Homework

I don't know how much you are involved in the weekly homework that I give to the students. But you have probably noticed that I have not reported to you whether your child does or doesn't do the homework. I have my reasons.
I have a belief that homework has to be meaningful and that the student has to take full responsibility for it.

Meaningful homework is a natural part of learning and should support what is happening in class.
Since we are learning what readers, writers, and mathematicians do, most of the homework is related to these three areas.
Reading
Studies show that the more a student reads the bigger growth he/she has both in comprehension and vocabulary and worldly knowledge. Getting better at reading is a foundation for many other areas - writing, research, math, Literature circle discussions, understanding instructions, learning social and emotional skills. Therefore I don't consider reading a homework that needs assigned minutes or pages. My simple expectation is that readers read daily. The reading can be for fun, related to literature circle, or to unit of inquiry. For Literature the students have to read the assigned amount, but they can choose whether they do it at home or at school. Being prepared for a discussion is a matter of respect and commitment. This includes having written notes in their reading journal.
Writing
The best advice that any writer has ever given is: read, read, read and write, write, write. The more the students write, the easier they come up with ides, they build stamina and fluency. Not all writing is wonderful. In fact there can be a lot of bad writing. But the more they write, the more likely they are to come up with some magnificent ideas, expressing what they experience and truly mean, the more comfortable they become with choosing words, and experimenting with voice and structure.  Therefore my goal for writing homework is to implement a habit of writing for the young writers. Ideally of course they should write a bit every day, but I know that this is a challenge even for experienced writers. I hope they will get used to writing three entries in their journal every week. There is slice of life for Wednesday. This is a personal writing about their experiences, observations, thoughts and feelings. There is a prompt for Friday that requires using imagination. For Monday they have free choice. They can collect new ideas or go through a writing process with one text over a longer period of time.
Math
Like in reading, regular practice is necessary in math to be able to remember knowledge and skills.  So my expectation is that students practice math 10-15 minutes  5-6 times a week. I am so thankful that our school subscribes to IXL. It is much better than any worksheet. It instantly lets the child know whether the answer was correct. If it wasn't, it also gives an explanation, so the student can learn right away. If the material is too hard, the student can practice previous year's material. If the grade level material is mastered, the student can challenge herself/himself with harder material. It is very easy to monitor what and how much a student practices.
UOI
Once in a while I give UOI homework. This may be collecting information or creating something in relation to the unit we are exploring.

Responsibility
It takes time to build organizational and time-management skills that the student needs to do homework regularly. We are now creating our portfolios and one of the things the students will reflect on is their habits of doing homework. I want them to analyze how well they have met the homework expectations. If they have done well, I can ask how they can challenge themselves. If they haven't done their homework, I want them to create a plan on how they will improve in the future and what would be the consequences of not doing the homework.