Homework not relevant to lessons

[Prforone]

Hi

Just wondered if this is the norm or not? My DD (Y5) has, on several occasions, been issued homework on maths subjects that haven't been covered in class. For example, a few weeks back their homework was a measuring task and they hadn't covered different forms of measurement at that stage. And this week her homework involves calculating fractions - yet again something not covered in class yet. This stresses my DD out as she doesn't understand what she's supposed to do, and has often led to tears of frustration.

I will go through the parts she doesn't understand with her, but am not always sure if the method I'm teaching her is the way the school teaches them - we're talking nearly forty years since my maths homework days!

I always thought homework was set based on what had already been covered in previous lessons - kind of a "refresher" and to make sure what they've been taught has been fully understood. Is that not how it works?

Well first of all let me recommend a free Maths tuition web site called Khanacademy.com. It is supported by Bill Gates. It is interactive and has explanatory videos and Scratchpads. IXL. Com is wonderful as well but you have to pay a subscription. Both send progress reports to whoever registers and the student can win badges and rewards.

Your DD is young and so might not remember what she has done in school. That could be one explanation. Or perhaps the homework is going to be the next topic and so it was sent home for your DD to start preparing.
The solution is to go and ask her Teacher, isn't it?
Usually schools are more than willing to help.

Maybe it's so the teacher can assess where the class as a whole is at before teaching the topic? Might be something they've learnt lower down the school and teacher is seeing how much they remember so they don't waste time teaching something the dc already know.

Ask the teacher.

homework might be in preparation for new teaching, rather than reinforcement of old, in fact there is a current trend for "flipping" - leaving pupils to do ALL new learning at home, and do the reinforcing in the classroom, rather than the traditional way round.

I can't really believe she hasn't done SOME measuring activities; as a Yr2 TA I did measuring the playground with children using a 'trundle wheel', and rulers and tape measures for smaller items, benches, tables etc.

They should also have done a certain amount of 'estimating' to decide on the best units of measure (cms, m, km) according to the size and distance involved.

'Fractions' is also taught, in a simple way, very early on; I did things with Nursery children,
cutting a playdough 'cake' in half for two teddies, in quarters for four teddies. It should be built on from there, getting more advanced as the children get older. By Yr5 they would be doing fractions, decimals and percentages and changing from one to the other.

In all maths things it is vital to UNDERSTAND what is going on when manipulating numbers, and not just performing routines that have been memorised, but without the understanding.

Maybe she was away when things were taught.

I add below the National Curriculum for Numeracy; search to Year 5:

HERE:

Hi Prfrone

I think Ferguson raises a good point really. Is this homework reviewing things they've been working on in class or not? That's the issue. You think this homework covers materials not yet taught in school (based on what your DC is saying - and by Y5 I'd trust what they're saying really).

I think the solution is talking to the teacher.

I also suggest you talk to other parents. If this is something other parents are hitting as well - going 'en masse' to the school is incredibly effective. schools really don't like that. Much easier to boldly tell a parent - they're the only person to complain about this or that. Bit harder when 20 parents show up.

Our school (ah the fond memories of St. Mediocre come flooding back) played a game with homework. Lots of verbage in prospectus about how they valued it but the teachers, as a group, did not like having to give weekly homework (we parents had been repeatedly told we needed to respect their work/ life balance - they didn't have the time to comment on 30 workbooks - research shows homework has no benefit - etc....) - so their solution was to give increasingly time consuming/ purposely upsetting homeworks to get 'that complaint' from a parent or two which allowed them to drop homework entirely due to 'parental complaint'.

Of course we are in a free grammar school catchment in Birmingham - so school rely on a significant proportion 1/3 to 1/2 of each class doing extra work at home (if not going to tutors) to prepare for the 11+.

HTH