To think my son should not be asked to write F*ing poetry in year 1 for homework

[Reallytired]

I feel its too soon. My son cannot spell and I would prefer it if he was given spellings for home work.

Frankly I think he should concentrate on basic literacy skills and hand writing.

And if they produce work which is uncorrected because "spellings don't matter as much as imagination" then they will gradually learn that "spellings don't matter that much".

There's a lot of research that would go against that statement, llama

If your DS is at a private school, quit complaining, you choosse thiss type of education

If your DS is at a state school, just don't do it, you have no obligation to do homework

Also reallytired if you're that worried, ask to see a copy of the schools' homework policy. That should tell you what the school expect in each year.

You should see good progression in the expectations of the school clearly defined.

Agree, homework is non-statutory

I thought that rhymes were an important part of learning to read (and later on, writing) Learning sounds basically.

Which is all poetry is at that age. For example, the cat sat on the mat.

Onebatmother: homework takes 20 mins Mon to Thurs at age 6/7 rising to best part of an hour before they leave primary school. They finish at 2.30 here but that's mainly because shorter lunch break: actual contact hours with teacher are the same as UK. When I first moved here I was a bit taken aback by how much homework etc but as it's mainly rote learning (tables, spellings, maths practice, grammar exercises etc) it's not too bad: I'm scarified at the idea of being given a week to do a long piece of creative work as my London friends' kids get!

If the child is given homework which is not done, and this does not matter to the teacher (ie if she is nice about it) then the child will learn that homework doesn't matter. This can cause big problems later.

Hi pointy I'm not saying don't let them write poems. I'm saying it shouldn't be given as homework. The basics first. They have six hours at school. It's not fair or useful to make your average energetic five year old boy, after six hours of school, to sit down and write a poem if he doesn't want to.

I think reallytired is making a fair point.

Children need poetry, and Michael Rosen is great, and I can imagine it being a great class activity. I can also see how thinking about how words sound would help greatly with spelling.

However, asking a child who is struggling to form letters to go home and write a poem on their own/expecting the parents to help with the homework without explaining how this should be done seems a bit pointless to me and a great way to put a child off poetry for life.

I honestly think that you can develop a love of stories and language without having to do creative writing before you can write your letters.

oh yes, rhymes are crucial

I've asked a couple of times about guidance given by the teacher (is the teacher looking for rhymes or handwriting, is it to be written by the child - maybe it could be scribed) and nothing has come back from tired so maybe I should just assume that the teacher has given no more instruction than 'write a poem'.

But if there is some simple guidance, writing a poem can be a fun, imaginaitve and quick thing to do. Most definitely not a huge frustrating slog.

I love the way the kids are expected to know about different genre before knowing how to write!

Poems are fun though most children love hearing them, writing them (the rhyming words don't actually have to be 'real' words, they can be fun made up words.)

blimey po
Is that how it's always been, or a relatively new development?

Actually my main concern would be no time to play/talk/dance etc after school with so much h/work but if they finish rather earlier then I guess..

still. does seem a lot.

I'm really surprised there aren't more of us agreeing with her.

There are plenty complaints about people (inc: teachers) who can't spell, can't punctuate.. where does that come from?

Presumably they either haven't been taught that spelling and punctuation are as important as creativity and flow, or haven't learnt the spellings themselves.

Children that age need to read, read lots and they need to learn to spell and add up. They shouldn't be asked to write poetry for homework.

But pointy it IS a huge frustrating slog if your child can't write or spell properly and wants to play out.

being able to recognise and use rhyming words plays a huge part in being able to read and spell.

Absolutely.

Let them do it at school and not for homework.

I think Blu has said it for me.
Never thought I'd see a parent using the word f*ing and poetry in the same sentence.
I think encouraging children to enjoy the English language and play with words, have fun with language, using rhyme can only ever be a good thing.

My son attends a state school. He gets numeracy and literacy home work once a week. Generally it takes him about 20 minutes to both home works.

I know that home work is optional, but I don't want my son growing up with that kind of attitude. I make my son attempt every home work set.

However it is demoralising for him when he can not do the home work set. I am sure that my son is not the only little boy in the world who finds writing hard. It is a miserable introduction to poetry.

MAYBE THE CHILD DOESN'T HAVE TO WRITE IT. I have asked that. SOrry for shouting, I know it's rubbish to shout.

And you just said children should be learning how to spell, rhyming can help make early spelling easier and you are saying, oh the child can't spell. Chicken and egg. The teacher is possibly (although I have no information on this) trying to help the children learn and use classroom spellings

If it';s a hard slog, don;t do it and write a note for the teacher saying 'he found it hard'. That's what I'd do. No big deal.

Right, if this were me I would set aside 20 mins in which to do the homework when I felt ds would be most receptive. (I would even set a timer so I knew I wouldn't be going over the time and I would know we would have done the best we could in the time given)

I would ask him to tell me about his favourite 'something' eg animal (my ds is into castles at the mo)

Ask him to name as many words as he can and write them down for him then I would help him make sentences with those words trying to make them rhyme. If the words don't make sense -don't worry. Little ones often make nonsense words when they are trying to rhyme.
Don't make it longer than 6ish lines (3 x 2 rhyming couplets)

I would then write it our for him helping him to type it out on the computer.
Let him find some clipart to illustrate it (that would be the carrot for my ds)

Hand it to the teacher telling her what you have done (or write a note) and that if there is a problem she needs to talk to you about it not your ds as you felt he needed guidance.

I would also ask to see some of your childs' written work done in class so you can see what he achieves at school (this may surprise you) especially independent work.

Lots of posters here have said, oh just let him have fun, the spelling doesn't matter, it doesn't have to rhyme or scan, poetry is marvellous etc etc.

Well yes, poetry is marvellous. I have read a lot of poetry and I think it's very nice.

But it shouldn't be homework. By the way, reallytired did say that the teacher wanted the homework to rhyme. She also said he'd been marked down before because although he'd made up something terrific, reallytired had copied it down herself.

I don't see the point of that. Let them do it in school.

onebat... that's as it always has been-pretty traditional (they learn cursive script and practice handwriting!) There's enough time for hanging out etc: the shorter day is also a throwback to when kids needed to work on farms! Effectively, thay do a long half day each day and lots of hols (primary school finishes end of June, secondary schools end of May!)

TBH education here is much less prescriptive than UK and certainly at primary level IMHO based on nephews/ nieces on both sides of the Irish Sea seems both more relaxed and more effective.

But how do you write a poem on a piece of paper if you have difficulty forming letters on a piece of paper? How does this make you love poetry. Isn't it an exercise in transforming a task that should be enjoyable into something that is really painful?

I am having flashbacks to my old music classes where some of the class had reached grade 8 and some of us didn't play an instrument at all but we all had to do the same "write a piece of music" homework.