What are the benefits of homework?
• Students – homework deepens their understanding and solidifies concepts learned in class.
• Parents – homework communicates what students are learning. It’s also an opportunity for parents to help their child.
• Teachers – homework gives teachers feedback about what students have previously learned. It also helps guide decisions about what math instruction students need.
Below are the guidelines for elementary school homework listed in the Hillsborough County Public Schools Student Handbook.
Important highlights of the homework guidelines include:
• Homework should not be new concepts, it should reinforce concepts already learned.
• In 3rd grade, homework should not exceed 30 minutes a night, including all subject areas.
• Homework should not be counted toward math grade, instead should be reflected in Expected behaviors section of the report card.
• Homework can be differentiated.
• Regular feedback should be given about the homework to parents.
• Students should be able to accomplish the homework on their own.
What could 3rd grade math homework look like?
• 1-2 problems taken from Think Central, a Go Math resource, Item Specifications, sample unit homework flier or teacher created, where students explain their thinking with models, words and numbers.
• Active thinking with a multiple choice question, where students record why all the solutions not chosen are incorrect. This may also include multi-select questions with more than one correct answer.
• Process questions where the answer may already be given, the importance is on finding different ways to solve the problem.
• Game already played in class, then sent home to play with older sibling or parent.
• Should include real-world problem solving scenarios.
How important is teacher-parent communication in the homework process?
As a parent, it is important to establish timely and clear communication with your child’s teacher. Here are some questions you may want to consider asking the teacher to start the discussion:
• What are the upcoming topics in math?
• What math topic causes my child the most difficulty?
• How could I best support what is happening in the classroom?
Additional questions about math homework:
• Should my child be able to complete the homework on their own?
• I’m worried about why my child can’t finish the problems. What might we do to help him?
• If my child is struggling with homework, how should I communicate this to you?
• How does my child receive feedback about their homework?
To assist with what homework could look like, this year a sample homework sheet has been created for every grade level, one sample per unit. The purpose of the homework sheet is to encourage discussion about math concepts between both the parent and child, parent and teacher. There is also a template included in each unit, where teacher can continue that same format of homework for other concepts within a unit. These samples can be accessed on page 1 of each unit of study. A sample homework sheet is shown below:
Parent flyers have also been created for every grade level, for every unit to communicate with parents what their child will be learning. The flyers include information about the content, sample tasks, a video, and purposeful practice tasks that parents can implement with their child at home.
Flyers can be print out in paper form or the parents can access the flyer for each unit at http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/doc/list/elementary-mathematics/resources/78-291/.
For more information on homework for 3rd grade math, or as parents how to help your child with math, please visit: Math Homework Help Grade 3 Video http://alturl.com/kqkh2 Or YouTube: https://youtu.be/2K5CrlpMLyw.
You also may want to visit, http://goo.gl/TjSCXV, which has the FSA Item Specifications for Grade 3, with sample problems that you may want to include in your homework.