What is the proper amount of Homework?  What is the proper difficulty level?

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I don't know.  But I do know what has NOT worked over the years, then I will tell you how I do it now.

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The Don'ts

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• Too much homework one night.  Hours of work will work against you.  Student's and parents will be mad, mad, mad.

• Giving homework every single night and/or over breaks.  Folks will be mad with you and will be counterproductive.

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The Maybe's

• Worksheets.  Hard to check the next day to see who has it (time consuming).  Better to give every now and then and not check for a grade, but go over it.  Also, a child doesn't have it, you put down a 0 in gradebook and then child says, "but I had it and showed it to you".  One thing I have done is initial the sheet and put a grade so its there and if a kid says they had it, they can show it to you with your initial on it.

• Homework not based on what you did in class.  You may want to give a homework that is review from a while ago or some thought provoking work.  Both are risky and you may get lots of, "I didn't understand".

 

My homework now:

• I give it 3 nights a week.  Usually Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday

• I almost always make it online so I can track it, have record of it, and have it for parent meetings

• My homework takes about 20 min to complete

• I have a minimum grade to get on the online homework and its a 0 if the minimum is not met (the program I use just resets the score and kids have to retake it)