Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy 1st Grade Homework

I am hoping others here could share some words of wisdom about reasonable homework for a first grader and best path to go down to address the situation. DD5 was skipped to first at the winter break. I had expected the amount of homework to go up in first, but I am having a hard time with the amount of increase. DD has homework from her regular classroom teacher and from her daily GT pullout teacher. I'll address regular teacher first with expected time to complete. Regular teacher assigns the following weekly

Writing Composition -20 min
Reading Comprehension (1st and 2nd enrichment) 7 min and 10 min
Math Enrichment (is not reinforcing what is taught in class) - 20 min
Spelling (1st and enrichment) 10 min and 15 min
Reading 15 min every day

GT teacher assigns 4 nights of homework each week.
Two printouts supporting classroom activities - 15 min ea.
IXL (DD's choice) 15-20 min
Math game (seems to compliment class activity) 15 min.

Of the above the optional activities are enrichment reading comp and spelling and regular teacher assigned math. All other activities are mandatory. DD is the sort of child who rises to expectations beautifully, so telling her she doesn't have to do some activities is not ideal. Plus all the enrichment pieces, except the reading comp, are some of the best and most appropriate. Even if DD doesn't do all enrichment her load is still quite significant.

This load just seems excessive for a first grader to me, but DD is my first so I don't have any recent experience. I asked another mom who has a girl in the same situation and she was dismissive of the load saying something like "it would take my daughter like 5 min to complete everything if I could get her to focus. And you know we do give our girls more work on top of the assigned classroom homework." Needless to say I am feeling a bit alone in addressing this issue. However DD stopped reading or asking to learn anything new after school. New library books used to be the absolute highlight of her day, and now the reaction is more bleh. This is the beginning of a pattern I have seen before which leads to increased anxiety and I'd rather be proactive rather then reactive.

DD is the first child to be skipped prior to 3rd grade in my very large district. Our efforts have started a slew of activity in the district. This fact has, I believe, contributed to the hostility I am experiencing from the classroom teacher. However the principal is squarely on my side, and seems to understand many of the challenges we are facing. In a very casual conversation with the principal he said homework should take no more than 30 min a night.

I feel that the real issue here seems to be the excessive math homework from the GT teacher, but I feel asking for a change this late in the year is asking for a whole policy change and I am skeptical of success. DDs regular classroom teacher made it abundantly clear ALL required homework must be completed to assure there are no holes. So far the only hole I have been made aware of was DD was not holding her scissors correctly, but was able to correct her position once the failure was pointed out - sorry, I am so tired of the holes argument.

I am having a hard time picking my battles. I am already meeting with the regular teacher about the LA curriculum and book selection / physical access issues. I will soon have to start advocating for subject level acceleration in math to 3rd next year.

I know the proper path is to start with the teacher and then go up the food chain, but I am having a hard time getting return e-mails from the teacher. Last time I had to mention to the principal that she was not returning my e-mails and, surprise surprise, I got a response that day. Speaking to the principal seems to work, but I only want to take things to him that he should be involved in, like policy change etc. So, I'd love to know your experiences with hard teachers and homework.

Sorry this is so long. As always your wisdom is greatly appreciated.

I think aeh posted some research on a recent thread about homework volumes citing 10 minutes total per year of grade as a rule of thumb

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted...._much_homework_should_my.html#Post211260

The volume of homework your DD is being given is outlandish. I didn't have 2 hours of work until senior year of high school.

Please tell me that is not daily. Even weekly, it's too much.

My older child is about to graduate from an elementary that gave way too much HW (generally speaking, math every day, spelling 2-3 days a week, science or social studies 2-3 days a week, nightly reading 20-30 min plus sometimes summarizing or other reading-related tasks). The emotional toll on our household has been huge. I recommend talking to more parents. You do have a disadvatnage in that having a skipped child might make it seem like you are complaining due to the skip.

My first grader has about 10 minutes of HW a day. (Note: he is at the same school but currently in a different program.)

I had forgotten about aeh's link. I'll print it out now. Thank you! I feel like I should work on the homework situation for DD and for all those other kids too so they can have more time to play. BUT there is so little time left in the year, and the school moves like molasses. I am wondering if it is even worth the effort. I know the principal is my best route to change, but I will need him for 3rd grade math acceleration, so I hate to use up any good will I have with him.

Ultra - that is the weekly load. I didn't even mention the additional special projects that come home. If the load is done on the assigned night, our worst night is 2 hours (assigned time) not actual time which can be longer - but I'm not going down that road.

The disadvantage of being skipped is HUGE! I have only met one parent (the one mentioned above) who happens to be the homeroom mom. Otherwise, I don't know any others.

If we do only required homework the average per night is 39.25 min. Nooo...I haven't done a spreadsheet

Neither of my kiddos had anywhere near that much homework in 1st and it does sound excessive to me. Still, our school doesn't have G&T until 3rd/4th. When DD started G&T, she had a marked increase in homework...but by then, she was is 3rd.

I do understand what you are saying about picking your battles and I would agree that this is a good strategy. I guess I would take a look at how long the homework is actually taking your DD to complete (I would hope it is not REALLY long as the above figures suggest). DS6 (1st) does a math worksheet every night that probably takes him less than 30 seconds (I suspect that it takes many classmates longer, as DS is very strong in math)...this leaves him time to CHOOSE to do more challenging math that he enjoys/is at a better level. It also leaves him time to read and ENJOY learning...and I think that at this age this is important. My fear for your DD is that this seemingly developmentally inappropriate amount of homework could sour her enjoyment of learning.

*OK, I read that as NIGHTLY...weekly, it is less awful, but still, possibly, too much.

So for my DD some things do take the required amount of time or more. The writing composition can take up to half an hour but this is an area she needs to work on. The teacher assigned math often takes WAY longer because it is not things that are taught in the normal classroom. For example, a few weeks ago one question was "How many 9s can be taken away from 36?" Well, for some kids that may be an easy question, but for my DD that necessitated teaching her to count by 9's "because that was a way more efficient way to solve the problem" LOL. Another problem talked about tax on a few purchases. The math was not hard, but we had to have a 30 min discussion on taxation. Reading comp is usually quick when the questions are not poorly written. Spelling takes about the recommended time - possibly more if she is doing "rainbow letters" However, math homework is taking the about the required time. The math website is a timed activity, the IXL is a recommended amount of time spent and the two sheets are often word problems that require writing. Writing is an area of relative weakness.

Also, my son attends G and T pull-out for 4 hrs/week (I think) but does not have HW from that. I don't really think G&T pullout should have HW unless it replaces other work. Seems like punishment for being gifted to me.

Just off the top of my head, here, the developmentally appropriate amount of educational work* for a child of 5-7yo is...





um-- probably already exceeded by the amount of hours that they spend AT school. Never mind at home.

In other words, this is a trick question, isn't it?? Because the answer is a negative number to begin with.

Don't get me started!

If the principal says homework should be about 30 minutes a night, and you're adding up and coming up with 39.5 minutes a night, then there's a problem that you might count on principal backing to address. These problems come up pretty easily when you're dealing with two teachers, and one doesn't know what the other is doing.

For example... if the GT teacher is assigning math, why should your DD do math assignments from the homeroom teacher? And more importantly... IF IT'S ENRICHMENT, WHY IS IT HOMEWORK?!

Seems to me like that's an easy cut.

As for reading, this depends on the child, but in our case, we filled out the reading log for a while on DD's behalf, without policing this at all, because her reading skills were already far advanced, and you'd have a tougher task in preventing her from reading than you'd have in ensuring she did 15 minutes a day. After a couple of months, we just reached out to the teacher and told her we weren't going to fill it out anymore, and she immediately agreed with our reasoning, no argument necessary.

So, there's another 15 minutes a night gone. Together, these two changes get you well under the principal's 30-minute guideline. Whether that's still excessive is another conversation, but it would seem to be one that's unlikely to get much support from your school.

Wow - just - wow. I cannot imagine trying to convince my DS7 to do all of that weekly.

He is supposed to do nightly reading (20 min). Then weekly they have one English worksheet and one French worksheet. These take maybe 30 min max. over the weekend. He also has a 'stretch your thinking' math activity weekly (optional), which usually takes him 2 seconds (OK two minutes when I make him write down how he got the answer)

Recently he had to prepare an oral book report, which took a few nights to work on.

He also has a weekly GT pullout, but no homework for that.

Honestly, your 1st grader has more HW than my 5th grader.

Except for the reading, I really wish teachers would skip the homework in the early grades. There is no value I can see in what they've sent home so far.

I love this!

Another way to reduce homework is to encourage your child to do as much of it as they can in their downtime at school. It's very common for a teacher to schedule 20 minutes for the class to work on math exercises that the GT kid knocks out in 5. So... use that remaining time to do some homework, and you just bought yourself 15 minutes of extra play time at home.

We have no homework at all in first grade. And I'm just beginning to realize how lucky we are.

Sue

That seems like a lot! My DS was in 1st last year. It was a self-contained gifted classroom. She had spelling (write 3 times each, use in a sentence....) and math (2 workbook pages) every night and was supposed to read for 30 minutes. I thought that was too much. We struggled every afternoon.

Her 2nd grade teacher takes the approach that the kids work really hard in school and the only stuff that comes home is work that wasn't finished during the school day. It has been amazing. DS is so much happier and she is doing quality work, not just busy work for the sake of having homework.

I haven't read the full set of replies, but fwiw, here's what I would most likely do in hour situation:

1) Save the interaction with the principal for your upcoming discussion about math acceleration.

2) Recognize that it's late in the year, and it's likely that the large amount of homework your dd is getting is likely a function of her teachers - both the regular classroom teacher and the G&T teacher.

3) Consider just dropping some of it if you think it wouldn't cause too much of an issue with the classroom teacher. If you are concerned that it might, talk to the teacher about the amount of time, ask if it's what she expects, and ask if it's ok to drop pieces that are related to knowledge/skills your dd already has. I know this conversation probably will be difficult or frustrating, particularly if the teacher isn't happy about your dd having skipped a grade into the class, but keep that in mind - it's an individual teacher issue, not something worth saving the world over. This year *is* almost over. Next year's teacher may be entirely different re amount of homework and attitude (we've had teachers all over the place with both over the years).

4) Consider talking to the G&T teacher. Point out that the amount of G&T homework she's getting is a lot when added onto regular classroom homework. Ask her what the objective of the G&T homework is - is any of it considered "catch-up" (i.e., fill in gaps created by the skip) or is any of it work needed to subject accelerate her in something next year? If it's just work for the sake of work, drop it. Seriously! We've found that sometimes school staff equate "G&T" with "loves homework" or "needs excessive amounts of homework" - and that's just silly.

5) Keep an open mind and consider that what you've described about your dd's conversations surrounding homework really don't come into play with the expected time the teachers are asking for with respect to homework, and I think for most of our gifted kids, conversations that go into depth or steer off-topic as you've mentioned aren't the types of conversations that our kids get tired out from, they're the things that feed their brains... so I wouldn't count those as "homework" time, just time spent with my child happily contemplating. Try looking at just the actual work time when counting up how much homework time your dd is doing.

Hope some of that helps!

polarbear

It sounds like a lot of the work actually has potential to be interesting, if you could just focus on the content during interactive quality time, and dump the busy-work aspects. DS always took an hour or more to read his nightly book - but those crazy divergences were unique conversations, and I cherished the one-on-one time (even while cursing the need to get a move on and brush our teeth).

Would it be possible to reduce the time/ drudgery element by turning some of these tasks into a discussion rather than a written product? As a simple example, when DS was bringing home a lot of worksheets, I would do a quick oral check that he knew the material cold, and possibly have him complete the last couple problems if they offered any kind of novelty/ challenge. Then I labelled the sheet "completed orally with mother", initialled it, and sent it back. Elapsed time: 30 seconds - 5 minutes. You could provide a similar kind of guarantee that there are no "holes", without drowning your DD in unnecessary repetition. Focus your time together on talking through the new, interesting, or conceptual aspects, rather than filling in worksheets.

If writing is a relative weakness, maybe put some good effort into an important written product like the composition - and just remove the writing requirement from math homework where it isn't essential. Scribe, if need be (DS does his best math thinking with me holding pen at whiteboard while he expounds).

It's easy to get sucked into the idea that if writing is a weakness, then the more writing practice the better, but my experience is that this is really a case for quality over quantity. Write, where writing is the goal - and learn and think where anything else is the goal.

Michelle's advice is excellent.

Our school really only assigns homework because a large number of parents think forming 'good habits' is more important than playing. Most teachers get round that by making most homework optional. So kids in first and third -weekly homework comes homonmonday and goes back Friday, spelling words (I do orally so about 2 mins a night), basic facts about 1 minute once a week, reading (reader for less than 5 mins, 20 mins free reading for ds7 ). Sometimes we do the optional stuff.

A workmate whose kid attends the same school said her kid took half an hour when she started school but then the instructions for spelling are to write the word and a lot of people insist even when the kid is tired and writing is hard because the teacher said so.

To me all homework is optional. If they can't cover stuff at school they need to be more efficient notsend work home.

I definitely would not approach your principal about homework in this case when you are planning on requesting another subject acceleration next year. You want to save your currency plus it is highly likely that very few of her classmates are struggling with homework. I may be wrong but I think a lot of kids, especially the GT ones are managing to complete large chunks of "homework" during the school day. That was the case with all three of my kids throughout elementary and they were all in the GT program. I have been told by a couple of teachers that mandatory and especially optional homework serve in part to keep the many kids occupied who finish "early". Generally kids who do not finish at least a little early may have an issue and end up with the full "homework" load. My oldest was in that camp, but he had dysgraphia so I did have the option of scribing certain homework or requesting modifications.

In your case, it seems simple enough to remove all the optional stuff and reduce time on some of the other assignments (i.e., reading, math games, etc.) while modifying the rest (i.e., scribing, scaffolding, etc.) By the way, your DD can always leave IXL on for the designated time without working a full 15 minutes especially if she is super ahead in math. In fact, if she works the full 15 minutes, it may look like she did way more - that was the problem with my younger DS especially. The homework can be cut down even more if you can convince your DD to do some of it at school.

Your DD has the disadvantage of skipping mid-year whereas the other kids had a 1/2 year to figure out how to handle homework. Also, consider that most first graders, especially GT ones, can write pretty quickly if not well; that's why K is so academic these days. If you make a fuss and force changes that are disagreeable to the other students/parents, it may have negative repercussions for your DD. You don't want her to get the reputation as the kid whose parents forced an acceleration but couldn't handle the work. If she is 2E, then that's different and you should pursue written accommodations instead. In my opinion, you are better off making modifications privately as your DD needs them.

You might find this of issue. In Australia there appears to be a growing consensus to follow the research, that homework in primary school is not necessarily a great idea. We our DD was in primary school there was a lot of ability to negotiate the homework load, especially when it was busy work for her.

Homework has come up a lot lately.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/it-...-parents-to-opt-out-20150314-1442q9.html

I horrified by a 1st grader being expected to do any homework.