"Traditional homework" refers to the typical assignments or tasks given to students by their teachers outside of classroom hours.
Full definition
PS 116's principal Jane Hsu told DNA Info that the school «spent over a year «analyzing studies focused on the effects
of traditional homework» and decided that it was more important for the Pre-K through fifth grade students to do activities that «have been proven to have a positive impact on student academic performance and social / emotional development» such as reading at their own pace and playing.»
March 5: DNAinfo's Heather Holland reported on a public elementary school, P.S. 116, that stopped
assigning traditional homework to its students and encouraged them to play, read and socialize with family instead, sparking outrage among some parents.
Hsu insists that there are «a variety of studies conducted on the effects of homework in the elementary grades and not one of them could provide any evidence that directly
links traditional homework practices with current, or even future, academic success.»
While the initiative has received some flack in the media, I think it's a great idea, especially if it were to be blended with
more traditional homework tasks.
1) Hand over responsibility — The Huffington Post recently ran a story about a secondary school in Colchester, where the headteacher decided to
ditch traditional homework in favor of a more relaxed approach.
«Many of you have probably read about flipped classrooms — a new instructional model that
brings traditional homework into the classroom and students watch the lecture at home the night before.
An alternative to pen and paper, getting kids up and dancing along to the app also provides bonding through learning as it's an activity that parents and children can do together without the stress and frustration
of traditional homework.
Blending online discussion opportunities into your face - to - face instruction is an excellent alternative to
traditional homework, also complementing and improving face - to - face discussions.
The term «flipped» is used to refer to the reversal of
the traditional homework therefore direct instruction is not conducted in large groups, but rather individually through teacher - created videos.
One of the drawbacks of
traditional homework is that students don't receive meaningful feedback on their work while they are doing it; they may have no opportunity to relearn concepts they struggled to master.
Viewing lectures online may not seem to differ much from
the traditional homework reading assignment, but there is at least one critical difference: Classroom time is no longer spent taking in raw content, a largely passive process.
As the homework debate rages, one important issue may be overlooked:
Traditional homework may actually be hazardous to your child's health.
I've ranted about the deleterious effects of
traditional homework, in the past.
Traditional homework is replaced with videos, where the students are introduced to a new topic or concept (led by the teacher), and answer questions embedded within the video.
Here are 5 suggested ways to encourage family engagement in education as alternatives to
traditional homework:
Starting in fall 2017, the Marion County public school district has decided to replace
all traditional homework with 20 minutes of mandatory reading time for its elementary school students.