HOMEWORK! To Be or Not to Be? That is the Question!

"Homework remains one of the biggest challenges and concerns facing teachers today," author Nancy Paulu told Education World. "Many teachers say they have a hard time creating meaningful and appropriate homework assignments and getting students to complete the assignments successfully."

     The Great DEBATE!  To give Homework or NOT??  What about the idea that kids need some “down time” after spending all day in school?  What do some kids do when the homework is too hard…..or too easy?  It’s  always challenging to plan Homework that meets the needs of each student. 

      Here is an idea we created that helps connect families with school. What’s great about these assignments is that they build classroom community while also increasing oral and written language!  A Win-Win!

How does Write and Share work?

   Each student writes their homework and brings it in to share with their class. Through sharing, they get practice in speaking aloud, other students get practice in asking questions about what they wrote, and everyone learns a little bit more about each other!  That’s why it’s called WRITE & SHARE.

   WRITE & SHARE was created to replace that old familiar Show & Tell. As first grade teachers, we knew our students enjoyed sharing about their own things. But after a few months (ACCK!), we noticed that the items they selected began to look a little ragged and torn. It seemed they had quickly just rooted around in their closet and pulled out any old thing to bring!

      We weren’t seeing any real connection to our curriculum either. Yes, they were sharing but this concept REALLY needed to be expanded to include some family involvement and some academic skills. So.....we put our heads together and developed a year-long homework program....and called it WRITE & SHARE. There is a wide variety of topics that children write and share about....seasonal, holidays, math, science, etc. 

     Parents tell us they look forward to the varied assignments that they do with their child. Teachers tell us how valuable this is for their students. Others liked it and wanted it in their Kindergarten or 2nd Grade classrooms so we expanded it to both those grades also....adapting them to fit the skill levels of those grades and standards. So now there are 3 levels of WRITE and SHARE! The world is a happy place!  

Check out what one of our customers had to say about Write and Share!
"One of my better purchases last year! I loved using it for homework and then letting my students have time on Fridays to share from the Author’s chair. Even my most reluctant writers were sharing by year’s end!"

Here’s a few FREE samples for you to try.  Click {HERE} to link to the free sample at our JK Curriculum Connection website. (P.S. There are some other fun freebies there also!) 

Click {HERE} for the Kindergarten product at our TeachersPayTeachers store.

Click {HERE} for the 1st Grade Write and Share!

Click {HERE} for the 2nd Grade Homework Write and Share!

A Simple Strategy to Review Sight Words

Are your student's struggling to learn their sight words?   Would you like an easy to use system with those students that targets just the words that they need?

I'm Christina from Hanging Around In Primary and I would like to share a simple, yet effective strategy I am using with my students this year.

When teaching sight words I do not have a specific order that I use nor do I follow a specific reading program.  We are fortunate in that we can teach with our choice of resources, so I use a mismash of things I have created, along with purchased resources to teach my students during our literacy block. You can check out a couple of blog posts {HERE} and {HERE} that I have written about the word wall on my own blog.

I believe strongly that students must learn their sight words or word wall words, as I call them, in order to be a successful reader.  Students need to develop an automaticity when reading them.  I want them to be able to read these words without sounding them out so in my classroom we say that these words are like popcorn - they pop right out without having to sound them out.

If your class is anything like mine, even when you spend time each and every week to review the words, some students just aren't getting them.  I needed to catch these kids and provide intervention by targeting the words they didn't know in a systematic way.

First off, I assessed each student and came up with a customized list of words they did not yet have. From this point I determined which words to work on first and prioritized.  Finally, I created customized flip books for each student that would be used to track their progress.

So, how does it work?  Good old fashioned practice!  I send home 5 flashcards at the beginning of the week in a special ziploc bag.  My parents LOVE flashcards - it is familiar to them and easy to do.  I suggest games they can play with the cards but my students often share that they just practice the flashcards.

On Friday I make time to meet with each of my target students (usually during read to self) and do a check in with the 5 words.  If they can read them with automaticity then they get to put a sticker beside the word in their flip book and I stamp their card.  They take the old cards home and I give them new flash cards.  Some weeks students need to continue to practice previous words, so they may only take home 2 or 3 new words.  My students love to put the stickers into their flip books and feel a sense of pride when we review all of the words in their flip book at the end of our check-in session.

I have found this to be a very powerful way to move kids forward in their sight word development.  I have had great parent support with this program because it is both easy to do and takes a little time each night.  

If you want to store this idea away why not pin this image!

Would you like to try it out?  Click below to download a free copy of the flip book to use with your students.

Thank you for checking out my post! 

Homework Choices

Hi there folks - it's Lisa from Second Grade Stories.  Time to talk about homework.

 

Blah!!!  Homework??!!  Honestly, I don't know a single primary grade teacher who really enjoys any part of homework for little ones.  How much should you give?  How directed should it be?  Any consequences for not returning it on time?  Who brought it back and who didn't?  Sometimes it just gets overwhelming.

 

My grade level took time at the beginning of this year to completely revamp our homework practice.  We talked about how to balance the importance of practice and review of skills with being able to work independently.  We talked about how to make homework easier for families.  We talked about how to make it a little more FUN for everyone.  And we decided to try homework choice menus.

 

Here's what the homework menu looked like for my kiddos this week:

 

Let me take you through it one part at a time.  The main idea is for students to choose at least one activity from each row of shapes.  That works out to one activity of about 15-20 minutes each night, plus nightly reading. 

 

Reading

We decided we wanted students to be reading every night, so they can either choose a different activity each night, or do the same one more than once.  The first circle always stays the same.  Our kiddos LOVE the book tower project. 

 

This is what we do instead of a reading log.  We send home one tower a semester and when a completed one is returned, we hang it up in the hall, the student gets a certificate and gets recognized at our grade 2 monthly morning meeting.  It's a big deal :-)

 

The other circles are always an idea of a way to read (to an adult, under the covers, under a table...), an online book idea and a reading sheet that we send home.  Here are the two online ones we've shared so far:

 

 

 

 

Math

Same idea.  An online game or app, an actual math sheet, a card game (one that we have already played in class A LOT!) and another idea.  The games and apps usually come from

 

 

 

Spelling

One way to practice writing words (rainbow words, draw with chalk...), one movement way to spell words aloud, an online activity or app and the choice of spelling notebook ideas.  (We started using spelling ideas from Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade and we LOVE this product!  My kiddos have notebooks in school for different subjects and they like the idea of having one at home, too!)

 

So how has it worked so far?  Let's just say I have had more POSITIVE emails, notes and comments from parents this year than I have had negative notes in past years combined.  Parents really like the choice part - it gives students a chance to be invested in the homework.  The variety of choices has also proven to be important - some parents (and kids!) prefer sitting down and DOING a homework sheet, rather than having to think up an idea of how to practice something.  Most of my students do more than the minimum each week, as well!  We take time during one closing circle meeting each week to share what everyone has done from the menu so far - this often encourages others to try that activity, too.

 

Changing the menu every week is easy for me, too.  I'll usually leave the online choices there for a couple weeks before I change them out.  And if I hear one choice my kids really loved (like reading under the table!), that one will stay a few times, too.  Since the general idea of each activity stays the same, I only need to change the specifics.

 

After Thanksgiving, I'm going to start adding an optional "project" kind of activity each month, as well.  This will give students who want to do something extra an opportunity to extend their homework and add a creative aspect to the menu.

 

Although the choice menu idea is certainly not new, by tweaking it to work with my grade level and the unique needs of my class, I've found a way to make homework not only relevant, but also more enjoyable! I'd love to hear about other ways you've found to make homework successful with your class.