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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is an unreasonable piece of homework to give to Year 4...

85 replies

BraveMerida · 05/12/2013 10:04

DD's been given a "project" homework...basically, she has to choose a major river and write a Powerpoint presentation and then actually give the presentation to the class.

When I first got the brief, I gawped, but thought I'd leave her to get on with it and see how she goes. SHe wanted to get straight to the Powerpoint, so after getting her started with opening the Powerpoint file, she spent ages tinkering around the edges with the slides without much content. So then, I guided her to Google instead and tried to explain the process for her....research, read, make notes, highlight, write the slides and speech/presentation...I ended up spending ages printing out Wikipedia plus other material and gave her a highlighter pen to sit down with, and of course she wouldn't listen and wanted to use a Sharpen pen instead....this is the sort of homework that drive me up the wall cause it creates so many battles when I try to help and yet I know that I can't just leave her to it....

OP posts:
TrinityRhinoTheUltimateQueen · 05/12/2013 12:58

doesn't seem at all too much or inappropriate

leave her to it

she should face the consequences if she doesn't manage to do it as it should be done

maybe she's playing around with powerpoint because you have always done the grunt work of her homework for her

OrlandoWoolf · 05/12/2013 12:59

DS came home and wanted to show me his Powerpoint skills.
He did one on Minecraft.

Get the right topic and you're away.

Original poster
BraveMerida · 05/12/2013 13:12

She does her own homework. Normally I leave her to it and tell her to give it a shout if she needs help.

OP posts:
Original poster
BraveMerida · 05/12/2013 13:13

Me not it

OP posts:
Scholes34 · 05/12/2013 13:18

Wikipedia is not a good place to start. BBC Bitesize and Woodlands Junior School, Kent (who are these wonderful people??)

I've found the hardest aspect of these kinds of homework is finding appropriate sources of information for children to read, and I've become quite adept at that now.

If you're starting out with Wikipedia, no wonder your DD is playing around with the frilly aspects of a Powerpoint presentation.

Ubik1 · 05/12/2013 13:26

Do you have a family encyclopaedia? If you don't then get one. It's much easier for her to distil info from that than from web pages. Can you pop to the library.

If you want to be super smart she can then put the source of her info on the last slide.

Original poster
BraveMerida · 05/12/2013 13:31

Hmmm...no we don't have a family encyclopaedia ....

Thing is Wikipedia is the first thing she got when she typed "river Thames" into google....thanks for the tips on woodlands, bbc and books/ encyclopaedia though.

OP posts:
NoComet · 05/12/2013 17:31

And it's skills like how to search for age appropriate web sites schools should be teaching.
You or I might take a stab at Rivers + school, KS2, primary, P6ish in Scotland? And the appropriate American school year.

We may know that bite size and Woodlands exists.

As I said earlier the Mary Rose museum has loads of stuff, others don't get beyond opening times.

These are the sort of thinks DCs should be being taught at school. Every child doesn't have a computer literate parent.

Even if they do, DCs don't want to listen at 6pm, they want you to do it for them.

MammaTJ · 05/12/2013 18:37

My DD is the youngest in yr 4 and a while ago I started a thread asking if the teacher would mind (when she was in year 3) if she took in a Powerpoint about the depletion of the rainforests. The general concensus was that she wouldn't mind as long as it was not just copied and pasted.

She had asked if we could do it, off her own back.

DD did the research and did the powerpoint with my support. We enjoyed doing it together and the teacher was indeed pleased that she had done the extra work.

I sat next to her saying 'Press that button' and other thing, but she actually did it.

I enjoy doing homework with my DD, who gets excited about it.

YABU!

Nanny0gg · 05/12/2013 19:03

When I taught primary ICT Wikipedia was banned unless they had adult help. It's not written for children and they aren't discerning enough to separate fact from fiction (look up the Tree Octopus...)

Make her choose a river. Write down 3 questions about it. Find the answers (use the sites others have recommended and a book or two).

Make three slides, one for each question. Put each question and all the answers/facts/bullet points relating on a slide.
Add pictures/sounds if required

Change fonts/backgrounds etc only when the slides are accurate and laid out clearly. Add transitions.

Get her to 'present' it to you.

HTH

intitgrand · 05/12/2013 20:10

you are way too involved !.It is homework for an 8 yr old to do at her own level, not at your level!

foreverondiet · 06/12/2013 07:14

Think this is normal year 4 homework. Yes we also had tears over PowerPoint.

Picturesinthefirelight · 06/12/2013 07:43

We'd have been stuffed as we don't have PowerPoint & in Year 4(she's now year 7) dd had no Internet access.

Thingymajigs · 06/12/2013 08:00

I've never been asked to help with a Powerpoint and ds2 is in year 5 and has been to two different schools. He does have to research (I do it) and write out his findings but never specifically told to present it in PowerPoint or to show the class. Seems a bit much to me. Ds2 would have some kind of breakdown if that was expected of him.
Although ds2 has now told me that other children do use PowerPoints anyway. Oops. Not sure his hastily written paragraph quite matches up to those efforts. Blush

MiaowTheCat · 06/12/2013 08:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OrlandoWoolf · 06/12/2013 09:17

Miaow

And when they do charts in Excel, they spend ages just getting the right colour and gradient of shading Grin

SaucyJack · 06/12/2013 09:30

I don't think it's reasonable. My DD is year 4, and they've never been asked to do any homework which can't be done with a pen/paper/crayons.

fiishfingers · 06/12/2013 09:37

Standard homework around here.

mistlethrush · 06/12/2013 09:38

My DS had to do a powerpoint in Yr2 on a minibeast. He chose praying mantis - and I double checked with him that that really counted as a mini beast. What was helpful was the fact that the homework sheet had sets of 'required' information - eg habitat, diet, life cycle - so I helped DS to look up some information on each and he then very happily added pictures.

He never worries about having to look up facts and do powerpoint presentations - what he hates is having to do things like 'make up a diary' for various historic events. He sees no point whatsoever in doing it.

OrlandoWoolf · 06/12/2013 09:44

What's unreasonable is the assumption that:
a) The child has access to a computer
b) The computer has Powerpoint

I don't think I would set that as a homework. I might ask them to do a presentation in whatever way they see fit. So you can make up some information on posters if need be - or just draw a few pictures and talk about the subject.

The objective should be: To be able to present facts about a river

And not To use Powerpoint to present facts about a River.

WooWooOwl · 06/12/2013 09:50

I think it would help if parents were told what the learning objective is supposed to be when given a piece of work like this.

Is it more important to the teacher at this particular time that the child learns how to use PowerPoint and how to put together a good presentation? Is it more important for the child to learn about a river in quite a lot of depth, or is the task more about learning research skills? Maybe it's about the of being able to research something and then put that information into your own words suitable for a particular audience.

If parents knew those things, then they would know where to give support to encourage the child to get as much out of the task as possible, and where they could comfortably just let them get on with it, even if it means the work wasn't done as well as it condo have been.

I find people often proudly say they just let their child get on with homework, but I think quite often, children get a lot more out of their work if they get adult support, especially when it's project type work.

UniS · 06/12/2013 09:57

And if one doesn't have powerpoint software at home??? I hate this kind of homework.

Thankfully DS's Year 3 teacher does have the sense to give the option of producing a paper poster/ project each time they ask for a "presentation" type homework. The week they don't, I shall set DH in rant mode on them.

friday16 · 06/12/2013 10:04

Is it more important to the teacher at this particular time that the child learns how to use PowerPoint

To a certain sort of teacher, and a certain sort of parent, learning how to use workplace software badly looks all modern and relevant and stuff, and not like all that stuffy and old-fashioned writing nonsense.

JustGettingOnWithIt · 06/12/2013 11:33

And if one doesn't have powerpoint software at home???

One tries to talk to school, gets told one should invest in one's child's education better, and gets told to go begging to charities, but it's due in next week, so goes down market, lashes out a fiver on a copy and then watches in horrified admiration as one's tousle headed eight yr old who understood what trader was going on about and why it was fine to give him the money, sources a crack code, explains what it is, and shows you how to activate it.

JustGettingOnWithIt · 06/12/2013 11:45

BTW re a framework for Thames, if it helps;
Where does it start? What’s its tributary? Where does it end? Is it tidal/non tidal or half and half? Interesting facts about it, and you can have fun with what lives in it, travels on it, gets chucked in it, bridges, flooding, frost fairs etc. according to how big, and what level, you want to take it to.