Homework over spring break (long)

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 21:56:37 EDT, "Beth Gallagher"
wrotE:

It just should never have been an issue anyway -- none of the kids should
have been sent home for vacation with a research project to do. Not at that
age.

I've seen a couple of people say this and I'm curious, what has age
got to do with it?

Older kids get assigned more complex research projects and these same
kids have families, take vacations, and need down time.

In article ,
(workerbee) wrote:

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 21:56:37 EDT, "Beth Gallagher"
wrotE:

It just should never have been an issue anyway -- none of the kids should
have been sent home for vacation with a research project to do. Not at that
age.

I've seen a couple of people say this and I'm curious, what has age
got to do with it?

Older kids get assigned more complex research projects and these same
kids have families, take vacations, and need down time.


It's been my experience that with OLDER kids, the assignment is given
out well in advance. It might have a due date immediately after
vacation, buy if my kid is doing it during vacation week, it's because
of their own procrastination -- NOT because they were given the
assignment to do over vacation.

About the only exception I can think of is when my kids have been given
an assigment of reading: expected to read for a certain number of
minutes during vacation week, and, since they could read whatever they
wanted to read, and it gave ME time to read, I never objected to that.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

"workerbee" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 21:56:37 EDT, "Beth Gallagher"
wrotE:

It just should never have been an issue anyway -- none of the kids should
have been sent home for vacation with a research project to do. Not at
that
age.

I've seen a couple of people say this and I'm curious, what has age
got to do with it?

Older kids get assigned more complex research projects and these same
kids have families, take vacations, and need down time.

Middle and high school classes usually have syllabuses, so any major project
is known about months in advance. If the student decides to leave it for the
vacation, that's fine, but it isn't required that they work over the break.
AP and advanced level classes normally have huge reading assignments, but if
the student wants to read everything before school even starts (which I did,
because the summer before my senior year, I had a job which allowed quite a
bit of time sitting and waiting to answer phones, so it was good reading
time), that's perfectly fine.

"dragonlady" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(workerbee) wrote:

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 21:56:37 EDT, "Beth Gallagher"
wrotE:
It's been my experience that with OLDER kids, the assignment is given
out well in advance. It might have a due date immediately after
vacation, buy if my kid is doing it during vacation week, it's because
of their own procrastination -- NOT because they were given the
assignment to do over vacation.

About the only exception I can think of is when my kids have been given
an assigment of reading: expected to read for a certain number of
minutes during vacation week, and, since they could read whatever they
wanted to read, and it gave ME time to read, I never objected to that.

How old were these older kids? Are there schools out there assigning
timed reading in middle and high school? Just curious.

In article ,
"Cathy Kearns" wrote:

"dragonlady" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(workerbee) wrote:

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 21:56:37 EDT, "Beth Gallagher"
wrotE:
It's been my experience that with OLDER kids, the assignment is given
out well in advance. It might have a due date immediately after
vacation, buy if my kid is doing it during vacation week, it's because
of their own procrastination -- NOT because they were given the
assignment to do over vacation.

About the only exception I can think of is when my kids have been given
an assigment of reading: expected to read for a certain number of
minutes during vacation week, and, since they could read whatever they
wanted to read, and it gave ME time to read, I never objected to that.

How old were these older kids? Are there schools out there assigning
timed reading in middle and high school? Just curious.


In middle school -- at least, in 5th and 6th grades -- they were.

I think it was kind of an extension of the DEAR (Drop Everything And
Read) program in the school: during some specific period of time every
day, everyone in the school building, including custodians, secretaries,
volunteers there that day and administrative staff had to drop whatever
else they were doing and read. I kind of liked it.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

"workerbee" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 21:56:37 EDT, "Beth Gallagher"
wrotE:

It just should never have been an issue anyway -- none of the kids should
have been sent home for vacation with a research project to do. Not at
that
age.

I've seen a couple of people say this and I'm curious, what has age
got to do with it?

Older kids get assigned more complex research projects and these same
kids have families, take vacations, and need down time.

You know, you're right. I feel OK with kids having more homework to do as
they get older, but I still think that schools, including high schools,
should treat vacations as just that. (...with the caveat that if an
assignment is handed out well in advance of a vacation but due right after
one, then it's up to the kids to make sure it's done before the vacation
starts, if they want to or need to.)

Fact is, my oldest is only in 3rd grade, and when he was pre-school-aged, I
used to be very pro-homework. It's only been experiencing (as a parent) the
wonders of childhood along with the reality of school, its many demands, its
long hours, and the many learning opportunities it makes impossible due to
those demands and hours that has made me an anti-homework zealot. I'm not
sure how I'll feel about the tons of homework most high schoolers seem to
get these days when I have high schoolers. I probably won't like it. There's
more to learning that school-book-learning, in any grade, and there's more
to life than work, at any age. Beth

"dragonlady" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Cathy Kearns" wrote:

How old were these older kids? Are there schools out there assigning
timed reading in middle and high school? Just curious.


In middle school -- at least, in 5th and 6th grades -- they were.

I think it was kind of an extension of the DEAR (Drop Everything And
Read) program in the school: during some specific period of time every
day, everyone in the school building, including custodians, secretaries,
volunteers there that day and administrative staff had to drop whatever
else they were doing and read. I kind of liked it.

We're in the same county, but not the same school district, but my middle
schoolers still do have DEAR every day. And I love it, mostly because one of
my kids is a huge reader and this is the only time he willingly shuts up
during the entire school day, according to his teachers, whilst my other
middle schooler isn't a great reader and this is the onnly time she actually
WILL read voluntarily. In our school there are bean bags all over the
classroom and the kids get on the (carpeted) floor and read. As Marie said,
even the janitorial staff reads during this time, and it's not unusual to
find a lot of people, adults and kids, draped all over the walkways and
picnic tables during DEAR time. I think it's a great program.

My kids are also assigned reading time at home, 1/2 hour a night. One kid
reads a good 2.5 to 3 hours per night, the other one doesn't touch a book
unless she's really into one from DEAR time. But they have reading records
and I do have to sign them. It's amazing what a great forger my non-reader
has become. :-)

Marjorie

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 17:18:23 EDT, dragonlady
wrotE:

It just should never have been an issue anyway -- none of the kids should
have been sent home for vacation with a research project to do. Not at that
age.

I've seen a couple of people say this and I'm curious, what has age
got to do with it?

It's been my experience that with OLDER kids, the assignment is given
out well in advance. It might have a due date immediately after
vacation, buy if my kid is doing it during vacation week, it's because
of their own procrastination -- NOT because they were given the
assignment to do over vacation.

I am not asking about assignments given out well in advance. The
first comment, noted above, indicates that it would be o.k. to send an
older child home for vacation with a research project to do. I am
asking why.

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 18:01:25 EDT, "Donna Metler"
wrotE:

Middle and high school classes usually have syllabuses, so any major project
is known about months in advance.

This is only my personal experience but I have one child who is out of
HS and one who is a Jr. in high school. They nave NEVER, in any
class, been given a syllabus. They attended different private
schools, so it is not just one school. I attended the public schools
in the same system and was never given a syllabus, either. That
didn't happen until college.

If the student decides to leave it for the
vacation, that's fine, but it isn't required that they work over the break.

This is beside the point. The child of the original poster was given
the assignment immediately before spring break and was unable to
complete it because said child was on vacation. A few responses
indicated that it was unfair at that age. I want to know what makes
it fair to give out such an assignment immediately before spring break
if the child is older. Had the child in question been given the
assignment well in advance this would never have become an issue.

As a middle school teacher I would occasionally assign an extra credit
project over the holidays - totally voluntary and optional. One year
I asked the kids to check their families for dominant recessive
characteristics like tongue rolling, double jointedness, Darwin's
tubcule etc. Those children that were adopted could check their
adoptive family excluding themselves. If they did it, it would be an
extra mark. If not, it didn't subtract anything.

I had a quarter long project each quarter with intermediate checks
although I don't know if that was a syllabus. Some kids may have put
these projects off until the breaks or done them at the last minute,
but it wasn't because I assigned them at the last minute.

Sometimes my kids would have a paper given out at the beginning of
the year (in hs) which had a rough outline of what was to be covered.

I wonder if this teacher is unintentionally teaching the kids that a
deadline isn't really a deadline?? I'm sure she doesn't mean it that
way, but that seems to be the way it has worked out.

My dd#2 was a CS major, and she objected to the way assignments were
given - half the parameters not explained until it was necessary to
pull and all-nighter to get done. She liked to schedule her work so
she didn't have to do that. There was some intimation that this was
the way CS is in the real world, and she should get used to it, but
she just thought it was sloppy planning on their part, and switched to
a straight math major.


grandma Rosalie