Creative Homework Ideas!

[Leigh]

I will start from the beginning. I have started my internship, and I am in a fifth grade classroom. I am absolutely loving every minute of it, but I can't seem to get them to turn in their homework. My directing teacher and I have tried everything. She says that it has been this way all year. So far we have tried...
1. Rewarding the ones that turn in their homework.
2. Punishing the ones that didn't turn in their homework.
3. We also send notes home daily to the parents when the
child has not completed an assignment. (We started calling
the parents today, if they don't bring the note back signed
4. We have tried peer pressure. We told them that when we
have one day of everyone bringing in their homework, we
will give them a night of no homework, and we told them that
they will continue to have homework every night (even
weekends) until this happens.

What else can we do???? We are at our wit's ends!!!!

[Jeff]

You could play hardball and flunk them for the 6 or 9 week period based upton the fact that their graded items were not turned in. I would think that would get the parent's attention. Then again, I would think a note from school would as well.

[Marla]

My ds is in grade 5. I guess I must be really lucky because he is very dilligent about completing his homework everyday, and having me sign his agenda.

[Leigh]

Originally posted by Jeff
You could play hardball and flunk them for the 6 or 9 week period based upton the fact that their graded items were not turned in. I would think that would get the parent's attention. Then again, I would think a note from school would as well.

I am about to this point. I have pointed out to them that they are in the fifth grade and should be responsible enough to turn in their homework without being reminded or hounded for it, and I think this might be what it comes down to.

I just hate to have to do that if there is another way. It seems sad to have to fail very intelligent students. :(

Does anyone else have any ideas.

Thanks Jeff and Marla!

[AnnW]

Sounds like they no there are no real consistant consequences to doing their homework.
If you do fail them, will they repeat 5th grade?
Are these "at risk" kids? it sounds like the parents don't even care.

[Leigh]

Originally posted by AnnW
Sounds like they no there are no real consistant consequences to doing their homework.
If you do fail them, will they repeat 5th grade?
Are these "at risk" kids? it sounds like the parents don't even care.

If they fail one nine weeks, I don't think that they will fail the fifth grade, but I am not totally sure. I know that in FL if no matter what your grades are if you fail the FCAT, you fail for the year. That really goes into effect this year,and I am waiting to see how it runs out.

They are not at risk children. The reading group that I have is the highest level.

I too am thinking that the parents don't care, and I am thinking that is where our problems are coming from.

As for being consistent, I am not sure of the consistency. Maybe we are skipping around too much. I do know that the children know my directing teacher will do what she says. They have been around her enough to know that if she says she will call your parents, your parents will be called.

I think the notes will continue to be sent home along with whatever else happens.

Thanks for your input Ann!

[Linda/NE]

My ds is in 5th grade and we've struggled with him on things like this.

Without re-reading your posts I don't remember if the notes being sent home had to be signed. I know a lot of time ds wouldn't bring notes home and would just say that we didn't/wouldn't sign them. Maybe send notes with the kids that need to be signed. Any one who doesn't return them have them call their parents from school while you are standing right next to them so they know they have to tell the truth. Maybe require staying in from recess or staying after school.

Are their any extra curricular activities that could be taken away? At our school they have a basketball program and they have to maintain certain grades to be able to participate. Sometimes other outside school groups (girl scouts, boy scouts, etc) will work with schools in not letting them participate in camp outs or other activities if school work is not maintained as it should be.

It's tough but I would say to first be sure the parents are aware, second, find out what's most important to the kids and use that as leverage.

Good luck!!

[MaryL]

I have no idea if this is appropriate...or would even work...??? But...could you offer a "raffle" type ticket to those who turn in daily homework. At the end of the day...draw a name and give the "winner" a token prize (candy bar...no homework pass...etc). Can you have them spend their recess making up missed homework? Maybe a day or two of missing something "fun"...would spur them into realizing that it's worth it to do the homework. How about offering 15-20 minutes at the end of the day for everyone to at least start the homework? Some of the children may finish it in that time...More power to them! Those that don't finish will at least have it started.

[Leigh]

Linda and Mary, those are both great ideas.Thanks :D

[Lynda-WA]

My DS is also in 5th grade. In 3rd the teacher sent home a checklist with all of the kids. I was shocked to see he hadn't been turning in homework for weeks on end. NO - it isn't that I didn't care. I just can't read minds. Unless I have been told, I have no way of knowing homework is due. To my knowledge, she never sent home a note. But think about it, if the homework wasn't making it home, why would the note? Anyways, what really, really surprised me about this is that I saw his teacher routinely and she hadn't ever said a word. I was a school volunteer but not in his class. The day after the paper came home, I received a call from her about a different matter. So I brought up the homework and how I never knew there was any due (the year prior he got 2 papers all year long). She wasn't even concerned about it. She said the homework was to reinforce concepts from in class an DS would pick them up immediately or already know them. As long as he had the task down pat she wasn't worried about him doing grunt work for the sake of saying he did homework. She said that she was giving him more challenging Qs in class but the homework was a uniform paper for all. I disagreed with him not doing the homework and made him do it anyways.

Next year (4th) there was no problem with homework. He did it immediately, but then he loved school that year. Especially during the second half when he had a new teacher. I can tell you he was really challanged with some of those Q's on his homework. There were times I had to sit and study a math Q for awhile and I have had a couple of years of college calculus! Then I'd make up Qs similar and show him how to do those, then let him do the origional Q. Each page of the weekly homework was progressively harder. They all only had to do certain pages, the last was the challange page and optional. The class stil went over all of the pages in class on the board. There were 3 kids in class that just loved being the one to be able to explain how to do the hardest Qs on the board. The incentive to do those challange Q's was pure peer competition. I've noticed all of the top kids are really into being the *best* and thrive on competition.

This year (5th), we're back to a lack of excitement over school. They get two homework pages a week. One is a log for reading that the parent signs. The goal is 100 minutes of reading a week but the better students have competitions going among themselves to log the most minutes. No problems at all getting him to do that. He averages about 250 to 300 minutes a week. Again, the top couple of kids compete among themselves to read the most.

The math sheet is one page for everyone. That's the one that I have to keep on him to do. He loves math and scored a 99% (nationally) on his Iowa Test of Basic Skills. I can only assume he's bored silly. The sheet is from the 5th grade Skill Power book by Creative Publications. The Q's are things like 3 digit addition, a couple of division, a word problem solved with addition, and a greater/ less then section using subtraction of money. One week he didn't turn in his homework. The teacher gave him an extra day to turn it in. The next day she had him call me from school, then she got on the phone and told me he had forgotten to bring it in or lost it. Then she had him empty out his desk to look for it during class. To be honest I thought she went overboad on the embarrassment part since she knows he's dealing with alot of other things. We are 3 weeks from moving to another part of the state and he isn't very happy about it.

I'm with Linda/NE, notes from home aren't all that reliable. Have the child call, then talk to the parent from school.

It seems to me that the competition thing is great. I know it isn't very PC, but especially for the upper level kids, they thrive on competing with their peers. I know you don't want to have competition going between all of the kids in the class, but since these kids are all compareable, how about fostering some between just these kids?

Here's some examples - In 4th (the year DS LOVED), the teacher gave each child bag of snack size candy bars when they could do a sheet of about 156 single digit multipication problems in 7 minutes correctly. You could only get the candy once but all of the kids did this mad 7 minutes each Friday until everyone had gotten a bag.

One year (1st) DS's teacher had each child documenting the number of books they read. Each child read at their own level so DS's one chapter book was much much larger then another child's picture book. At the end of the specified period, the child that read the most was able to choose a book to keep (donated used books and the books she got from Scholasic orders for free). The child with the next number of books then got to choose and so on.

That same year his school participated in the Pizza Hut reading program. Coupon's for personal size pan pizzas for reading.

And the entire school participated in a program they called Reading the Lewis and Clark trail (the school was Sacajawea Elem). For each book the child read, a tag with their name was moved along a set of footprints on the hall walls. Read 10 books and your name was moved to the first landmark on the trail. Read 20 books and your name was moved to the next landmark. Each *landmark* had a laminated board with pictures and a description of it in real life. Any child that finished the entire trail, recieved a T-shirt from the school.

For prizes - DS's one teacher gave out donated used books and the free scholastic ones. My SIL (2nd) keeps a basket with donated McDonald's meals toys and other things like stickers, Oriental Trading Co stuff, hair items, etc for the kids to choose from. A couple of the teacher's have used the free coupon's from fast food places especially McDonald's and Pizza Hut. Other's have used things like play time on the class computer playing Contraptions.

[darlene]

What is considered "home work"? Is it work that they haven't finished in class time....if so why haven't they....lazy....not understanding? Or is it extra practice work? If it is, do you correct it immediately and have it back to them within a reasonable amount of time? Perhaps if what they are handing in is not given back, the students don't consider it worth doing?

I am very against homework just for the sake of homework! In my opinion if they students are allowed enough time to do their work in class, there is no reason for homework.

Maybe it varies in different areas, but our kids very rarely have homework.

How long is the assigned homework taking them each night? 20 minutes....an hour? Just think if when you were done work at the end of the day your boss came up to you and said...oh by the way take this extra work home and do it and return it tomorrow.

Not trying to judge you Leigh....just curious as to the reason for the homework?

:)

[Leigh]

Originally posted by darlene
What is considered "home work"? Is it work that they haven't finished in class time....if so why haven't they....lazy....not understanding? Or is it extra practice work? If it is, do you correct it immediately and have it back to them within a reasonable amount of time? Perhaps if what they are handing in is not given back, the students don't consider it worth doing?

I am very against homework just for the sake of homework! In my opinion if they students are allowed enough time to do their work in class, there is no reason for homework.

Maybe it varies in different areas, but our kids very rarely have homework.

How long is the assigned homework taking them each night? 20 minutes....an hour? Just think if when you were done work at the end of the day your boss came up to you and said...oh by the way take this extra work home and do it and return it tomorrow.

Not trying to judge you Leigh....just curious as to the reason for the homework?

:)


I know that you are not trying to judge me. I too am not a big fan of a lot homework. I do think that sometimes work needs to be sent home to reinforce what they are learning in school, and since I am student teaching, I have to follow the rules my directing teacher has established for the students. I do have some say, but in the end, she is the ultimate boss. She gives the homework mainly as a reinforcer. Most of the time, they do not have a lot of homework to complete, so it should not take them very long. When they do turn in the homework, it is usually graded and handed back that very same day. Thank you so much for your input though. It does put the situation in a whole new light. :)

[Leigh]

Originally posted by Lynda-WA
My DS is also in 5th grade. In 3rd the teacher sent home a checklist with all of the kids. I was shocked to see he hadn't been turning in homework for weeks on end. NO - it isn't that I didn't care. I just can't read minds. Unless I have been told, I have no way of knowing homework is due. To my knowledge, she never sent home a note. But think about it, if the homework wasn't making it home, why would the note? Anyways, what really, really surprised me about this is that I saw his teacher routinely and she hadn't ever said a word. I was a school volunteer but not in his class. The day after the paper came home, I received a call from her about a different matter. So I brought up the homework and how I never knew there was any due (the year prior he got 2 papers all year long). She wasn't even concerned about it. She said the homework was to reinforce concepts from in class an DS would pick them up immediately or already know them. As long as he had the task down pat she wasn't worried about him doing grunt work for the sake of saying he did homework. She said that she was giving him more challenging Qs in class but the homework was a uniform paper for all. I disagreed with him not doing the homework and made him do it anyways.

Next year (4th) there was no problem with homework. He did it immediately, but then he loved school that year. Especially during the second half when he had a new teacher. I can tell you he was really challanged with some of those Q's on his homework. There were times I had to sit and study a math Q for awhile and I have had a couple of years of college calculus! Then I'd make up Qs similar and show him how to do those, then let him do the origional Q. Each page of the weekly homework was progressively harder. They all only had to do certain pages, the last was the challange page and optional. The class stil went over all of the pages in class on the board. There were 3 kids in class that just loved being the one to be able to explain how to do the hardest Qs on the board. The incentive to do those challange Q's was pure peer competition. I've noticed all of the top kids are really into being the *best* and thrive on competition.

This year (5th), we're back to a lack of excitement over school. They get two homework pages a week. One is a log for reading that the parent signs. The goal is 100 minutes of reading a week but the better students have competitions going among themselves to log the most minutes. No problems at all getting him to do that. He averages about 250 to 300 minutes a week. Again, the top couple of kids compete among themselves to read the most.

The math sheet is one page for everyone. That's the one that I have to keep on him to do. He loves math and scored a 99% (nationally) on his Iowa Test of Basic Skills. I can only assume he's bored silly. The sheet is from the 5th grade Skill Power book by Creative Publications. The Q's are things like 3 digit addition, a couple of division, a word problem solved with addition, and a greater/ less then section using subtraction of money. One week he didn't turn in his homework. The teacher gave him an extra day to turn it in. The next day she had him call me from school, then she got on the phone and told me he had forgotten to bring it in or lost it. Then she had him empty out his desk to look for it during class. To be honest I thought she went overboad on the embarrassment part since she knows he's dealing with alot of other things. We are 3 weeks from moving to another part of the state and he isn't very happy about it.

I'm with Linda/NE, notes from home aren't all that reliable. Have the child call, then talk to the parent from school.

It seems to me that the competition thing is great. I know it isn't very PC, but especially for the upper level kids, they thrive on competing with their peers. I know you don't want to have competition going between all of the kids in the class, but since these kids are all compareable, how about fostering some between just these kids?

Here's some examples - In 4th (the year DS LOVED), the teacher gave each child bag of snack size candy bars when they could do a sheet of about 156 single digit multipication problems in 7 minutes correctly. You could only get the candy once but all of the kids did this mad 7 minutes each Friday until everyone had gotten a bag.

One year (1st) DS's teacher had each child documenting the number of books they read. Each child read at their own level so DS's one chapter book was much much larger then another child's picture book. At the end of the specified period, the child that read the most was able to choose a book to keep (donated used books and the books she got from Scholasic orders for free). The child with the next number of books then got to choose and so on.

That same year his school participated in the Pizza Hut reading program. Coupon's for personal size pan pizzas for reading.

And the entire school participated in a program they called Reading the Lewis and Clark trail (the school was Sacajawea Elem). For each book the child read, a tag with their name was moved along a set of footprints on the hall walls. Read 10 books and your name was moved to the first landmark on the trail. Read 20 books and your name was moved to the next landmark. Each *landmark* had a laminated board with pictures and a description of it in real life. Any child that finished the entire trail, recieved a T-shirt from the school.

For prizes - DS's one teacher gave out donated used books and the free scholastic ones. My SIL (2nd) keeps a basket with donated McDonald's meals toys and other things like stickers, Oriental Trading Co stuff, hair items, etc for the kids to choose from. A couple of the teacher's have used the free coupon's from fast food places especially McDonald's and Pizza Hut. Other's have used things like play time on the class computer playing Contraptions.

As I stated before, we have started sending notes home. That was my idea, and like you've stated some of the parent's had no clue that their child was to be doing homework. We have not tried competition among them, but it might be something to look into. Thanks for your help. :)

[Leigh]

I got to thinking about it after reading some of your post. This is what I think I am going to do. I am going to give them all a sheet tomorrow that list all of the work that they have not turned in. I will tell them that if they want the zeros erased it is up to them to take care of that work. I will also let them know that it will be the last time that I do this for them. They must start turning in their work on time. (I will also make sure that I stick to it. I hate to give zeros, but I have to say what I mean and do it, Right :\ )

Then I am going to give them a review on how to set up every single folder for every single subject. I will also tell them to add a table of contents page. (I don't think my directing teacher had them doing that) The table of contents will be another thing that will help them see what they need in their folders.

I will have them write their assignments in their table of contents every day and then I will go around and check to make sure that it is done. This way they can not say they did not know what to do. It was right there in front of them.

I will scan check folders daily to make sure that they did their homework, and I will collect them once a week for their grades.

If they don't do their homework daily, I will still send the note home to the parents to be signed, and deduct the 10 points for it being late. If they don't return the note signed, I will have them call their parents from school, and if the work still isn't complete, they will receive a zero.

Does this sound like a fair plan to ya'll? I am hoping that by implementing it and sticking to it, I will see some results. I am thinking that one reason homework might not be turned in is because of disorginization, so anyway, what do ya'll think???

[AnnW]

In our schools (both elementary and middle) the kids are given an agenda book where they write their daily homework down, when projects are due, tests...ect. In elementary, the book comes home everyday and depending on the teacher, the parent either initials it everyday or weekly. This is also where we can write notes back and forth between teacher and parent.

[Leigh]

We have agendas too, and that is what they are supposed to be used for, but I haven't seen them used like that in elementary school. It seems to me that it would be easier, but a lot of children loose theirs and their parents don't like to pay for another.

[Lynda-WA]

I think this sounds like a great plan with the possible exception of a deduction after just one day. I know our lives get very hectic at times and there are nights we don't get anything done at home including homework. That's one reason why I've always loved when they get homework on a Monday and it's due the next Monday. That way if there is a night of two that is busy, we can plan and do the homework early or in the remaining days.

Because of that, I'd go with either starting the deductions on the second day it's late or I'd give them x number of days late allowed over the course of the year. In other words they could get (10) free days. The first time they are late, 1 of the (10) free days is deducted. When they hit 11 times late, they start automatically getting deductions on the first day late.

I really like everything else. I agree that this will help with their organizational skills.



Originally posted by Leigh
If they don't do their homework daily, I will still send the note home to the parents to be signed, and deduct the 10 points for it being late. If they don't return the note signed, I will have them call their parents from school, and if the work still isn't complete, they will receive a zero.

Does this sound like a fair plan to ya'll? I am hoping that by implementing it and sticking to it, I will see some results. I am thinking that one reason homework might not be turned in is because of disorginization, so anyway, what do ya'll think???

[Diane]

It sounds like you've gotten a lot of good advice. When my dd was in the 5th grade we had a heck of a time getting her to do and hand in her homework. We also didn't have a clue that she wasn't doing it until conferance time... I too had wished the teacher wouldn't have waited so long... I thought maybe a call or a note would have been nice. Anyway... this teacher gave us a long list of all of the homework assignments that had been missed and gave her the opportunity to catch up on them... minus a few points for handing them in late. You can bet that she did each/every one of them... complaining the entire time. We kept telling her that if she had done them when she was suppose to... she wouldn't be having to work so hard to do/complete them all at once.

After that... dh made up a homework sheet that dd was to write all of her homework assignments in. Before she left school... the teacher would check it to make sure that all of her assignments were written down and then he'd sign it so we'd know for sure that that's all she had. Then after she got home and had her snack... she'd have to do her homeowork. After it was complete... we'd sign it so she could return it to school along with her homework. She KNEW she was being watched by both the teacher and ourselves... and that she was no longer going to get away with not doing her homework. It just became the "thing to do" (habit) and after that we no longer had any problems.

The children in our schools also get knocked down a few points when their assignments aren't handed in on time. IMHO school/homework comes first... before anything else. Until it's done... nothing else is started. :)

Diane... :wave:

[Linda/NE]

Originally posted by Lynda-WA
I think this sounds like a great plan with the possible exception of a deduction after just one day. I know our lives get very hectic at times and there are nights we don't get anything done at home including homework. That's one reason why I've always loved when they get homework on a Monday and it's due the next Monday. That way if there is a night of two that is busy, we can plan and do the homework early or in the remaining days.




This is exactly why I personally don't agree with the idea of giving homework just for the sake of homework--busywork. I'd much rather see my child spend his/her homework time reading a book or practicing math facts by way of a game than completing repetitive work sheets and such.

I was thinking in a class I took a few years ago someone was saying that only so many problems (don't remember how many) are really helping them grasp the skill. Doing page long sheets of the same type of problems aren't that beneficial. But again, I don't remember for sure. I think the philosophy behind it was if they aren't grasping it after doing so many problems there evidently is something they aren't understanding and a new approach needs to be taken.

Diane, I completely agree that homework should come first. We try to do just what you did with your dd. Our kids get a snack and then it's homework time.

[RCT]

Originally posted by AnnW
In our schools (both elementary and middle) the kids are given an agenda book where they write their daily homework down, when projects are due, tests...ect. In elementary, the book comes home everyday and depending on the teacher, the parent either initials it everyday or weekly. This is also where we can write notes back and forth between teacher and parent.

we have this too...the book is sent home every Monday...with all the schedualed homework for that week....the parent is responsible for making sure the student reads 15 minutes a day, and must sign the sheet....also they have about 3 assigned pages of homework each day....I sign it on Thrusday night and send the completed work back on friday...we can communicate through the book with the teacher....they get all thier homework at once but are asked to do only the assignment on the sheet for those days....according to what they have studied in the classroom....the kindergardeners really work well with this system...my 2nd grader seems to have gotten used to the idea of homework everynight now too....I don't have to hear them complain...they have a set time to do it...right when we get home from school....then its done....

[Leigh]

Thanks for all of your advice gals! :D