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#1
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, then
I'm sure many of you have encountered this problem: My 8 YO has a very
easy time with his 3rd grade work; so far, none of it is challenging to him. However, on his homework, we see him making TONs of errors that are clearly due to carelessness. They range from skipping whole problems/lines of homework to making computation errors. I know the computation errors are due to carelessness because if I simply mark them wrong, he can immediately fix them with no help. It's like he didn't really look at them the first time. He does work *very* fast. The problem is especially bad in math, for some reason. If it's bad at home, it must also be happening in school. I'm concerned about this carelessness causing some bad grades on tests. What have you done about this? Let some bad grades happen and hopefully motivate the child to be more careful? Offer rewards for homework done right the first time? But even if we used that approach, I'd worry that in school, where the only reward comes later in the form of good grades, he would still rush through work and be careless. I have heard people blame carelessness on boredom, saying that when their kids got challenging work, they started working harder and being more careful. Makes sense to me, but I'm loathe to assume that in this case, because math is my son's worst school subject (though I don't believe he is *challenged* by his 3rd grade math; he just isn't as advanced in it) but the one he makes the most errors on. Thanks! |
#2
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I had a professor in college who used to bug me about this issue. In
fact, I remember a test that he handed back to me to "look over one more time." In the first place, don't make a big deal out it. On the other hand, why not make it more fun. Let him "grade" his paper with a red pen. Overall, it's the teacher's right to grade the papers, so I would encourage you to remove yourself from the process. The more involved you are, the more your child needs you in the process of getting homework done. Definitely let him get some bad grades and talk to him about the cause and effect. Karen G |
#3
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#4
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Karen G writes:
Overall, it's the teacher's right to grade the papers, so I would encourage you to remove yourself from the process. The more involved you are, the more your child needs you in the process of getting homework done. Definitely let him get some bad grades and talk to him about the cause and effect. I fundamentally object to this idea that education is something that somehow is between teachers and children, and that parents have no place in it, or that their role is somehow secondary. Indeed, I'd say that this attitude is why a lot of children don't do better in school. The biggest issue that I see is that, if your school is anywhere near typical, the parent has far more time to address the child's problems than the teacher does. The teacher might have well over 20 students; most parents have only a few. Even if your teacher is phenomenally talented, there are limits to what he or she can accomplish. I also disagree with the whole idea that the "bad grades" are the "effect" to be considered here. The goal of education is learning, not grades. Grades are, at most, a measurement of learning (and often not even that). If the only reason you can give your child to do better in school is to get better grades, I think that's pretty poor support for future academic achievement. And what happens when your child figures out that it really makes zero difference what grades they get? (I remember learning this for myself in the 7th grade, when I didn't bother to do some assignments, got a bad grade on my report card, and I suddenly realized, "So what," it didn't make any difference at all. So much for grades as a motivator.) What about doing the assignments better because they, themselves, have value? Or, if the assignments really don't have value (not too infrequently the case, I'm afraid), address that directly. The OP says that the assignments are not challenging. I think that it's not the least bit surprising that that leads to poor performance on them. I think the child can see for himself that there is no point to them, and the faster he gets through them, the sooner he can go do something fun. The parent can try to get more challenging assignments. Or help the child find ways to make the assignment more challenging. Or discuss with the child how learning to be careful and thorough is important, even if the assignments aren't challenging. I can think of a bunch of different approaches. But doing nothing, except hoping that the threat of "bad grades" will somehow motivate different behavior, sounds like a recipe for failure, to me. As well as turning an above-grade-level student into one who sees a lack of merit in education. David desJardins |
#5
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"Nevermind" writes:
What have you done about this? Let some bad grades happen and hopefully motivate the child to be more careful? Offer rewards for homework done right the first time? But even if we used that approach, I'd worry that in school, where the only reward comes later in the form of good grades, he would still rush through work and be careless. Arrgh. "Good grades" are not the reward for doing schoolwork. The satisfaction of getting the right answer is the reward. Enjoying the mental challenge is the reward. Learning something is the reward. Even the approval of your parents and peers (if you have the right peers) can be the reward. I don't think you can really be successful in school unless you have many much more important reasons to do schoolwork, than grades. David desJardins |
#6
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I would share your concerns about the homework with your son's teacher and
see what he says. The three of you should work on this together. Jeff |
#7
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Education is a family affair, but grading and the completion of
assignments should be between teachers and students. Part of learning math, science, history, and grammar is learning responsibility. I personally think that the increased involvement of parents in the homework process factors into why kids don't do better in school. On the outside, this might be a six of one/half dozen of the issue though. Some parents create a good environment for personal responsibility where kids discuss their homework with their parents and get help when needed, but are completely self-motivated to do it. Other parents create environments where children learn just as much, but the homework is a parent/child activity. As long as the homework is getting done in a positive "learning" environment where the child is understanding and answering the questions, it probably doesn't make much difference beyond personal choice. These are all of the good situations though. There are situations where the child is bringing the homework home and just writing down the answers that the parent supplies. This is obvious not the degree of involvment that is appropriate, but it is happening. Furthermore, when the homework is not within the capability of the majority of children in the class, the teacher needs to know and make changes (the same thing applies to tests). If the parents are buffering the homework performance, hypothetically that problem would be less obvious. Going a bit further, if personal responsibility is the problem, I am not sure that a parent can fix it. They can more easily recognize it, but fixing it is more of a pass/fail exercise of "did you get it right or did you get it wrong." Unless the child understands the problem and wants to fix it, the problem remains the parent's problem or becomes a learning roadblock long term. What about doing the assignments better because they, themselves, have value? Or, if the assignments really don't have value (not too infrequently the case, I'm afraid), address that directly. This is the key to the joy of learning. My husband is very interesting to talk to because he enjoys learning about everything. I tend not to be as interesting because I only like to learn about things that I am interested in. Karen G |
#8
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Nevermind wrote in :
[snip] What have you done about this? Let some bad grades happen and hopefully motivate the child to be more careful? Offer rewards for homework done right the first time? But even if we used that approach, I'd worry that in school, where the only reward comes later in the form of good grades, he would still rush through work and be careless. I have heard people blame carelessness on boredom, saying that when their kids got challenging work, they started working harder and being more careful. Makes sense to me, but I'm loathe to assume that in this case, because math is my son's worst school subject (though I don't believe he is challenged by his 3rd grade math; he just isn't as advanced in it) but the one he makes the most errors on. This sounds very like me at school. I was good at maths, so I could to rush through the problems and usually get them right. Of course I would make the careless mistakes, as well. In early years, the most effective 'punishment' was to make me go back and do it all again, properly. Later on, when the work was harder, I had to be more careful because I couldn't see the answer just from reading through the questions. -- Penny Gaines UK mum to three |
#9
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In article , Karen G says...
Education is a family affair, but grading and the completion of assignments should be between teachers and students. Part of learning math, science, history, and grammar is learning responsibility. I personally think that the increased involvement of parents in the homework process factors into why kids don't do better in school. ::snip:: I think school is a kid's early encounters with the wider world, and responsiblity in the wider world. IMO the parents need to set the home environment, as you say in your post, but otherwise their roles is as a facilitator and helper, and really should not have homework primarily a parent-child activity. The teachers are professionals who know what and how to teach. And the student's responsibilites are to himself and to the teacher primarily. I do think parents can and do get in the way by being to involved. What about doing the assignments better because they, themselves, have value? Or, if the assignments really don't have value (not too infrequently the case, I'm afraid), address that directly. This is the key to the joy of learning. My husband is very interesting to talk to because he enjoys learning about everything. I tend not to be as interesting because I only like to learn about things that I am interested in. Right. Some folks are process-oriented and tend more to learn to learn, others are more goal-oriented and will go for the grade. It's not a personal deficit to study for the grade rather than for the interest in the assignment - indeed there will always be some assignments less interesting and/or valuable than others. Getting these done too is part of learning responsibility in the wider world. They're not mutually exclusive anyway. My son has areas of interest where he loves to learn, and in great detail, on his own for the joy of learning of it. WWII history being his current fascination. But he is also strongly motivated by getting a decent grade because he's internalized that he needs to perform and deliver for his teacher. And that's a good thing. Banty |
#10
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In article ,
Karen G wrote: Education is a family affair, but grading and the completion of assignments should be between teachers and students. I explicitly asked my oldest child's 3rd grade teacher how she felt about the parents' role in homework. She asked that we look the homework over and help our children with the parts, if any, they seemed to have trouble with. She would of course try to do the same if the work came in with errors, and on work done during the school day, but she echoed David's feeling that parents have more one-on-one time with their kids and can be more helpful in nipping small problems in the bud. If there were ever a stiuation where I felt the teacher should be made aware of the difficulty my child was having, I sent a note (or an email). There is generally plenty of in-class work for the teacher to discern any issues that requires her additional attention. So... I might start by asking the teacher what approach s/he would like you to take to the issue of carelessly completed homework. I liked the idea of saying how many were wrong, but making the child find them. It's good practice for checking your work on tests later. --Robyn |
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