Roles and Responsibilities
A positive and open school-home partnership will have a positive impact on student success in the homework process.
School staff are responsible for
(i) communicating school homework guidelines early in the school year for use by teachers, parents and students;
(ii) coordinating school wide resources and practices that support homework, e.g. use of agenda, library facilities, academic support programs, ensuring effective communication between rotary teachers so that a reasonable amount of homework is being assigned; and
(iii) providing information to parents on the purpose of effective homework and sharing practices that will help families support their children (for example: newsletters, open houses, and websites).
Teachers are responsible for
(i) encouraging a partnership with family and students that promotes timely, regular communication and supports families in the homework process;
(ii) designing homework assignments that clearly articulate their purpose and expected outcome;
(iii) sharing expectations for homework with students and parents early in the school year;
(iv) ensuring any homework assigned is directly related to classroom instruction and consists of clear, purposeful and engaging and activities;
(v) assigning homework that is appropriate to the student’s age, developmental level, learning style, skills and individual needs;
(vi) teaching the skills necessary for the student to complete the homework and become successful independent learners; and
(vii) articulating and carefully planning homework in partnership with core and rotary teachers.
Students are responsible for
(i) ensuring that he/she clearly understands the homework assigned, i.e. assignments, criteria, and timelines, and asks for clarification or assistance from the teacher when homework assignments or the expectations are not clear;
(ii) recording assignments in his/her agenda or student planner;
(iii) regularly completing assigned homework in a timely manner to the best of his/her ability; and
(iv) managing time and materials, e.g. by bringing home necessary materials.
The family is responsible for
(i) providing an environment, i.e. workplace, block of uninterrupted time, usually in the home or in an alternative setting such as a homework club or homework to be done;
(ii) providing encouragement and appropriate support without doing the homework for their child;
(iii) providing a healthy balance between homework, co-curricular activities and family commitments;
(iv) stopping their child from continuing to complete homework at bedtime, even if the child is not done,; and
(v) contacting the classroom teacher if their child is not consistently able to do the homework by him/herself or if challenges or questions arise.
Parkdale Staff will undertake to facilitate the implementation of the above guidelines
(i) Curriculum leaders will work within their IG to provide direction on the kind and amount of homework that will be assigned;
(ii) Staff will assign homework in class and post that homework to AW within their class site. Homework posts may consist of references to assigned work in the text and uploaded copies of documents handed out in class;
(iii) Staff will undertake to upload copies of all assignments, projects, culminating activities etc to AW;
(iv) Staff will communicate to each student on a bi-monthly basis the students’ standing. Such data will be posted to AW;
(v) Parkdale will undertake to provide access to a student’s AW site for the parent/guardian of the student to provide support in homework completion.