"Draw a copy of the cover of your favourite book"
Will it improve ds's reading skills, broaden his vocabulary, encourage his imagination or his creativity? No.
No, he has not to design a new cover for his favourite book, just copy the one that it has already. So he's now getting all stressed because he can't do white writing on a red background (actually, I've sorted that one, with a white gel pen) and his dragon doesn't look like the one in the picture. At least when they have to do the bloody "make a castle from a cardboard box" they as least have to think about how to construct it!
Can anyone suggest a positive learning outcome from this exercise?
Or comfort me with examples of even more useless homework?