Out of curiousity, how much homework does the average 6th grade teacher give? Personally, I don't give a lot. I don't usually assign hw, it would just be what was not finished during class. But I like to give work time, if I can fit it in, and a lot of my students finish their work during this time. My school's fifth grade teacher piles on the hw every night, and I always think that parents are comparing her class to my class by weighing the hw. My philosophy is, why send them home with work that we could finish in class, I KNOW they are doing it correctly, and it gets done? I am tired of banging my head against the wall fighting to get hw turned in, when obviously parents, and therefore students, don't make it a priority. Sure, there is the idea that it is supposed to teach responsbility, etc, but I had to ask myself, if they aren't turning it in, then what is the point?
I give about 1/2 to 45 minutes about. Not every day though. I monitor the workload by observing how the whole class is managing. It is quite obvious when you've given too much. I give a little at first and then work it up, then pull back a bit and then gradually pull up again.
I agree with Brendan - sixth grade should top out at about an hour per night. My team aims for 15 minutes per teacher, per night, of "real work" as Aliceaac says. No tv, no phone, etc. If one of us is giving a project or major test, we coordinate.
It varies from one night to the next, but usually no more than 45 minutes. My kids go to another teacher for ILA, so it's hard to say exactly how much they have each night as I don't always know what she's assigning. I did have 1 parent send a note in with her daughter's signed homework policy at the beginning of the year that said, "My daughter will not do more than 30 minutes of homework per night. She will not do ANY homework on the weekends. If this negetively effects her grade, I will pull her out of school" .... can you tell I work in a private school?!
An hour total for all their teachers: math, science, social studies, and english, thats 15 minutes of homework apiece, very manegable. I teach mostly HS and one 7th grade course. We need to prepare them for highschool they should be recieving about 30 minutes in elementary school, as by the time to high school they will be recieving close to 2 hours of homework per night.
We have them read for 30 min. nightly and then on average they probably have another 30 min. of homework. I'd say the total is about 1 hour a night.
It varies. What isn't finished in class is homework. But on a nightly basis they have scripture or catechism to memorize (2x a week), Bible Journal entries (5x a week), 100 minutes of reading a week, practice Spelling words, and the math teacher usually has homework. So, depending on the student, the homework is 30 to 75 minutes per night.
My son is in 6th gr. and has time in his sixth period (GEM Math)to work on his homework of any choice there, once his teacher is done with the classwork. He really uses that time he has to do as much of the work as possible so i never really get to see the TRUE time it takes. Once he is home, he usually has at least 30 minutes of work to do and then he might have a project to work on. His team supposedly discuss this issue so that they dont overwhelm the kids. So far its been manageable.
I suppose I am probably teaching in a different situation than most teachers with 6's. My kids are mostly all in foster homes and have had pretty rough lives. One student has post traumatic so bad that psychologist reported it is the same as a child from a war torn country. Teacher who passed these kids to me said don't bother with any homework as it just will never be done. I'm giving a bit however and yes yesterday I had 1/2 class in for lunch completing it. Regularly my expectations with a typical class would probably be aroung 1 hr, in retrospect though.
We give one hour a night, Monday - Thursday. I do encourage my students to read, study, and get ahead on long-term projects on the weekends.
I'd say I give about 30 -45 min a night TOPS and it still doesn't get done. :unsure: I'm going to try a couple new things this week. First, giving less homework to see if the amount is the issue. Then I'm going to try a small incentive but nothing like rewarding EVERYDAY for completing work. I've just got to see what works for my group.
I teach all subjects to my students as we are a 4-6 school and I'd say that my kids are close to 45 to an hour a night also. They have to read for 20 minutes, have an easy spelling assignment, finish their math (this can be shorter if they get more done in class) and then sometimes science or soc. stud. assignement. So far everyone is getting it all done, for the most part. I think that once that changes, that's when you need to reevaluate the amount.. but then there are always THOSE FEW who will just NOT EVER do it! But they are the ones that need the most help anyways! : ) I help them in the am before school or during recess. Good luck!
