November 3, 1999
Assigning homework that helps kids meet the new standards

Also on this page: A lesson to try How much is enough? See also: NYSUT Guide to the New Standards

Do higher standards mean mountains of homework? No, say veteran teachers. Higher standards mean more meaningful homework.

For more info New York State United Teachers offers a parent guide, "Home Team Learning Activities" with 60 tips for at-home learning. The "Parents As Reading Partners" program includes brochures, bookmarks and certificates to encourage parents to read to their children. Contact Julie Malec at (800) 342-9810 or write NYSUT Publications, 159 Wolf Road, Box 15008, Albany, N.Y. 12212. The American Federation of Teachers, NYSUT's national affiliate, offers a series of "Helping Your Child" booklets and other materials for parents. Check with your local president or check the AFT's Web site at www.aft.org. You may request a catalog by writing: AFT Order Department, 555 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. The U.S. Education Department offers a guide for teachers on helping students with homework. Check the department's Web site at www.ed.gov/pubs/ HelpingStudents. The National PTA's Web site offers a guide for parents helping with homework. Visit www.pta.org/programs.

"More isn't always better," said Akron Faculty Association Co-president Sue Zelawski. "It's not quantity - it's quality."

Recently there's been a great hue and cry over how much and how early homework should be assigned. Time magazine fueled the fire earlier this year with a cover story titled: "The Homework Ate My Family: Kids are Dazed. Parents Are Stressed." In western New York, Akron parents were outraged when the school board set homework time minimums for each grade level, beginning with 15 minutes per night for kindergartners and up to four hours a night for high schoolers.

Caught in the crossfire, of course, are teachers who are under increasing pressure to prepare kids for more challenging tests and tougher graduation requirements.

"There's a fine line between too little and too much," said Bill Ferris, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in Carmel in Putnam County. "I try to trick the kids into reading, practicing higher-order thinking and writing skills. We have to prepare these kids for the higher-stakes tests."

Reinforcement

What role should homework play in light of the higher state standards? The consensus of several New York state teachers was: Homework is more important than ever - it helps reinforce what has been learned in class, prepares students for upcoming lessons, and helps students develop positive study habits.

What makes homework effective? New York Teacher interviewed experienced teachers Ferris and Janice Melichar-Utter, Carmel Teachers Association; Elisse Arnell, North Bellmore TA; Jim Brown, South Colonie TA; Joyce Sabuda of Lackawanna Teachers Federation and Zelawski of the Akron Faculty Association. Ferris, Arnell and Brown are also instructors in the Effective Teaching Program, a network of graduate courses offered by New York State United Teachers.

This group of veteran teachers suggests:

• Avoid busywork.

• For young children, keep assignments short. Let parents know estimated completion time. (If students are taking longer, is there a TV in the room? A phone?)

• Vary the types of homework assignments. Mix skill-building drills with creative tasks.

• Make it count. Don't just collect the homework. Go over it. Ask them how it went. Grade it. Write comments. Give them a message that it's important. Explain what the consequences of not doing the homework will be.

• Be sure to discuss your homework policies at open houses and parent-teacher conferences. Encourage parents to come to you with suggestions or complaints about a specific assignment.

  Send home a copy of your homework policy. Explain how parents can help in the process. State your suggestions positively. For example, avoid a comment such as: "Don't help your children with their homework until they have tried." Re-phrased positively, this would sound like, "Encourage your child to try the work on his/her own before you help."

• Many districts use planners or agenda books that must be reviewed and signed by parents. Teachers said this helps keep parents informed and forces more long-term planning for assignments.

• As students get older, teachers said weekends can be a perfect time for in-depth projects or work with parents.

  "Sometimes that's the optimal time for working parents to go over homework," said Sabuda.

• Coordinate homework assignments with other teachers. Avoid "bunching" work on certain nights.

• Individualize assignments. Of course, you can't design 25 different assignments, but you might suggest four or five ways of doing something.

• Get parents involved. Johns Hopkins University researcher Joyce Epstein coined the term "interactive homework," designing a program that makes youngsters work with their parents. Together, they work on a weather chart or a list of nouns they see in their kitchen.

• Try "extension homework," expanding a concept taught in class. After reading a story written in another century, students rewrite a modern-day version. After a lesson on careers, students visit workplaces and then explain the jobs in class.

• Use holidays: Labor Day, Black History month, Women's History month - can be springboards for activities.

• Try a well-supervised surfing safari on the Internet. It's critical for students to learn how to search topics and research Web sites on the Internet.

• Use current events. Have kids bring in magazine and newspaper items related to the next class discussion.

• Face it, kids watch television. Why not encourage them to watch the History Channel or other educational shows? Some teachers said they give extra credit for kids to write paragraphs detailing what they learned, what surprised them.

"Homework doesn't have to be a dirty word," said Arnell, the North Bellmore teacher. "I've heard some people call it 'homeplay' instead of 'homework' so it sounds like less of a chore. The important thing is that kids just do it."

- Saunders

A lesson to try

Jan Melichar-Utter, a fifth-grade teacher in Carmel, suggests a great homework assignment that builds writing, speaking and listening skills. In preparation for Veterans Day (Nov. 11), she assigns students to interview a veteran. Using pre-written questions, students take notes during their interview and use the answers to write paragraphs in class. After several class periods of writing, final reports are presented to the class.

"I've done this two years and gotten wonderful results," Melichar-Utter said. "Many of today's students' parents served in Vietnam but never talked much about it. Or they chose to interview their grandfather or a neighbor down the street. The kids enjoyed it and the veterans loved telling their stories. Many of the vets gave the students memorabilia to bring in."

Melichar-Utter then turned the project into a listening exercise, having students try to recall details like war dates or which branch the veteran served in.

"For many students, this was their first interview," Melichar-Utter said.

How much is enough?

A national survey by the University of Michigan showed that in 1981, 6- to 8-year-olds spent an average of 44 minutes a week on homework (about 9 minutes a school night). By 1997, homework for first- to third-graders had nearly tripled to 123 minutes a week (or 25 minutes a night). The researchers found the amount of homework done by the typical high school senior has remained virtually unchanged since 1976, between six and seven hours a week.

As far as the benefits of homework, research shows mixed results. Harris Cooper, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri, did a landmark study in 1989 finding homework has little academic value until middle school. However, Carol Huntsinger, an education professor at the College of Lake County in Illinois, found K-5 homework builds skills and improves standardized test scores. Her research also pointed to the value of some old-fashioned drill-and-practice homework.

Cooper recommends 10 to 20 minutes nightly in first grade and an increase of 10 minutes a night for each grade after that.