I have a question

My dyslexic son started middle school this year.
His IEP is this month but I’ve already started working with teachers to
modify his work.

We stopped having him do spelling tests (we still work on the vocabulary
component). I get notifications of reading assignments early, he dictates
his answers for me to type. I asked that he be excused from watching
videos, reading questions and answering these questions all in the space
of the video being watched. I have sent in notes that he will not be
doing word searches for music and took him to a concert instead.

The moral of this story is that I decide, based on my observations of
him at home, how much homework he is going to do and what he is going
to do. I always follow up with an email to the teacher explaining my
reasons.

So far, so good! And that is why I’m taking a box of chocolates to
our IEP meeting. Sympathetic, understanding teachers deserve chocolate!!

Anne

and have posted about it before here. Most research studies indicate *any* homework prior to 5th grade is counter-productive, and that the current trends in the U.S. of sending homework home with young students is absolutely ridiculous.

What I have found is that 20 minutes of one-on-one homeschooling with my daughter is worth much more than an hour of school time. I am wondering if that is the ratio you are remembering, because it’s pretty standard. This is why homeschoolers can get away with spending only 2 or 3 hours a day on academics — and still accomplish more than a school can in 7 hours a day.

Especially with ld kids, I think it’s important for parents to exercise their power (many parents think they don’t have any power, but this is not true) and limit homework to reasonable amounts of time. Children need time for a social life to learn social skills, and they need time with their parents — free of homework constraints — to develop emotional bonds.

Many teachers simply don’t understand how much time an ld kid can have to spend on homework. Once they are told that the child is spending two hours on a 20-minute assignment, they are horrified. If they aren’t, then a parent can simply inform the school that the child will spend a specified, reasonable amount of time on homework every day. Period.

Mary

THANK YOU! I thought I was crazy for feeling exactly the way you stated. I’ve wrestled with this for 2 years now wondering if I was just giving up or if I really had a legitimate point. ABSOLUTELY, KIDS NEED TIME TO BE KIDS and they WORK 7 hours a day. As a working adult, if I knew I had manditory work to bring home every night after putting in my time at work, I’d be disagreeable too! Especially our kids that have disabilities. I know my son (who has several disabilities) works his behind off all day just to keep up with the rest of the class. I almost feel as if I torture him as we battle with homework every night. I agree too that teachers really don’t understand what’s going on. Those precious few hours between school ending, working parents coming home, and bedtime could be MUCH BETTER SPENT then battling the homework war.

I’m in total agreement. Homework’s value, in my opinion, is a myth, particularly at the elementary level. I do believe in some regular daily math practice and I also believe that kids should be reading at home. That’s about it - everything else ought to be accomplished in school. I don’t teach in public school and that’s part of the reason.

I like the 20 minute rule for elementary aged kids. I firmly believe that kids need to get outside and get some physical activity once they’re home far more than they need to be sitting down engaged in homework. And it’s even more ridiculous when the parent is stuck doing the homework with the child: what’s the point? If anything, if a child’s going to have homework that requires a parent’s assistance, then make it an interesting project that they can do together as a fun family activity. There are loads of ways to do that. But I don’t think it needs to come from the teacher - families can choose their own ideas.

Thanks for all of your responses. My daughter is no longer identified as LD (phonographix and audiblox) and is in 6th grade-a middle school this year. She has worked so hard and come so far and it makes me so ANGRY when she has so much homework. She’s like a lot of kids (ld and nonld) who need a lot of repetition with new material before she really gets it. This isn’t happening at all in any of her classes. Last quarter her science teacher was spending one day on each chapter on the unit they were learning. She would bring home these worksheets every night over a new chapter when she hadn’t really learned the previous chapter that well. Now this wasn’t every single day, but it was happening enough that I was getting really fed up with it. Not only does she have all of this homework, but she’s supposed to read 4 books a quarter (when??) and she does play the violin, but she never gets a chance to practice except on week-ends. I have no problem with going to the teachers and (hopefully) asking nicely to to cut back on homework or to let them know that my daughter will only do homework for 1-2 hours a night. If she doesn’t get it done, it’s not done. HOWEVER, my daughter doesn’t want me to do this. She knows what it’s like to be different and she wants to do what everyone else is suppose to do. From talking to other parents I think all of the 6th graders are suffering from too much homework. I think no one wants to complain because they don’t want the school to think their child is a wimp. I mean all of this homework and all of these tests must mean their child is getting a good education, right?? WRONG!!!!

I’ll do a little bragging now. This is my daughter’s first year being a non-ld kid since 2nd grade and she is pulling a B+ average. I’ve helped her with phonographix and audiblox, but she has to do the work in school herself. I’m really proud of her!!

Again, thanks for all of your responses.

… maybe other parents would step forward and do the same thing. Why assume people will think she’s a wimp — it’s hardly wimpy to step forward and defy the status quo :)

We are lucky. Our school principal has laid down the law about homework. Only 10 minutes of homework per grade level. So, 1st graders get a maximum of 10 min. 2nd graders - 20 min. 3rd graders - 30 min. In 4th grade, it seems like we get practically no homework except for 1 math practice sheet and study spelling.

Now… my son brings home unfinished school work for extra homework sometimes. It can really add up. But, I’ve got a deal with his teacher. If it takes him longer than 30 minutes for reasons not due to procrastination, I put a stop sign with the time spent on his work. More often though, I will let him dictate his answers to me, so that I do the writing. I make a note on the page that the answers were dictated. His teacher knows that I work with our son plenty. So, she is fine with it all. Some nights we will spend more time on homework. But, I will often read the questions to my son, so that he doesn’t have to work so hard. I’d rather save his energy for reading at home for fun books.

My son’s teacher is great with email this year. I can send her a short note if something could not get finished, and she can deal with it at school. I am respectful to her and always let her know that we want to follow her rules and guidelines.

One other thing… our school has a reading program where the kids have to read a certain number of books each semester to attend a party. There are other programs where they read for so many minutes to get a Pizza Hut certificate. I believe that it is important for my son to participate in these programs. But all the extra reading can be too much for him. So, we’ve modified the rules a bit so that he can participate. We count books that we have read together. He will just have to read a few pages in each chapter. We also count library books that have been turned in, if he has read atleast 2/3 of the book. We try to read many of the books during the summer and holiday breaks, so that there is no pressure during the regular school year. In spite of my son’s struggles, he still has a good attitude about reading books. He chooses books which are easy for him to read. But, gradually he is choosing longer chapter books. When he started to loose interest in reading last summer, we got him some comic books. I had to search Ebay for old comics because the new ones are crummy or too violent. But, he loves the old Batman comics. I found a hardback book with a collection of all the famous old comics. He loves it.

Well, I’m off the homework topic. Sorry. Good luck with reducing your child’s load.

Rosie

Rosie,

I like your principal’s philosophy. It makes me sick to my stomach when I think of little kids spending hours on homework.

When my son was growing up, he was a poor reader. I remember that we used to read together in the way you described and I did the same thing with him, having him read a couple pages here and there so he could qualify for those library rewards programs. My attitude about any of that is that it took far more work, concentration and effort for my son to read those couple of pages than it took most of his classmates to read the entire book! For once I’d just love for these kids to get the recognition they deserve. There’s nothing admirable in easily doing something that already comes easy to you. But we reward those kids.

I agree completely. Our school also has a great program called the “Courage Awards.” Award certificates are given out 3 times a year. There is the “Courage to Work Hard”, “Courage to Help Others”, and “Courage to Do the Right Thing” (relates to standing up against peer pressure).

The teachers in each class can nominate 1-2 kids in his/her class at the end of each reporting period for each award. So, up to 6 kids in a class could potentially receive the award each time. And, if there is not a strong candidate for an award, the teacher may not nominate anyone that time. The awards are given out with the Honor Roll certificates in an assembly. The kids also get to go on special lunch with the principal a week later. It is a really neat program which helps to recognize kids who might not otherwise ever get an award for anything.

I think it is especially important for kids who have a tough time with reading to be encouraged to participate in reading incentive programs. We modified what used to be considered a “Honor Roll” program for reading, into a program that encourages everyone to participate. Kids with reading problems, maybe even more than any other kids, need to have enjoyable experiences with books. You can win the battle of teaching your child to read, but lose the war if they hate to read and never learn to appreciate the stories in books. I know reading is a real struggle for our kids. And as kids gets into the older grades there is so much textbook reading, that recreational reading can disappear.

We see a dramatic drop-off in participation in the reading incentive program in 4th & 5th grade at our school among all the kids, especially boys.

I’ve been able to keep my son interested in books by letting him choose books at the reading level he wants, and reading TO HIM books at the next level up. We usually take turns on reading textbook information. I’d rather my son read for 15-30 minutes for fun, than complete homework that is busy work or frustrating for him. I’ve told his teacher this in an upbeat way. She agrees with me. It is hard some nights when we have a big test the next day. But, even if it means staying up past bedtime, we try to do at least 15 minutes for fun reading each night.

I don’t like homework and I’ve said that many times before on the BB. As a teacher and as a parent, I think it hurts more kids than it might help.

The only book written about homework is John Buell’s The End of Homework. It’s not an easy read but it’s still worth reading.

Having taught for 20 years, I can safely say I think homework has been on the rise. It’s now ‘la fait accompli’ that teachers will assign homework - even in the very young grades. The pressure to assign homework every night results in poorly thought-out assignments and tired children.

Teachers rush because their classes have too many children in them and increasing numbers of restless children. We’re teaching more and more in “sound-bites” - jam-packed minutes while we have most of their attention. Kids today have short attention spans - they’re used to the wonder of the changing screens of their tvs and their computers and it’s hard for them to sit, settle, and focus.

That’s one reason why there’s more important. Tasks that were able to be accomplished in school years ago, tasks that required thoughtful seat work, can’t be completed at school anymore.