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Original poster

DD's English homework...opinions please

59 replies

TheFirstLady · 14/09/2010 18:58

So DD comes home today with her first English homework so far this year.
It went like this:
Write 10 simple sentences (subject, object, verb)
Join 10 pairs of simple sentences using the connectives and, but or or.

and (optional extensiion section)
add an extra clause to five simple sentences using a connective such as despite, whilst, however, since etc.

My question is - from this homework what year group do you think DD is in?

All replies gratefully received, but those from English teachers are particularly welcome Grin.

OP posts:
CheckingCheques · 14/09/2010 20:08

I enjoy english but haven't a clue what you are all on about - tbh (duh!!!)

fivecandles · 14/09/2010 20:11

Go in and speak to the teacher. Are you encouraging her to read good books at home? That's almost certainly the best thing she can be doing.

Lancelottie · 14/09/2010 20:12

Reminds me of DS's homework when he was, ooh, six. Subject, verb, object:

'I am DS
I hate homework
It is boring'

Original poster
TheFirstLady · 14/09/2010 20:15

Fivecandles - yes in, she is a voracious reader. She also spends a lot of time writing in various notebooks - but I have controlled my nosiness natural curiosity, so I don't know if it is fiction or teen angst!

OP posts:
Othersideofthechannel · 14/09/2010 20:17

When did 'and' 'but' etc stop being called conjunctions?

LIZS · 14/09/2010 20:18

Year 2 or 3

fivecandles · 14/09/2010 20:20

Keep encouraging the reading and writing - this is where the real learning and experimenting takes place. Get through the boring homework as quickly as possible. No harm in children learning that some tasks are tedious and best to get them over with and go in to speak to the teacher. Teacher may be setting can do tasks so those that can't do very easily. Easy and quick to mark too.

Ineedmorechocolatenow · 14/09/2010 20:27

I was a English teacher for ten years before becoming a SAHM.

I've taught AS English Language in the past and have had to go right back to simple sentence structures in September. I've also run staff training as Literacy Co-ordinator for staff who could not label the subject and object in a sentence.

If you are worried that she isn't being stretched, then you do need to voice your concerns with the teacher and CC it to the Head of Department / Faculty.

What kind of work is she being set within lessons? If this is challenging for her, then I wouldn't lose any sleep over one homework task.....

Original poster
TheFirstLady · 14/09/2010 20:35

Thanks for all the feedback, particularly from English teachers. I am sure you are all right about this type of exercise being necessary at the beginning of a new school year - it's just that DD came home and chucked it on the table with a rather despairing "look mum, it's not getting any better" type of attitude and I really do sympathise with her.
You are right Ineedmorechocolate, if it was just her homework tasks it wouldn't be a problem, but it is not - it is the fact that she has never had an English lesson in that school that engaged or challenged her.

OP posts:
Ineedmorechocolatenow · 14/09/2010 20:41

Have they put them in sets?

To be honest, I always set an imaginative writing task at the start of each year as this is far more revealing in terms of a pupil's writing ability than a short sentence task.

nannylocal · 14/09/2010 20:45

It would be fine if it was just a recap, but it would concern me if all the work was at that level. I'd have guessed year 2 from the description. Do they have sets/bands at her school or are they mixed ability classes? If they do have sets/bands then maybe you could ask about her being moved up a level? I would def talk to the teacher about it.

I was once deeply disturbed when, whilst on study leave for our GCSE's (literally 2 weeks before the exam) I asked a boy from another class how his revision session had been and he said 'oh yeah, brilliant actually! We learnt this really cool thing to help you spell because..big elephants can always understand small elephants...so now I can spell because!'. We were 16, about to do our GCES's....what they'd been teaching him in the previous 5 years I dread to think!

Original poster
TheFirstLady · 14/09/2010 20:50

Ineedmore - no setting for English is not school policy although they set for nearly all other subjects - she is in top Maths and Science sets, being stretched and loving it.

Nannylocal Shock!

OP posts:
Ineedmorechocolatenow · 14/09/2010 21:09

Mmmmm then it'll be a bit of a lottery then as it's going to be the teacher who can differentiate the best who'll stretch your DD.

I'm not against mixed ability as a rule, as if it's done well, all the kids fly. The most able achieve as they are stretched and challenged, and the less able, who are supported by the teacher, also have good work 'modelled' to them by the most able.

If the teacher is good, they should pitch the lesson to the most able in the class and then scaffold below with other tasks / support sheets for the rest of the group.

It's early days in the term. There are many other ways the teacher can challenge your DD. Guided reading / writing groups, different homework tasks, tasks where they are grouped by ability, and then there are also those open ended tasks where your teacher will be differentiating by outcome.

The problem is if the teacher is not able to differentiate her/his teaching to challenge the most able. If her/his strategies are to always differentiate by outcome or response (ie by your DD just producing better work than the others, or by asking questions that enable your teacher to respond accordingly) then your daughter may well find this year less of a challenge.

There are things you can do to challenge her at home. What kind of texts is she reading? Does she get a mix of fiction / non-fiction. Bits from weekend broadsheets are good as well as reading novels / short stories. Taking her to the cinema / theatre and chatting about what you saw is also good or even watching something on the TV and having a chat about it.

The most important thing you can do is talk. Chatting round the dinner table asking her opinions on things are all just as important as writing and reading.

Sorry if I've gone on, or it's already stuff you know.....

Ineedmorechocolatenow · 14/09/2010 21:17

Excuse the typos / punctuation errors. I had minimal sleep last night and I'm just sloping off to bed to try and catch up.

elinorbellowed · 14/09/2010 21:33

I am an English teacher and strongly in favour of mixed ability teaching. Unless the behaviour in the school is so poor that the brightest will really be held back.

That particular homework sounds very dull for any child in any year group. I wouldn't set it. I would set something connected to the current topic that would differentiate by outcome. For example: Write about ...... Use a variety of sentence structures.

I do not think it is acceptable for you to be unaware of her current level. When did you get her last report and what it say? It's a statutory requirement to produce written reports every term. I would call and ask the teacher straight out what her level is. If she is a level seven, her current teacher will have sussed that the second she picked up her exercise book. You should certainly request extension work if she is bored and you feel she is not being stretched enough.

Original poster
TheFirstLady · 14/09/2010 21:37

Ineedmore - thanks for that very thoughtful post. The teacher is new to her this year, I don't know how he will be yet, but I think that individual teacher have got very little freedom to vary the schemes of work set by the HOD in this particular school. GCSE results are consistently below average (44% got 5 A*-C including English and Maths this year) even though the intake is not particularly challenging and local primary schools prepare the children very well so the focus appears on pulling the borderline pupils over the edge - which is understandable - but the more able pupils are not catered for. However the Maths and Science departments, who are under the same pressures, don't seem to have a problem catering for their more able pupils.
As for your suggestions about what we can do at home, no not patronising at all, but believe me we really do all that already. She reads The Guardian (big Lucy Mangan fan)and a wide range of all sorts of stuff (keen on science and history). I've just finished an OU degree in History and Literature and we talk a lot about books together.
I'm not worried about her not achieving well in her GCSE, I am just disappointed for her that she can't get to enjoy her English classes the way she would like to.

OP posts:
gramercy · 14/09/2010 21:39

My sympathies.

Ds is in Year 8 and his first English topic is Gothic Literature. Ah, methinks, Edgar Allen Poe, the Brontes, Wilkie Collins...

Guess what they are studying? Flippin' SCOOBY DOO.

I am too depressed to make a complaint.

ZZZenAgain · 14/09/2010 21:42

Scooby Doo?

Original poster
TheFirstLady · 14/09/2010 21:44

Elinor - her last school report was in April. They didn't give a level - just a numeric grade for attainment preceded by a letter to indicate effort. In English (as in every other subject) she got A1 - the key on the report said that 1 was equivalent to Level 6, 7 or 8. But that is as specific as it got.

OP posts:
Original poster
TheFirstLady · 14/09/2010 21:45

Gramercy Shock.
To be fair when DD1 did Gothic last year they did do a snippet of Gormenghast. But only a snippet.

OP posts:
elinorbellowed · 15/09/2010 08:51

TheFirstlady. There is a HUGE difference between 6 and 7! Complain. Seriously. The school needs a better reporting system than that.
I have just taught an extract from Frankenstein to Year Eight. But it was only an extract..... There isn't space in the curriculum to read the entire novel, even at GCSE. It is depressing.

AuntGertrude · 15/09/2010 10:03

When my kids did Gothic Lit in Yr 8, they covered Frankenstein, Dracula and the Hound of the Baskervilles and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

seeker · 15/09/2010 10:45

"Whizz and penguin, I understand what you are saying, and I agree that you do need to recap on basic concepts to ensure understanding, but this is the level all her English work has been pitched at since Year 7 and I find it really sad that she should be so unbelievably bored and fed up with what should be one of her most enjoyable subjects."

How is she managing to be working at level7, then?

cory · 15/09/2010 11:57

Would it not be possible for her to perform at level 7 in tests merely on the strenght of what she has learnt outside of class, seeker?

Dd was able to perform at the top of her year in maths after she had been left sitting on her own in a classroom without tuition for a substantial part of the year (no disabled access and nobody could be bothered to move the classes for her).

It still doesn't mean I think this was an ideal learning situation.

She has had a completely incompetent French teacher for the last 2 years, but is acquiring a decent grasp of French through work done at home.

seeker · 15/09/2010 12:22

But the OP says that she assumes her dd is working at evel 7 based on work that she has seen that was marked last year. Not on tests. So she must have done some level 7 type work.