Please Don’t Assign Homework Over Winter Break

Source: Please Don’t Assign Homework Over Winter Break

“Seven school days until break!” Teachers and students are counting down the minutes until vacation. We’re all ready for a respite from the stress and daily 5:30 wake-up calls. Students are all looking forward to sleeping in, meeting friends, watching TikTok, and generally unwinding from the pressure of one thing: homework. Yes. Homework. Schools across the country still give homework assignments during the winter break, but here’s my take: Students need a complete break from all schoolwork, and so do teachers. Why?

Breaks increase productivity and creativity

Teachers have to take a break over the holidays. This has been one of the most stressful years and we are all suffering from burnout or considering leaving the profession. A real break will hopefully refill you and lead to more creative ideas. Once you’re disconnected from everyday life, you can spend time drawing inspiration from the world again: through things you read and see for fun, cultural traditions and events, and talking to family and friends. In addition, breaks increase the productivity of students and teachers in the long term.

It creates space for reading pleasure

Ask high schoolers when they last read a book for fun, and many will name something they read in middle school or even late elementary school. This is not necessarily because the student dislikes reading or prefers playing video games. Often it’s because books have become another thing to learn in English class and not something to do in your free time. English teachers across the country have a great opportunity to “assign” reading for pleasure without the obligation of taking notes, annotating, tracing pages, and doing other school-like chores. When they come back, chat with any students who are reading during recess, and you may be surprised by the authentic conversations that came with the opportunity to read for fun.

The end product is not worth it

Homework has generally been criticized in recent years as not only unnecessary but potentially harmful. As Harris Cooper writes in The Battle over Homework, “Too much homework can reduce its effectiveness or even become counterproductive.” If this is the norm during the school year, we can conclude that winter break homework will be even less productive than normal , as students and their families rest, engage in relationship-building activities, and prepare for the holidays. Let’s think a few weeks ahead of what type of essay, worksheet, or project quality you’ll be receiving in those first few weeks of January.

Restart for new motivation

Some schools use the vacation break as a natural gap between the two semesters, as final exams have just ended for many high schools and the third quarter begins in January. Students are aware that this break between terms means they are not in the middle of a lesson, so the work assigned may feel like extra or unnecessary overtime. They’re called finals, after all, and students need a clean break between the successes or failures of the first semester and the start of the second. Assignments assigned to the two can be given without much context (will you really be able to present a new unit on the way out to recess to put the homework you are giving in context ?).

It sends the wrong message about work-life balance

Assigning work across breaks shows students and families that they don’t value their time together, learning outside of the classroom, or cultural traditions. Most teachers don’t think so, so don’t let your potential eagerness to make it through the curriculum create that perception. Model yourself by talking to your students about your plans for recess and asking about theirs. Talking about the power of sleep, exercise, breaks and time with your loved ones, both this time of year and throughout the year, may be the most important thing you teach them.

We’d love to hear – will you be giving homework over the winter holidays? Why or why not? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Also, why we shouldn’t give out work even on snowy days.

Via: toplistreviewstoday.com

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