HOMEWORK! To Be or Not to Be? That is the Question!

"Homework remains one of the biggest challenges and concerns facing teachers today," author Nancy Paulu told Education World. "Many teachers say they have a hard time creating meaningful and appropriate homework assignments and getting students to complete the assignments successfully."

     The Great DEBATE!  To give Homework or NOT??  What about the idea that kids need some “down time” after spending all day in school?  What do some kids do when the homework is too hard…..or too easy?  It’s  always challenging to plan Homework that meets the needs of each student. 

      Here is an idea we created that helps connect families with school. What’s great about these assignments is that they build classroom community while also increasing oral and written language!  A Win-Win!

How does Write and Share work?

   Each student writes their homework and brings it in to share with their class. Through sharing, they get practice in speaking aloud, other students get practice in asking questions about what they wrote, and everyone learns a little bit more about each other!  That’s why it’s called WRITE & SHARE.

   WRITE & SHARE was created to replace that old familiar Show & Tell. As first grade teachers, we knew our students enjoyed sharing about their own things. But after a few months (ACCK!), we noticed that the items they selected began to look a little ragged and torn. It seemed they had quickly just rooted around in their closet and pulled out any old thing to bring!

      We weren’t seeing any real connection to our curriculum either. Yes, they were sharing but this concept REALLY needed to be expanded to include some family involvement and some academic skills. So.....we put our heads together and developed a year-long homework program....and called it WRITE & SHARE. There is a wide variety of topics that children write and share about....seasonal, holidays, math, science, etc. 

     Parents tell us they look forward to the varied assignments that they do with their child. Teachers tell us how valuable this is for their students. Others liked it and wanted it in their Kindergarten or 2nd Grade classrooms so we expanded it to both those grades also....adapting them to fit the skill levels of those grades and standards. So now there are 3 levels of WRITE and SHARE! The world is a happy place!  

Check out what one of our customers had to say about Write and Share!
"One of my better purchases last year! I loved using it for homework and then letting my students have time on Fridays to share from the Author’s chair. Even my most reluctant writers were sharing by year’s end!"

Here’s a few FREE samples for you to try.  Click {HERE} to link to the free sample at our JK Curriculum Connection website. (P.S. There are some other fun freebies there also!) 

Click {HERE} for the Kindergarten product at our TeachersPayTeachers store.

Click {HERE} for the 1st Grade Write and Share!

Click {HERE} for the 2nd Grade Homework Write and Share!