Taming the homework monster - part 2

Yesterday, I shared advice on supporting kids with learning disabilities when it comes to homework from the Smart Kids with Learning Disabilites website.  Today, here's some advice on what schools can do to help.

Rhonda

What Schools Can Do
When parents and schools each do their part, tensions around homework are significantly reduced. A collaborative effort on the part of you and your child’s teachers can help resolve the problems in the short term and put things in perspective. Ways in which your child’s school may be willing to collaborate include the following:

• Make available end-of-the-day check-ins for students who need it. It’s genuinely hard for youngsters with working memory problems to remember everything they have to bring home at the end of the day. Having a teacher or aide check in with the child before she goes home to make sure she’s written down all assignments and has the necessary materials solves this problem. To reduce the labor-intensity of this process, some teachers use the last 10 minutes of the school day for the whole class to go through the end-of-the-day check-in together.

• Post homework assignments on the Internet
  And keep the postings current and complete. When done consistently, this allows parents to monitor their child’s homework. If it’s not done right, however, it introduces another crack that a child can slip through.

• Make weekly progress reports available for parents who need them.
  This can be a powerful tool. Letting parents know of any outstanding homework assignments on a Thursday or Friday enables them to structure weekend activities around homework demands.

• Be flexible.
  Kids with ADHD, in particular, often run out of steam by the end of the school day. Medication, too, has often worn off at that point, making homework seem particularly daunting. Some days go more smoothly than others, and when teachers can trust parents to shorten or cut out assignments based on their child’s capacity on any given day, this approach can work quite well. Sometimes teachers star the most important assignments, so that parents can ensure that if shortcuts are to be taken, the priority work gets done.

• Accept parent involvement.
  Allowing students with written language problems to dictate homework to parents can significantly reduce parent-child conflicts around homework.

• Establish after-school homework clubs.
  Many students are successful with homework when they’re given time either during school or before they leave school at the end of the day. This is because school provides sufficient structure and environmental cues to remind them to stay on task. These same students often experience a letdown in energy and focus when they get home from school that may be difficult to recover from, even after a break for exercise, relaxation or after-school activities. Whenever passing or failing a course depends on homework, schools need to be willing to offer an in-school alternative so that youngsters whose home life is not conducive to getting the homework done will not be penalized.