What’s The Right Amount of Homework?
In a recent survey, fifth-graders in Minnesota spent slightly more than four hours a week on homework–significantly less than the six hours in Sendai, Japan and a vastly smaller amount of time than the thirteen hours in Taipei.
Research in the last decade has begun to focus on the relationship between homework and student achievement and has greatly strengthened the case for homework. Although there are mixed findings about whether homework actually increases students’ academic achievement, many teachers and parents agree that homework develops students’ initiative and responsibility and fulfills the expectations of students, parents, and the public. Studies generally have found homework assignments to be most helpful if they are carefully planned by the teachers and have direct meaning to students.
But, according to Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, there is almost no evidence that homework helps elementary school students achieve academic success and that it helps older students. The nightly burden is taking a serious toll on America’s families. It robs children of the sleep, play, and exercise time they need for proper physical, emotional, and neurological development. And it is a hidden cause of the childhood obesity epidemic, creating a nation of “homework potatoes.”
What do you think? I would also like to know what the parents think as well. There are no right or wrong answers.
August 15th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
I think that 4 hours is WAY too much homework to be given to students. I mean, I think that people here would spend only 30 minutes on homework, 1 hour if they have to do 30 min reading. But 4 hours? NO WAY. NOPE, NEVER. EVER.
Phillip Amona (Class of 2019)
August 19th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
i think homework should be about 25-30 min. maybe 3 pages of homework
TAI ||
math||
language arts||
(example)
-logan
August 19th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
I think the right amout of home work is a little bit of specal’s home work, them about 3-5 pages of math and one page of front and back paper of language arts.
August 19th, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I agree with Phillip. Four-six hours of homework is way to much. We should be spending more time on exercising than homework. Kids should spend as much time on their homework as they need to, but not that much so we could do other things right after our homework. The teachers should spend more time of what they’re giving to their students but the kids should have the same amount of knowledge that they are supposed to have at the same time.
August 20th, 2011 at 7:27 am
I think that we should have 30 minutes of homework at the most. Anything above that is a little to much for me because I play sports and I have a baby brother at home. I agree that 4 hours is way too much. I think the right amount of homework is 30 minutes or less.
August 20th, 2011 at 8:25 am
The right amount of homework is 10 pages of math, about 1 full page of language arts, and 25 minutes of reading. I know I have to do my homework before sports, and I think that is the right amount of homework. Another reason why I think that is the right amount of homework is because most of the time Mr. Chung & Mrs. Burgess let us to some work during class. Completing the homework is just seeing how well your time management is.
August 20th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
I think that 45-60 minutes is just right. Anything more than 1 hour is way longer than I think we should be working on homework for. But if we have a booklet for like math and you choose to do it at the last minute and it takes you 4 hours then it is the students fault for doing it at the last minute not the teachers fault. Maybe you should just give 20 min. reading, 15 min. math, 15 min. language arts, and 10 min. of specials homework. Because if people have sports like me I get home around 3:15 and my sports start at 4:45 so I will finish my homework and still be able to go to my sports on time.
August 20th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
I also think 4-6 hours is to much. I really don’t have a certain amount of time that I do my homework in. I uusually do it until I finish, but my homework never takes 4 hours. My parents think I have a good amount of work (a little bit of specials homework, and a right amount of language arts and math).
August 20th, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I think that the right amount of homework is 1 hour at the most because i play sports but i have kama`aina kids before that and that is when i can do at the most 1 hour homework because after, i need to read for 2o minutes said my kama`aina kids leader and other people probably have that amount of time too.
August 21st, 2011 at 9:59 am
The right amount of homework should maybe be about an hour a day maybe less. Kids shouldn’t have too much homework. If kids feel like they have too much homework and stay up late at night doing it, that means two things they have either too much homework or they wait till the last minute to do their homework. I believe that kids should do their homework as soon as possible. If kids have sports or activities after school and the still stay up late maybe they have too much homework so teachers shouldn’t give more than an hour of homework. Students should be able to finish homework in an hour even after activities without staying up late at night doing it. That should make students finish homework on time.
August 21st, 2011 at 11:37 am
I think that 1 hour to hour and a half at the most, anything over that is longer than we need to be working. A lot of people though work for 3 to 4 hours because they like to procrastinate. Probably almost half of the grade has sports so they might be doing their homework for a little more time or they might not finish all their homework.
August 21st, 2011 at 12:25 pm
I believe children should have daily homework to help reinforce daily instructions but it should be limited to a reasonable amount. An hour seems like a fair amount of time to spend outside of class. We do not watch television on weekdays and between homework and activities we barely make it to bed for a good 9-10 hours of sleep.
August 21st, 2011 at 6:30 pm
I think 4 hours of homework is way too much work. I think 45 -60 min. is just right because you could do 20 min. of reading, 15 min. of math, 15 min of language arts, and 10 min. of specials homework. That is just right because I do after school activities like sports. I get home at 3:15 pm and practice starts at 4:45 pm. I think that is a good amount of homework because I could be done with all my home work before my activities.
August 21st, 2011 at 6:39 pm
I think 4 hours of homework is way too much. I think that 45-60 minutes would be just right. You could do 20 min. of reading, 15 min. of math, 15 min. of language arts, and 10 min of specials homework think that is just right because I have sports that start at 4:45 pm. And if I get home at 3:15pm that leaves me with about 1 hour and 15 minutes to do my homework and still be to practice on time. But 4 hours is way too much.
October 13th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
I think 4 hours of homework is way too much. I think that 40-60 minutes would be just right. You would be able to read for 20 mins., math and language arts each for 10 mins., and any other homework from specials or activities.
August 22nd, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Homework should be practicing what was learned in class for mastery and should require little parent guidance except making sure to they provide time and space for the student to work. Old fashioned drill and practice for math and reading can be beneficial even is small amounts such as 20 minutes of reading and 10 math problems. Homework can also be to make improvements on work done in school that does not meet the standard. Students today are more involved in things like martial arts, sports, and music than their parents were and that is important to growth also. But nothing can replace good old fashioned family dinner at the table, conversation with parents, and a good night’s rest. So keep homework at that old rule of 10 minutes times the grade level so 5th graders should have no more than 50 minutes of homework a night.
August 22nd, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Homework is a tool to help reinforce what was learned in school. I believe that in elementary school, the majority of learning is most effective in the classroom. If a child cannot complete the assignments during the school day then he/she could consider it homework. On average, 30 to 60 minutes/day sounds reasonable. I’d leave this up to the teacher and let them decide on whether or not each child is grasping the work on a daily basis, every child has varying degrees of learning.
Something else to consider, at KES some children are up very early to catch the bus to school and get home late as well…that makes for a very long day for anyone. Focusing on homework may be challenging in these situations. Add extra curricular activities and that’s that much less time in the day for homework, much less everything else.
September 4th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
NO HOMEWORK AT ALL:) hehe nah, keep up da good teaching Mr.Chung:)