Over the past weeks, I’ve been working to come up with some new ideas for homework. I believe homework is an important part of school, allowing students to learn and practice both responsibility and accountability. In theory, it should be work that can be done independently. In reality, I know that homework can be a stressful part of the day for kids and adults.
Over the weekend, I attended a film screening of Race to Nowhere. While the film had many worthy messages, it helped to confirm my belief that I should be re-thinking homework. So, the Homework Menu was born!
Download a PDF of the homework menu here!
Each week, your child will continue to have a 2-sided math sheet to complete. Cursive papers will continue until we make our way through the alphabet. The remaining evenings will be filled with Homework Menu options.
All students should be spending 20 minutes reading (or being read to) and practicing math facts for 5 minutes. They can then choose an item from the menu to complete. Please choose a different item each night during the week and sign the box your child completed. Feel free to jot me a note if you’d like.
I hope parents will look at the menu as an opportunity for their kids to practice skills needing improvement. Whether it is responsibility, communication, math, writing, reading, cooperation or becoming more active, there should be several good choices for every child.
I’m very excited to see how this works! As always, keep me posted.
What’s to come….
We have two field trips coming up pretty soon. One is the afternoon of October 25th, when we head to Coonamessett Farm. We will leave Mullen-Hall at 11:30 and return between 2:30 and 3:00. This is a driving field trip, so volunteer drivers must have a current CORI and have filled out a driver’s log.
Our other field trip is to Plimoth Plantation on November 15th. It is a bus trip and it will last all day. I don’t have an exact charge for parents (it is usually about $15), but the charge for students will be $5.00. Field Trip notices will come home for you this week. Let me know if you can help!
Remember, there is no school this coming Friday, as it is a day for professional development. I’m looking forward to having time to work on our literacy block!
With Thanks,
Mrs. Brooks
Not quite last, and not least — we’re talking about subjects and predicates in school this week – no one better to teach us on that subject, than Mr. Morton!! 🙁 It seems that many of the Schoolhouse Rock! videos are no longer on YouTube…. Good thing we have the DVD in the classroom and can still watch there….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGN_NxKIIFM
Finally — I watched Andy Rooney’s last broadcast on 60 minutes, and I found it to be very relevant for our students as they become writers. As you listen to him talk about his life, consider how the link can be made to what we are learning in writing…
We will watch this video in class tomorrow morning 🙂
I love the homework menu. I am believer that homework should be meaningful to the students and providing choices does just that. My school I am subbing in right now also uses a homework menu, and I am so grateful! Thanks for sharing!
Rachel – thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment! What items are on your menu? I have had students do all of these activities over the course of a school year, but I’ve never thought of putting them together to make something that can be re-used. I’m hoping to add to it as their needs and abilities evolve. Thanks again!
Your friend and fan,
Suzy
hello Mrs. Brooks. I showed my family the Mr. Morton video. My mom liked it and rememered it from childhood. My mom’s favorite schoolhouse rock song was “lolly lolly lolly”. Will we watch it in class? see you tomorrow. Jack
Indubitably, we will, Jack – one of my favorites, also! I’m glad you had time to top by the blog and check off one of the boxes on your Homework Menu! Nice job!! I think it’s lots of fun to see what my students write – and it’s a neat way for you to share what is going on in school! I’m off to correct your cursive paper, now, ha ha!! Your favorite subject!!
Love,
Mrs. Brooks
Hi Mrs. Brooks,
I showed my mother and my brother how many people have been on our blog. They could not believe it. My mother also liked the pictures of us all working. My mother said she liked seeing the movie road to no where with you.
See you soon!
Trevor
Hi Trevor,
It IS amazing just how many people have come to visit, huh? Pretty exciting – and we do a lot of cool things in our classroom that we can share! I love the pictures of all of you – especially when you are working so hard that no one notices I’m taking pictures (again). The movie your mom and I saw was wonderful and I hope that more teachers and parents are able to see it, too!
See you tomorrow and thanks for stopping by!! Hope you are feeling better!
Love,
Mrs. Brooks
Love the Homework Menu, Suzy! Now that is relevant (and value-added) homework. More than the child benefits from every single request you’ve made. What I really love is your open-mindedness. You easily could have disregarded or ignored the messages in “Race To Nowhere.” Instead, you put the kids first – as any GREAT teacher will do – and you created your Homework Menu.
Your Homework Menu post on the Race To Nowhere FB page piqued my interest, so I clicked through to your site. I love what you’re doing with your blog. You present varied information and encourage interaction. What a wonderful skill/tool to model for the children and parents. You’re approachable and you value interaction. AWESOME!!!
Thank you for helping (and allowing) kids to dream big…and for giving (and encouraging) one’s best effort…every day!
My 2 kids are grades 1 and 5 – I most certainly see the value of what you’re doing. One teacher at a time….
Mike
Mike – the comments you left really blew me away – thank you for taking the time out of your day to come to our blog and leave such positive feedback. I need to work on my message to families, because this first week out of the gate, I had students complete 8/9 activities – when they only had to do two. Hopefully it wasn’t too painful, ha ha. We’ll get there. I’m excited about the possibilities as we make our way through this first school year with such a model.
Hope your 1st and 5th grader have a wonderful year – what fun ages!!
Thanks again — SO much!
Suzy
Love this! I’ve heard of the idea before, but it is so nice to see an example. I’ll be saving this for future use. Thanks for sharing!!
Hi Suzy!
I teach third grade and always gave a choice menu for spelling, but I LOVE your homework menu. Do the kids complete all 9 boxes or just choose a few. Then, the dreaded question–do you give a grade/how do you assess?
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for your comment (you were buried under a pile of spam and I just unearthed you!!!). I have the students do one box per night, plus 20 minutes of reading and 5 minutes of math-fact-practice. Depending on the week, they might have 1-3 nights of Homework Menu. Homework is scored for completion, and I use it to gauge organizational skills and following written directions (all of which are on our report cards). Thank you for stopping by and checking our our blog!!
Take care,
Suzy