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Recommendations of the K-4 Homework Committee for Pilot Implementation
in the 2012-2013 School Year
1. Homework should be relevant to classroom activities and student goals.
2. Homework is intended to be an independent activity for children, to help build student responsibility in addition to extending classroom learning.
3. Homework should never be punitive in nature.
4. All students should be encouraged to read outside of school in their free time. However, since a goal of our workshop model is to create lifelong readers, any reading assigned as homework should apply skills and strategies taught in school.
5. The amount of daily assigned homework should not exceed the grade level times ten minutes in all subjects combined. For example, in third grade, it would be 3 x 10 = 30 minutes, total. Parents should communicate with teachers if this guideline is repeatedly exceeded.
6. Teachers may or may not assign homework on a given night.
7. Weekend and holiday homework assignments should be avoided whenever possible. Homework should not be given on religious or cultural holidays as listed on the Board approved calendar.
8. Parents who want additional homework for their children beyond these guidelines may supplement school assignments on their own. MTSD also provides web based learning tools for students, Compass Learning and Raz-Kids that are available to all students in grades K-4 free-of-charge.
9. These homework guidelines will be communicated to parents at the start of the school year.