Pointless homework - WWYD?

[EvilTwins]

DTDs are in yr 7. One gets endless amounts of homework (the other doesn’t) and much of it feels a bit pointless. Today, she told me she has a 3 week history project for which she has to “make something” to do with castles - she can make a cake or a model or a mood board with lots of pictures. I asked her what The actual learning in the project is and she doesn’t know. Last week, she was given a project where she had to do a presentation about herself. That’s for study skills, and they are focusing on the presentation aspect. Her sister does the same subjects (different teachers) and did not have the same homework - hers was to practise the presentation skills, rather than spend hours doing a pointless PowerPoint.

Homework should be to either consolidate learning, extend learning or prepare for a lesson (or test) Making a model of Lincoln Castle out of fudge does neither of those things.

WWYD? Contact School? DTD2 could be spending her time so much better.

Is it possible that some people in the group are doing Bruno's original home in Berlin, some are doing his home at Out-With and some are doing the same for Shmuel (his previous home in Poland and his 'home' at Auschwitz? That would help teach the importance of setting and some of the WW2 context...

It's possible. He doesn't always get instructions clearly. I have only been told (by ds1) that they are all doing different chapters. They don't have online homework yet, so it is just written down by ds1 in his planner. I asked yesterday who was getting the end of the book but he clarified they are all doing chapters before chapter 6. He was quite clear of the 'scene' that he wants to do: Bruno looking shocked to find Maria packing his stuff up to move house from Berlin. He didn't mention decor specifically, that was more what I added to at least include a bit of historical interior design!

Just explained to dd the point of her poster homework was to practice the skill of picking out important info and summarising - she said the teacher had not explained any learning objectives, they had just been told to do a poster and she felt she hadn't really summarised anything. No matter, thanks to this thread, the next time she has a poster to complete - which will no doubt be quite soon, she will see the point and will feel it's a more worthwhile task.