I really enjoyed reading the book Home on the Field. It was such a great perspective on this culture and what they have to go through every day. I hope that we all can stop and think of this story the next time we have an encounter with Hispanic families. What are your hispanic students really dealing with at home? I loved the idea of Sam's school having no homework. Should this be what your students' grades are based on? Our responsibility is to give them the best education we can while they are at school and do everything we can to make sure they achieve. Is it fair to penalize them because of situations going on at home? NO! Students should not be failing because of homework issues....this is just when the teacher steps in to make sure the students are doing what they need to be doing at school to achieve.

Stop and thinking is important as educators. It is refreshing to read a story like Home On the Feild because it helps us with a broader view of the world. It reminds us that our students have their own stories. Just like we as teachers think it important to tell our stories...We need to jump into the perspective of our students.

I agree Melissa! I like that idea of no homework. I assign my students to read each night and record on a reading log or to review their sight word flash cards (but they are 5 so if it's not done- then I don't punish them--they can't read and write by themselves..haha) I try to send home something they can read each day, so that they will have some sort of reading material at home, but I have my classroom grandma read with some of the students who don't get help or attention at home so that they can meet the grade level reading goal for the 9 weeks. Some of the kindergartners read like 500-600 books in a 9 weeks. I'm all for reading..but that is ExTREME! My class usually has the lowest number of books read, because I am happy if at 5 they read 1.I don't push them to read just for the sake of having most books read! They've been at school all day and reading 12 books or more a night is a little much!!!

After being in graduate school, I have changed my homework policies. I don't give half the amount of homework that I used to. Now I assign 30 minutes of reading and will have a small math or reading workbook page. The children at the school where I teach now have no parental support at home so the children are on their own. It is a miracle if someone even asks them if they have homework. In these situations less is better.

It has really worked for us not to give homework. It took away the stress of asking the kids why they didnt do it, calling parents, etc. This was really stressful when 3/4 of the class didnt do their homework. Now teachers, parents, and students are much happier. The only negative is that we do get complaints from the middle school saying the kids cant handle the homework load once they get there.

Maybe the middle school needs to revise their policy. I am sure that the same children we have are not going to turn in their homework in middle school either. My son would come home covered up with homework in the 7th grade. When he got to the 8th grade he rarely had homework. Here again we are faced with the issue of what too much homework is. I honestly don't have the time to check tons of homework in addition to class work. People must learn which battles are worth fighting.

We reduced the amount of homework at our school two years ago. Students read and have a little journal and maybe some math. I feel like we can't begin to know what happens when they leave us. I had a student last year who missed numerous days to take care of her dad who is sometimes confined to a wheelchair. She rarely had her homework, because she and her brother were keeping a house running for their dad. Could I blame them for not see homework as relevant and necessary?

Let's not forget those students whose parents do all the work for them or correct every piece of homework that they do. They are so scared that their kid is going to fail at something. Talk about creating some anxiety. It's not very helpful, at least to me, when parents correct the homework. What little bit I do send home, I want my students to complete so that I get a true picture of where the misconceptions are and I can help them much better that way.

You are right Melissa. So many times teachers are very rigid in their expectations that they don't take into consideration that they have a life outside of school. I what's important when considering homework is: can the student do it on their own, and is there a purpose for it rather than just busy work equaling a check if they do it and an x if they don't. Not all student have the same resources and family members that are able to help them with these things and when you bring in cultural differences, you are surely going to run into problems. If that child's culture values family time in the evenings and they are doing things as a family, the homework isn't going to get done, and you aren't going to have the support of the family in enforcing it....so why do it?

We had parent teacher conference sometime back and I had one Hispanic mom tell me she had a new baby in the house and did not have time to help her child do homework and the other Hispanic mom told me she could not help her child because she could not read english and no one in the home did. Our school offers a program called homework club after school that helps students with thier homework but it is for third - fifth grade and the students have to be on Tier plan (RTI) or made a 1 or 2 on EOG's. I think as teacher we need to look at what we send home for homework becuase I also had parenst tell me they did not understand their child's homewrok and had a hard time helping them. Do we want are students going home and getting help doing it the wrong way?

I love the idea of no homework policy, I think all schools should incorporate it to an extent. I can see a teacher assigning something to finish that didn't get done in class a night here or a night there, but the daily homework thing is pretty worthless. Many times it is the parents who are doing the homework, so do you grade what the parents are doing? I think if you push your students hard enough in class during the day then they should be able to go home and enjoy their time away from school.

On the topic of homework, I give a minimal amount for the same reasons mentioned. Also, it takes time to check it and make sure the students understood it. That time is precious time that could be used in more valuable ways in the classroom. Homework and its related issues cause the majority of parent conflicts on my grade level.