Homework is a pretty controversial topic. That's why I waited until my fourth blog to write about it! In any given school, you will have teachers who believe in giving homework and others who don't; you will have parents who enjoy doing homework with their children, and you will have those who don't. And finally you will have students...hmmm....I'm not sure if any of my students have ever really LOVED homework...Except maybe my first grade students. I remember the very first time that I gave them homework...they actually cheered! They must have thought that it felt "All Grown Up". The novelty wore off quickly and there was NO cheering the second time I gave homework. John Hattie, author of Visible learning, has done research on the impact that homework has on children. He says that it has a positive impact on students over the age of 14. Hattie says that the traditional way that homework is being given, has zero impact on children. He does not tell teachers to stop giving homework altogether, he simply encourages them to find alternative ways of giving homework. Here is a short video clip of John Hattie speaking about homework: thelearningexchange.ca/videos/john-hattie-homework-and-its-value/ When I first starting teaching 15 years ago, I gave out homework, projects, spelling tests...you name it! If you're reading this and I taught you when I was a young new teacher...I am SO sorry! It was pointless homework! I gave it to you because, when I was in school, I was given homework, spelling tests, and projects. I wasn't taught anything differently. As my teaching style improved, I started to give homework with purpose. I wouldn't just give homework for the sake of giving homework. I would give homework as an extension of what I was doing in class. If I taught long division in class, I would hand out a sheet on long division and would write REVIEW on the top. Of course, my homework methods improved over the years. Eventually, I stopped handing out entire review sheets of homework. I would ask my students to write two long division questions in their notebooks and ask them to simply solve that for homework. I realized that there was no purpose in having them answer 20 questions at home. If they understood the concept in class, and could solve it in class, then 2 little questions for homework is ample. If you are wondering, why even bother to send two questions home -Well, I did it so that their parents can see what we are doing in class. My goal is not to have parents teach their children concepts we learn in school. As a teacher, that's my job. According to Goldberg, a clinical psychologist, children can end up in a homework trap. He says that most children go through the system, listen to their teachers, do their homework and do relatively well in school. Goldberg says that some children start falling behind at a really early age. They don't understand the work in class and are asked to complete work at home. These kids may not have the support at home and fall further and further behind in the curriculum. They are expected to catch up at home. Goldberg says that homework can lead to emotional and behaviour problems.
My husband doesn't like reading. I don't think he has ever picked up a book if it wasn't required in school. I know I can write about him because he will never read this blog! Last year, I bought him a book. I know, it seems like a strange gift but the teacher in me wanted to see my husband read. I bought him Elon Musk's biography because of his interest in this man. He was actually excited when I gave it to him. And guess what? At first, he flipped through it and eventually started reading it. He kept stopping to tell me fun facts about Elon Musk, like how he had twins and then triplets and how he married the same woman twice. He knows me well as these facts are a lot more interesting to me than the ones about Space X! Lesson learned: With the right book, everyone can learn to love reading. More and more schools are starting to recommend no homework policies, homework with purpose or after school homework help. As a teacher, I am happy to keep the assignments and homework at school and send home review questions only. I know many parents who are frustrated getting their children to do their homework and to study for their tests. I know some parents who like their children bringing home homework. From what I have observed, children who are academically strong in the classroom don't need extra practice at home, and the ones who are struggling in the classroom don't benefit from doing homework at home. According to Palardy, very little research has been done on the effects of homework. He says that some of the studies are even controversial. In his article, he says that teachers give homework to encourage self-discipline and independence. I think that the minute a parent has to encourage their child to sit down, do their homework, or help them with it, they are no longer independent. Some parents will tell me that they never have to ask their children to do their homework and that they are very independent. But this is not the norm. For the most part, parents will tell me that it is a daily battle to get their children to do homework. My biggest problem with traditional paper and pencil, hour-long homework assignments is that, for the most part, the kids don't like it. And in a world where teachers are competing with TV, video games and sports, we have to be more creative. I want my students to enjoy school, to love the projects we do in class and to learn things that will help them in life. I don't ever want them to skip school, to say they hate it, and that they can't wait for school to finish. I generally want my students to love coming to school, to be attached to their friends, teachers and principal. I am sure that parents want the same for their children. We want them to succeed in school, to work hard, to think for themselves and to be happy. I interviewed a few people on their thoughts on homework. Here is one mom's perspective on homework. She likes the idea of homework because it keeps the kids busy at home: youtu.be/bcUuXCzVy68 Here she is again, not speaking as a mom but as a former high school teacher. She thinks that it is imperative to give homework as she would not have been able to finish the curriculum otherwise: youtu.be/TqyZpPpfrxE Here is her 11 year old son with his perspective on homework: youtu.be/VFuM063zBps He is not a big fan and thinks that you should learn at school. I should make a point about asking him again in twenty years! I asked a high school administrator what his views were on homework. This is what he said: youtu.be/pi5A5NqzNCQ Here is a mom of three elementary school girls who believes in 30 minutes of homework per night. youtu.be/n1q7qD5zzzI The last mom I interviewed does not believe in homework. She had just been up late doing homework with her daughters, made dinner, put them to bed and then filmed herself answering the question in regards to homework. She was exhausted and asked to use filters to mask her identity. She thinks that after school time should be reserved for family time. youtu.be/pF3xqDffb7A She added an afterthought that she wouldn't mind homework if it came with a tutor. Although she was somewhat joking, her underlying message was that homework is overwhelming for working parents. Here is her second message: youtu.be/DvHwOGNxhd0 I think that the jury will always be out on homework. I do think that children benefit from reading and reviewing some work. I don't think the children should prepare projects at home and I don't think that children should prepare oral presentations at home. This could all be done in class. I don't believe children should be spending hours during the evening on homework. Home should be reserved for family time. Parents should not be the ones teaching their children how to figure out math problems. It should be done at school. I have attended a math camp three summers in a row. We were taught new innovative ways of teaching math to students. I wondered how we expected parents to show their children this new way of teaching math when we were just learning it ourselves? Bottom line: Work stays at home, reading and review are good for homework. References and recommended readings
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York, NY, US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. Goldberg, K. (2007). The homework trap. Encounter, 20(4), 70-89. J, M. Palardy. (April 01, 1988). The Effect of Homework Policies on Student Achievement. Nassp Bulletin, 72, 507, 14-17.
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Have you ever tried baking with your kids at home? Or making a meal together? It's magical...and messy! When you cook or bake with kids, you are teaching them a life-long skill. You are teaching them the importance of collaboration, following a recipe (which includes reading and math), making something from scratch (and hopefully the equally important skill of cleaning up too!). I have always enjoyed baking, not so much cooking (just ask my husband!), and the best part about baking is when I bake with friends or family. My sister and her family came to visit over the holidays back in December. We had planned to do a LOT of baking! They live in Macau, which is south of China and an hour away from Hong. My sister can't find all the ingredients in Macau, and even when she can, they are over-priced. We baked cookies, cakes, muffins, and puddings. The image you see on the left was one of our many baked goods and probably the best pudding I have ever had! I had ordered the mould off Amazon and we found a fabulous recipe online. The great thing about having family over was that there were 6 little nieces and nephews to help! It must be the teacher in me, but I turned it into a math lesson: "We only have 1/4 measuring cups but the recipe asks for 1/2 cup. How many 1/4 cups are in a 1/2 cup?". If I were to tell the kids: "Let's do some math and then proceed to ask them the same question, the ones who don't like math might have panicked and not try to figure it out. Instead, after we finished baking, I told my nieces and nephews: "Did you know that we just did math?" They looked surprised! I explained that we had just done fractions and that they were very good at it. One of my nieces was very excited as she was learning about fractions in school. She hadn't said anything though while we were baking. I guess she hadn't connected the two together. March is National Nutrition Month. According to a journal of the American Dietetic Association, Nutrition Week was launched back in 1973. Every year, whether I have taught grade 1, 4 or 6, I have always done a theme on Nutrition. We talk about sugars, calories, fat content, proteins, vitamins, sodium...basically anything that is on a Nutrition Fact Label. I find out what they already know (prior knowledge) and teach them things that are important. My favourite introductory activity is finding out how much sugar is in their juice boxes. Just before lunch time, I ask the students NOT to throw out their juice boxes, to keep them and place them on my shelf when they are finished. Every time that I have done this activity and come back from lunch, I have seen over a dozen juice boxes waiting for me. I don't even have to ask the parents to send in juice box...it seems to be a staple in kids' lunches! If your kids don't have juice boxes, consider bringing your own to school. It's worth the experiment The first thing I do is line up all the juice boxes and gather the students around so that they could see them better. I ask them to guess which one contains the most amount of sugar. Then, I ask them to find the nutrition label and to look for the sugar content. The students usually bring in apple juice, orange juice, and a variety of fruit juices. The sugar content is all approximately 20 grams. For the most part, the children don't really understand what 20 grams of sugar looks like, so I take out my big bag of sugar, my food scale and a little resealable bag. The students help me measure what 20 grams of sugar looks like. Without fail, they're ALWAYS shocked at how many teaspoons of sugar there are in each juice box. Last year, after doing the sugar in the juice box experiment, one of my students asked me not to post the pictures on the Facebook School Page and not to tell their parents about the sugar content! Didn't I tell you that kids are hilarious!? Honestly, the parents might not know about all that sugar, as juice boxes advertise things like: "No added sugar added". The students asked me the same question. Word got out that we were working on nutrition, and parents wrote me asking if they could share some information with the class. I approached our school nurse and asked her if she could present some nutrition facts to the students. I am not a nutrition expert, and it is ok to admit this to the children. And it's great to have guest speakers! If you don't have parents who are able to help out, ask the community. Someone is bound to know someone who can come in a speak with your students. Our school nurse had a great presentation about making healthy choices and about reading nutrition labels. During the question and answer period, I raised my hand and asked the school nurse if children NEED to have juice. Her answer was a flat out NO! She said that fruit was a better alternative to juice, and that children should not have juice boxes as part of their lunch on a daily basis. The only time they CAN have juice, is after a big hockey or soccer game. Imagine if more and more schools introduced healthy eating as part of the curriculum? These good eating habits are important in a healthy lifestyle. According to Lin et al., two studies they conducted showed that healthy eating habits protect against temptations like eating too much, and eating too many sweets. My students were often sent to school with muffins, cookies, or chocolate pudding. I would encourage them to eat something healthy during morning recess and to keep the dessert for after lunch. I hoped that after having an apple for recess, they wouldn't crave something sweet. It generally worked! They had no problem keeping the cakes and desserts for after their meal. I would recommend checking in with your school board nutritionist for suggestions in the classroom. Every year, my school board nutritionist has a contest in March, during Nutrition month. She recommends activities (such at writing a parody, researching a new fruit, making a fruit kabob...). The kids LOVE Nutrition month and always learn so much (as do I!). If your school board doesn't have a nutritionist, I would recommend simply searching online for a few activities. Following a recipe with your students (like making hummus together, or healthy muffins) or asking parents or your school principal to come in and bake with the students is a great life-long lesson! If you don't have an oven at school, you or the parents can bake ahead of time, yet still show the students how to follow a recipe (like in a cooking show, where the host follows the steps and then simply whips out a pre-made dish!). There are so many ways to teach Nutrition. Gripshover & Markham ran two experiments with young students. They used a novel approach to teach children about nutrition. At their end of their study, they found that children were eating more vegetables during snack time! They said that it is the caretakers' responsibilities to provide children with good food choices at home. But what if they don't? What if parents don't provide a healthy life style at home? Gripshover & Markham mention that teachers can make a difference in a child's life by educating them in nutrition. Last year, I won a grant called The Green Apple grant. It is a $1000 grant that encourages you to introduce children to healthy alternatives in the classroom. www.greenapple.metro.ca/home.en.html Our local grocery store, Metro, had generously offered this grant. I had asked the students to find their favourite nutritious recipes at home, bring the recipes to school and with the money we were awarded, we would make their favourite recipe in class. I took 4 students grocery shopping every week during lunch time or after school. It was an incredible experience, and I walked away with some great new recipes! I would highly recommend contacting your local grocery store to see if they offer grants, cooking classes, or field trips to the local grocery store. I noticed a huge difference in the snacks my students ate at school after Nutrition month. They tried to make healthy choices. And if they didn't have healthy choices at home, my principal always offered cheese, apples...all healthy alternatives! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References and suggested articles Denny, S. (March 01, 2006). National Nutrition Month: A Brief History. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106, 3.) Gripshover, S.J., & Markham, E.M. (2013). Teaching Young Children a Theory of Nutrition: Conceptual Change and the Potential for Increased Vegetable Consumption. Psychological. Science, 24(8), 1541-1553. Lin, P.-Y., Wood, W., & Monterosso, J. (August 01, 2016). Healthy eating habits protect against temptations. Appetite, 103, 432-440 In my first few years of teaching, I taught the older elementary grades (4-5-6). One year, my principal told me that she needed someone in grade 1 so off I went! I thought, how hard can it be? Was I ever in for a surprise! I had just finished teaching a grade four class. They were almost ready for grade 5 at the end of the school year. They were big, strong and some of them were taller than I was. And on my first day with the first graders, I couldn't stop smiling. I thought they were so tiny, and cute! I absolutely loved them! What I found challenging was changing activities every 15 minutes, teaching them to read and write, and grading their report cards. I also found that this group didn't know how to raise their hands when they had questions...they would approach me and tap me on the shoulder, arm, or back. They were just EVERYWHERE! I remember stepping out of class to blow my nose, turning around and noticing three to four students who had followed me right out of class! Reading was especially challenging. How do you teach the whole class to read? Do you read and have students repeat? Do you send home sight words? Do you take the time to read with each individual student? I remember feeling overwhelmed and asking teachers for advice. One teacher recommended that I download some books from RAZ kids (Stands for Reading A to Z). www.raz-kids.com If you aren't familiar with this website, I highly recommend it! There are books in English, French and Spanish. You can print out some sample books for free. I printed them out for my students. I followed the instructions on how to fold them (See image on left). It was very easy to do! I made some for all my students. If your school has the budget, each student can have his/her own RAZ kids account. They read books online at school or at home and answer comprehension questions. There are over 800 leveled books on this website. If your school doesn't have the budget, or access to Internet, I would recommend getting books from your school library, local library or ask for donations. I have worked at five different schools with very different socioeconomic demographics and I found that there was never a shortage of good books. Families, libraries, and individuals are always ready to donate books. The first thing I did with my students, with our free books, was a picture walk. A picture walk is when you simply read the pictures. We looked at every page together and spoke about the illustrations. I asked the students to do it first in their heads, then to share the answers with the whole class. Here is a video of one of my grade 1 students doing a picture walk. https://youtu.be/wxb1qeL2GfQ It so important to have students read the illustrations before reading the text! This will help them read! It is an excellent reading strategy to use if the student can't read the words. After we did a picture walk, we read the story together. I read the story and the students followed along. We read the story every day. They were able to recognize some of the words by the end of the week. It is also a great way to self correct. For example, a student might read the word "place" instead of "play" and the realize that it doesn't make sense and go back and self-correct. Pratt & Urbanowski wrote an article about self-monitoring (please see link below if you would like to read the whole article). Their article argues that it is imperative for children to self-monitor and self-correct. If students are always given the answer from a parent or a teacher, then they will always ask for their help. Some strategies include skipping over the word the student can't read and seeing if he/she could make meaning of it with the help of the rest of the sentence, looking at the illustrations for guidance or breaking the up the word into chunks. These are skills that need to be taught. I asked my 6 year old niece to read a book with me that she has never read before. She started with a picture walk. I don't think she had ever done one before. She pointed to the first picture and told me everything that she saw. She said: "bus, cat, shoes, guitar" I asked her to read the illustrations as though she was telling a story. She did a great job -I wish I had filmed it! I started to film right afterwards. As it was a book that my niece Leah hadn't seen before, I went over a few words that I knew would be challenging for her. These were words that came up often in the story. The idea is to make sure that the student is successful in reading. Here is a video of my niece and I reviewing quotation marks. It is important for students to read as though they are having a conversation with someone so I explained to her that whenever she sees quotation marks, she needs to change her voice. What if a student is still reading in a monotone voice? Well, being a fluent reader takes time and practice. It's ok to go over the same sentence over and over again. It's ok to tell the students that you don't want them sounding like robots when they read and that the best way to be a fluent reader is to practice. Take out a book and read one sentence to your students. (I just grabbed Anne of Green Gable; a graphic novel). The main character is saying: "but it's bad manners to tell a guest what they'll be having for tea..." Read it slowly for your students. Ask them what they think. Read it a little faster and again ask they what they think. Keep reading it until you're reading with enthusiasm and a story-telling voice. Have your students repeat. And then have them try this strategy with their own book, one sentence at a time. Walk around the class asking them to choose their favourite sentence and read it for you. youtu.be/RZD33UtpOTg The word "school" appeared many times in the story. I went over it with Leah. Here is a video of us going over the word "school": youtu.be/vr5u8cEV368 Another word that appeared many times was "rocking". Here we are going over the word "rocking": youtu.be/dnZrjWvECiA Here we are going over the word "reading": youtu.be/L424RmieOHQ In the article, The Kids Can’t Read, (See link below) Brunner talks about kids who aren't motivated to read. He gives strategies on how to encourage children to read at a young age. Children need to find books that appeal to them. If they don't like reading, it may be because of the content. Brunner argues that we should look over vocabulary words in a story BEFORE having students read the book. Children won't like reading if they don't understand what they are reading. Back to my grade one classroom...Early on in the year, I sent home sight words for my students to practice at home. I wrote a letter to the parents telling them that their children will be receiving their first set of site cards. These are words that students need to recognize and not read. I told the parents that we would practice in class on a regular basis. Once the students knew their site words without hesitating, the parents were asked to write me a note in the agenda or via e-mail telling me that their child was ready for a new set of words. I would ask their child to read me the words (at my desk one-on-one). The students were always ready for this challenge! They were excited to show me that they could read. I in turn made a big deal about it and sent them to the principal's office to show off their reading skills! (You should NEVER just send your students to the principal as a consequence.) This is a great site for FREE flashcards! Sitewords.com has videos showing you how to teach sitewrods. https://sightwords.com/ Here is a link to a list of books that you can send home with your students. It's a great list for fun reading at home -can be used throughout the year or for an optional summer reading list. It is a list from Scholastics and they are recommended books from 0 to young adults. www.scholastic.ca/bookfairs/images/programs/WEB_2018_summer_reading_book_list_2-18.pdf Here is a handy handout for parents explaining the importance of reading picture books. www.handyhandouts.com/pdf/537_APictureisWorth....pdf I believe that ALL kids can learn to read. It might come easier to some children than others. It's important to teach strategies, to find books that children are interested in, and to model reading. They should see adults in their lives reading. And if their parents aren't readers, the teacher needs to take on that role. During your 5 minute reading period, don't walk around, grab a book a read too. Have book clubs and speed reading sessions (where kids do a picture walk of as many books as possible in under a minute), invite authors to the classroom, have your principal come in and share their favourite book with the class. Invite parents in class to read to the children with a follow up art activity. Children should learn the love of reading at a very young age. It will change their lives. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Suggested articles Here is a short article with tips and tricks for the teacher or parents who has a student who does not like to read. There are great tips in this article, such as make sure children understand the big vocabulary words before reading a story, ask students to make predictions, and remain positive. Brunner, J. (2009). The Kids Can’t Read. Education Digest, 75(4), 32–36. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=45479739&site=ehost-live Here is another article that suggests tips and strategies to get kids to go back and correct their own mistakes. There won't always be an adult present to help with reading. Children are encouraged at a very young to learn to be in charge of their own reading. Pratt, S. M., & Urbanowski, M. (2016). Teaching Early Readers to Self-Monitor and Self-Correct. Reading Teacher, 69(5), 559–567. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1443 This article is based on a study done with first graders. There are concrete examples of how to to ask students questions about the texts they are reading. The students are taught to answer questions with high level thinking. Witte, P. G. (July 01, 2016). Teaching First Graders to Comprehend Complex Texts through Read-Alouds. Reading Teacher, 70, 1, 29-38. I first discovered Math 101 two years ago. I was teaching grade 4 at the time. I was going through Pinterest (a nightly routine for me), and I came across a post that was called: 5 Math Games Every Classroom Needs to Play. Here is the link to the original article, called Laura's blog. www.lauracandler.com/5-math-games-every-classroom-needs/
Of the 5 games, I immediately fell in love with Math 101. I thought it was brilliant and couldn't wait to try it with my students. I was teaching grade 4 at the time and it was the Christmas holidays -Yes, I peruse through educational ideas on my time off and I love it! I e-mailed my classroom parents via ClassDojo www.classdojo.com/ (another great classroom tool). I waited until the Sunday before school started to write the parents. My letter sounded something like this: Dear parents, Happy New Year! I hope you have enjoyed the holidays! If your children are anything like me, they are most likely very nervous about going back to school tomorrow! Please tell them that I can't wait to see them and that I have a learned a new game over the holidays and that I am excited to play it with them. Have a lovely evening! Mrs. C Guess how many students came up and asked me when we were going to play the game? The parents had successfully relayed my message. The students were SO excited! Those connections are very important when you work with children. I knew they would be nervous. Knowing that there we were playing a game on the first day of school was my way of easing the transition. And it worked! That afternoon, I explained the math game. It sounded something like this: We are going to play a game called Math 101. Our first round will be me versus the whole class (you should have seen the excitement in their eyes!) and then you can play it again with a friend in class (at this point, they started looking around the classroom, searching for their partner -every teacher knows what this is like!). I continued to explain the game: The goal of the game is to be the first one to get to 101 without going over. If your opponent gets to 102 and you are only at 95, you win! You can come close to 101 and still win the game. You can stop at 100 and hope your opponent goes over 101. There are a lot of different ways to win! And then we started playing. I wrote: GRADE 4 CLASS on one side of the board and my name of the other side with a line dividing the two. I got a die and asked the students to roll first. One student representative rolled a 4. I told the students that they can decide to write their score as a 4 or as a 40. They chose 40. I rolled a 6 and decided to keep it as a 60. Another student rolled a 2. Between a 2 and a 20, they decided that it was worth 20. They added 40 and 20 to get 60. It was my turn. I rolled another 6. I told the students that if I were to keep it as a 60, then my total score would be 120 and I would lose the game so I kept my 6 as a 6, making my score 66 (60+6). And the game went on like this. The kids rolled and then I rolled. In the end, I got to 100 first and decided to stop there. It was their turn, they had a 99. If they rolled a 1, the game would have been a tie. If they stayed at 99, they would have lost. They had no choice but to roll. They rolled a 3 and I was the only one who cheered! They were devastated! Teaching moment: Being a good sport! I asked the kids if they understood the game and they did. I let them choose a partner and play a few rounds. The atmosphere was electric! Without fail, every group approached me and told me how they won or lost the game. Something I hadn't expected was the students playing the game during indoor recess, at lunch and at home. I was thrilled! When the parents came for student-lead conferences, one of the tasks the students had to do was to play math 101 with their parents. Some of the parents were very competitive. I LOVED the interaction between the students and their parents. Last year I taught grade 6. I decided to introduce Math 101 to them on the second day of school. I told them that we were going to play a math game and that it was me versus the whole class. Their eyes lit up! I told them that if they won that there wouldn't be any homework. And then I paused (mostly for dramatic effect). One student asked, "What if YOU win?". Exactly the question I was hoping to receive! I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. They had decided that they would be getting homework, in which case they should really win the game! Little did they know that I am not a big fan of homework and would certainly not hand out any on the first week of school. We played the game and I won. They were not happy -until I told them I was never going to give them homework in the first place. They wanted a rematch but instead I suggested they play with a friend. Just like the fourth graders, they were very excited and felt the need to explain the big win or loss at the end. Once in a while, throughout the year, I would ask my students: "Do you remember that time I beat you guys in Math 101?" It's not in my nature to tease children, but they got a kick out of it and kept trying to challenge me to basketball games, hockey games, and anything else they are guaranteed to win! So cute! Here is a YouTube link to my niece and I playing Math 101. It was her first time playing the game. Feel free to show your students this example of how to play. Next time, I will be sure to film it horizontally! youtu.be/rN52UzPvnZI Here is our second time playing. I can't believe she won both times! www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiiqHsbPSgs&t=16s I genuinely believe in playing games in the classroom. Picture a kid who doesn't like math...this same kid understood this math game and enjoyed it. They played this game, among others, until the end of the year. They never got tired of it. I discovered a website years ago, called Handy Handouts. It is a website that offers a myriad of free handouts on a variety of topics. Here is one about math. www.handyhandouts.com/pdf/153_Math%20Around%20the%20Home.pdf Here are the references to two articles explaining the importance of games in education. In the first article, the researchers describe different scenarios using computer games in education. I have often given homework to my students via some kind of online platform. It's a way of having fun while learning. Math websites, such as IXL, show students their progress. The parents have access to the results too as well as their teachers. If we worked on fractions in the classroom, I would assign a fraction game on IXL for homework. The kids seemed to enjoy it! Squire, K., & Jenkins, H. (2003). Harnessing the power of games in education. Insight, 3(1), 5-33. The second article looks at math anxiety in children. I chose this article because of the anxiety that I see in children at a very young age. Some "hate" math very early on. They say they're bad at it or will never "get" it. My students have often asked me why they need to learn certain concepts in math as they will never use it in life. That's why math games and puzzles are so important. I start every math unit with a problem. The students are highly engaged and the stress and anxiety go away. Ramirez, G., Gunderson, E. A., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (January 01, 2013). Math Anxiety, Working Memory, and Math Achievement in Early Elementary School. Journal of Cognition and Development, 14, 2, 187-202. |
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