Education First

What an awesome idea! I hope it works well and then perhaps it can spread!!

An elementary school in Woodbridge has decided that "the most important things students can do when they go home each day are play, eat dinner with their family, engage in conversations, help with family responsibilities or chores and read by themselves or with a family member. The skills of responsibility, time management and creativity are all fostered through the aforementioned activities."

Robert Mascenik School #26 is de-emphasizing homework this school year and telling parents their children should spend more time playing, doing household chores and eating dinner with their families.

The goal is to make school work at home a more meaningful experience and not an exercise in compliance, according to Principal Judith Martino wrote. "Studies have shown that there is no link between homework and academic achievement for elementary school students, she added."

"It's not that there's no homework," Woodbridge Township School District Superintendent Robert Zega. "The homework that students will be coming home with is a little bit different." Students will likely see fewer worksheets asking them to fill in the blank or circle the correct answer, Zega said.

Some reading assignments may no longer be tied to a specific written response, and students might be asked to read a book of their choosing rather than a specific passage, he said.

Students may be assigned homework if they are unable to complete assignments they were given time to do during class or it they miss a day of class, the school said.

Long-term projects will still be assigned and students will expected to study for test and quizzes at home. Students will also be required to read every day and keep a reading log.

The departure from traditional daily homework assignments comes as part of a district-wide shift toward making homework more relevant and creating a more positive learning experience, Zega said.

In some instances, homework has been counterproductive, especially for students participating in multiple activities after school, Zega said. Students otherwise earning high marks have seen their grades drop solely because they were not completing homework, he said.

"If you think back to your own educational experience, how many homework assignments did you do to get them done just so that you didn't get a bad grade?" Zega said. "And how many of them did you really learn from?"

http://www.nj.com/education/2016/09/why_this_nj_school_is_doing_away_with_homework.html

Shame on Chris Christie.

The reading log isn't as bad as the Summer Reading assignments. What do you think?

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