Is this normal for secondary (year 7)?

[Cathycomehome]

My son's homework over half term has included making a sock puppet of a character from "Hamlet", and building a "shoe box solar system" - both of which he did at primary school, in year 5 for the solar system, and year 2 for the sock puppet, except the sock puppet was a character from a book they were reading.

I cannot see the educational value in this, and when I asked him if he knew why he had to make the dratted sock puppet, he replied "Yes - we are going to use them to act out a scene from the play, and I have one line, which is, (something like), "Ohhh Nooo!!!", said dramatically".

"How much of the play have you read", I ask. "Hardly any - we have just learnt a bit about the story", he replies.

A previous homework, last week or the week before, was to retell the story of Hamlet in a cartoon strip form. Which, again, I think is a really childish activity, rendered pretty meaningless also, considering they haven't read much, or possibly any, of the play.

Is this normal? Because I expected far more from the vast majority of my kids when I taught Year 6, and this year with my 3/4 class, I still wouldn't set this kind of homework for literacy.

My Y7 dd is not studying Hamlet but English homework was writing an essay and she also has written History and RE projects as well.

My Y7 dd is not studying Hamlet but English homework was writing an essay and she also has written History and RE projects as well.

I wouldn't have minded about the cartoon strip as that requires an understanding of the story (not very helpful if they haven't read it yet though) but sock puppets!!!

My DD was year 7 last year and no sock puppets here. thankfully

Yes there'll be a fair amount of cutting, sticking, wet stuff and such the next couple of years. Some DCs love it and others are the opposite. Provided they put in some effort, and get the point properly, nobody will know if you held it down while they cut an inch and you had to finish it off. Much better than late bedtimes or tense dinner times and damaged psyches. Food and sleep are paramount in our house.

Nothing like that here, except the odd poster for PHSE.
Agree cartoon to get plot straight sounds ok, but puppets and models sounds a bit much.

It sounds similar to the crap fun homeworks that DD had in Y7 - model of a castle, a volcano, lengthy projects on earthquakes and other things, posters, cartoons, endless powerpoints......

But no sock puppets, yet

My friend's daughter was asked to make a molecule out of cake in her science class. She was 17.

I'm happy to say she refused ... said she'd draw an annotated diagram if it was OK with them - and she got away with it

yes, year 7 can be a bit.... lame. dd spent term 1 having Holes, which she'd read in year 6, read aloud to her. They're trying to be inclusive, and it can be slow. But it does change.

My DS had to make molecular models which we did out of a clay and a 3D statue for Art. Both of which of course he left to the last minute and were drying on the way to school!

Ah well, I guess I'll just have to roll my eyes at the rubbish homework let them get on with it. This is not how it was when I was at secondary school.

I think there's a lot they have to adjust to, a huge amount of upheavel, that's how I remember that year. it's fair enough not to stretch them much yet, they are still learning to juggle the balls. And it is about how difficult I remember my own 7th grade (1979-80).

Hmm - I am an English teacher, and while I wouldn't set the cartoon strip, I have been known to get students to design a film trailer for a text they're reading. It helps them identify the key moments, as well as thinking about how tension is created. It also supports visual learners.

I would NEVER set a sock puppet homework

The problem is that all those creative homeworks take aaaaaaages to do for not much learning value. I much prefer those good old fashioned practice exercises that take 20mins or so. Or a short essay-type one.

And even worse if your child is not naturally good at/turned on by creative projects. I am dreading next year when DS is in Y7.

We didn't/haven't had anything like that (Ds1 is now in Yr9, DS2 is in Yr7 atm) but can I defend comic strip Shakespeare? Ds2 discovered Manga versions of Shakespeare plays in the school library and he's been avidly working his way through them ever since.

I could defend the comic strip too - IF they had read the play!! My son is not mistaken/lying about the fact that they have not read it; I have asked the other mums I know in this half of the year group.

I shared the copy of "Shakespeare for Kids" I obtained from Amazon with three mums/dads who didn't know the plot themselves! The homework came back marked something like "Very good - but why didn't you do the whole play?"

Well, because, since you haven't read it with them in class, and since it is a quite complex plot, I only taught your pupil, ahem, I mean, my son, up until about the point when Hamlet starts properly losing it...

How long a comic strip did the teacher want, ffs??

I should maybe mention that my degree is English with Spanish, and I taught secondary English and Drama until I realised that you need a bloody vocation and about a zillion tonnes of patience to teach teenagers and I now choose to teach primary.

But when I DID teach secondary, I did not give out this kind of activity to NT children.

Anything is better than reading Shakespeare in the original.
Ducks and runs away quickly

I do storyboards with my Science classes - I do them for GCSE too. My year 10s hve just done storyboards for Jenner and Semmelweis. I think it's a good way of ordering ideas and reinforcing scientific method.

And I also love making models in Science because Science is 3 dimensional. Just looking at flat diagrams can lead to misconceptions.

Are they in mixed ability groups?

At this stage of the year they're probably trying to get everybody to the same stage bearing in mind the children will have come from different schools. Although one local state school round here is notorious for setting a lot of colouring in till about year 9. We decided not to send DD there.

We don't try to get everyone to the same stage. We would be properly slated if we did.

I wouldn't insist on cake with my A level biologists - I am allow them to make models using their medium of choice . But an annotated diagram would not be an acceptable alternative.