This is the sixth post by FedUp Mom, the mother of a fifth grader. FedUp Mom’s daughter used to attend a public school in suburban Philadelphia, but this year FedUp Mom moved her to a private Quaker school, hoping for a more relaxed environment. You can read her other posts here, here, here, here and here.
I Hate Reading Logs
by FedUp Mom
Every time I think we’ve solved the school problem something comes along to bite me in the rear. This week it’s the dreaded reading log. We found out about it from a letter the teachers sent home:
“Your child will be expected to read every night. We ask that you sign the log each night … We will also check the log regularly, in order to ensure follow through on your child’s part… Please sign the form below and return it to school tomorrow with your child.”
And now, the fun part:
“Thank you for your partnership in your child’s education.” (!)
And how does following the teacher’s directions make me a partner exactly? I feel more like an unpaid employee. Wait a minute — we’re paying them!
There was a little form at the bottom of the letter that said:
“I have read the above letter and agree to help my child by signing his/her log each night.”
I crossed this out and wrote in:
“We trust our daughter to do her reading.”
Then we signed it.
Then we sent the following e-mail to the teacher:
Teacher X: we have chosen not to participate in the reading log. We’ve experienced reading logs before and have these objections:
1.) They turn reading into a chore.
2.) They send a message that we don’t trust (daughter) to do the reading without meddling and micromanaging.
(Daughter) will do the reading she needs to do, but she won’t be logging the pages. Thank you.
I’m hoping that will be the end of it. I’m really tired of conferences and I’m sure we all have better things to do with our time.
Stop Homework 
To FedupMom…that’s just what I was thinking…
To J Tubbs…..Doesn’t that sound like burned out kids to you? And they don’t treat university profs any differently a few years later. I don’t envy your job at all. I would be totally bummed too. We’ve got to stop training young children to work to please adults. We reward efficiency, obedience and conformity…and this is the result:
How much do you want, where and when do you want it and how much do I get paid. Can I leave now?
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I have a few words about reading logs, while we’re on the subject.
You know, when a person goes to see a therapist to try to control or stop a particular unwanted or undesirable behaviour, one of the things a therapist will ask the person to do is to keep a diary or log of what they do so that they pay closer attention to what leads to that behaviour, or simply monitor how often it does happen. It’s a technique designed to stop or change a behaviour.
Guess what?….human beings hate to track their behaviour. The success rates of diaries are very low and the usual pattern is that someone will keep track for a few days or a few weeks and then they abandon it. One of two things happen. The intense self-focus itself causes a change and the monitoring is no longer needed because the behaviour is gone. Or the task becomes oppressive because one is not changing one’s behaviour and who wants to be reminded of continuous errors?
The bottom line…keeping minute track of behaviour causes the behaviour being tracked to either decrease or not change at all. Aside from that, doing it is boring.
So if the goal of reading logs is to monitor reading, the task of monitoring it becomes less and less interesting as time goes by. Kids would be better off not keeping track. What is the point anyway?
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That’s an interesting point. I’ve heard of people on diets keeping “eating logs” the same way. It discourages snacking because it’s such a hassle writing everything down.
So it’s really no surprise that reading logs discourage reading.
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If you think you can do better then you become a teacher. Stop the complaining and change the system.
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Anonymous, we are trying. And I’ve never said teaching is easy. But being a public school parent these days is even harder.
We ARE trying to change the system.Sometimes just one child at a time. Meeting with your teacher and then telling her politely that you’ve read both homework books and studied the research and it only confirms what you already suspect, that homework in elementary is a huge waste of time. As a result, your child will no longer do homework, instead she will read and write novels all afternoon. You the parent will decide what is best for her.
Complaining IS the first step. Anger drives people. Complacency doesn’t change a thing.
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When students don’t get practice at home or during the summer students have difficulity recalling information. Even during the school year because of state mandated standards there is no time for mastery so homework is to practice what was taught during the day. There are parents that do care a lot about thier child’s schooling. Then there are a lot more parents that care but don’t have the time of day to put in any effort towards thier child’s schooling.
Some students after school is done for the year come back becasue there is someone willing to care and teach them. Homework maybe pointless for those who are active in their child’s life but meaning to those who don’t have someone to read to at home.
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Anonymous writes:
When students don’t get practice at home or during the summer students have difficulity recalling information.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I’m not sure what you mean, anonymous. I’ve been one of the most outspoken critics of homework overload on this blog. (and I support ZERO homework in elementary, minimal to none in middle and in high school, I would like an amiable cooperative dialogue, where in a perfect universe, parents, teaches and administrators would work together for the good the CHILD, not the institution and devise a plan whereby every minute is used wisely during the day with study halls built in and homework assigned that makes sense, is utterly necessary once you’ve eliminated the fluff and test prep and endless tests, and keeps strenuously to a limit. If the student goes over the limit, that’s it, she stops. And Harris Cooper says that limit is, AT MOST, two hours. And as the student writes here, not two hours the teacher can do but two hours by student standards, a student who has already put in a very long day, complete with commute, chores, home responsibilities and outside activities, which by the way, college insists she needs, so don’t blame her for wanting a life outside of homework).
You are positing here that homework equals practice. Right there I have to stop you. What I have seen over the years is homework is an extension of the curriculum. Time, for all sorts of reasons, was not used well in school (too much time eaten up by endless quizzes and tests, too much time spent assigning and collecting homework, for example, leaving precious little time to learn and write). It’s not practice.
But let’s say for the sake of argument homework IS practice. But then you are implying that children wouldn’t do anything academic or worthwhile on their own. To you, no homework means no practice, means no learning.
Not in my house. And I venture to guess not in many homes represented here. As I’ve said a thousand times on this blog (newcomers, I know you are busy, but please take the time to read some early premises here), here’s what my daughter did instead of homework. And it breaks my heart to admit I eventually cajoled her to get back to her homework. If only I hadn’t, she might have finished and published that novel in 5th grade. I should have gone with the courage of my convictions and pulled her out to homeschool that year.
In elementary, all my child wanted to do when she came home was read and write. Yes, read and write!
My daughter was perusing my bookshelf one afternoon in 5th grade and out tumbled Wuthering Heights. Intrigued, she picked it up and was spellbound. She didn’t put it down until she was finished. At age 10! When she wasn’t reading, she was writing a novel.
Anonymous, that’s not practice? If not, then what is? Mindless worksheets that were boring and taught her nothing? What about all the things we gave up? Scrabble is not practice? Baking and measuring is not practicing math? Puzzles and leggos don’t hone visual spatial ability? Museums don’t teach history or science? What kind of nonsense do teachers feed us, that without homework our kids’ brains will shrivel up.
Oh, you want her practicing what she learned that day. Why? I can understand practicing piano. You have a once a week lesson. Of course you have to practice! I can understand practicing tennis and swimming. But they were just in school! Fifteen spelling words come home, copy the definitions from the dictionary unto a sheet of paper.
Never mind that my daughter’s brain doesn’t work that way. She learned words through all her reading, that’s how she makes connections. Copying was just a tedious exercise she grew to detest and I worried incessantly that this early reader and writer would lose her love of language arts.
Are you talking practice or are you talking learning? Because let’s be careful here. As long as educators convince us our children need all this home practice, what’s to stop them from mediocre class instruction? After all, they can do nothing all day, send it home, demand it get done, call it practice to guilt mom and dad, and come out smelling (or spelling) like a rose.
For the millionth time I ask, they get paid, we do the work, just who is the greater fool?
P.S. Re-read your sentence. You left out a comma. I’m beginning to wonder just who needs all that practicing here.
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Anonymous, you hit the nail on the head. Aha! So that is why it’s all sent home! You write: “Even during the school year because of state mandated standards there is no time for mastery so homework is to practice what was taught during the day. ”
Code: we didn’t get it done during the day, so you do it at night. THAT’S the reason. It’s not practice! It’s survival for the teacher. Without homework, NO evidence of learning and tangible accomplishments could ever be proved!
My daughter was in a gifted/talented center in 7th grade. I remember the chutzpah of the science teacher. Well, at least she was honest, gotta hand her that.
As stated, it was 7th grade. The following year was the BIG testing year. End of 8th grade, there was going to be a state mandated writing essay. Ooooh, scary, huh? Oh, no, our students will have to write, we’ll be judged, oh, me, oh, my, what shall we do?
School must have been scared straight. Because they began doing practice tests for the practice tests (I kid you not) and then a slew of practice tests all year which I presume continued into 8th grade but we didn’t stick around long enough to find out how school keeps inventing more and more ways to waste my child’s education.
Well, one school day began with a practice writing exam (my daughter slept in. I decided that was a far more meaningful use of her time. She has a documented sleep insomnia, difficulty falling asleep). The practice test gobbled up two hours of the school day. Instead of just going straight to period three, the school decided to run the entire schedule (it was not block, every subject every day). It was a truncated version so each class ran about ten minutes. Gee, a lot of learning must have happened that day.
Here’s what the science teacher posted on Blackboard that afternoon: The state tests took up thirty minutes of our class time so please do all the work at home. She then asked the kids to download the worksheets and even begin a science experiment at home.
I was LIVID. Four years later, I still am. The tests ate up my class period, teacher implies. I have a curriculum to meet, sorry, family, I’m sending it home. I never asked for these tests in the first place. It’s a democracy but was it put out on a voting referendum? Did you get a say? Me neither. But the school does it anyway. It’s not enough they brazenly waste my daughter’s precious school time, but now they insist the family has to make up the difference. That incident alone was proof positive it was time to homeschool because as I saw it, the only place left to get a decent education was at home.
I’m not a radical. I’m a normal mother who adores her child and wants her to learn and be inspired and who just had enough. I’m happy to engage in a sincere committed dialogue with teachers, principals, central staff, school board. But when, where? No one has ever asked my opinion. Only my effort.
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Question to the general readership of the site:
Seems like we get relatively few teachers commenting on this site from what I’ve seen so far. My dad is an elementary school science teacher currently, was a college english teacher, and works at the K-8th school I attended. He’s in the middle of writing evaluations right now (no grades–YES!!!) so he’s super busy (think like 500+ thoughtful, considered words for every kid in 3 or 4 grades!) HOWEVER, I might be able to get him to come onto this site and talk about stuff from a teacher’s (and a parent’s) perspective. Maybe even I could get him to write a post…Anyway, this would have to be in a few weeks once he’s done with his evals, but do y’all think that if I could get him to do it that it would be interesting/informative/useful?
P.S. sorry about your classes Johnny Tubbs, just know we’re not all like that and we all didn’t USE to be like that…
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Like I said you are parents that care a lot and have time to do this. I wish there were more parents like those that are writing would be more involved, however there are more parents that have to worry more about paying bills rather than education.
And please don’t even think about talking about the way one writes because if you do look back at other blogs there are huge mistakes, but I don’t see you saying anything about those that support your views.
There are students in upper grades that don’t know their times tables and that should have been mastered in 3rd grade. Teaching goes both ways home and school. But not all are like you that can homeschool their child others have to support families on very little.
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Dear High School Soph–oh wait I’m a junior:
I hope your dad does take a look at the information on stophomework.com and he’s welcome to submit a guest blog entry. If you take a look at the category “Teachers Speak Out,” you’ll see that teachers and administrators do visit and comment. And, in fact, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t hear from at least one teacher or school board member or principal. Most educators are deeply concerned about too much homework, standardized testing, bad (and best) practices, etc.
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As a teacher, I believe in homework to reenforce concepts learned in school. For project based learning, students need to break projects into smaller units, which should be done outside of class with a degree of independence.
As for reading logs, they should not be concerned with the number of pages or other trivial things. Rather it should be a reflective journal of the readers’ reaction to the thing/s being read.
Too many of our children are not reading. Currently, I am teaching a high school class of juniors and seniors who proudly announce, “I don’t read” and have not read one entire book outside the confines of a classroom. So I ask what are teachers to do?
Homework, yes, play, yes, project, yes.
I don’t expect parents to do my job, but I also don’t expect them to undermine me when I give an assignment. Let’s talk before we disagree.
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Linda (above)–I too do not know what teachers are to do when there are some students who don’t read, but the Book Whisperer (linked by Sarah on this site) and many other literacy experts do.
What are teachers to do about some parents who don’t support education? Isn’t this a societal issue?
Such students and their families are everywhere, among those who are privileged and those who are not.
I do know, as a parent, that clamping down by giving all students one-size-fits-all out-of-school assignments is not the answer.
I’m no education expert, but it’s become crystal clear to me that I cannot stand by and watch the love of learning driven out of my children by deadening projects, mind-numbing reading logs and inane AR quizzes.
There are other, more thoughtful and meaningful approaches to reaching non-readers.
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To Linda the Teacher
I can sense your frustration, but I gotta ask….what on earth do reading logs have to do with learning to read? Think of the task you’re suggesting and apply it to yourself for the next pleasure book you pick up. Do you want to summarize your thoughts on paper about every chapter? It’d be like getting on a train and being required to get off at every stop and reporting to the conductor about how you liked the last leg of the trip. It’s tedious, nobody cares and it takes all the fun out of the trip.
If we treat kids like this it is no surprise that you have juniors and seniors sitting in front of you saying they don’t read. It’s supposed to be fun!!!!
Yes, it’s a life skill in North American society, but it MUST start out as a pleasureable activity or else kids won’t do it.
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Isn’t it funny how all the parents on this post are engaged in their child’s education, looking for infomation to better their child’s experience or even on the computer reading about reading logs and commenting on them.
Guess what? Like many other rules, laws, societal customs and procedures, reading logs were born from a need or basic problem. Why do we have DUI laws? Because people were not drinking reponsibly. Reading logs were thought up not because teachers love checking minutea, trust me we have plenty of other things to worry about, but because there is a majority of students or parents who do not engage in literate behavior at home. So the result, is everyone has to pay. Reading logs are not evil. As a mom, I don’t love filling them out but my sons have learned that they are responsible and just like lunch duty or bus duty, or laundry or paying our bills, it’s a part of life. Your children will not benefit from you telling them they will not have to fill out the log. This will only undermine the teacher and give your child a sense that procedures do not need to be followed if they are too tedious.
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Anonymous — the point is exactly that I don’t want my kids to view reading in the same light as doing the laundry. Doing laundry is a chore. Reading is a pleasure.
As for the DUI analogy, suppose the police came to your house and said, “Your next-door neighbor got caught DUI. Therefore we are revoking your driver’s license.” That’s what you’re telling me about reading logs. “Somebody else’s kids never read. Therefore your kid has to fill out a reading log.” Huh?
And actually, my child did benefit when I told her not to do the log. The follow-up conversation I had with the teachers resulted in them getting rid of mandatory logs for everyone. Of course, this is at a private school where teachers are much more likely to listen to a parent’s complaints.
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Good luck to all of the parents out there who enable their children to not follow the rules. When they are 25 and didn’t feel it necessary to follow the law, you can pay for their lawyer fees or visit them in jail.
I am a teacher and have assigned reading logs in the past. I got on here to see what others thought and felt about them. I do agree that it isn’t fair to those who love to read and do it no matter what…I am leaning towards not assigning them this year.
What concerns me is the entitlement attitude in society today. I don’t like this…therefore I won’t do it and I am going to tell my 8 year old child they don’t have to do it. It is ok to disrespect the adults in his or her life…as long as it isn’t mom or dad.
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Anonymous — do you really think my child will be in jail at age 25 because I got her out of doing a reading log at age 11? That’s quite a stretch.
My daughter’s education is supposed to benefit her. If an assignment comes home that I know would be bad for her, by causing her to dislike reading and creating stress in our home, there’s nothing “disrespectful” about me speaking up.
I think it would be more disrespectful to just fake the log, which is actually an easier and more popular solution. But if I speak up, I can have a real partnership with the teachers, and make changes that benefit all the kids.
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I totally agree with speaking up to benefit your child. I would do the same for my child. All I am saying is that in our society today, there is such disrespect for not just teachers, but adults and authority of any type. This is a general statement, not directed specifically to you, kids need to learn that life is not always going to be perfect and we don’t always get what we want. If we are continually making excuses for them not to do something, how do they learn the life lesson that sometimes there are certain things we just have to do not because we like it, but because it is the rule or the law.
I look at this issue as a much broader topic, I believe. I am looking at it like we need to follow the rules, if that rule has been implemented by the people in charge. Yes, there can be discussion, but in the meantime we follow the rule rather than disregard it and disrespect the process in which it became a “rule.”
There are many things I have changed in my teaching as my children have gone through school, that as a parent, I now see it differently, but to blast teachers who get up everyday to go to work and their passion is to make other children’s lives better is just another reason our education system is such a mess. I don’t know one teacher who enjoys being told over and over again that you are not good enough or you didn’t do enough or all you are doing is ruining my child’s life.
At some point teachers are going to have to be treated like professionals. We work hard, have gone to college, continue to take classes to renew our licenses, yet we are placed in the lowest tier of usefulness. We are the experts when it comes to teaching and running a classroom.
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Anonymous — I think we can agree that we need a mutually respectful, supportive relationship between teachers and parents. This is a goal we can all work towards. I understand that teaching is a difficult, demanding, usually unappreciated job (hmm … sounds like parenting!)
“We need to follow the rules, if that rule has been implemented by the people in charge.” Here I think we’re getting to a real difference in philosophy. I have noticed that many of the people who go into teaching have an authoritarian approach — they’re in charge, they give the orders, and anybody who questions what they’re doing gets tagged as disrespectful.
That’s not my approach or my philosophy. I think rules should be questioned, especially in the context of school, where, again, I would like to stress that it’s about the child’s education. What I’ve seen many times in school is that the goal of making the children obey the rules becomes the whole focus of school life.
In the context of homework, some people think that obedience is more important than learning. I just don’t agree with this. If homework doesn’t help my child learn, I’m not going to make her do it just so she can have the experience of being made to do something. If I’m going to make my child do something, it has to be something I believe is worth doing.
A final thought. You are a teacher, you want to be in command of your classroom. I’m a mother, I want to be in command of my home life. If a teacher assigns homework that interferes with my family life, that’s disrespecting my authority.
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I will concede to your last comment. I just hope you don’t disagree with what I do IN the classroom because that is where I am in control.
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Whoa! That last two comments say it all. It’s about CONTROL. Control, coercion, whichever term you choose to use, does not facilitate learning….whether the learning takes place at home or in school.
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You know, I completely agree with you. I don’t like to use the argument about how I should be in control of my home life, but it seems to be the only argument that works sometimes.
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Yes, I’m a teacher, too, and I have to comment here. Firstly, there are idiot teachers as well as idiot parents. Just as some parents use bribery and extrinsic rewards to get their kids to do something, some teachers assign “busy work” that has no real educational value. I think both acts may be initially to preserve adult sanity(and we all know sometimes that’s just necessary), but they can quickly descend into a terrible habit. Ultimately adults end up with a selfish, rewards-oriented kid who hasn’t learned anything. I see a lot of those.
My students have lots of choices in terms of reading in the classroom. I have a vast personal library from which they may choose a book. If they don’t like a book they’ve chosen, they can exchange it. During the reading period they may sit anywhere they like (even lie on on the floor…provided they are reading and not napping). We have lively discussions that promote deeper thinking about the material.
This is all designed to grow and love for reading AND to improve skill. But not every child is a natural or voracious reader, and not every parent is supportive and willing to hold a child accountable for homework, or anything. In my mind, reading (and other curriculum areas) must not be something that is associated only with school. It’s important that students see these skills and concepts are important outside the classroom, too. So, my students may read newspapers and magazines during their 20 minutes of home reading. The idea is that with enough choices, skill building, and support, reading is not a “chore.” The log is also an exercise in accountability, which is an important concept to internalize in fourth grade. It’s necessary for survival in society.
I assign homework prudently, but it always includes 20 minutes each of reading and writing. Again, the subject of the reading and writing is the student’s choice.
I should also add here that a child who reads a lot and reads “fluently” is not necessarily comprehending the material in equal quantity. I’ve had kids who can read aloud perfectly books that are way above grade level. But ask them a few key comprehension questions (especially those that demand an inference), and they can’t do it. My reading homework assignments include prompts to get students to question, infer, evaluate and yes, predict. All of these skills get a kid to have a dialog with his or her book. That is conscious reading.
HomeworkBlues says,
“For the millionth time I ask, they get paid, we do the work, just who is the greater fool?”
I find that really disturbing. Do you mean that you plan and implement units, lessons, and assessments in SEVEN content areas? Do you critically review all the district-sanctioned materials and decide where their failures are, and how you’re going to make up for them? Do you make dull material engaging by inventing games, songs, projects and activities? Or do you completely depart from the text, and research, plan, and deliver material from scratch (meaning nada, nothing, only your own brain), and do you complete this on your own time (i.e., weekends and nights in your classroom), because God knows you have absolutely no time to during the school day to do it? Do you decide how to parse ridiculously dense material so that it is comprehensible to a ten year old? Are you given a newly adopted math text (with five distinct teacher manuals) and told to implement it in 36 hours? Do you move charts and student work on and off the walls in your classroom daily, not to make it pretty, but so that students have concept summaries they can refer to, and can take pride in their work?
Do you manage three kids with ADHD, two with speech and language difficulties, two with vision problems, among your 30? And are you compelled by law to make certain accomodations so that they receive equal access to their education? Oh, and don’t forget the four others with behavior problems for which they have no excuse.
Are you mandated by your district to administer state PRACTICE tests four times per year, before the actual state tests? Do you fight the district tooth and nail in order to eliminate them because they serve only to stress and frighten your students? Still, does your job security hinge, not on several assessments throughout the year (via projects, presentations, written assignments, and other means that address different learning syltes), or a single, lengthy test two months BEFORE the end of the teaching year?
I am relatively new to the profession (4 years), and am in my forties. There is no way I could have entered in my twenties, as most do. It is overwhelming, and if you haven’t experienced some bumps and bruises and just plain mileage beforehand, you’re going to be exhausted, disappointed, and close to out of your mind. I quote the NY Times: “The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future has calculated that nearly a third of all new teachers leave the profession after just three years, and that after five years almost half are gone.”
It is a very difficult job, and so the suggestion that parents are doing the work and teachers are just getting paid is so far off the mark, it isn’t even funny. It is ignorant and, ironically, the very thing that dedicated, talented teachers are trying to get their students to overcome everyday.
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The private school that both my kids will be attending for their second year has as its motto, “Learning with Joy.” They don’t always live up to it, but at least it’s understood as their goal.
When I read these messages from teachers, I am struck by what a joyless enterprise school has become.
When you say, “my kids choose what books they want to read … we have lively discussions”, I’m thinking “Great!” That’s just what I would want for my kids.
And then you start discussing homework, and our paths diverge.
When you assign 20 minutes of reading plus 20 minutes of writing for a 4th-grader to do at home, do you understand that you are dictating the entire home life of a child with two working parents? Many kids don’t even get home till 6:00. Then they need dinner and a bath, and it’s not unusual for a 4th-grader to be in bed at 8:00. Where does your 40 minutes fit in to this scenario?
“Not every parent is willing to hold her child accountable for homework?” You bet your sweet nelly we’re not, and for good reasons. If we can see that the homework has no effect but to make our child hate learning, why should we force the child to do it?
“The log is an exercise in accountability.” I don’t see any value in making a child “account” for her reading. The more a child feels that school is a series of hoops that she has to jump through, the less actual learning goes on. The more aware she is of the teacher (or her own parents!) looking over her shoulder, demanding an account, passing a judgement, the less willing she will be to engage in real learning for its own sake.
Your description of the hard work you do as a teacher is a terrific advertisement for homeschooling. So much of your energy goes into controlling classroom behavior and trying to fend off clueless buerocrats. How much energy is left over to inspire our kids?
When you have kids who read aloud fluently but then can’t answer comprehension questions, you need to remember that reading aloud for a teacher is a pressured situation. It’s not at all the same as reading to yourself. I expect my comprehension goes down when I read aloud too. Also, a child doesn’t have to understand every word of what she’s reading to get something out of it. When I was a kid, I was constantly reading stuff that went way over my head. It gave me something to strive for.
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“Reading must not be something that is associated only with school.” Okay, I agree with you. But when you send home reading assignments, writing prompts, and reading logs, you’re not sending the message that reading happens outside of school.
Instead, you’re sending the message that school is everywhere. Home becomes an annex of school. The child’s parents become the teacher’s unpaid assistants, enforcing the teacher’s demands. The bottom-line message is that reading can only happen within the school context, which has now engulfed the home as well.
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No question that teaching is a difficult job…the challenges that face public school teachers are large, but I still don’t see why reading homework is required in such a regimented way. Who says 20 minutes does any good? Why not 10, why not 15, why not 22 minutes? It’s so arbitrary. And yes, I agree with FedUpMom in that the working family who gets home between 5:30 and 6pm, with children under 12, does not have 20 minutes, let alone 40 for homework. Where is the child supposed to get the brain power to do a regimented task? Where is the parent supposed to get the where-with-all to make them sit down and do it?
Don’t teachers get any information during their education process about normal growth and development of children?
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Aaaahhhhh, reading logs!
I’m sad that so many posts are blaming teachers. Has it not occurred to anyone that teachers hardly get to decide anymore what they give for homework, how they teach, and what they cover? I teach 5th grade and am basically told exactly what content I will teach, the methods I will use to teach it, and a rigid pacing guide outlining exactly when it will be taught.
Teachers didn’t invent reading logs to punish students or parents. Reading Logs and homework are often dictated by school administrators who are following state and district mandates (trying to meet federal standards to receive education funding). One of our reading standards says students should read a certain number of books. (Researchers determined that to be “good readers” students need to read at least a million words a year which winds up being about 25 books for fluent readers.)
Working with parents who refuse to sign their child’s homework is but one small annoyance in a long list of job hazards and obstacles that teachers agree to put up with, simply because they love teaching your children.
For some perspective on the villainous teacher theme accruing in previous posts…As a teacher, I get paid to work 36 hours a week, but typically put in an extra 15 to 20, free of charge. I spend this extra volunteer work time on the following: grading your child’s papers, planning interesting lessons which can be integrated into the framework of lessons I’m required to teach, and keeping up with documentation and accountability issues, such as communicating with parents. I also am given $100 at the beginning of the school year to purchase classroom necessities, but typically spend an additional $1000 of my own money per school year.
For the record, I HATE homework. assigning it, collecting it, grading it. However, as a teacher, I don’t get to choose. I am required by my school to assign certain things, one of which is reading and logging books at home. Our school does it because it is a district expectation. Our district does it because it is a state standard. It is a state standard because our state relies on federal funding for education.
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So, you’re basically downloading your stress and saying…”look, I have to suffer with this system so you and your kids do too”…..
If you don’t believe in it..why do you keep pushing it? Why do you argue with the parents who don’t sign reading logs? Carry on without it, or sign it for them if someone’s signature is sooooooo necessary.
And it rots my socks when I hear about the extra money teachers pitch in every year…I’m sure that $1000 bucks is low balling it for most teachers. I know, I know…you love the kids but this is ridiculous. I don’t want you to spend 1000 of your own money…I want the school system to do it’s job. How can you feel good about your job when you have to spend extra hours and your own money to do it? And if teachers keep propping up this system, how will it ever change?
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I find it incredibly sad that teachers posting here do not feel they are able to speak up when they believe something is wrong with the instructions/standards handed down to them. The argument seems to come down to: “We are just following orders.” Parents are speaking up because we see the negative effects on our children, and we are compelled to say “This is wrong.”
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How is it “teacher-bashing” for a parent to complain about something the teacher hates too? We’re all on the same side here! If the teachers hate assigning and collecting homework, and the parents hate enforcing it at home, and we all know the kids hate hate hate having to do it, why is it still going on?
If the district is handing down requirements, just find a way to fake them out. I guarantee you that a high proportion of the homework you’re collecting is fake already.
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Yes, Fedup Mom, you are right about that..all the busy work amounts to a hill of beans….This is all a sham and a shame. And what a complete waste of time.
I’m reading and re-reading “The Element” by Ken Robinson this summer. It’s keeping my strength up.
I had a conversation with another Mom recently about the homework issue and missing school for family trips etc…and off the top of my head I said, “Didn’t you know?..The less time kids spend in school, the better they do?” But isn’t it true? Getting the kids out of school, and into experiences, field trips, community involvement is far better for them than most classrooms. I’m beginning to think that the whole idea of education in North America has been corrupted.
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On the problems with schools, I highly recommend The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need–And What We Can Do About It.
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I am truly disappointed that the post here generalize the uselessness of reading logs. I give homework to my students and I give them a reading log. I teach in a Title 1 school. For those of you who do not know what that means, it’s simply this: Any Title 1 school has a student population of 35% or more children that are at or below the poverty level. The school where I teach has a poverty population so high that EVERYONE is recieving a free breakfast/lunch. How does this relate to homework and readling logs? Simply put, so many of our children’s parents don’t know what they should be doing at home to help them get the extra practice they need to be successful. I give my students rewards for successful completion of their logs and we even have time in the classroom to share information about the books they read. Being a mother of 2 boys, I know how hard parents work at home with their kids on homework. Those of you who feel it is only a teacher’s job to create learners should feel ashamed. You are the parent’s that make it harder for teacher’s do their job. It is everyone’s responsiblity to make sure our children are learning and developing good habits and learning about responsibility.
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Disappointed Teacher:
What do you respond to your fellow teachers who have dumped reading logs?
Are they negligent too? I think they have recognized that reading logs do nothing to enhance reading ability and that there are probably 100 other ways to reinforce responsible behaviour. Clocking in and clocking out on reading is a waste of time if you want to grow a love of reading.
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It’s moms like fed-up that our messing with our educational system.. Why should the entire education of your child rest with the teacher?….You think we do it for the money; you pay your babysitters better! What’s the big deal with having to initial your child’s log? Wouldn’t it be nice if you actually inquired about what they were reading and had a conversation with them while you did it? Finally, wouldn’t it be perfect if the children could see that their folks and teachers were on the same page and wanted the best for them…an EDUCATION!!!
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And with regard to your comment about it being “only a teacher’s job to create a learner”, I’m bringing you a learner everyday. I would like to think that she comes home one too, not some mindless, obedient, “ticking all the boxes cuz the teacher said we have to” kind of child.
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Fell across this website and don’t have time to read all the responses but did read the first 25. I totally understand the drive for no homework. I give NO HOMEWORK and am a middle school language arts teacher. We do our work in class in a variety of ways. The only homework they have is to read on a daily basis self-selected novels. I dont hold them to a certain reading level either – some teachers do and there are pros and cons. I don’t do reading logs or make students take AR (accelarated reader) tests because I’m not sure they prove that the student read. You can fake those forms and pass those tests without reading a single thing. Instead I give them 10 choices (such as book talks to the class, or other little projects) to show they’ve read the book and give them a chance to talk about it. I’m curious how you would all feel about that? I’m not sure 1st graders could do that, but middle school definitely!
I’m not sure where i”m going with this, but I would like to ask everyone not to be so harsh on the teachers. I can tell you from my perspective at my school, WE are held ACCOUNTABLE for everything these kids do and we are often asked to prove to higher ups that these kids have been reading and as lame as it is those reading logs appease them. I’m the kind of teacher who would argue the nonsense, but there is a lot of pressure from local school officials and up through the government to provide evidence and back everything up with paper trails and often things like reading logs are mandated by those who really don’t know any better. So just consider being a bit nicer to the teachers who are often stuck in the middle too and many parents play no role in their students’ lives, so they may be trying to force parents to be a bit involved (although not in a fun or exciting way so I doubt it would do any good).
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Thanks to “a teacher”…
It’s been said countless times in many places in this site, for the most part, the parents writing here do take very measured, reasonable approaches to teachers. The harshness is a result of frustration, when having it said 5 ways nicely and being ignored, gets you nowhere.
It’s hopeful to hear from teachers like you. I’d still like to know what Robyn and Disappointed teacher from their posts above would respond to your treatment of homework. And why can you “get away with” giving no homework when so many teachers say “I have no choice”? It’s the disparity that boggles my mind. I think it has a lot to do with the strength of the teacher and confidence in their own abilities. Am I wrong?
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I do agree that it has a lot to do with the strength and confidence of the teacher. Not necessarily years of experience. Some schools really don’t give you a choice on the surface, but if you can prove with research that your method works then they can’t say no. Many teachers can accept school has changed.
I have friends who teach at other schools, in other districts, and in other states and I can tell that not all schools have the same policies. My school is going to giving “I” for incomplete instead of zeroes – not sure how that will work at the end if the I’s haven’t been completed still. I think homework is ok if it is limited and it is not teaching a new topic – if given it should reinforce what was taught in class that day. Maybe 5 problems to practice the math concept, etc. I just find in English most homework we’d give besides to read could just be done in class.
I think there does need to be some meaningful homework and not necessarily every night or in every class. I think it teaches responsibility and that school and learning continues on beyond school hours, but it’s out of control how much is expected of just Kindergarten students now! Much of that is mandated from the state and in regards to pressure to “pass” the tests they’ll be taking in a few years. Kids need to be kids too!! I was a former Drama teachers and due to cut backs have to go back to English, but my plan is to make it as enriching as possible and expand their minds and make them interested in learning again after years and years of work
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Thank you A Teacher for acknowledging what most of us parents are recognizing and trying to change. We say we value children in North American society but I don’t see much proof of it. For the most part, children are viewed as small adults but their needs and abilities are very different. Society seems to want children to grow up fast, so we don’t have to pay others to care for them, and so they can get out and make money themselves. As if that’s the whole point of life and education. All of it is lined with a belief that more is better and the faster the better…and for small children, in most cases, exactly the opposite is true.
Education should be about enhancement of one’s life, of figuring out who you are and where you fit in the Big Puzzle. The kids are not learning to read because it’s a state or provincial requirement. They are learning to read for the love of reading and being offered the chance to explore worlds that they otherwise wouldn’t see if they couldn’t read. That’s how you make education fun and exciting. We need to bring wonder back.
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PsychMom,
I just wanted to comment on your statement, “They are learning to read for the love of reading and being offered the chance to explore worlds that they otherwise wouldn’t see if they couldn’t read.”
I wish, with all my heart, that that statement was 100% true. However, children explore worlds through the internet, TV, and movies. Technology is a wonderful thing, however it has taken over the written word. It used to be that our mind was the best TV you could have. Now, we have other ‘creative minds’ that show us how it looks, feels, etc…
We do need to bring wonder back. I wish I knew how…
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Wow. Earlier, I peeked at the last few posts, just out of curiosity. Then, my curiosity peeked, and I read many, many more.
Frankly, I am surprised that there are any teachers left in the profession after reading some parent’s posts. I am a teacher, and I would love to respond in an unprofessional manner, but then I realized that we’re not looked upon as professionals, so would my comments matter?
So, I figured, why not? So here it goes…
I was appalled at one parent’s blatent defiance of her child’s teacher’s policies. Teachers work so very hard to try and please everyone-by everyone I refer to students, parents, community, districts, superintendents, principals, co-workers, state board of education…shall I name more?
We are not perfect. We also have our own lives and families. We do not want to spend hours commenting on every homework assignment every night! I have another FULL time job, plus I waitress on the weekends just so I can survive, in addition to my main job…teaching your children. So, in the midst of my jobs, I am planning lessons according to the state standards, making them fun and exciting for your children, and preparing my defense for the battle of me vs. parents when you aren’t happy with me and all my hard work.
Please, tell me where you work so I may come into your office and criticize your every move, and all your effort you put into your job. You’ll love it, I promise. It’s the best feeling when your passion for your job is reduced to nothing.
Am I angry? You bet. Get your teaching degree. Teach for one year, then tell me how you feel about the educational process.
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I am just sick about these comments. Some of us teachers DO try to fight the system-then we’re labeled “troublemakers.”
I have parents who would have my head on a platter if I didn’t give daily homework. I have students who, if I didn’t assign work that evening,said, “But I’ll have nothing to do tonight…I’ll be bored or have to watch my brother/sister!”
I’m done, HomeworkBlues, FedUpMom, and the others who hate teachers and the system. Yes, you are making changes, but I wonder if these changes you are forcing are for the betterment of mankind or are just making future adults even more stubborn and selfish than they are now. You win. Are you happy now? You made one more teacher who used to love her life- despite the difficulties- into one who now hates her job.
Oh, did you notice that I had written LIFE instead of job…well, that was until you ruined it. I’ll get over it, though, because the children mean more to me than anything. You? Well, I’ll be respectful to you because I was raised to be that way. But…I don’t have to like you. You don’t have to like me, either-but, wait a minute…oh, that’s right, you already don’t like me. You stereotyped me with the ALL the teachers-the good and the bad.
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Illinois teacher — if you’ve got some parents demanding homework, and others refusing to do it, here’s a radical thought — how about letting the parents decide what works for their family?
At the beginning of the year, you could send a letter to the parents stating that the most educational activity their child could possibly do at home is read (this is backed up by numerous studies.) Then you could send home a suggested reading list, making it clear that this is just a jumping-off point for those who would like some suggestions. You could offer to send home math worksheets for parents who are interested in doing these with their children.
Think of how much time and aggravation this would save! You wouldn’t have to deal with us parents and our “blatant defiance”. That’s an amazing description — think of the premises that underlie it.
Premise 1.) Teachers have the absolute right to tell parents what to do in their own homes with their own children.
Premise 2.) Any refusal on the part of parents is an attack on the teacher.
“Please, tell me where you work so I may come into your office and criticize your every move, and all your effort you put into your job.”
You know, I don’t need to tell you where I work so you can criticize me. You already know! In my role as parent, I work at home. You are already trying to boss me around and tell me what to do with my child, and you are already criticizing my every move, and all the effort I put into my job. If I complain that your demands are unreasonable, you think I’m “blatantly defiant.” If I say that homework is taking up too much of my child’s time, you say it’s my fault that I signed her up for gymnastics. If I say that the homework is tedious and causes my child to hate learning, you tell me to suck it up because life is painful and unpleasant and the sooner my child understands this, the better.
Honestly, homeschooling is looking better all the time …
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Illinois Teacher, I have to respond to some of your comments:
“but then I realized that we’re not looked upon as professionals” – I used to view teachers as professionals until I had kids in school and realized just how few teachers have any passion or curiousity for their area of expertise or ability to actually engage children. Several times I’ve had to correct information taught by teachers that was 10-20 years out of date. One of my kids has attempted to refute incorrect information (“Everyone needs 8 glasses of water a day!”) and been rudely shot down. So many classes are considered boring by my kids, yet engaging teachers can make even the unlikeliest of classes fascinating. So yes, I no longer view most teachers as professionals.
“We do not want to spend hours commenting on every homework assignment every night!” – that’s exactly the point parents here are trying to make. We don’t want our kids to be doing hours of homework every night. We don’t want to be stuck teaching every night when assignments come home that weren’t taught in school.
“Please, tell me where you work so I may come into your office and criticize your every move” – There’s a critical difference here that you’re missing. 1) I am my child’s parent and it is my responsibility to ensure that he is prepared for adult life and 2) I pay an enormous amount of money in taxes that goes to pay your salary.
For what it’s worth, I complain to the administration about their idiocies, too. It isn’t just teachers that are being picked on and I recognize the difference between problems in the classroom caused by poor administration or misguided state/federal laws. I don’t direct those issues to the teacher, but I will not hesitate to talk to the teacher about problems that are within the teacher’s control.
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To Illinois Teacher:
If kids are so video-ized, why insist on reading logs then…..why are we still trying to teach them to read? I don’t understand your disillisioned comment when reading is the primary thing we’re all trying to get kids to do in the first three years of school. Isn’t it your job to try to make learning as interesting as possible?
I agree that it’s a parent’s job to regulate video screen time and many parents aren’t vigilant. But I’ve walked into my daughter’s daycare when she was 3 and 4 and seen 16 children transfixed on the teacher reading a book to them. I’ve walked into my child’s Grade 2 classroom at 9:10 AM and seen 15 kids focussed, eyes front, on the teacher in front of them. They also can do that at 2:30pm. The “wonder” might be harder to create, but it can be created. Stop listening to the people who don’t know your kids, teacher! Take your classroom back and be the expert in your classroom.
You can’t control what goes on in your kids’ lives after the kids leave your classroom at 3:15…stop trying to and spend your energy on what goes on between 9 and 3.
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Matthew-
In regards to your comment, “I pay an enormous amount of money in taxes to pay your salary,” I have to respectfully disagree.
I teach in a parochial school where we get NO support from the state. So, your taxes do not pay my salary-at all. So don’t worry about your precious tax dollars being used for my salary.
It seems that any comment made by me or any other teacher trying to defend themselves will be blatently shot down because you, the parents, are ALWAYS correct and have to have it your way. Some of us teachers already know that your child NEVER misbehaves or instigates bullying to another child. I know, I know…YOUR child is perfect. Forgive me.
Until you become a teacher, and attempt to understand what is expected of you in that role, there is no reason to continue this excruciatingly hurtful exchange. You are not willing to see my point of view, while I have read and taken in yours.
Not all teachers are mindless robots. Some of us truly care about OUR children, and I say OUR children because they are in my care and influence for 6 hours of the day. I do what I can for those children in the same way I do for mine…And you don’t know my homework policy or if I even have a reading log. You just jumped down my throat.
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Dear FedUpMom,
I will concede to one point-and that is being a parent, a stay-at-home parent, is a very taxing job. I have high respect for stay-at-home moms/dads. Parenting is a job, and like teaching, welcomes criticism at all points.
Am I criticizing you? Probably, because the tone of your comments are resoundingly aggressive and negative. I know I am definitely defensive.
Are you criticizing me? A loud, resounding YES!
I’m sorry you had to deal with less than stellar teachers. They do exist. I see them at my school. But you know what? I see them, and observe what I think they are doing wrong, and eliminate those qualities in my own classroom (if I do them).
No one is perfect, and if one was, they would be up on a cross with nails pounded into their hands and feet.
If you want to create better teachers, then you should evaluate what the curriculum is for education majors in college. Don’t criticize us. And if you are still unsatisfied, by all means, homeschool your child. Maybe then the teacher you do not like can get off of his/her anti-anxiety medicine and begin to enjoy teaching once again.
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By the way, I do not do reading logs. I do trust my students to read on their own. They do have to complete small projects highlighting key concepts, but my students enjoy them.
If a student doesn’t complete their work, then they don’t get credit. Simple enough?
Homework? Easy…my students finish whatever work they didn’t finish throughout the day, plus an extention assignment that ties the lesson to real, everyday life.
I have a great time with my students-they are my ‘adopted’ children for the day. We have fun exploring and talking and learning.
I do not agree with some of my fellow teacher’s pedagogies…but I do agree with mine. Trust me, I read professional journals and books. I go to seminars that show me how to be a better teacher. I pick and choose the information presented that will benefit my students.
I’m proud of my classroom, and many of my school parents would vouch for me in a heartbeat. The letters that they send to me and my principal affirm that.
God bless all parents-even though I find it extremely difficult to include those who don’t respect me. God blessed me with a special gift, and I use it appropriately and in his name.
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