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.

If power point time wasting wasn't bad enough, my son's year 9 French teacher insisted they make a video of a French poem, using a free video making software, with a suitable background music download, slide show of images sourced from the web, along with superimposed titles in French for each slide being each line of the poem. From memory it was about some saddo putting milk, sugar and coffee in a cup! The amount of time he spent was ridiculous, best part of a whole weekend at 5 or 6 hours per day. He could have learned the sodding poem in half an hour!

I don't see what the problem is giving a year 7 pupil, a pleasant if slightly time consuming piece of homework .

Evil i have noticed from previous posts, that you are a critic of selective education, but regardless of that have chosen that pathway for your children.
I noticed the slight dig at the lack of diversity in your children's school.

I don't see what the problem is giving a year 7 pupil, a pleasant if slightly time consuming piece of homework.

I certainly see a problem if the teacher then gives a punishment for not doing it to their perceived required standard. I also see a problem if not enough notice is given and not enough time allowed, thus causing stress to the parents (buying stuff needed) and child (trying to do a big job in limited time when they have other commitments). And all basically for something that's only slightly relevant to the topic in hand. When the same amount of research/study could be done directly in a fraction of the time.

I think it’s a bit unkind to set a homework that involves making a cake. Not everyone has loads of baking equipment, a big kitchen or the desire to let an eleven year old go wild with ingredients in the kitchen.

A friend approached a teacher who’d set a “baking” homework and asked when it had to be done, because they didn’t have a kitchen (world’s most stressful house extension). The teacher actually looked a bit astounded when she said there wouldn’t be a kitchen for at least two months and suggested that they do it at a friend’s house.

I would complain to the school. She isn't going to learn anything this way and will fall behind.

Obviously this being a grammar school, all the kids must have access to a kitchen with parents; resolutely devoted to their child's teacher's wishes !

What on Earth has being a grammar got to do with it???

A bit of amusement that's all.

Because OP mentioned that it was a grammar - presumably expecting something more demanding but as has been said, researching a castle or making a decent powerpoint are both useful skills, so the homework may not be as pointless as all that.

Our school gives out the “make a castle” homework.

As a member of staff, it is lovely to see the castles decorating our shelves...because the mice which run riot in our school hide in them and occasionally pop out of a turret. Brilliant.

A labelled sheet would show more learning than an unlabelled cake. A model made out of a weetabix box and some toilet rolls will not lead to deeper learning and retention. Perhaps if you want an accurate model, you could provide a kit to cut out, or a castle to base it on but 'make a model/cake of a castle' has the distinct potential to lead to a pile of crap.

In addition, given that I'm terrible at craft stuff, if that homework had been set for me in history, I'd then be producing crap in tech and history. If you want kids to learn history, set them work that uses mainly history skills, not baking or product design skills.

Pengggwn In a primary if the topic is castles, that is all fine.

But in Secondary a History (or French in our case) homework should not, in my opinion, be a craft/tech one. By all means give the option, but for some children, the time taken to construct anything far outweighs the learning. In fact, in my opinion, it can positively hamper the learning, as all the focus ends up on 'getting the job done' to the detriment of remembering the actual learning.

Some kids are great at PE but that doesn't mean I should incorporate a gymnastic routine into solving quadratic equations so that they can showcase their skills.
Baking a cake about a topic seems like a pretty ineffective way to learn any detailed information.

I remember in my NQT year being observed by the head. I'd done some sort of constructions work and the kids spent some time colouring in. (I cringe to think of this now!). The head asked me 'and what were they learning while they were doing that colouring in?'. If they're not learning anything, it's a waste of time in a lesson. If it's a waste of time in a lesson, why would you ask them to do it at home?

Pengggwn Enjoyment of a craft activity done well will embed the learning and, with the right research, extend it

That's as maybe. But when you have a child with (at the time undiagnosed) dyspraxia who couldn't plan such a task nor execute it to produce anything above the average 6 year old then there is zero enjoyment and the craft activity is certainly not done well .

Some children I have no doubt they enjoy these types of homeworks, but both my DDs would get far more learning and benefit from a short writing task (which at least would give them practice in skills they'll need in y11).

I really think that some teachers massively underestimate the amount of time and stress these 'enjoyable creative tasks' actually cost. If you think it is that valuable, do it in school.

Ultimately I as a parent have an eye on skills needed for year 11. I want homeworks that will help develop those skills. Building a castle is not one of them for History. Ask the tech department to set it as their homework instead.

Teen I feel your DDs' pain!

I think the worse you are at craft, the stronger you feel about how pointless craft homeworks are

Build a castle/build a model cell are good tests of the competitive mother skills.

Posters are good, if they meet the a list of criteria. They also provide vital display work.

And in Secondary School there is plenty of opportunity to show case your cooking and tech skills - they even have classes especially for these skills.
Thing is while ds was forced to do crafty stuff at primary as part of other subjects - that almost felt like torture at home, it was at secondary where the art dept actually helped him develop his artist skill - they taught him techniques - they taught the how to and he responded to that. Primary school art and craft made him feel like a failure.

Now posters I have no problem with at all.

They can be done all by hand, or prepared on a computer and stuck onto a bigger sheet. A bright child can include lots of information, a struggling child just a few points.

(N.B. I still had to do the trimming down to size for my DD1 otherwise it looked all wonky and again like a 6yo. She could not cut a straight line by eye, nor rule a straight line even vaguely parallel to the edge of the paper, not cut a smooth curve. DD2 is quite a lot better when she concentrates. )