Download or read book The Case Against Homework written by Sara Bennett and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does assigning fifty math problems accomplish any more than assigning five? Is memorizing word lists the best way to increase vocabulary—especially when it takes away from reading time? And what is the real purpose behind those devilish dioramas? The time our children spend doing homework has skyrocketed in recent years. Parents spend countless hours cajoling their kids to complete such assignments—often without considering whether or not they serve any worthwhile purpose. Even many teachers are in the dark: Only one of the hundreds the authors interviewed and surveyed had ever taken a course specifically on homework during training. The truth, according to Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, is that there is almost no evidence that homework helps elementary school students achieve academic success and little evidence that it helps older students. Yet the nightly burden is taking a serious toll on America’s families. It robs children of the sleep, play, and exercise time they need for proper physical, emotional, and neurological development. And it is a hidden cause of the childhood obesity epidemic, creating a nation of “homework potatoes.” In The Case Against Homework, Bennett and Kalish draw on academic research, interviews with educators, parents, and kids, and their own experience as parents and successful homework reformers to offer detailed advice to frustrated parents. You’ll find out which assignments advance learning and which are time-wasters, how to set priorities when your child comes home with an overstuffed backpack, how to talk and write to teachers and school administrators in persuasive, nonconfrontational ways, and how to rally other parents to help restore balance in your children’s lives. Empowering, practical, and rigorously researched, The Case Against Homework shows how too much work is having a negative effect on our children’s achievement and development and gives us the tools and tactics we need to advocate for change. Also available as an eBook

Download or read book The Homework Myth written by Alfie Kohn and published by Da Capo Lifelong Books. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Death and taxes come later; what seems inevitable for children is the idea that, after spending the day at school, they must then complete more academic assignments at home. The predictable results: stress and conflict, frustration and exhaustion. Parents respond by reassuring themselves that at least the benefits outweigh the costs. But what if they don't? In The Homework Myth, nationally known educator and parenting expert Alfie Kohn systematically examines the usual defenses of homework--that it promotes higher achievement, "reinforces" learning, and teaches study skills and responsibility. None of these assumptions, he shows, actually passes the test of research, logic, or experience. So why do we continue to administer this modern cod liver oil -- or even demand a larger dose? Kohn's incisive analysis reveals how a mistrust of children, a set of misconceptions about learning, and a misguided focus on competitiveness have all left our kids with less free time and our families with more conflict. Pointing to parents who have fought back -- and schools that have proved educational excellence is possible without homework -- Kohn shows how we can rethink what happens during and after school in order to rescue our families and our children's love of learning.

Download or read book Beyond Measure written by Vicki Abeles and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From the director of Race to Nowhere comes a ... book for parents, students, and educators on how to revolutionize learning, prioritize children's health, and re-envision success for a lifetime"--

Download or read book Rethinking Homework written by Cathy Vatterott and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this updated edition, Cathy Vatterott examines the role homework has played in the culture of schooling over the years; how such factors as family life, the media, and "homework gap" issues based on shifting demographics have affected the homework controversy; and what recent research as well as common sense tell us about the effects of homework on student learning. She also explores how the current homework debate has been reshaped by forces including the Common Core, a pervasive media and technology presence, the mass hysteria of "achievement culture," and the increasing shift to standards-based and formative assessment. The best way to address the homework controversy is not to eliminate homework. Instead, the author urges educators to replace the old paradigm (characterized by long-standing cultural beliefs, moralistic views, and behaviorist philosophy) with a new paradigm based on the following elements: Designing high-quality homework tasks; Differentiating homework tasks; Deemphasizing grading of homework; Improving homework completion; and Implementing homework support programs. Numerous examples from teachers and schools illustrate the new paradigm in action, and readers will find useful new tools to start them on their own journey. The end product is homework that works—for all students, at all levels.

Download or read book It s OK to Go Up the Slide written by Heather Shumaker and published by TarcherPerigee. This book was released on 2016-03-08 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to parenting, sometimes you have to trust your gut. With her first book, It’s OK Not to Share, Heather Shumaker overturned all the conventional rules of parenting with her “renegade rules” for raising competent and compassionate kids. In It’s Ok To Go Up the Slide, Shumaker takes on new hot-button issues with renegade rules such as: - Recess Is A Right - It’s Ok Not To Kiss Grandma - Ban Homework in Elementary School - Safety Second - Don’t Force Participation Shumaker also offers broader guidance on how parents can control their own fears and move from an overscheduled life to one of more free play. Parenting can too often be reduced to shuttling kids between enrichment classes, but Shumaker challenges parents to reevaluate how they’re spending their precious family time. This book helps parents help their kids develop important life skills in an age-appropriate way. Most important, parents must model these skills, whether it’s technology use, confronting conflict, or coping emotionally with setbacks. Sometimes being a good parent means breaking all the rules.

Download or read book No More Homework written by John Henderson and published by Baker's Plays. This book was released on 1952 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Battle Over Homework written by Harris M. Cooper and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homework is the cause of more friction between schools and home than any other aspect of education and becomes the prime battlefield when schools, families, and communities view one another as adversaries. This comprehensive fourth edition tackles all the tough questions: What’s the right amount of homework? What role should parents play in the homework process? What is the connection between homework and achievement? This essential reference offers all stakeholders—administrators, teachers, and parents—the opportunity to end the battle and turn homework into a cooperative endeavor to promote student learning.

Download or read book It s OK Not to Share and Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids written by Heather Shumaker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-08-02 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parenting can be such an overwhelming job that it’s easy to lose track of where you stand on some of the more controversial subjects at the playground (What if my kid likes to rough house—isn’t this ok as long as no one gets hurt? And what if my kid just doesn’t feel like sharing?). In this inspiring and enlightening book, Heather Shumaker describes her quest to nail down “the rules” to raising smart, sensitive, and self-sufficient kids. Drawing on her own experiences as the mother of two small children, as well as on the work of child psychologists, pediatricians, educators and so on, in this book Shumaker gets to the heart of the matter on a host of important questions. Hint: many of the rules aren’t what you think they are! The “rules” in this book focus on the toddler and preschool years—an important time for laying the foundation for competent and compassionate older kids and then adults. Here are a few of the rules: • It’s OK if it’s not hurting people or property • Bombs, guns and bad guys allowed. • Boys can wear tutus. • Pictures don’t have to be pretty. • Paint off the paper! • Sex ed starts in preschool • Kids don’t have to say “Sorry.” • Love your kid’s lies. IT’S OK NOT TO SHARE is an essential resource for any parent hoping to avoid PLAYDATEGATE (i.e. your child’s behavior in a social interaction with another child clearly doesn’t meet with another parent’s approval)!

Download or read book No More Mindless Homework written by Kathy Collins and published by Heinemann Educational Books. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While schools around the nation reconsider homework policies, teachers, students, and parents continue to ride the wave of either too much, too little, too easy, or too hard homework assignments. In the expectation that children complete homework, sometimes they are assigned mindless "busy work." Kathy Collins and Janine Bempechat take on the stormy topic of homework by re-focusing the conversation from "to assign or not to assign" to how we can design engaging homework that harnesses children's interests and fosters their learning. "Janine and I give you a research-based rationale and a more expansive view of homework that enables you to envision meaningful alternatives to worksheets, packets, and tasks that simply occupy children's afterschool time," Kathy writes. As Janine notes, "More than just 'getting it done, ' homework can be an opportunity to foster positive beliefs about learning, establish meaningful habits of mind, and forge an academic identity." With strategies for adding choice, differentiation, relevance, and authentic feedback into homework assignments, you'll discover how to reimagine homework in ways that promote lifelong learning habits in your students.

Download or read book No Homework and Recess All Day written by Jerry Mintz and published by Alternative Education Resource Organization. This book was released on 2003-07 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jerry Mintz has spent most of his life promoting learner-centered education and the empowerment of children. In No Homework & Recess All Day, Mintz draws on this experience to provide an overview, brief history, and many practical lessons to learn from the growing movement of democratic and alternative schools around the world. If you've ever thought of homeschooling, sending a child to a democratic school, attending a democratic school, or maybe even starting a democratic school, this is the book for you.

Download or read book Giggle Poetry Reading Lessons written by Amy Buswell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-08-05 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many struggling readers are embarrassed to read aloud. They are often intimidated or bored by texts that reading specialists require them to practice. So, instead of catching up, they are falling further behind. This handbook filled with poetry reading lessons can help turn struggling readers into happy readers.

Download or read book I Can Depend on Me written by Sharron Jamison and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-10 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I Can Depend on Me shares the struggle and pain of feeling excluded, feeling invisible and feeling powerless. It is a book which challenges us to question and to examine our educational system to ensure that we are not only shapingminds, but also nurturing young spirits. SharRon's faith in God and her commitment to achieve despite insurmountable odds confi rms that we too can overcome struggles, obstacles and negativity. I Can Depend on Me takes us on a journey from trial to triumph and provides a blueprint for all us to startour own journeys of healing and empowerment.

Download or read book Homework Talk written by Cheli Cerra and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2006-10-12 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Put an end to nightly homework battles! Homework Talk! provides parents with simple and practical advice to help them deal with the many issues that can come up surrounding their children's homework. The authors, Cheli Cerra and Ruth Jacoby, have identified fifty-two typical homework situations and provided tips, strategies, and advice for handling each of them. Are you concerned about: * Making sure your child is doing all of his homework on time? * Talking to a teacher who assigns too much homework? * Understanding how much help to give your child? * Motivating your child to handle homework issues on her own? * Overcoming your child's resistance to doing particular types of homework? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Homework Talk! is the book you need. Don't wait to start working with your child and your child's teachers to make homework a simple and productive process for everyone. Praise for other books in Cheli Cerra and Ruth Jacoby's School Talk series: "A must-read for today's educational leader." --Jack Canfield Co-author of Chicken Soup for the Parent's Soul on Principal Talk! "An amazing compilation of what to say to parents." --Harry K. Wong Ed.D., author of The First Days of School on Teacher Talk!

Download or read book Grading for Equity written by Joe Feldman and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Joe Feldman shows us how we can use grading to help students become the leaders of their own learning and lift the veil on how to succeed. . . . This must-have book will help teachers learn to implement improved, equity-focused grading for impact.” --Zaretta Hammond, Author of Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain Crack open the grading conversation Here at last—and none too soon—is a resource that delivers the research base, tools, and courage to tackle one of the most challenging and emotionally charged conversations in today’s schools: our inconsistent grading practices and the ways they can inadvertently perpetuate the achievement and opportunity gaps among our students. With Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman cuts to the core of the conversation, revealing how grading practices that are accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational will improve learning, minimize grade inflation, reduce failure rates, and become a lever for creating stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms. Essential reading for schoolwide and individual book study or for student advocates, Grading for Equity provides A critical historical backdrop, describing how our inherited system of grading was originally set up as a sorting mechanism to provide or deny opportunity, control students, and endorse a “fixed mindset” about students’ academic potential—practices that are still in place a century later A summary of the research on motivation and equitable teaching and learning, establishing a rock-solid foundation and a “true north” orientation toward equitable grading practices Specific grading practices that are more equitable, along with teacher examples, strategies to solve common hiccups and concerns, and evidence of effectiveness Reflection tools for facilitating individual or group engagement and understanding As Joe writes, “Grading practices are a mirror not just for students, but for us as their teachers.” Each one of us should start by asking, “What do my grading practices say about who I am and what I believe?” Then, let’s make the choice to do things differently . . . with Grading for Equity as a dog-eared reference.

Download or read book Mastering Fourth Grade Skills written by Teacher Created Resources, Inc and published by Teacher Created Resources. This book was released on 2006-03-27 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series takes a fresh approach to the mastery of grade-specific skills. Each book uses a wide range of activities to spark students interest in learning. As students complete the activities, they develop the skills they need to meet academic standards in reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. Because the ability levels of students in any one grade level vary, each book spans a broad range of skills. Both teachers and parents can use the books to introduce new concepts, to assess learning and skill development, and to reinforce familiar knowledge. The versatile activities can be used for individual practice, test preparation, or homework assignments. Complete answer keys are provided.

Download or read book What Successful Schools Do to Involve Families written by Paula Jameson Whitney and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From traditional forms of communication—such as open houses, parent-teacher conferences, and fundraising efforts—to hot-button topics such as bullying and discipline, this book helps educators bridge the gap between school and home.

Download or read book The End of Homework written by Etta Kralovec and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Etta Kralovec and John Buell are educators who dared to challenge one of the most widely accepted practices in American schools. Their provocative argument first published in this book, featured in Time and Newsweek, in numerous women's magazines, on national radio and network television broadcasts, was the first openly to challenge the gospel of "the more homework the better." Consider: * In 1901, homework was legally banned in parts of the U.S. There are no studies showing that assigning homework before junior high school improves academic achievement. * Increasingly, students and their parents are told that homework must take precedence over music lessons, religious education, and family and community activities. As the homework load increases (and studies show it is increasing) these family priorities are neglected. * Homework is a great discriminator, effectively allowing students whose families "have" to surge ahead of their classmates who may have less. * Backpacks are literally bone-crushing, sometimes weighing as much as the child. Isn't it obvious we're overburdening our kids?