Post by Ms. Kathy on Mar 10, 2005 11:52:32 GMT -6
Reprinted from Helping Hand (I Care) v. 14 Issue 6 Copyright MMIV, Performance Resource Press, Inc. www.PRPonline.net
Buried in Homework? Hardly
If you can't figure out what kids do between he end of school and bedtime, you can bet they aren't doing much homework.
This is the finding from a Brookings Institution study that shows the average US student spends about 20 minutes a day on homework. This is only slightly more than 20 years ago. A University of Michigan study showed the percentage of 9-, 13- and 17-year-olds who did more than an hour of homework each night declined between 1984 and 1999. A University of California Los Angeles study showed that only about a third of college seniors did more than one our of homework per weekday. This is the lowest percentage since 1987.
Should Homework Be Shortened or Eliminated for Our Kids?
Generally speaking, kids with visual impairments should be expected to do as much as sighted peers. I realize that that statement may upset some parents and moreso some students, but the more exceptions we make for kids, the more they expect and in the long run the more harm is done to our kids.
It is said that Braille readers take longer to read that ink print readers but I have not seen evidence of this when all other things are equal. I read an article by a lady who said she was not told she was to take longer to read Braille than a print reader so she never did. She loved to read and her reading speed always matched or surpassed that of her sighted peers. I can understand where transferring answers to answer sheets on tests may take longer for a braille reader because of the extra process involved--in going back and forth between papers--but otherwise, the time allowed should not make too much difference. Then if one considers that a Braille writer can write and entire word in one key stroke because of the whole-wordsigns and contractions involved in Braille, it's actually a shorter process than for an ink reader to have to write each letter of a word individually with no such short cuts.
Kids with nystagmus make take longer to focus on shaky images which may slow their reading speed. In that case, I suggest to teachers of my kids with those conditions that they be given a few more minutes to read or that the reading assignments can be shortened just a bit. Also, some of my kids with cerebral palsey--depending on the severity and other factors--may require more time for reading and/or writing.
I have had one Braille reader to complain about the amount of homework in order to get her parents to go to her teachers to get the amount reduced for her "special" condition. On review of her situation I found that her priorities were not in order. Her after school agenda included her afternoon soap operas after her snack. When she did start on her homework, she began with the classes she really liked and would often make excuses for the ones she didn't like. She also like to write in "quantity" rather than "quality" thinking that her verbosity would impress her teachers. That wasted much valuable time and energy which could have been spent elsewhere. Then she was usually in bed for 8:00PM regardless of what else had to be done. When as her V.I. study skills teacher I gave her pointers on making her homework process more efficient she claimed, "Well, I'm used to doing it this way." To which I replied in my Dr. Phil manner: "And how's that working for you?"
Most certainly I believe in evening out the playing field when necessary for our kids, but then we have to be aware of wanting modifications that have nothing to do with blindness and more to do with simply giving them what they want.
Ms Kathy
Buried in Homework? Hardly
If you can't figure out what kids do between he end of school and bedtime, you can bet they aren't doing much homework.
This is the finding from a Brookings Institution study that shows the average US student spends about 20 minutes a day on homework. This is only slightly more than 20 years ago. A University of Michigan study showed the percentage of 9-, 13- and 17-year-olds who did more than an hour of homework each night declined between 1984 and 1999. A University of California Los Angeles study showed that only about a third of college seniors did more than one our of homework per weekday. This is the lowest percentage since 1987.
Should Homework Be Shortened or Eliminated for Our Kids?
Generally speaking, kids with visual impairments should be expected to do as much as sighted peers. I realize that that statement may upset some parents and moreso some students, but the more exceptions we make for kids, the more they expect and in the long run the more harm is done to our kids.
It is said that Braille readers take longer to read that ink print readers but I have not seen evidence of this when all other things are equal. I read an article by a lady who said she was not told she was to take longer to read Braille than a print reader so she never did. She loved to read and her reading speed always matched or surpassed that of her sighted peers. I can understand where transferring answers to answer sheets on tests may take longer for a braille reader because of the extra process involved--in going back and forth between papers--but otherwise, the time allowed should not make too much difference. Then if one considers that a Braille writer can write and entire word in one key stroke because of the whole-wordsigns and contractions involved in Braille, it's actually a shorter process than for an ink reader to have to write each letter of a word individually with no such short cuts.
Kids with nystagmus make take longer to focus on shaky images which may slow their reading speed. In that case, I suggest to teachers of my kids with those conditions that they be given a few more minutes to read or that the reading assignments can be shortened just a bit. Also, some of my kids with cerebral palsey--depending on the severity and other factors--may require more time for reading and/or writing.
I have had one Braille reader to complain about the amount of homework in order to get her parents to go to her teachers to get the amount reduced for her "special" condition. On review of her situation I found that her priorities were not in order. Her after school agenda included her afternoon soap operas after her snack. When she did start on her homework, she began with the classes she really liked and would often make excuses for the ones she didn't like. She also like to write in "quantity" rather than "quality" thinking that her verbosity would impress her teachers. That wasted much valuable time and energy which could have been spent elsewhere. Then she was usually in bed for 8:00PM regardless of what else had to be done. When as her V.I. study skills teacher I gave her pointers on making her homework process more efficient she claimed, "Well, I'm used to doing it this way." To which I replied in my Dr. Phil manner: "And how's that working for you?"
Most certainly I believe in evening out the playing field when necessary for our kids, but then we have to be aware of wanting modifications that have nothing to do with blindness and more to do with simply giving them what they want.
Ms Kathy