Everyone knows that kids always have homework, they go to school to learn, and they come home and study some more. But how much homework do our students at WHS really get? And what core classes do the majority of this homework come from? Homework has a reputation of being annoying and unnecessary, but what is needed vs what is excessive homework making it hard to balance school, homework, and free time?
Survey amount of time spent on homework
To figure out what classes take the most time for homework and how much time it takes in general 20 random students grades 9-12 took a survey asking how long they spend on homework each night, and what classes that most of the homework comes from.
In the survey we see that most students get the most of their homework from history classes and English, this is due to the amount of reading textbooks and books that is required for the class. Ms.Mcillmoyle, an English teacher at WHS, explains how reading homework can take closer to an hour, and a lot of the homework for English is a mixture of reading and writing. This can definitely explain why these classes have more homework with the reading that is needed for all history and English classes. And most students have two hours of homework every night so this could take most of the time reading the information that usually there wouldn’t be time in class to read.
Differences of classes and Student perspective
Mila Gefroh, a sophomore at WHS, said “Honestly it depends on the night but mainly because of math and chemistry I do 2-3 hours of homework a night.” She explained that she is taking accelerated algebra two, enriched chemistry, Personal Financial Management and Honors English 10 . Out of these classes Mila is definitely taking more advanced classes that seem to give her a larger load of homework that is made of work sheets and readings. Compared to someone taking more standard classes this is a bigger load.
Another thing she said “definitely for math I have to like, to write down all the problems on my iPad and that takes me a really long time, and It’s hard to focus at the end of the day.” This does show some of the effects of homework and how it’s especially hard to do after a long day of school and tricky classes.
So for someone taking more standard classes this semester Kiley Allen, another sophomore, takes 2 hours or under to do homework. Saying most of it is world history, Kiley said “It’s just reading and so many work sheets” Her other core classes being Geometry and Spanish requiring more minimal homework, but still a substantial amount each night. But the difference can be huge depending on what classes the student decides to take.
Home work habits and the effects
Something else to consider is how late do kids stay up to get their homework done? Is it worth it to stay up so late studying hard for a test? From most perspectives of students they dread having homework and procrastinate to having it late at night, or too many things to do after school that homework comes in much later. So homework can tend to not go well with the other aspects of school that take up time like sports, getting up early in the morning, and clubs. But most students deciding to take college level classes, with 3 or more hours of homework, have to mentally prepare for that if they decide to take that class.
Some tips that teacher Ms. Mcillmoyle recommends removing distractions, like phones and other distracting devices. To find a good spot to work, and not do it right before bed of course if your schedule allows.
From a Teachers perspective
To understand why students have homework and the importance of it is good to understand from a teacher’s perspective. Most of all it is usually just part of the curriculum that is followed. Text books, and stories can’t always be read in class with the amount of time given.
Ms. Mcillmoyle said “I think homework needs to be purposeful and meaningful for students to then do it” she explained how this will always help motivate if the homework has true meaning for the class and outside of school skills that will really come in handy, instead of just adding another thing to the to-do list.
So the teachers do want to give homework to help benefit the class and the experience, even though homework from class after class starts to stack up and become unmanageable it’s still important to stay caught up in the class, and learn skills that will be useful.
So there’s lots of thoughts about homework being really beneficial for getting work done, there is no time for in class like reading that would take up too much of the period. Another point is that more advanced classes tend to have a heavier load which is normally expected, also important to consider when deciding future classes to enroll in.
So really every student has homework and it changes as the classes change and students do have the choice of what classes they take, which does affect their amounts of homework, though there are some core classes everyone has to take that will definitely have bigger loads then others, and there is lots of ways to figure out how to manage it.