Inappropriate Homework

[amb75]

I'm feeling very frustrated with literacy homework at the moment. My 7yr old child is coming home with homework such as summarising the book that he has just read. It usually a book that he has been reading in school over a few weeks so hard to remember all of what's been going on. Other tasks include character cop and comic maker. I'm frustrated because my son says he hasn't been taught the skills to do these things at school and so it seems that it's up to me to teach them. I don't think this is right. I can teach him but there are many parents that couldn't. Also he doesn't want to sit down with me at the end of a long day to do this so he goes into meltdown mode. I'm a strong believer that at this age homework should be about practise, not learning something new. I'm debating with myself as to whether I should go to the school and bring this up however I only have his word that he hasn't been taught the skills. Does anyone else have this problem?

I did English A level & some degree modules & I don't know what a character cop is.

I'm an English teacher and have never heard of character cop. The other home works don't sound at all inappropriate for yr 7. However google is your friend re summaries - your child reads the google info about the book to refresh memory, then writes it.

Is he y2 or y3? By y3 most classes will have tackled activities such as that and they should be familiar. However my ds would have needed help with them at the same age. He would hav found it difficult without some starting points and support. Dd, now 7, could do it with her eyes closed.

sassy - he is 7 yrs old, not Yr7 (so likely to be Yr2 or 3)

If he isn't able to do the homework by himself in a reasonable amount of time (20mins tops) then put that in a note to the teacher.

Personally I think it's ridiculous giving a 7yr old homework like this anyway, but it sounds like it's not being differentiated for different levels.

I don't think the homework is inappropriate because of the level but because he claims not to have covered it in class. If true I just think this is so wrong. Google has definitely been my friend in terms of templates but must admit hadn't thought to look at other summaries of the book. In the past homework has never been an issue with him but at the moment it's a nightmare. Personally if I was teaching children how to summarise I wouldn't be asking them to summarise fairly large chapter books before they could comfortably summarise short articles or short stories.
A character cop is just finding characteristics of certain characters in the book and justifying, using the text, why you attribute these characteristics to the character. Not particularly difficult when I explained it to him but it did take me to show him how to do it. He is a Yr 3 so maybe he's being economical with the truth when he says he hasn't done it.

Backforgood - that's reassuring to hear you think it's ridiculous too. I think part of the problem is that his reading skills are very good for his age however he doesn't find writing particularly easy so the two are not matching up very well.

Apologies - thought he was yr7. In which case do the minimum and send a note to say it's too complex/time consuming. Homework at this age is an exercise in parental frustration anyway

My DS had the book review homework which involved summarising the story/ describing characters/thinking of a different ending. It took ages (my son is 7)