My response to parental involvement with student homework is mixed. On the one hand, it is great to have a parent want to be involved in their child's education, spend time with their child and be supportive. On the other, it can be a nightmare to all; child, parent and teacher. In order to make this a positive experience, we need to ask ourselves some questions. Do the parent(s) have the necessary background knowledge to answer questions and provide direction to the child? Do the parent and child have a good working relationship? Are the parents able to recognize their role so they are giving support and not doing the homework? Is the homework being assigned reasonable in length, have clear purpose and directions and have the students been given all the tools to complete this with minimal support? Does the home have resources available when homework questions are confusing such as a MATH ON CALL book, dictionary, thesaurus? Will the parent know when to say "I don't know?" and suggest ways or ask pertinent questions as how to find out? Will the parent leave it to the student to talk to the teacher when he/she does not understand or is unable to do their homework?
So here's the nightmare: I have experienced parents doing their child's homework for them (but not admitting to it), getting frustrated with their child for not knowing how to do the assignment, making negative comments about the homework perhaps because they don't see the big picture, and creating an overall negative experience/relationship with their child and possibly his/her teachers.
My personal opinion is that parents provide a suitable study environment for their child; quiet, good lighting, appropriate tools and resources. There should be a set time when homework starts and ends. Parents should check in periodically without being a nuisance to make sure their child is on task and whether they need help. Parents should check their child's assignment notebook and backpacks to confirm 1. that he/she has their assignments written down, 2. that he/she has the materials for the assignment 3. that he/she understands the assignment. Upon completion, the parent should have the child show that they attempted or finished each assignment by showing the actual work and having the parent sign off or check this off in their assignment notebook. These will hopefully alleviate to some degree the "Well, he worked for 2 hours and I know he had it done" conversations. These to me, are more supportive then sitting down and trying to help with the actual homework.
And again, the homework should be a practice of skills that have been taught and reviewed in school, not an assignment of unfamiliar skills to see if the child(or parent) can figure it out. It has been documented (I'll look for the article later) that it takes longer to unlearn something that has been learned incorrectly and practiced, than if it was learned correctly the first time. SO do we want parents delving into homework? Not without some specific parameters. COMMENTS ANYONE?
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5 comments:
I've also had a mixed experience with parental involvement with homework, but have to say that most recent experiences have been negative. I had a student whose homework always came back perfect, yet, when asked to demonstrate the same knowledge in class, he was unable to reproduce the work...even if given the exact same problems to complete. It was obvious that he was getting more than just assistance from his parents. So, what value is there in a child spending time doing homework if the parent is going to assist so much that the child loses all connection with the material?
Another negative experience with parents and homework was a child who went home firm in the concept that we had worked on in class. He knew what he was doing until his mother looked at his work and told him he was doing it all wrong and proceeded to show him the "right way". He then got all the problems wrong AND his trust in his mother's ability to help him on ANY type of homework was shattered. Now whenever he did have a problem and needed help, he wouldn't ask his mother. He just gave up and came to school with an incomplete assignment. In a similar situation, I had another mother come to me and ask me to tutor HER so that she could help her child because "Math isn't done the same as it was when I was a kid." At least she recognized what she didn't know!
A third negative is that almost every year I inevitably hear a comment similar to this from multiple parents, "I can't get involved with homework. It's a big struggle between us. We end up screaming at each other and family time is ruined."
I teach at the middle level and my students have learning or emotional disabilities. I'd love to have parents be positively involved in their child's homework. I'm not saying that it has never happened. Of course, over the years, I've had many parents who were very involved and supportive of their kids, but it seems that lately, the negative experiences have outweighed the positive. In some cases, I think parents still harbor negative views of homework from when they were kids and the last thing they want is more homework. So, I, too, think parents main role in homework should be to provide a suitable, supportive environment in which to do homework. They should monitor that homework is actually being done and consistently check the student's homework book to be sure that they are keeping up. Beyond that, be available to answer questions if asked, but leave the actual work to their child. Parents also need to recognize that it's okay to admit to their kids if THEY don't get it.
Hi Tammy.
I share your concerns... so I am pretty clear at Open House Night and in my Welcome Back letter to parents.
When there are problems with an assignment:
• Ask your child "What have you tried so far? Explain it to me."
• And "What do you think you should try next?"
• If there are tears, reassure the child that s/he can talk to me in the morning... and that homework is over for that night. (It's not worth crying over!)
• If something is confusing and the child is unable to get the work done, write me a short note and substitute with more reading time.
A funny story: In my first year of teaching I had a conference with a student's parents who were very concerned that their daughter did not seem to be "getting" things... and was not performing well on her assigned work. I held up a piece of her writing and voiced my opinion that she seemed to be doing fine; she understood the homework assignment, and had answered the questions well. I said that the writing mechanics needed work, but that I was satisfied that she had understood the concepts.
I'm not sure if it was a guilty conscience, or the fact that I had criticized the writing... but Dad admitted that he had done the piece himself (daughter copied it over).
I kept my laughter to myself, and said that we should probably schedule another conference so that I could gather more of the girl's own work... and make some fresh assessments.
Turns out she was fine academically... though perhaps a bit manipulative with Dad over the homework issues! :-)
Cindy N.
Tammy, these are very valid concerns, statements and questions. From my own experience of raising three children and trying to help them with math, my approach was old, ( I was not working in the public school when the boys were in middle school so I wasn't exposed to the new approach to math.) When one of our sons needed help with division it became very stressfull and frustrating for all of us. He didn't know how to do it, or even explain how to do it and when we tried to show him how we learned to do division he just stormed off saying we weren't doing it correctly. We were making matters worse. Some parents want to be in control (so they don't know their role) and therefore they do their childs homework.
This I experienced often. What good does that do when the student reaches high school? The sad thing is that if you remind parents of their role they most often dismiss it.
I think homework has a great purpose expecially in math and science, a teacher can see exactly where students need help and reteach a concept . It also helps to get students to be independent. What to do about parents, I think it's a problem that will always be a struggle.
Gay
I have had all the same concerns and experiences posted here and I appreciate reading how you all have handled the different situations. In another post someone mentioned that they do not grade homework, to me that should be a universal practice
considering we do not know the circumstances in which the homework was completed in.
I am responding to Judi's comment and in reality to all in a way. We do not know what the circumstances are that a child faces at home, be it a disorganized household, no one at home, overly "supportive" parents, or the opposite. So, the ungraded homework that Joyce spoke of is a great idea. Tammy
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