Homework Policy

The key to successfully completing homework in the 5th grade comes down to two factors: responsibility and organization. Your child will be accountable for about 1 to 1½ hours of homework per night. While you always want your child to succeed, now is the time to let your child take increasing ownership of her schoolwork. Knowing she did it on her own will ultimately boost her confidence and self-reliance. If your child truly needs help understanding an assignment, walk through the steps together. Ask her to explain the process she has gone through thus far, and where she thinks she may have gotten off-track. Many times, once the trouble area has been pinpointed, you can offer advice or examples that will help her complete her work — without having to give away the answer or do it for her.

Your Role As Parent:

  1. Please help set up a consistent, quiet, and organized place for homework to be completed.
  2. Talk with your child about time management so that the work doesn’t become overwhelming. Help your child establish either a consistent schedule for completing homework, or help him create a schedule each Sunday night that reflects that particular week’s activities (be sure to include extracurricular).
  3. Encourage, motivate, and prompt your child, but do notsit with him and do the homework with him. The purpose of the homework is for your child to practice and use what he has learned. If your child is consistently unable to do the work, please contact the teacher.
  4. You may check the homework, but please do not correct it.
  5. When bedtime comes, please stop your child, even if he is not done.
  6. If your child is practicing a skill, ask him to tell you which steps are easy for him, which are difficult, or how he is going to improve. If your child is consistently unable to talk about the knowledge he is practicing, please inform the teacher.
  7. Although there may be exceptions, your child should be spending approximately 1 hour to 1 ½ hours on homework (20 minutes per subject plus 15 minutes for reading/ 15 minutes for studying). Children who have a tendency to be perfectionists, procrastinate, or do not use their time wisely in class will probably have more homework some nights.
  8. If your child says that they do not have any homework, I would ask them how their projects are progressing and ask to see what they've accomplished.

The Responsibility of the Student:

  • Students are given Weekly HW Sheets. They are expected to write down homework assignments daily. These should be kept in the Red Folder and checked off when the assignment is completed.
  • Students will also be required to read nightly for 15-20 minutes.
  • Students are expected to reviewtheir spelling vocabulary words and geography terms each night.
  • Very Important! Any assignment not completed in class is expected to be finished at home and returned the next day. Missing classwork counts the same as missing homework!
  • No homework will be given on Friday. However, assignments not finished are expected to be brought home and finished over the weekend.
  • All assignments to be turned in MUST be written in neat, cursive handwriting. Students will be asked to redo any that are not.
  • Students are expected to put assignments, books, and signed papers back in their backpack before going to bed.
  • Students will not be allowed to call home for missing assignments.
  • Completion of allassignments will be checked daily by teacher. If any assignment is missing, the student will lose recess. At this time, the assignment will be completed. The student will not be allowed outside once the assignment is completed.
  • Assignments may not be graded, but they will always be checked for completion. Students are expected to TRY all problems, even when difficult. Effort is a must!
  • It is the student’s responsibility to make up work missed when absent.

Materials/Resources:

  • HW Binder needs to come home daily with written assignments, worksheets, etc.
  • Spelling Vocabulary Lists will be given every Friday.
  • Geography Terms will be given every Friday.
  • Accelerated Reading Books and/or Self-Selected Reading Books need to be brought home nightly. They also need to be brought back!
  • Students will take notes daily on new concepts taught in Language Arts and math. Examples will also be shown. Parents may ask to see their child’s ELA Comp or Math Comp to review these notes and examples when assisting on an assignment that is unfamiliar to them.
  • Calculators may not be used unless specified in the directions.