Summer Homework: Good? Bad? Ugly?

 Summer Homework: Good? Bad? Ugly?

At the end of my first year of teaching, I was rejoicing that I survived and didn't give summer homework a second thought. Fast forward to the following fall, I was panicking at the amount of review that I had to spend time on because of the regression that took place during the summer. From that point on, I wanted to provide something to combat this summer slide. Here is what I have learned along the way and I would love to hear your ideas as well!

Why should I provide summer homework?

-Even reviewing for a few minutes a week can refresh skills. Some students won't touch the work. Others will make it a strategic part of their summer. Still others will be somewhere in between. In my eyes, even providing practice that only a few students will complete is better than not doing anything at all.

-Believe it or not, students will get bored over the summer. Everyone has extra time over the summer even if it is while sitting on an airplane. By August every year of my childhood, I was itching to learn again. Summer work provides a stable activity that students just might choose to complete when they get the itch.

-Summer work also saves parents time and money. Many parents reach out to me to ask what resources they should buy their children for summer learning. This is often challenging as academic materials can be costly and not exactly aligned with classroom practices. Providing summer work alleviates the pressure on parents to find something that will be useful.

What type of homework should I provide?

-Independent! Summer work should not teach new skills that parents have to fight with their children to learn. Students should be able to open the packet and get to work on their own.

-Familiar. This goes right along with the first item. Students will feel defeated if the work is overly complicated or unfamiliar. Summer work should be review work and it should bolster students' confidence.

-Be strategic. Some studies show that students can lose up to 25% of reading skills during the summer months. Reading, along with other skills, should be prioritized. You cannot review everything that was learned over the school year. Target specific topics that are critical.

-Flexible. Setting a summer homework calendar sets your students up for failure. Kids will go on trips, have long nights out, and adventure their way through the summer. If their homework doesn't fit into that summer picture, then it is ruining a beautiful part of childhood and students and parents will neglect it.

-Reasonable. Do not send home 100 pages of work! Not only will your principal wince at the amount of paper, but so will students! Review all of the expectations before you send the work home and give students the opportunity to peruse the work and ask questions. I also make answer keys available for parents because it is optional work and I want them to have the tools that they need to succeed.

-Enjoyable. Students should be incentivized to complete the work because the work should be meaningful! If the work is just a bore and completely impractical, then students will complain about doing it. Also consider offering a simple incentive for completing the work at the start of the next school year. Even if you don't have students the next year, this can easily be arranged with the next teacher. Additionally, I have sent home work with students who will start in my classroom in the new school year. It is a great way to introduce them to my classroom before they arrive.

What summer work do you assign?

If you would like to see a preview of what I send home with my fifth graders, click here. These are 4th/5th grade skills but they can be applied to other grade levels. All of the activities that I provide follow the same structure as what we use in the classroom.

1. Grammar- I focus on five major topics that I constantly review: 1.) Complete Sentences 2.) Types of Sentences 3.) Compound Sentences 4.) Nouns 5.) Verbs. I provide rules pages to recap usage and grammar rules for each topic. Then, I provide two pages of activities for each topic. These activities also practice reading and writing skills.

2. Phonics- Once again, I focus on five major decoding skills: 1.) Long Vowels 2.) Short Vowels 3.) /oo/ /yoo/ 4.) /ow/ /o/ /oi/ 5.) R-Controlled. I provide rules pages to recap proper pronunciation and then 2-4 engaging practice pages. These are quick, engaging activities that are easy to complete and practice critical reading skills.

3. Writing- My students complete a journal at the beginning of every class. I send home a list of journal prompts for them to continue completing throughout the summer. During the school year, we follow specific parameters for journals that they can continue throughout the summer. For an explanation of our writing program, read here. I provide a list of 100 prompts, but I tell the students to work at their own pace and select the prompts that are meaningful to them. They have the freedom to jump around and skip prompts or to complete them all!