Should Schools Allow Students To Have Homework? Pros and Cons of Homework

The question of whether students should have homework is not new. With more and more kids and their parents stating that they have almost no time to live because of the homework children get at school, educators started wondering whether giving them homework is really such a good idea.

To give you a better idea of both sides of a discussion around homework and tons of work children (and often their parents) deal with at home, I have prepared a list of arguments supporters of both sides to provide these days.

So, arm yourself with patience and be ready to read them all before you decide on the side to support - children who want to unload some homework assigned, or teachers willing to offer them the highest level of education possible with home learning and parents’ support.

5 Reasons Why Homework is Good

We know at least five reasons why homework assigned to be kids at home is actually a good thing. Try to be impartial when reading them to really understand why working at home makes sense, what an incredible opportunity to obtain a proper education, other numerous benefits such assignments bring.

• Homework helps kids and teachers collaborate. Once assignments and tests from schools are completed at home, kids and their educators can discuss the results, search for solutions to problems they have along the way. Schools offering homework have a chance for better communication inside the classroom.

• Tasks assigned to kids make families closer. Whenever a child feels lost or insecure about a homework task he completed, he or she goes to his/her parents or older siblings for a piece of advice. As a result, families might end up spending hours solving problems, looking for creative math solutions while having fun together.

• Practicing assignments makes success. Writing or any other homework tasks assigned to students really help students prepare for obtaining a higher education degree at university. In fact, the more time a kid spends polishing at their skills, the higher the chances are to enter a university of their dreams or land the work they always wanted to.

• Homework makes students more responsible. Knowing that each homework assignment has a deadline this makes students more responsible; it trains their willpower, an ability to plan their time for academic activities. Families, friends, schools can all contribute to children’s development in this area; with such an amount of support, growing is much easier.

• It helps parents keep track of their kids’ performance. Seeing what kids are assigned to do at home, gives families a sense of the education level of their kids; in fact, spend a couple of minutes looking at your child’s homework to find out weak areas. Identify problems, see their achievements, or offer help - it’s all possible after you check your child’s homework.

Negative Effects of Having Homework.

Not all agree that homework after seven hours at school is such a good idea after all. If you’re on the fence regarding this fact, read our full list of reasons that support the idea that kids should rest at home, have some free time, instead of working long hours of struggling with the homework academic tasks.

• It is stressful. Extra loads of work that students are assigned to do at home have a negative effect on the younger generation that has to spend hours dealing with math problems instead of resting. This extra stress level can harm their health, lead to a lack of enthusiasm for education, rise a huge debate among teachers, parents over the usefulness of such an approach.

• It deprives them of social life. Having to work a lot (even at nights!) at home means that a student has fewer opportunities to socialize which can lead to poor communication skills in the future and children becoming reserved. No wonder young people don’t want to do homework but use any chance to get out for a walk with friends.

• Children lose interest. Lots of homework put much pressure on young minds; this pressure only makes them lose interest and become less effective in their work. They need time to switch focus, explore the world, engage in other activities or else they’ll be ineffective at school/university.

• It’ll lead to academic burnout. Homework takes long hours, not minutes which after a day at school feels like a heavy burden. Students already are tired, sleepy, homework tasks will only wearier each day and cause complete burnout.

• They’re not effective. Homework is less effective because most kids ask their siblings, parents, to do them instead. In classroom explained by a teacher, tasks make way more sense than at home where they are often done just to be done and forgotten right after submission. A student may stay receiving higher grades for assignments done at school with a teacher.

As you see there are two sides to this issue. Supporters of the first emphasize the necessity of self-education while others believe too much homework can harm one’s health.

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8 Strategies For Teachers To Learn Student's Names Quickly

 Well, my accomplishment for the week is learning all 28 of my homeroom student's names! In classes, we were told that one of the most important things we can do to help build relationships with our students and begin establishing classroom management is to learn our student's names as quickly as possible and it definitely makes a difference!  I found that my students noticed immediately when I was able to greet them by name and were often surprised (I think that I learned their names before some of them could remember what mine was, haha). Knowing a student's name shows that you are paying attention, care about them and care about how the classroom is operating. I know that some students felt as though they could push the limits of some classroom policies because I was new to the classroom but as soon as I was able to call on them by name this quickly diminished. So today I wanted to help you with learning Student's Names.

What you do:

1. Greet each student at the door, ask for their name, and check it off on your roster sheet. Then look back and forth between their written name on the sheet and their face to cement the relationship in your brain. That’ll get you at least five names down right away.

2. Have students make “tent” name tags by folding the cardstock in thirds and writing their first name in LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS on the part that faces you. These are instructions you can put on the board so students can start right away while you’re checking people in. I like to set a timer because I’m a control freak. Also, this is a good time to demonstrate high. If they make a silly nametag or write really small, ask them nicely to do it again

3. Ask students to introduce each other to the class.
Give students 2-3 minutes in pairs to interview each other and discover something that "no one can forget." Go around the room asking students to introduce each other, allowing about 1 minute per pair.

4. During the first part of class (going over rules, procedures, syllabus, whatever), make it a point to use as many names as possible. I like to make things extra weird and repeat each name three times.  “Can someone read the next paragraph out loud for me? Yes, Luis-Luis-Luis.”

5. When you’re done with your first day spiel, announce that you’re going to give yourself three minutes to practice and then test yourself on names. At this time, have students keep their name tags up. Run through everyone’s names repeating them out loud and take a good look at everyone’s face. At this stage I sort of pretend I’m an athlete warming up for a big competition and crack my knuckles, stretch, etc., but feel free to behave normally if you wish.

6. Have students put their name tags face down so you can’t see their names and see how long it takes for you to get them all correct. Your students will be surprisingly into it, and you will surprise yourself at how quickly you learn them all (it usually takes me less than five minutes if I’ve been using their names during class). If you have enough time, have your students time you to see how fast you can do it. Then open the floor to see if any students want to take a crack at the name game!

7. At the end of class, tell students to keep their desk tags and bring them to class for the rest of the week. You’ll forget some the following day, but by Friday you may even know last names!

8. Have kids create something.  

Author Dave Burgess suggests a first-day activity involving Play-Doh in his bestseller “Teach Like a Pirate.”  This is a fun activity, I’ve tried it. I do something different every year. This year, I’m having kids find and create mini quote posters and personal goal infographics. I’ll use them for decorating the room and refer to them for inspiration. While they’re going crazy with the research and Sharpies, I’ll have downtime to talk to each student, which helps me connect and learn names quickly. NOTE: You can do this sometime else in the school year if your students don't seem as motivated anymore. Then, they can read the quotes for motivation and keep pushing.

The best way to get off to a good start to the school year is by taking enough time to learn students’ names and build a positive classroom community. So many of us feel rushed to dive into the curriculum, but taking a quick beginning of the year pause to organize, learn names, and build community pays off in amazing results throughout the year!

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The Five Step Lesson Plan

A fundamental part of Whole Brain Teaching is the five-step lesson plan.  I love the five-step lesson plan.  Mastering this lesson plan design will move you one step closer to teacher heaven.  What makes it so great is that it is easy to follow and can be used with any lesson or program that you currently use.  All you need to do is tweak the lesson to make it fit into the five-step lesson plan.  Soon it becomes a habit, and you are automatically writing up every lesson that you teach in this format.

Step One:  Ask a question.  This sets the stage for learning because it causes your students to start thinking about what they will be learning about.  Recently, I was teaching a math lesson on more than/less than; so I asked my students the question, "What is more than less than?"  This is done using Teach-Okay.  Below is an explanation of Teach-Okay.

Teach-Okay is all about student engagement.  Its structure is designed to create 100% participation in a lesson.  The way it works is simple.  After sharing a brief chunk of information with the class (in this case the question), the teacher claps her hands twice and says, "Teach."  The students clap their hands twice and say, "Okay."  They then make a full body turn to their partner and teach the information that the teacher just shared.  At the beginning of the lesson, they simply restate the question.  

When the teacher wants the classes attention, she calls them back with a class yes.  The class is expected to immediately turn, look at the teacher, and fold their hands.  The teacher then continues with the next part of the lesson.

Step Two:  Answer the Question.  Give the students the answer to the question that you asked.  This often means providing them with a definition.  In my more than/less than lesson I defined more than less than using gestures and Mirror Words.  Sometimes I will use Silent Mirrors or Magic Mirrors  Below is an explanation of Mirrors.

Mirrors is another student engagement strategy.  Students are expected to copy the words and/or gestures of the person teaching.  The teacher begins by stating the type of Mirror that he/she will be using and using the gesture for that Mirror type.  The students then repeat the name of the mirror and copy the gesture for it.  Mirrors stay on until the teacher says, "Mirrors off."  Here are the three types of mirrors:

Mirror Words:  Students are to repeat your words and copy your gestures.

Silent Mirrors:  Students only copy your gestures.

Magic Mirrors:  You put your hands behind your back, and students create gestures for what you are saying.

Teach-Okay generally follows Mirrors.  This allows students the opportunity to teach each other, with the use of gestures, the information that you just taught them.

Step Three:  Expand.  This is where the actual teaching of content occurs.  It involves the use of Mirrors and Teach-Okay.  It involves chunking the information being taught into small segments and having the students teach that information to each other.  The rule of thumb is that a teacher should never talk more than 30- 45 seconds at a time.  Any longer and we go into lecture mode.  This is when we start losing our students.  It takes a little bit of practice at first, but after a while, it becomes a habit.  My more than/less than lesson came from a program that our grade level is using called Engage New York.  I simply took the material that I needed to cover in the concept development portion of the lesson and put it in the Mirror/Teach-Okay format.  Here is one example of this.  The lesson called for students to draw on a form that was provided three similar numbers using base ten blocks.  They then were to create their own problems using these three numbers and the more than/less than symbols.  Here is what I did.  After the students drew the base ten blocks for each number I revealed the following sentence frame:  _________is more than/less than __________ because __________________.  Then, using Teach-Okay and Tag Team Switch (In Tag Team Switch students take turns sharing.  Teachers have a set procedure on who always go first.  In my class, my students are labeled Peanut Butters and Jellies, and Peanut Butters always go first.  After taking their turns, the Peanut Butters will high five the Jellies and Jellies will take their turn.  This continues until the teacher calls the students back together using Class Yes.) the students create their own problems using the sentence frame that I provided.  Using the word because (WBT calls this a because clapper) is very important, because it asks students to give a reason (proof) for their answer.  As I walked around and listened to the students I heard lots of amazing proof.  They would say things like, "549 is more than 149 because it has more hundreds."  A couple of my higher students actually stated how many more hundreds:  "It has four more hundreds."  When I called the students back together I wanted them to hear each other's thinking.  I especially wanted the whole class to hear what my high students had to say.  So I asked those students to share.  They do not, however, share in the normal way.  They stand and using Class Yes and Mirror Words, they actually teach the class.  The class will repeat their words and gestures, just like they do mine when I am teaching.  This is the beauty of Whole Brain Teaching.  When one student shares, the whole class is still engaged!

Step Four:  Test.  This is where you check for understanding.  There are two ways to do this.  This first is with Yes/No Way.  The teacher makes a statement.  For example, 335 is greater than 353.  The students respond with "Yes!" (and a fist pump) or "No Way!" (hands-on forehead and then quickly pulled off)  The other way to test is called QT (question time).  When you say QT to your students, they should say, "Cutie."  They then put their heads down and lay their hands flat beside their hands.  The teacher then makes the same type of statements that were used in Yes/No Way, but this time students keep their heads down and respond with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.  The teacher uses a clipboard to note which students need additional help.  Based on the results, you can choose to either move on to step four or go back to step three and reteach.  Please note that Yes/No Way is optional, but QT should be used in all of your lessons.

Step Five:  Critical Thinking.  This step asks students to engage in higher-order thinking skills.  It is a critical component and should not be left out.  Often it will involve writing.  In my more than/less than lesson, this was the question that I asked my students:  Noah's number was 353.  Manuel had 35 tens and five ones.  Who had more?  How do you know?  Students had to write out their answer and show their proof.  

It is important to note that you do not have to do all five components in one day.  Depending on the subject, the time, and the material to be covered; I will often do steps one through three the first day.  The next day I will spend some more time on step three, and then go on to steps four and five.

I have found this format to be extremely successful.  The students are engaged throughout the entire lesson; this means few if any, behavior problems, the students are excited about learning; they retain more information; and they have not asked me once this year, "How do I _____________."  They got it through the lesson format because they were engaged!  If you have not yet tried the five-step lesson format, I would highly encourage you to do so.  I can promise you that you won't be sorry.

Links below for 5- step templates

5 step template

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