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 Lisa Durff

Brain Rules #5 - 135 views

brainrules

started by Lisa Durff on 02 Sep 08
  •  Lisa Durff
     
    Let's get back into it! "Homework is new learning". How do you feel about that statement? Is homework reinforcement as claimed by many & we learned in college? Or is it really new learning that is unfair to students? I have heard concepts need to be repeated 7 times before students can be expected to learn those concepts. I have only met one student who was bored with my repetitions (& he was a gifted learner).
  • Beth Knittle
     
    So depends on the homework.

    When my daughter was 5 or 6 she had to fill in number tables - you know those number tables that have the numbers 1-100. You fill in 5's one day, the evens another etc. Well my daughter had a melt down. She was just not going to it any more. She was told she had to do it, because by doing it she would learn the numbers one to 100 and how to count by 10, 5, and 2. I asked the teacher can she do this already? The teacher did not know, so I asked my daughter to count 1-100, by 10, 5 and 2 for the teacher. She then she asked the teacher if she could count by 3s. She never had to do the assignment again.

    Homework for the sake of homework is not a good thing, assignments geared to individual kids and what they need to work through or beyond is key. Sometime assignments that lay the ground work, or provide hooks for future learning are more valuable.


    mrs durff wrote:
    > Let's get back into it! "Homework is new learning". How do you feel about that statement? Is homework reinforcement as claimed by many & we learned in college? Or is it really new learning that is unfair to students? I have heard concepts need to be repeated 7 times before students can be expected to learn those concepts. I have only met one student who was bored with my repetitions (& he was a gifted learner).
  • Beth Knittle
     
    I posted some additional thoughts on my blog.

    http://www.bethknittle.net/WP_Blog/?p=452


    Beth Knittle wrote:
    > So depends on the homework.
    >
    > When my daughter was 5 or 6 she had to fill in number tables - you know those number tables that have the numbers 1-100. You fill in 5's one day, the evens another etc. Well my daughter had a melt down. She was just not going to it any more. She was told she had to do it, because by doing it she would learn the numbers one to 100 and how to count by 10, 5, and 2. I asked the teacher can she do this already? The teacher did not know, so I asked my daughter to count 1-100, by 10, 5 and 2 for the teacher. She then she asked the teacher if she could count by 3s. She never had to do the assignment again.
    >
    > Homework for the sake of homework is not a good thing, assignments geared to individual kids and what they need to work through or beyond is key. Sometime assignments that lay the ground work, or provide hooks for future learning are more valuable.
    >
    >
    > mrs durff wrote:
    > > Let's get back into it! "Homework is new learning". How do you feel about that statement? Is homework reinforcement as claimed by many & we learned in college? Or is it really new learning that is unfair to students? I have heard concepts need to be repeated 7 times before students can be expected to learn those concepts. I have only met one student who was bored with my repetitions (& he was a gifted learner).
  • Sharon Elin
     
    Some homework assignments consist of meaningless "busy work," while even more rigorous assignments may be ill-suited to individual learners. Sometimes, students know best. Whenever a student complained to me that the homework assignments weren't useful or were boring, I would give him or her permission to create a new assignment that was more meaningful and that accomplished what I intended - to either reinforce, practice, or anticipate topics that we covered in class. Surprisingly, they rarely came up with easier assignments, often developing creative ways to personalize the information so it was relevant and meaningful.

    mrs durff wrote:
    > Let's get back into it! "Homework is new learning". How do you feel about that statement? Is homework reinforcement as claimed by many & we learned in college? Or is it really new learning that is unfair to students? I have heard concepts need to be repeated 7 times before students can be expected to learn those concepts. I have only met one student who was bored with my repetitions (& he was a gifted learner).

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