Many educators and parents in our Granite community value connections between home and school. Homework is one way that teachers communicate to families what students are learning in school. Homework has been used to teach students lessons in personal responsibility. We also know that reading 20 minutes per day with children has enormous benefits to childrens’ language and literacy development.
While homework can be beneficial for supporting home school connections, and practicing responsibility, time management, and organizational skills, homework has been shown to have little or no effect on the academic success of elementary students. Additionally, students in home situations that are not conducive to homework completion can experience negative effects and disengagement from school when there are consequences for failing to complete homework. It is our priority to support all students and families in balancing family needs with homework expectations.
In order to support all family circumstances and facilitate the opportunity for home-school connections and student success, Granite follows these homework guidelines:
- All families are strongly encouraged to spend 20 minutes per day engaging with text. The intention of family reading time can be different for each child. For example, just enjoying literature (this can be especially important for students who struggle with reading and resist books), practicing decoding, fluency, or comprehension strategies, or simply spending quality time with family members. Students can be the readers, be read with, or be read to. It all counts! Check out this short video for tips on reading with your students. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj1OV9ffo3o
- Homework is most effective when students are 1) practicing a skill or process that students can do independently, but not fluently, 2) elaborating on information that has been addressed in class to deepen students’ knowledge, or 3) providing opportunities for students to explore topics of their own interest (Vatterott, 2009). This includes the use of learning software to practice math or literacy skills.
- Homework should be time-based. This means students should be given a specific amount of time to complete it and stop when that time is up. The general rule of thumb in elementary is 10 minutes per grade level (Cooper, 2001). For example, 2nd graders could have a maximum 20 minutes of homework per day. Fifth graders could have a maximum of 50 minutes of homework per day. Again, these are guidelines for maximum time to be spent on homework. Typical homework days should not take the maximum amount of time. No student should spend more than an hour per day on homework, including 20 minutes of reading.
- Large at-home projects need to be assigned with clear requirements and progress deadlines. Teachers will communicate with students and families when large projects are assigned to be completed at home. Communication will include clarity about required and optional components, scoring criteria, and project completion timeline guides, and deadlines.
- Parents should feel free to call a halt to homework assignments if their child is getting frustrated, spending an inordinate amount of time on homework, or obviously doesn’t understand what to do. Please communicate with teachers in this situation.
- Students may be rewarded or incentivized for completing homework tasks, turning in reading minutes, completing software usage requirements. Reinforcement systems are at the teacher’s discretion
- Students will not be restricted from participating in class, grade, or school activities due to uncompleted homework
