Stop Turning Kids Off to Learning—HW Answers Don’t Always Need Full Sentences
Posted on March 13, 2008
Filed Under Helping Parents Help Kids, Imagination, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips |
Here is a primer on how to take fascinating subjects—that we adults are passionate about—and make them deadly dull for schoolchildren.
Assign a large number of homework questions and make children answer them in full sentences.
Full sentences? Toward what end?
Let’s say the homework question is: What is the capital city of Sweden, and, what popular singing group came from there?
A perfectly good answer is “Stockholm, ABBA.”
Here is how to ruin it. Make the children handwrite something like: The capital city of Sweden is Stockholm and the popular singing group that came from there is ABBA.
That is 18 words—when just two words and a comma will do just fine. That’s a word excess of 800% !
Is the assignment intended to nurture writing skills? Fine. Then it is incumbent on the homework assigner to limit the number of questions. The same goes if the purpose of the assignment is to provide practice in penmanship (penpersonship?).
On the other hand, if the assignment is to strengthen finger muscles and improve the cardio-vascular system and aerobic endurance, then fine, bring it on. In that case, insist that the children use a dull pencil, too; it’ll be a far better workout!
This is an appeal to all homework assigners. If you love your subject—if you are truly passionate about your area of expertise—and want the younger generation to learn to love it too, then don’t kill it.
- Screen the questions and eliminate the low quality ones.
- If the questions are all equally good, limit the number of questions. Don’t just use odds or evens, that only cuts the number in half. Consider assigning every forth question—numbers 4, 8, 12, 16,…(this is especially good for math problems).
- And, of course, allow students to answer in a word or two when that is all that is needed.
If you are a parent, pass this message (or one you write yourself) on to teachers and administrators whom you think will appreciate it. Who knows, you may become a change agent for a movement whose time has come!
Linda & Al Silbert
authors of the book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids
P.S. By the way, doesn’t the ABBA sound “shimmer?” It was electronically enhanced to have multiple versions of the same person singing or playing to create a brilliant, shimmering, sound effect.
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