How to End the Homework Wars
Want to know how to end the battles between teachers and parents over homework?
Cathy Vatterott, an associate professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and author of the ASCD book Rethinking Homework, says ending tensions over homework requires teachers to assign reasonable amounts of homework, and not just busy work. It should enhance learning and students should be able to do it on their own.
"Parents should not have to help students with homework," she said during a session at the ASCD Annual Conference.
She offered five tips for engaging parents in the homework process.
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Establish homework guidelines for your classroom or school. Vatterott suggests determining how long homework should take to complete and ensuring that students are able to do it on their own. She also suggests that incomplete homework not jeopardize a student's grade and that no homework be assigned during weekends and breaks.
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Work with parents to create guidelines--rather than expectations or demands--for parental support.
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Establish methods of parent-teacher communication. Tell parents how you prefer to be contacted and ask what methods work best for them. Allow for feedback from parents about homework.
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Teach parents what they need to know about homework, including explaining why certain assignments are needed and why it's acceptable to not have homework.
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Give parents options. Differentiate homework. Allow opt-outs for parents who want less homework and optional challenge activities for parents who want more homework.
Vatterott also suggested some parent-friendly homework practices, including the following:
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Limit the number of subjects in which homework is assigned each night.
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Give out weekly homework packets instead of daily homework.
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Go bookless.
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Kill the reading log.
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Leave projects at school.
The handouts from Vatterott's session will be available on her website in the coming days.
Post submitted by SmartBrief education editor Amy Dominello.
