Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Helping with homework?

That is the same attitude in my child's school - homework is graded for "completion" and not "accuracy". So, as long as DS finishes his homework, he is fine. If I see busywork, I do it for him and tell him to go do something else that is useful to him or fun for him. I don't think that there is anything wrong in helping - exceptions are the cases where homework is meant to remediate the child's weaknesses in class.

They are really inconsistent. With some things, all the kid has to do is show up and they get an A. But other things, they get an F and they actually have to re-do it according to the strict criteria to get their grade raised. The teacher comes across as having a "whatever" attitude, but then has these very strict assignments. Diorama rubic: 4 points if ALL objects are attached securely. 3 points if 2-4 objects are insecure. 2 points if something fell off and is rolling around the diorama, etc. This prompted one parent to ask for a hot glue gun when she DROPPED the diorama on the way to school and things fell out. The teacher was bewildered and asked why the parent was trying to do the diorama for the child. Don't quote this please, since I'm going to delete it later.
If you ask the teacher about an assignment, she acts like none of it is a big deal, and if the kid fails, that's not a big deal either. But yet she has these strict criteria that she tells the kids to follow. I think there are a lot of bewildered parents/kids.

I see highly variable levels of parent involvement at DD's gifted magnet when it comes to projects. I know kids have been scribed for...I think I only did this once when DD was in 2nd or 3rd and "typed" was a requirement (DD still really can't type). I try to provide only guidance and suggestions about things like...if you glue that on first, how will you attach the other thing? And her projects look like it, though she happens to be artsy (not as much on 3d stuff). But since 2nd grade, I have been seeing projects come in that look like a talented adult made them. The teachers appear to be canny about this and DD has never been graded down for turning a project that looks like an actual child made it. Still, I have had moments of cold doubt in the stomach when seeing what other kids were bringing in!

With daily HW, I used to check DD's, but stopped around 4th grade. I now assume that she is following through and if not, well, that's her concern. I still look at DS's because he's still kind of inclined to screw around and dash off something terrible if not in the mood. DD has got a pretty good work ethic by now.

For a big written project for DD, I will read it over and point out grammatical or spelling errors (I don't fix them for her), as well as things like, "You might want to cut out this part here where you say, 'Duh.'".

BTW, blackcat, we also have the highly detailed and uptight (IMO) rubrics.

While I don't teach writing at the elementary school level, I do teach writing. I allow revisions on all essays. Even though I teach at the college level, many of my students do not understand the necessity of revision. In addition, they often have serious writing deficiencies that aren't addressed by just turning in a final paper or even by turning in a rough draft and a final. Some students need more revisions than others. My goal is to teach my students how to write well. That's pretty much all I care about.

If students take me up on my revisions offer and come to my office hours and rewrite their papers until they learn how to write well, I'm all for that. If they need the carrot of a grade to get them to put in the extra effort, I'm cool with it--as long as the outcome is better writing.

Does that mean that some kids turn in crap because they didn't start on time and essentially get extra time to finish? Yes, but I find students actually learn more when they continue to rewrite. I give feedback on every draft. It takes an insane amount of time. I'm okay with that. I haven't always offered unlimited rewrites. Over time, I have found that the students who get them become better writers than those who don't.

I don't know about the school in question, but perhaps the teachers are finding it really difficult to see what their students can actually do? I'd talk to the teacher about what "helping" entails. No proofreading at all? No giving ideas or editing sentences?

I believe people learn most through their mistakes. As a parent, I think it can be difficult for parents to allow young children to make them. It hurts to see them make grades lower than they are capable of.

I also hate the idea that projects are graded on whether or not the student is good with a glue gun. I wrote in a couple of weeks ago about a project my daughter spent a month on. She ended up making 89 on it, which (outside of spelling tests) is the lowest grade she's made this year. She got points off for speaking too quickly and not appearing to listen well enough during other people's presentations. At first I was irritated by the grade because I do want working hard to matter. Why should she make 100s in reading where she doesn't work at all and then make a B on a project she spent a full month on? What does say? But then my husband reminded me that this IS what we want. We don't want her making perfect grades. We want her to realize she needs to speak slower, and if she received full credit, that wouldn't hit home.

So yeah, it sucks. But I think it is ultimately better for the kids to learn this stuff now than to be propped up by the adults now and start failing when grades matter more.

Anyway, just my take...

I think that they aren't able to see what the kids are actually able to do, but this is because they assign so many HUGE inappropriate projects that require work at home and parents help probably because they think they're supposed to. They never sent out an announcement to parents indicating whether they want us to help or not help. Up through last year (before the gifted program) i had to sign a form for DD stating that I was her "homework helper" for math and responsible for checking her work. So on the one hand (and one year) teachers want parents to help, and then the next year parents get reprimanded FOR helping. It's very confusing.