I’ve seen homework from all sides now– as a child, as a teacher and now as a parent– and I have to confess I grow less and less sure that there is any value in homework at Primary School level.
My own memories of homework are of learning spellings, doing comprehensions which I found incredibly dull and pages of maths calculations (also very dull). As well as this I had endless ‘What did you do in the holidays?’ type projects, which only became exciting the summer my little brother was born, and then I really wanted to write all about that.
Broadly speaking you get three types of homework children; those who always do it and get it done quickly and independently, those who have lots of help from their parents and those who never really get round to doing anything very much. Some parents love homework, particularly ones where they can get their child to sit and do a worksheet. Most parents hate the ‘make a model of the Parthenon’ type homework, especially if they feel they have to make it themselves, so it resembles the edifice being asked for. Some parents like to know what their child is doing at school and therefore like to see this in the homework they bring home– but is it a true reflection of what is going on in class?
Personally I can see very little value in the homework being sent home. None of it is too much for my children to manage– a very important factor, as I’d much rather my children were playing on the weekend– but neither does it do very much in terms of helping them learn. I would much rather they had just reading and then may be a question or two to talk about with me. Instead the older one has a comprehension exercise which is not terribly exciting. My oldest child reads all the time and I’d much rather we spent the homework time talking about what he is reading. I also think that this kind of discussion would support his reading far more than a comprehension, as we could discuss the book in depth. Parents would just need a few generic questions each week to support this kind of learning.
When I was teaching I always tried to send home some sort of speaking and listening homework rather than worksheets. Whilst some parents would groan at the thought of talking rather than just leaving children to get on with it, the quality was always significantly better and could be used in school. I also used to set ‘going to the library’ homework. Knowing how important regular library use is, setting it for homework ensured a far larger proportion of my class actually went. Again some parents could not be bothered or had no time one week, but when the majority had got used to the idea that this would be part of the homework every few weeks, more children started to go. I used to set simple tasks, sometimes related to topics covered in school, and it helped the children understand how libraries are organised and even how the Dewey system works.
One of the most successful homework tasks was getting the children to become a ‘helpdesk’ at the end of a telephone line. The children had to teach their parents what to do with a computer or board game, but over the ‘phone’. The parents then had to evaluate the service they had received. This was specifically for work on instructions, but it could easily be adapted for other uses.
You might very well have cracked the homework conundrum and only send home really worthwhile and interesting tasks. If so, please let me know!
