Homework will be assigned Monday through Thursday and is intended to take about forty-five minutes. Some assignments are designed to be completed over the course of a few nights, which is factored into the daily homework allotment. In addition to daily assigned homework, all students are expected to be reading at least 20-30 minutes every night (including weekends!)
Homework is an important element of fifth grade. The primary goals of homework are to practice skills worked on in class, prepare thoughts for the next day and have the students take on increased responsibility. One purpose of long term assignments is to teach the students how to use this increased responsibility and budget their time to work on an assignment over a few nights. Some students prefer to do all the work in one or two nights to have less homework on another night of the week (perhaps to "free up" a night they have religious school or soccer practice). This is an acceptable choice, but will mean that they may have more than forty-five minutes of homework on a given night.
Homework is explained in class and designed for the children to do independently or with minimal parental help. If it is taking much longer than forty-five minutes, it may be an indication that the assignment was too hard and that I need to review some concepts. If this happens, please stop your child (hopefully before s/he becomes too frustrated) and have him/her bring into school the work that could be completed. Although you are more than welcome to write a note, I tell the students that it is their responsibility to tell me about the trouble they had with their homework first thing in the morning.
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