.

My 14yrs AS child didn't do homework well. It was a stuggle to get anything done. My LD(8yrs) son is also dragging out homework. He just gets a daily math sheet and reading, each night.
It is very stressful too!

Ask the teacher, if you could be his scribe for doing homework. My friend acts as a scribe for her 13 yrs old son. It has helped them get the homework done faster.

Also ask if you can provide a laptop that is easier for him to read his work, and that connects to a printer for printing out at home or school. We use a jump drive to transfer his completed writtien assignments from home to school. That way he can also use your home computer. My AS son has brought his laptop to school for special assignments .

have you tried looking for computer programs that are speech-to-text ?.......this would allow him to say his answer out loud, & the computer would type it up for him

here's a link to a program that does speech to text


http://www.nuance.com/talk/

I think it's ridiculous.

My son is in 3rd grade, and we're sitting there for an hour or 2 every night. When I was in 3rd grade I remember getting some reading or a worksheet every now & then, nothing like this, and never every day at this age.

They sit in school for 7 hours, by the time he rolls off of the bus it's 3:45. If he doesn't unwind from the day for at least a half an hour we have problems, so by the time he unwinds and has something to eat it's around 5:00...if he gets done at 6:00 he has about an hour to play before he gets a bath, then we get about and hour to watch a little TV or do something together and he's in bed at 9:00.

His grades are wonderful so far, but he's stressed, I'm stressed, he drags it out every night and seems to just have a really hard time focusing on it after school...I'm dreading to see what 2 more years are going to bring.

There are other schools elsewhere that have adopted a "no homework policy", honestly I think it's a good thing.

Get the school to agree to a reader/writer situation being allowed at times when it would be helpful. We have this with my 8 yr old AS son. Often AS kids are very bright and know all the answers, but the effort it takes to write them all down is very draining and off-putting. When my son is struggling (which usually means refusing to do work!) the teacher or teacher aide will often offer to write for him. I do this at home with homework. He can prattle off all the answers to a maths sheet in about 15 seconds, when it would have taken him 10 minutes to do the sheet. Sometimes I will write some and then get him to do the next section. This works well, as it still means that it is their work, but it takes the stress of writing out for them. You can even make these sort of arrangements in exams when they are older.

We are allowed to write for him, and his is using an Alphasmart, plus is supposed to be getting a tape recorder for in the classroom (where time is an issue). Voice software has been discussed and I have chosen not to go there ... I really, really want him to learn to type and to type with good spelling and grammar so that he will be self-sufficient in the long run. I would rather have him do less work and complete it himself than rely on dictation, etc., in order to simply make it through. Making it through may help with grades, but it doesn't give HIM what he needs most. I honestly feel that the "best" solution is less work done as independently as possible; other solutions just teach him to be dependent either on a tool or on us. We did that through fifth grade because that is what he needed, but he is READY and EXCITED to advance and become more independent, it's just VOLUME getting in his way.

We're already going round with the special ed department on ALL these issues. That isn't what I meant from this thread. It is becoming apparent to me that our real issue here is systemic, with the school, and how it views homework. So I want feedback on homework experiences, not ideas on how to get my son through. I feel I really do know what needs to be done there, what I need is data and talking points that go beyond his specific disability and address the whole homework question as a whole, for all kids his age.

Not only did I not get any homework at all until I was 12, and my son is home-unschooling, but when my father was still teaching ( mainly 8-12 year olds, after a five year stint with 12- 18 year olds but whom he found too wrecked by school for real learning ), he didn't used to give out homework, and parents actually complained.

I agree completely with DW_a-mom, homework is a serious blight on something, ( school ), which is already blighting enough without it.

But it's probably just another piece of evidence that the profound purpose of school is not learning, but that of preventing children from thinking for themselves; lots of mindless activity/makework to stop them using their minds.

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