Maryvale Homework Practices Parent Feedback Form Comments PTA Meeting Held on September 2, 2014

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1 Maryvale Homework Practices Parent Feedback Form Comments PTA Meeting Held on September 2, 2014 What are you excited about? Having more time to spend with child without struggling to get her to do homework Less pressure to be done by a certain day in the week I think this is FANTASTIC! I m proud my son s school is courageous enough to take risks and try new evidence-based practices. I reviewed the research and am even more confident with this new practice. I only hope we persist with this for more than my children s years at Maryvale. Very excited about the focus on language and vocabulary I ve been worried that America s schools were going to move towards a more rigorous education system focusing on hours of extra school work and testing, stifling our kids creativity. So glad to see our school going the other way and recognizing the need for kids to learn by living and exploring. Not having the stress of making child do homework every night Having more time playing with kids! Parents ability to use our resources to augment school learning Ability to decide topics of specific interest to them Ability to create their own projects More time for reading and online learning resources Reduced stress for child (and parents) Getting more recommendations for resources to support learning in areas of interest/challenge In general, I think this is a great idea! Having time to spend on activities that are important to our family Having a measure of control over my child s learning Allowing my child to explore things/subjects that are of interest to her/us Sharing my love of reading with my child reading became a chore for me in school. Post-school I had the freedom to read whatever I liked and rekindled my passion for reading. I don t want her to lose that. I love that my son will have time to play outside after we get home, help cook dinner, or just hang out as a family I hope this homework policy continues at Maryvale and spreads to more schools More chances to actually read at bedtime or earlier because now there will be time to do so More flexible evening schedules not encumbered by homework with a very tired child at 5 p.m. I love the shift in homework, it s a great idea! There ll be no tears in the evening and she ll have to go to the playground. YAY! I love the idea of a quarterly conference with the teacher. Thank you so much for adjusting the homework load. Focus on social emotional learning

2 Emphasis on play as child s work Ask me about. Today at school we. updates from teachers Quarterly parents day! Receiving a paper that summarizes what they did each day will fill that empty time during the ride home It s an opportunity for engagement, for kids to pursue their own interests More time to do other activities, however, I still have concerns I am excited about the fact that great emphasis is placed on reading as the saying goes, Reading is fundamental No fighting about homework Time to engage with the kids Same work for both kids Ability to choose supplemental resources and work on them on a schedule that works for our family The consolidation of websites and materials this past year in first grade we were inundated with duplicative overlapping sites Big brother is reading in French to little brother he s the expert and this is a boost to his confidence. I m excited that my boys are reading way more than 20 minutes then don t want to stop. I am happy to have the daily stress relieved! But also have some hesitations. I am fully in support of this idea though! More family time! Not fighting over completing homework Allowing for free time/down time after the long structured day Less stress on me and kids I won t have to endure the rages my perfectionistic kid gets into when he has trouble getting things done My kid who is gifted is bored with homework I already know this now I don t have the fights More time for other activities sports so they get more exercise than PE once a week, music more than once a week It s good to have no pressure, daily, to do homework That my child will not be so discouraged by the homework that she resents at school Love this. Since summer started I have had them read every night (almost) and already have seen a huge improvement and they LOVE reading. We ve read more this summer than the whole school year last year. Big supporter of this. I am excited about my children learning at home through self-led reading. Already my 3 rd grader discerned that the book she chose was not her level, and she went back to pick another one. Now she really enjoys it and she gained a lot of confidence through that process. She is motivated through feeling like she can do it. Very excited! Allow more time for playing and extracurricular activities. No homework! Happy about the free time my children will have to play outside and to pursue their own interest. I really like this practice! My child just started K, and this practice should help with a smooth transition from pre-school. Also, having experienced play-based education, I agree that giving parents an opportunity to enrich our children in a variety of ways is a good idea.

3 Online resources look awesome! Reading only homework would excite kids, but it is important to encourage them not just with homework. Taking them to the library worked for me. No more packets (at least for now) More time in the evening not necessarily tied to a desk with my child Space to evaluate on my own, strengths and weaknesses my child has and plan at-home activities tailored to each I m really excited to be encouraged to get my 1 st and 2 nd graders using a computer using the resources you re providing on the Maryvale website. I like that there will not be pop-ups! Amount of reading and vocabulary The new policy has certainly excited our children in a positive manner! I love it!! I have time to spend with my girls doing things we love and learning along the way. Thank you for giving childhood back to our kids! I m so excited about no more struggling with my kids over homework. It takes a lot of pressure off my family s evening schedule. the new practice. Thank you! What questions do you still have? I d love to hear more about the quarterly school visits Is my child going to be able to learn everything she needs to know in class? How will I know how she is advancing? What about writing practice? Will this be done entirely in class? What about students who need a little pushing to do their work and/or to do it in time? What are the messages shared in class? How can we best support and/or continue the learning messages taught in class? I m sure I will have many I do think some families are fearful that they will not be connected with what is being taught and what is the learning expectation...plus change can be stressful. (re daughter in 3 rd grade) Is she to develop a three year habit of not doing homework only to go to a school with the exact opposite expectation? Built-in difficulties that non-francophone parents have guiding and assisting their students (children), so now without even an occasional homework assignment, how are we to gauge a) their continued French acquisition and b) their success or lack thereof, of the content standards? Very concerned about how I can monitor my own child s progress in all other academic areas. What chrome books? Do all classroom have them now? How you do math and geometry homework reading only? How long is the reading only? She tends to struggle in math how will I know if she doesn t understand a concept if I don t witness her having trouble with it at home? Move info about the Google chromebooks? Do the students have an individual chromebook that stays in the classroom? Suggested reading list for beginning French readers how do I know what to give her?

4 Can her teacher send home an appropriate leveled reader in French? Will we still receive a booklet summarizing what they will be doing each month? Just wondering if it will work and perhaps like any other experiment I would ve done a pilot for a shorter period of time than a semester, but I hope that works too Will teachers have enough info to evaluate students? Will they be able to guide students where the need is for the student? Will kids be able to ask for more homework? How do you plan on reinforcing math and science? I don t believe and the literature also indicates a strong correlation with practicing at home (outside of classroom) and the success in these areas? When will the French site be up and ready on the PTA website? How do you plan to meet each child at the level they are at? No child should be left behind. How much reading? Some materials say 20 minutes, but the class materials seem to say 30 minutes. Can we access existing, already prepared homework materials on teachers pages and sites? Soooo what about the kids who aren t online or don t have laptops? It sounds like I need to buy a laptop/tablet/device? How will teachers help build vocabulary/spelling skills without weekly vocabulary words, especially in French? My 4 th grader is weak in organization and study skills, and I was using his daily homework as a way to help build those skills. How can I help ensure that he will be ready for middle school? Timeline for implementing the new practice? Will it be implemented this year? Concerned that if I don t do HW with my kid that I plan out, then we will not benefit from learning and studying in the evenings Concerned that they will be parents in our class that don t do any reading HW on their own, and my kid will have classmates who are not progressing. I want him to grow thru learning from peers What about studying for tests like spelling or math tests? What are kindergarteners supposed to do? What can we expect that almost all children will need extra practice with? Math facts? What exactly/precisely is academic discourse (it was mentioned early in the talk that there s focus on reading and academic discourse )? How do you (Maryvale) assess the success level of the new homework? When will we (Maryvale community) know about these updates? Will there be a new element in the classroom to evaluate a student s progress due to the homework element being removed? No questions you did a great job with the presentation and I plan on using the time we typically used for homework on other things (learning piano! And reading more) Perception: This policy was implemented with no clear plan, communication to parents, or thought process on how to handle questions. We keep hearing we will How will HW practice continue beyond the trial period? How do we compensate for parents who don t have access/possibilities to provide activities for children? How will library practices change from last year to support this new practice? If kindergartener is reading yet (French or English)?

5 Will we get info sent home that will let us know what they are working on so we can explore with them? I could see how some might be worried that not being in a habit of doing homework every night and developing study skills they will be at a disadvantage in middle school I personally am not worried about this) What additional supports/resources could you, as a parent, benefit from? Additional notes from teachers sounds very helpful! Increased communication with teachers Weekly s about what the kids are working on Advanced list of what kids will be learning Resources Reading lists based on ability/interest of student (personalized if possible) Concepts that need to be known grasped by end of learning period Feedback from teacher (areas to focus on, strengths/weaknesses) Would like to know what is being learned in the classroom so I can support it at home with games, books, social studies, etc. Suggestions of activities that will support classroom work I expect an increased amount of teacher-parent communication with regard to how my child is progressing through the year. If I cannot see homework or classwork more frequently, I am kept in the dark with how my child is doing. Request at least quarterly parent-teacher conferences or some other personal info about my child s academic growth throughout the year. List of books, websites, etc. for each subject and in French The idea of sending home the school work/assignments just for review (and send back) is helpful Informing the parents of the techniques used to teach math will be helpful so that I can relay that info to her tutor. I want the techniques to mirror what she s reviewing during tutoring. French class for parents help with pronunciations and sight words Summer reading list in French Summer packet had a very tiny font so hard for kids to see Students send link of website they visited to parents so we can go over it again with them Maybe set up a mechanism for parents to exchange ideas and things that have worked now that parents have not only a role as in the past but also a commanding one I feel like the stress of organizing the extra resources has been shifted to the parents. I worry I won t be able to choose the appropriate resource. What resources do you have in French for parents who do not speak French in the home? Example, support group Specific information from teachers about specific writing and math skills. The general resources are great, but I would like to know what s being done this week so I can reinforce it at home. Consolidate and streamline lists of sites. For instance, if you know that 4 th grade instructors are using these 3 sites, then recommend those 3 first and up front. Don t complicate with excessive links.

6 Could you send home some graphic organizers to help parents and kids organize their thoughts about what they are reading? How about a list of questions (English and French) sent home so we know what to ask to discuss what they ve read? Sending work home more often to see what children are working on in school Sending optional packets home (though child will resist if not required ) Regular school visits to library to get new books Popular movies and shows/cartoons dubbed into French (this may have been answered in the presentation) Thanks for the list of online resource could PTA meetings spend 15 minutes or so every meeting and give an intro/demo to 2 or 3 of them for things that aren t immediately clear? (ie., Brittanica/Encyclopedia I can figure out, but NoodleTools? CultureGrams?) Please send home graded/corrected work kids are doing in school. The new grading P/ES gives me nothing tangible seeing the papers will give me the comfort of being able to gauge where my kid has strength or problems I d like to know what my kid does at school, so I can prepare a homework program that will reinforce and advance his learning Book recommendation, online math, science resources, online stories for parents retell to the kids We do not have many upper level French books at home. It would be good if the students went to the library regularly to get a new book. Last year they never seemed to get to go to the library. Can we have some optional worksheets? The biggest challenge for my child is choosing books from the library that are appropriate to his reading level (in French). I would like to help encourage him to read at night and would like for him to make better use of all of the books available to him at Maryvale. It will be helpful if the teachers sent home a weekly or monthly syllabus on what the students are learning on a daily or weekly basis, so we can better reinforce the topics at home (in addition to just knowing what s going on) Websites, games on the internet to catch children s interest I heard from a parent with a daughter in another classroom that the teacher was sending home discussion topics relating to the book they were reading. Who was the main character? What did you think about s decision to do? I think this is a great idea to tie what is happening in the classroom to reading done at home. I am hoping the other teacher s class will implement something similar. Honest and transparent feedback on how the new policy is working and openness to modifications would be positive as well. I would like to see the resources online updated regularly. It seems like every 6 months might be adequate. I m wondering if there will still be some at-home projects ie., family poster, building a city, etc. for the different grade levels Guiding questions from teachers Math resources

7 More impactful/structured program catered towards French Immersion. Quarterly meetings on topics such as: 1) navigating through the program; 2) resources for students/parents; 3) homework time and how to assist students; 4) summer engagement and how to practice/keep up French Information about where my child is at so that I can work with them on areas of weakness List of what they are learning in school Good assessment of their strengths and weaknesses Would be interesting to provide some options for explore/project-based learning long-term projects we could do with them at home. Perhaps the teacher works out a project idea with kid based on their interest and the parents can, at their leisure, work on project at home in a way that lets them work at their (family s) pace and go in the direction they (kids) want but support what is being covered in school. I will be interested in receiving additional communication from the teacher about how my child is doing in specific areas I don t want to be blindsided by a bad report card