Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

inappropriate homework for a 9 yr old

30 replies

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:42

My dd's homework this weekend is to read a poem and answer questions about it. All well and good - until you look at the poem and the questions. It's more suited to GCSE level. My dd doesn't have the vocabulary skills to understand the poem properly or the literary criticism skills to interpret to answer the questions properly. She is average intelligence, not a brainbox, but not behind in literacy either. Shall I complain to the school?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
SorenLorensen · 19/01/2008 16:43

What's the poem?

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:45

at the risk of people identifying the school through me revealing the poem, it's 'London Snow' by Robert Bridges

OP posts:
Desiderata · 19/01/2008 16:46

Why would you complain? If she can't do it, she can't do it. Some other kids might like to be stretched in that area.

Twiglett · 19/01/2008 16:47

I was about to say you might be being unreasonable, but having checked out the poem I don't think it is accessible for a primary level at all:

When men were all asleep the snow came flying,
In large white flakes falling on the city brown,
Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,
Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town;
Deadening, muffling, stifling its murmurs failing;
Lazily and incessantly floating down and down:
Silently sifting and veiling road, roof and railing;
Hiding difference, making unevenness even,
Into angles and crevices softly drifting and sailing.
All night it fell, and when full inches seven
It lay in the depth of its uncompacted lightness,
The clouds blew off from a high and frosty heaven;
And all woke earlier for the unaccustomed brightness
Of the winter dawning, the strange unheavenly glare:
The eye marvelled - marvelled at the dazzling whiteness;
The ear hearkened to the stillness of the solemn air;
No sound of wheel rumbling nor of foot falling,
And the busy morning cries came thin and spare.
Then boys I heard, as they went to school, calling,
They gathered up the crystal manna to freeze
Their tongues with tasting, their hands with snowballing;
Or rioted in a drift, plunging up to the knees;
Or peering up from under the white-mossed wonder!'
'O look at the trees!' they cried, 'O look at the trees!'
With lessened load a few carts creak and blunder,
Following along the white deserted way,
A country company long dispersed asunder:
When now already the sun, in pale display
Standing by Paul's high dome, spread forth below
His sparkling beams, and awoke the stir of the day.
For now doors open, and war is waged with the snow;
And trains of sombre men, past tale of number,
Tread long brown paths, as toward their toil they go:
But even for them awhile no cares encumber
Their minds diverted; the daily word is unspoken,
The daily thoughts of labour and sorrow slumber
At the sight of the beauty that greets them, for the charm they have broken.

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:47

because it is incredibly demoralising for her, desi. If others are capable, they should have this work (although i think it's innappropriate) and my dd and others at her level should have something geared towards stretching them without completely baffling them.

OP posts:
Twiglett · 19/01/2008 16:48

what are the questions?

NKF · 19/01/2008 16:50

Inappropriate is an odd word to use though. From the title, I thought she'd been given Lady Chatterley's Lover or something.

Desiderata · 19/01/2008 16:50

But are you sure she isn't capable, with a little guidance? Can you give us an example of some of the questions?

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:50

thanks twiglet - i should have done that!
i need to point out that they have only been given the poem up to the line 'look at the trees' (about 2 thirds down), but even so!

2 of the questions she has to answer, are:
3.How did the boys feel when they woke up? Why?

  1. Explain how these lines change the mood of the poem.

it's question 4 that i feel is moving into realms of gcse lit. crit.!

OP posts:
SorenLorensen · 19/01/2008 16:52

Have they talked about it already in school? Or is she coming at it 'cold'?

Is she in year 5? Ds1 started to get comprehensions in Year 5 which were from a much wider range of eras and genres than he had tackled before. He did struggle with some of them - he had things like Dickens etc., and he found the language quite difficult but (with a bit of help and judicious use of a dictionary he did OK).

I would probably try and help her with it (I don't mean spoon-feed her, just help her to help herself) and maybe write a note on it saying "X struggled a bit with this homework and needed a lot of help."

Desiderata · 19/01/2008 16:53

I can understand your concern, sugar, but I doubt that her teachers are expecting a GCSE answer

It might be good to work through it together and see what thoughts she has?

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:54

coming at it cold

OP posts:
SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:55

have already tried reading it with her. She stops me every 2 seconds saying 'What does that mean?' thus stifling the whole flow of the poem. Mind you, she interrupts DH every 3o seconds asking for explanations when he reads the Worst Witch!

OP posts:
SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:56

yes Soren, she's in yr 5.

OP posts:
SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 16:57

can have another try, but as Twiglett says, it's not really 'accessible'

OP posts:
juuule · 19/01/2008 16:57

I think the questions are just to get her to think about what the poem means. My 9yo would enjoy going through this poem with me. I'd be pretty sure that the teacher wouldn't be looking for GCSE level answers just answers that showed you dd had thought about the poem.

morningpaper · 19/01/2008 16:59

Can't you go through it line-by-line?

It's good that she's asking "What does that mean"

you need to do it a line at a time, I would think

juuule · 19/01/2008 16:59

Perhaps go through it answering her 'whats that mean' questions and then go through it just for her to hear the flow of it.

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 17:00

i think there are far more appropriate poems for 9 yr olds out there, without being overtly 'childish'. My fear is that this is putting her off completely.

OP posts:
SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 17:02

Morningpaper, yes line by line is the best approach i suppose, but look how many lines there are! and there is so much explaining to do that she forgets the gist of the whole thing. She has what's called a poor 'working memory' - this mainly affects her maths work tho.

OP posts:
SorenLorensen · 19/01/2008 17:02

I think it is hard - but, from my experience of ds1's year 5 comprehensions, it is the sort of thing they are given.

If she really can't do it without shedloads of help from you (and ds1 did struggle with some of his comprehensions and would definitely struggle with that poem too) then, yes, I would write a note/go in and "relay your concerns" to the teacher (I wouldn't "complain" as such ) If she only needs a push in the right direction and some support then I'd do my best to help her with it (leaving any questions she really can't do) but add a note (as I mentioned in my earlier post). It's your call really - you know if she really can't do it.

juuule · 19/01/2008 17:03

I think it's a lovely poem. I love the descriptive language. In fact, is that what they are doing at school? Is it about descriptive writing?

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 17:04

yes, 'complain' is too strong! I will have a word with the teacher. She must know this is a bit much for my dd. I suppose it's easier for teachers to give everyone the same work.

OP posts:
morningpaper · 19/01/2008 17:05

Agree with lots of other advice

Why not do the questions that she can do - 'tis quite easy to explain the lines about the boys, and the question is are basically asking "What do boys feel like when they wake up to snow?" so she could do that bit ok?

SugarSkyHigh · 19/01/2008 17:07

juuule, yes they are looking at descriptive writing. e.g., personification, metaphor, simile. In fact I might ask her to look for examples of these in the poem overall, without slogging through it line by line

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread