mazakaal Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 My ds just went into year 9 (equivalent to 8th grade) here. School runs from 8:45 until 3:05 with two breaks. There are 5 hour long classes per day. I've been surprised that he only has 2-3 hours of academic classes per day. Part of the reason for that is that they're not requiring him to take the French classes with his year group. They've all already had 2 years of French study and he's had none, so he'd be lost. So 3 days a week he gets an hour break. But aside from that, there are so many extra classes - music, art and design, technology, information technology, religious studies, drama, p.e. - that academic subjects are only taught 2-3 hours per week each. Is this pretty normal? Also, I thought that it would be great for him to have the break when everyone else is doing French so he could get started on homework, etc. But after a week there has been no homework. I talked to another mom on Sunday and she said that they assign very little homework at this school. Should I be asking that they give him something to do for him breaks? Should I send in some work for him? He brought his i-pod in yesterday (without me being aware of it) but they wouldn't let him use it. I can't say that I disagree with them on that, but they're not giving him anything else to do either. Is he just supposed to sit and twiddle his thumbs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Two to three hours per week of academic subjects sounds low to me. You might want to consider sending work in for your son to do. Have you been able to look at what exactly they're studying, and does each academic class have a syllabus of some sort, even a general one? I'd want to see that and make sure the material was being covered. (Sometimes it's on paper but isn't taught.) My youngest is in 7th grade. Classes run from 8:30 until 3:15, but he takes math from 7:30 to 8:15 at our local high school. He has a little more than 3.5 hours of academic classes per day (language arts, lit, history, science, math) These are the classes covered as well as the curricula for anyone interested: Language Arts (grammar, vocab, and writing) McDougall-Littell's Language Network (convoluted, skimpy) Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop, Level B 40" per day Literature -- mostly novels: Eagle of the Ninth, Secret of the Andes, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, Our Town, Ghosts I Have Been, A Samurai's Tale 40" per day History Lectures and material selected by teacher (who is fabulous and should be cloned!) 40" per day Science Prentice Hall's Science Explorer: Cells and Herdity 40" per day Math McDougall-Littell's Algebra 1 and teacher's material (proofs) 40" 3 times per week; 80" the other two days (80" to 120" for my son. He is expected to do more math -- AoPS, MathCounts, etc. -- during his middle school math class.) Other classes: religion, gym, Spanish, music, art The only subjects I'd like to change are grammar and writing. Otherwise, I'm happy. Homework-wise, I'd guess he has about one to two hours per night, sometimes more, sometimes less and almost always something over the weekends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted November 10, 2009 Author Share Posted November 10, 2009 He has 2-3 hours per day of academic subjects. Each subject is 2-3 hours per week. So one day it's math, history, and science. Another it's history and geography. Another science, english, and math. Etc. Each subject is taught 2-3 times each week - most 3 times. I think geography is the only one that's only taught twice. I did speak to someone in learning support (where he hangs out instead of French) about them giving him some work to do. He was really nice and said he'd work on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 The core classes (math, science, social studies, and English) each get 45-50 minutes per day on average. (Two days a week they only have two of those academic classes, but they have 90-95 minutes for each class.) The afternoon is for PE, home ec, art, music, Spanish or French, etc. The music and language classes meet daily. The others rotate on a schedule I've never quite grasped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktmo Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 At the middle school where I work, 8th graders typically have four 45 minute academic (math, science, world studies and English) classes a day. Some students take a foreign language or reading for another 45 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherInWI Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 At the junior high where I taught, an eighth grader would be taking these daily. Each class was about 45 minutes long. Math (either regular or algebra) Science (chemistry/physics) English (composition & literature) Social Studies (American history) Foreign Language (French or Spanish) Music (orchestra, band or chorus) or Study Hall Rotation of Art, Family&ConsumerED, Tech Ed -- about 12 weeks of each PhysEd/Health Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaichiki Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 MBM, This class list, curriculum, and homework load sound eerily similar to what my ds is doing this year. It's his first year in school/6th grade. He doesn't have Spanish, though, and no Algebra yet. They're using the first book in the Sadlier-Oxford vocab series... but it's so similar. He does Math Counts, too. Does your ds go to a private school? (You mentioned religion.) How do you feel about it? I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the amount of homework. Ds *always* feels overwhelmed. :001_smile: And we find there's so LITTLE free time for him. His instrument practice gets neglected 3 or 4 days a week... and he absolutely *drops* into bed every night (he never did that before). His literature class does more excerpts from a textbook and fewer actual books, but I guess they're doing 12 books this year (one a month of their own choice plus three as a class). They do SO many worksheets for literary analysis. It makes me nuts. We're kicking around ideas for next year: homeschool, school, or 50/50. Dont' yet know if the principal would go for that last option, though. Two to three hours per week of academic subjects sounds low to me. You might want to consider sending work in for your son to do. Have you been able to look at what exactly they're studying, and does each academic class have a syllabus of some sort, even a general one? I'd want to see that and make sure the material was being covered. (Sometimes it's on paper but isn't taught.) My youngest is in 7th grade. Classes run from 8:30 until 3:15, but he takes math from 7:30 to 8:15 at our local high school. He has a little more than 3.5 hours of academic classes per day (language arts, lit, history, science, math) These are the classes covered as well as the curricula for anyone interested: Language Arts (grammar, vocab, and writing) McDougall-Littell's Language Network (convoluted, skimpy) Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop, Level B 40" per day Literature -- mostly novels: Eagle of the Ninth, Secret of the Andes, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, Our Town, Ghosts I Have Been, A Samurai's Tale 40" per day History Lectures and material selected by teacher (who is fabulous and should be cloned!) 40" per day Science Prentice Hall's Science Explorer: Cells and Herdity 40" per day Math McDougall-Littell's Algebra 1 and teacher's material (proofs) 40" 3 times per week; 80" the other two days (80" to 120" for my son. He is expected to do more math -- AoPS, MathCounts, etc. -- during his middle school math class.) Other classes: religion, gym, Spanish, music, art The only subjects I'd like to change are grammar and writing. Otherwise, I'm happy. Homework-wise, I'd guess he has about one to two hours per night, sometimes more, sometimes less and almost always something over the weekends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibrarianMom Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 It sounds like your school is perhaps using a block schedule. Beyond that I'm hesitant to comment much as your son is attending a UK school and my experience is solely with US schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Thanks for the responses. I suppose 3 hour classes is the same as 4-45 minute classes, so time wise it's similar. His 2 classes per day are the result of not taking French. It just doesn't look like a lot when you look at his schedule. I did talk to someone about giving him something to do when the rest of his class is in French. I feel a little bad about making my 11yo ds over 4 hours of academics per day when his older brother has less. I guess he'll just have to learn to live with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Does your ds go to a private school? (You mentioned religion.) How do you feel about it? I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the amount of homework. Ds *always* feels overwhelmed. :001_smile: And we find there's so LITTLE free time for him. His instrument practice gets neglected 3 or 4 days a week... and he absolutely *drops* into bed every night (he never did that before). His literature class does more excerpts from a textbook and fewer actual books, but I guess they're doing 12 books this year (one a month of their own choice plus three as a class). They do SO many worksheets for literary analysis. It makes me nuts. We're kicking around ideas for next year: homeschool, school, or 50/50. Dont' yet know if the principal would go for that last option, though. My son is is at a Catholic school which we like very much. We were not at all happy with his former public school's choice of curricula, plus the school felt incredibly unfriendly. Bleh. We just didn't like it. Would your son's teacher knock off some of the reading material or worksheets? In fifth grade my son had way too much homework, and his teacher agreed to reduce the workload after a number of parents spoke with her about it. Sometimes that works. In the following years since, ds has had a manageable amount of homework. I'm all for homework, but kids need time to relax and have fun, too. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2GirlsTX Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 At the junior high where I taught, an eighth grader would be taking these daily. Each class was about 45 minutes long. Math (either regular or algebra) Science (chemistry/physics) English (composition & literature) Social Studies (American history) Foreign Language (French or Spanish) Music (orchestra, band or chorus) or Study Hall Rotation of Art, Family&ConsumerED, Tech Ed -- about 12 weeks of each PhysEd/Health :iagree: My dd just started 6th grade last week and her schedule is about the same as above. She has 9 periods, starting at 8:00 and ending at 3:15. Lunch is considered a period. She has three AP classes and 2 GT classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 I attended a "meet the middle schools" event at my son's elementary school tonight (he's in K, but I'm looking ahead) and boy are the children in gifted/honors/magnet schools slammed with academics and home-work. Parents are freaking out there is so much work. One school has a Science academy. These students take 6 AP science classes in 3 years. Accelerating college credit (ordinarily one year courses) into one semester in Middle School. Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, plus one I've forgotten. Plus advanced math, and heavy humanities classes. Wow! But even the more ordinary "gifted level" coursework is so demanding that the "push-back" here is now to try yo get things scaled back a little, where once parents were clamoring for things to be more rigorous. Pendulums swing. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaichiki Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Spy Car, I think the skills and topics can be sufficiently challenging without an overwhelming homework load. (We also think ds -6th grade- has too much homework and hardly any free time.) After all, we managed to keep him challenged when homeschooling and he still had HOURS of free time a day then. Sigh. I think the schools are confused, frankly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Spy Car, I think the skills and topics can be sufficiently challenging without an overwhelming homework load. (We also think ds -6th grade- has too much homework and hardly any free time.) After all, we managed to keep him challenged when homeschooling and he still had HOURS of free time a day then. Sigh. I think the schools are confused, frankly. From what I'm seeing parents here have reached the same conclusion you have, and are now pushing for less homework. This is a turn around from years past when parents were pushing for more challenge (which generated more homework). It's also becoming clear to me that for whatever advantages schools may have in specialized teachers or resources, they are at a great disadvantage to home education in terms of "time efficiency." And that even "schooled" children will need to be "home educated" (in terms of homework, supplementation. and enrichment ) if they are to receive a quality education. But I am concerned they are pushing the children a little hard in Middle School, especially with all the homework. A child should have a chance to play soccer (or whatever) and just be a kid sometimes too. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiCO Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 But I am concerned they are pushing the children a little hard in Middle School, especially with all the homework. A child should have a chance to play soccer (or whatever) and just be a kid sometimes too. Bill I totally agree with you. Middle schoolers in the "better" schools in my area have 2 hours of homework per night. They are in school 7 hours, 5 days per week. That's like putting in a 45-hour work week! They say middle schoolers need to do this "to be ready for high school." Next they want to increase the work load for 4th & 5th graders so they'll be "ready for middle school." I'm an advocate of more free time, so kids can pursue outside interests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaichiki Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 From what I'm seeing parents here have reached the same conclusion you have, and are now pushing for less homework. This is a turn around from years past when parents were pushing for more challenge (which generated more homework To make it more clear, I'm all for more challenge in middle school -- just not more homework. I think the kids can be challenged while they're IN school without piling on the homework. I think the schools are confused because they *think* more homework has to come along with more challenge. They're separate animals. I'd like it if my ds's literature class required more reading of real literature and used the textbook selections less. I'd like it if they did more writing and discussion to analyze the what they're reading and fewer literature analysis worksheets. I'd like it if the math class had more word problems and less mindless repetition and drill of concepts already learned. Honestly, I detest the textbook they're using altogether. One chapter on (yet more review of long division with decimals) actually uses the words "place holder" when refering to putting a "0" in the quotient. Ummmm... no. There's a *reason* we're working in a certain place value in the quotient... and zero is a number, not a place holder. (Maybe I'll encourage ds to instead draw a pretty star to "hold a place.") I'd like it if the history and science classes depended less on the textbooks. (It's all read and regurgitate... with a quiz and a test on each section of each chapter in each book week after week after week.) More real writing, compare/contrast, and discussions would be great in history. Some labs that had some real point to them, with accompanying lab reports, would be fab in science class. I actually really like the way ds's English and Religion classes are run: lots of writing, actual grammar, a serious vocab curriculum, and real Old Testament history (no "Jesus loves you and all the little lambs"). So... I have no complaint there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 I have mixed feelings about homework, but I generally think it is a good thing since it will help to prepare for the amount of work expected in college. I went to a prep high school and I had about 2-3 hours of homework a night and about 10 hours on the weekend for grades 9-12. I felt very prepared for college. My dh OTOH felt unprepared for college and was not challenged at his high school. OTOH I can see that kids need free time. I guess that I am unsure of what to think. I do know many professors who believe that many college freshmen are woefully unprepared for college level education and hence I tend to believe that high school should be somewhat rigorous. I definitely think homeschooling is more time efficient:) Therefore, I am contemplating homeschooling till college, but I also take it year by year;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 My son's middle school day last year: 65 minutes each math, English/language arts, science, human geography/history 45 minutes each of two connections classes, each quarter these would change rotating through the connections classes home ec, PE, music (band, orchestra, chorus, or music appreciation), art, and business. 30 minutes lunch Homework consisted of reading each night a book of his own choosing (with help from mom and teacher) and maybe a total of 30 minutes a week of math or science. Every once in a while, he had to finish up an English paper or social studies paper at home. Homework was kept to a minimum. There are no AP classes in our middle school. However, the classes were challenging. Often, the literature and social studies teachers worked together. Now that he is in high school, there is more homework, but not hours each evening. He has a paper due each week in non-western civilization relating a current event to the history, culture and geography of the location. Sometimes he has a few math problems to finish. He is in analysis this year. I dislike busywork homework, so I think his teachers have found a nice balance. His school is not on a block schedule, so his classes last the entire school year. Except non-western civ, which is only half a year. The other half is gifted psych for gifted students. Again, no AP classes until next year, when he will take AP World History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmen_and_Company Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 (edited) Students spend every minute of the day on academics--well, not during lunch & gym. School begins @ 8:40 & ends at 3:50. The school provides a Joust period, which is mandatory where tutoring is offered in all courses based on a block schedule. Storm takes an additional period of math, physics, and grammar during Joust. The upper school is set up on A, B & C days. Each day a different elective is studied. Additionally, Storm has logic & grammar on B days instead of history & literature. So here schedule looks something like this: A day: History English Literature Physics Music Latin Mathematics Joust--built-in tutoring B Day: Logic English Grammar Physics Art Music Latin Mathematics Joust--built-in tutoring C Day: History English Literature Physics Gym Latin Mathematics Joust--built-in tutoring Then the schedule repeats again on Thursday with an A day, and Friday is a B day. Monday of the next week is a C day. The school also has block scheduling for English, so one 6-7 week period, grammar is the main subject on A & C days with B days used for literature discussion. The next 6-7 week period English is the focus with grammar review on B days, as the school uses Analytical Grammar during grades 6-8. Edited December 20, 2009 by Carmen_and_Company Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Magentadreamer Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Hi Megan unfortunately the dreaded National Curriculum in the UK means that certain subjects have to be taught in Keystage 3 Yr7-9 in high schools. my Dd's timetable is similar to your DS. I do find it rather alarming that nothing has been set up for him to do in the French Lessons he doesn't take. My Dd spent 3 months last year unable to do PE her school allowed her to work in the Library either reading/homework or doing one of the learning platforms the school subscribed to. Has his school got a subscription to mymaths, samlearning or even lingoscope - which is a pretty easy language package - my Dd uses it at home to learn Spanish - she was put in the German class and would rather have done Spanish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSHS Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 This was roughly my DD's schedule when she was in school for year 8: Four hours of english, four of maths, two of science, two of history, two of french, two of PE, one of RS, one of art/drama, one of music, two of technology, two of geography & one of ICT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 (edited) My 7th grader is at a charter school from 8:30-2:30. He has 4 core subjects in the morning, math, English, science and history. Each class is 55 min. After 1/2 lunch they have an one hour elective class. For 6th period they do PE twice a week, study hall twice a week and computer lab once a week. ETA - he has between 1-2 hours a night in homework, which includes about 20 minutes on a website that prepares them for the state standarized testing. Edited January 10, 2010 by Ferdie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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