My spelling programme - the Essentials first.

Spelling is a somewhat contentious issue.  As I have worked in a variety of schools I have seen a variety of spelling programmes.  Some I found underwhelming, others I found overwhelming.  Some people swear by Joy Allcock's Switched onto Spelling or  Spelling Under Scrutiny, and some by Gaye Byers programme, while there are those of us who believe that the best place to start is with the NZCER researched Essential Lists.

I am a strong believer in the value of learning these lists first.  NZCER's research has proven that these are the words most used by children as they develop their writing schools during primary school.  So doesn't it make sense that we, as teachers, ensure they can successfully write using these most important words of all?

The New Zealand Curriculum sets some general indicators of what it expects students to by doing at each level for writing:

Level One:

• Spells some high-frequency words correctly and begins to use some common spelling patterns;
• Begins to use some strategies to self-correct and monitor spelling;

Level Two:

• Spells most high-frequency words correctly and shows growing knowledge of common spelling patterns;
• Uses a range of strategies to self-monitor and self-correct spelling

Level Three:

• Demonstrates good understanding of all basic spelling patterns and sounds in written English;
• Uses an increasing range of strategies to self-monitor and self-correct spelling;

Level Four:

• Demonstrates a good understanding of spelling patterns in written English, with few intrusive errors;
• Uses an wide range of strategies to self-monitor and self-correct spelling;

The Literacy Progressions give a little more detail of the expectations for spelling and students progress on their writing journey.

After one year at school:

using their developing visual memory to accurately write some key personal words and some high-frequency words (Examples of high-frequency words appropriate at this level could include most words from Essential List 1 and some words from Essential List 2 in Croft (1998)). 

encoding (spelling) unfamiliar words by using their developing knowledge of phoneme– grapheme relationships, which enables them to:

• recognise and write most sounds of English in at least one appropriate way (for example, s, t, ch, ow, k, f, oy)
• recognise that there can be different ways of representing the same sound (for example, phone/father; keep/cat)
• apply sound–letter relationships in order to write words they want to use (for example, catapulla)

encoding (spelling) unfamiliar words by using their developing knowledge of morphology to write word endings correctly (for example, jump/jumped; boy/boys)

using classroom resources such as wallcharts and picture dictionaries

 
After two years at school:

using their developing phonemic awareness to form new words aurally by changing or taking out some of the sounds in a word or by adding new sounds to words

using their visual memory to spell personal vocabulary as well as high-frequency words, which could include most of the words in essential lists 1 and 2 as well as some of the high- frequency words in essential lists 3 and 4  (These lists are in Croft (1998). They are examples only, and teachers may refer to other reputable lists of high-frequency words).

encoding (spelling) unfamiliar words by:

• using their knowledge of diverse phoneme–grapheme relationships to write some of the sounds of English in different ways (for example, photo, laugh, Friday)
• applying strategies such as sounding out words, making analogies to words that sound or look the same, and using known chunks and rimes
• using their increasing knowledge of morphology to correctly spell word endings and other morphemes (for example, greatest, florist)
• applying their knowledge of simple spelling rules (for example, using -es for plural nouns ending in s, such as buses)

 
After three years at school:

using their visual memory to spell personal vocabulary and high-frequency words (e.g., many words from essential lists 1–4 and some from list 5 and list 6.  These lists are in Croft (1998). They are examples only, and teachers may refer to other reputable lists of high-frequency words);

encoding (spelling) unfamiliar words by:

• using their knowledge of phoneme–grapheme relationships, along with their developing awareness of spelling conventions, to select correct spelling patterns for sounds in words (e.g., spelling the k sound correctly in both catch and kitchen)
• applying their growing knowledge of useful spelling rules (e.g., the rules relating to adding simple plural suffixes such as those in baby/babies and half/halves) and their growing knowledge of morphology (e.g., adding a d to hear to make heard)
• applying their expanding knowledge of graphemes (e.g., of graphemes such as or, awe, oar, and oor, which record similar sounds) to write words correctly;

 
By the end of Year 4:
encoding (spelling) by:

• using their knowledge of diverse phoneme–grapheme relationships (e.g., ship, chef, ocean, station, special), of the meaning and spelling of morphemes (e.g., root words and affixes), and of common, reliable spelling rules and conventions
• using their visual memory to help them spell personal vocabulary and high-frequency words correctly (the high-frequency words include most words from essential lists 1–4 and many from essential lists 5–7.  These lists are in Croft (1998). They are examples only, and teachers may refer to other reputable lists of high-frequency words.);

expanding their writing vocabulary by using strategies such as:

• applying their knowledge of the meaning of most common prefixes (e.g., un-, sub-, pre-, non-) and most common suffixes (e.g., -ful, -ly, -tion, -able/-ible, and -ment)
• using reference sources (e.g., dictionaries and thesauruses) to check the meanings of words and to find new words;

 
By the end of Year 6:

using their knowledge of how words work (e.g., knowledge of diverse phoneme–grapheme relationships, of common, reliable spelling rules and conventions, and of the meanings and spellings of morphemes), along with their knowledge of word derivations, to fluently and correctly encode most unfamiliar words, including words of many syllables;

correctly spelling all high-frequency words (High-frequency words at this level could, for example, include all those in the lists of essential words in Croft (1998)) used in their writing;

 
By the end of Year 8:

fluently and correctly encoding most unfamiliar words (including words of many syllables) by drawing on their knowledge of how words work (e.g., in terms of diverse phoneme– grapheme relationships, common and reliable spelling rules and conventions, and the meanings and spellings of morphemes) and their knowledge of word derivations;

NOTE:  References to Croft's Essential Lists have been called NZCER's Essential Lists in all other places in this blog post.  They are one and the same.

And as much as I detest even mentioning National Standards, which are no longer relevant as of 2018, spelling is mentioned in the document when it comes to making OTJs (Overall Teacher Judgements), and the NZCER Essential Lists are explicitly mentioned, as demonstrated in the Education Gazette article Writing 'At' THE standard - What does it mean? from 8 November 2010:

After 1 Year at School

• is able to write some key personal words and some high frequency words correctly;

After 2 Years at School

• can spell most of the high frequency words in the NZCER Essential Lists 1 and 2 and some of Essential Lists 3 and 4, and can use what he knows about sound-to-letter relationships to attempt to write unfamiliar words;

After 3 Years at School

• has a visual memory for most words in NZCER Essential Lists 1-4 and some from Lists 5 and 6;
• draws on her developing spelling and language knowledge to encode unfamiliar words;

By the end of Year 4

• proof reads for accuracy of spelling, grammar and punctuation;
• has a visual memory for most words in NZCER Essential Lists 1-4 and many from Lists 5 -7;

By the end of Year 5

• uses computer and print-based tools as appropriate to assist his checking of spelling, grammar and punctuation;
• correctly spells nearly all high frequency words used in his writing.  

By the end of Year 6

• uses computer- and print-based tools as appropriate, to assist in checking spelling, grammar and punctuation;
• correctly spells all high frequency words used in his writing.   

By the end of Year 7 and 8 (because this sentence is the same for both)

• crafts and recrafts her writing by revising and editing, so that her texts meet their intended purpose, engage the audience and are checked for grammar, punctuation and spelling;

At the beginning of each term I test my children on the Essential Lists.  Click here for the NZCER Essential Lists for Spelling and Extension.

It takes me about three to four days to do the testing, whole class.  I have a prepared list that the students write on which I print out prior to school starting and have about the number of copies I need to cover the class.  The first day I usually do Lists 1-4 (depending on the age of the students).  The second day I usually do Lists 5 and 6.  And on the third day I will do List 7 and Commonly Misspelt Words. 

Not every child will do all the tests.  If a child gets below 50% right in any list I do not move them forward to the next List test.  If a child gets below 60%, but I can see that their mistakes are things like missing one letter out or having the right letters in the wrong order I let them go onto the next List.

Each term I record the results in a spreadsheet and each child gets a summary published in their portfolio like below, which also includes testing on Rimes, Schonell, Basic Facts and Numeracy stages and a Reading level.  This is a summary for a whole year as you can see below:

The "A" means "Achieved", which I write in when a student gets 100% two terms in a row.  Once they have that "A" they do not have to do the test - I call it an incentive to do their best.  If the child is in my class the following year and they had an "A" at the end of the previous year, if they get 100% in the first term then their "A" is automatically rewarded again.  If a child does not sit a List then I put "ns" for "not sat" in the place of a percentage.

I've found the above grid to be an appropriate way to communicate effectively to individual children and their parents the progress their child has made.  It is not displayed publicly and it is up to the child if they want to share with their classmates or not.  I find it is a big source of motivation for the individual and myself when we get bogged down with the effort of the daily grind of spelling.

Don't be afraid to celebrate every piece of progress, no matter how small.  Every word learned is one less to learn.  Emphasise how much easier writing is becoming for them because they know how to spell so many more words than before and they can now concentrate more on other aspects of their writing, like the message.  Celebrate improvements in their approximations of spelling too.  If their approximations are getting closer to the real spelling, their phonemic awareness and knowledge of spelling patterns is improving and making spelling less of a challenge.

So after the test, when I have finished the marking, I and the children use the words that they got wrong as the words they need to learn in their weekly spelling lists.  Year 4 students up get 10 words, and Year 3 students get 8 words.  If I have a real struggling speller, I limit their words to 6 a week.  I only use the words they get wrong because I do not see the point in learning a word you can already spell.

For younger students and students who need extra support I do the following to make it easier for them to know which words they need to learn:

The examples above would normally have names written in the top left corner, but I've whited them out for privacy.  Some children have more to learn than others you can see.  Each child glues their own one into the back of their writing book.  Each term this is a good thing because when they glue the next one in they see their lists either get smaller or the words change as they move on to new lists. 

As they write each word in their spelling book, they put a line through it from the lists above.

The original tests are glued and taped into their Portfolio/Achievement Books.  The older/more capable students go through these lists each week and write their words directly into their spelling books.

In most schools I've had a 3B1 (or the hard cover version which handles the back and forth of being in a school bag better) notebook for students to do their spelling in.  I teach them at the beginning of the year how to rule up the columns and set it all out.  It makes it easier to learn words if you have a clear layout in which it is written. 

At other schools there has just been one book for homework, so I've used this blackline each week with the date already included:

The 3B1s are ruled up in a similar way to the Blackline shown above, with red pen used to rule columns.

Spelling books go home each Monday, and the students are expected to learn and test their words at home each night Monday through Thursday, bringing their books back to school on Friday for partner testing.  After a partner has tested them, the students line up and I randomly choose two or three words from their list to test them on.  This teacher test is an important component of the process.  I figured out in my third year of teaching that this was essential after I figured out some kids were pulling the wool over my eyes and weren't learning their words at all.  This way I can see who is doing the learning or not.

If a child gets a word wrong in their partner test or their teacher test, that I is the first word in their spelling list for the following week.  Then the remainder of the list is made up of words from the Essential Lists they still have to learn.

Now this bit is very important:  Check and sign every book before you send it home!!!!!!!

Why?  Some parents can be very anal about spelling books coming home with a misspelt word to learn.  And you will make mistakes.  But the best way to react to that is to be a bit humorous and humble and admit you made a mistake.

I usually correct the mistakes myself.  But if the whole thing looks like a dog's breakfast.... well back goes the child to redo the list on a new page to the expected standard!

Also this is important because I did have one little cookie who tried to pull the wool over my eyes by changing the date and not doing a new list each week!!  When you sign it, you know you have seen it.  I also hand out all the spelling books at once so I know if any student has not handed in their book for checking and all those other things we know children do!

So what happens when a student runs out of words from the Essential Lists to learn?

Firstly we turn to their writing in their draft writing books.  Any word I have had to correct and some words that the children have corrected by using a dictionary become the next lot of words they need to work through for their spelling lists.  As they use a word they leave a tick beside it to show they have used the word.

After this, I use a book called Successful Spelling for Frustrated Teachers.  I've had a copy of this book since the early 2000s thanks to a colleague at the time.  It is now out of print and therefore not available for purchase.  Through a bit of research I found out this book was created by Christine McLiesh and it was published by Kanuka Grove Teachers Centre in 1994.  The closest updated copy I have found is called Super Spelling, and this is very much like the book I've been using all these years successfully.

The book gives suggestions on how to use the words, how to run a spelling programme and how to keep track of the progress.  I've used the book in these three ways because I have found it suits my programme:

1. I test the group of students on the words on a level I think appropriate and they learn the words they got wrong;
2. I roughly gage what level I think they can cope with, write 20 of the words on the board and the kids choose the ones they want;
3. or I write the words I think they should have directly in their book, sometimes adding suffixes and the like to up the ante.

Also when the class and I start a topic for maths or science or social studies or health or technology, I will put words up on the board that they will be using a lot so they may choose to include these in their learning.

I also test my class on Rimes.  Rimes (or word families) are really important for being able to spell similar words.  Click here for the test master and Rimes and how to call the test.

This assessment actively informs me on who needs to learn which Rimes and I plot who needs what like on the table pictured below.  I colour code the Rimes with the same number of children needing to learn the Rime.  It helps me.  I tend to spend the first term covering the ones that most people need help with on a whole class basis, and the remaining terms targeting the students who need to work on specific Rimes.

I use a variety of methods to teach and practice the Rimes we need to learn.  Through Scholastic Teacher Book Club I've accumulated some books that cover Rimes/word families through poems, games and worksheets - these were usually able to be purchased quite cheaply, so keep an eye out for them in upcoming Teacher Book Clubs.  I've also acquired worksheets created by colleagues and invented my own.  I've use techniques from Chunk Check Cheer! spelling programme (ask your RTLB or RTLit for more information on this programme).  There are also lots of great word family resources at Sparklebox, Teachers Pay Teachers, and just by googling. Here are some photos of my favourite resources I've collected over the years:


This book has a variety of games and activities as you can see on the cover for independent activity and practice during Reading Tumble time.

Great games for independent practice as part of the Reading Tumble.

I have tended to use these poems as part of my homework programme for two reasons:  firstly to identify and highlight the words with the Rime we are focusing on; secondly for reading practice.

This is a big flip book with a CD of songs to help learn the Rime - great sneaky reading practice too.  I usually do this as a whole class, and work well with up to Year 4 students.

I also test my class with Schonell's spelling test three times a year to get a "Spelling Age".  Many people are sceptical about there being a "Spelling Age", but I have found it to be a good gauge of how students are progressing.  I alternate between the A and B version of the test.  You can click here to download the Schonell test I recommend and click here for a text grid for the students to write on.  Click here to download the instructions of how to take the test and work out spelling ages for each student.

At certain points of the term, mainly the beginning, this is a lot of work to set up, mainly because of the testing.  Once you have the students trained up early in the year in how to set out their spelling books and how to get their words, then bringing their books on the right day and able to partner text, it pretty much runs itself. Overall, I have found my programme to be very effective in giving children the confidence to write because they have increased their known written vocabulary each term and they are increasing their ability to identify errors and use resources to self correct.

This is where I finish and leave you with a paper called Reading and Spelling - Spelling: A Cinderella Subject? published by Massey University.  Here is the beginning of the paper to give you an idea about its content, and it is well worth a read for the background of how and why spelling is taught in New Zealand, and how children learn to spell:
In New Zealand, the teaching of spelling might be seen as a Cinderella subject. In many classrooms, spelling is not explicitly taught. Instead, the child is encouraged to approximate correct spellings through the process of writing. Teachers, when reading children’s writing, are expected to build on children’s spelling skills when opportunities arise, taking advantage of the "teachable moment" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 69) to model for the child the process of transforming good approximations into correct spellings.

Children are encouraged to monitor their own spelling, by keeping a "spelling notebook" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 116) which contains words they use in their writing, including words they want to write but find hard to spell. Children are expected to show some accuracy in spelling. They are encouraged to approximate the spellings of words they don’t know how to spell, and to correct misspelled words. They are expected to develop a "spelling conscience" (p. 62), that is, the habit of looking for possible misspelled words in their writing and then correcting them by looking them up in a dictionary. The Report of the Literacy Task Force (Ministry of Education, 1999) suggests that a successful 9-year-old writer "consistently makes informed attempts at spelling." (p. 34)

Why is formal spelling instruction regarded as less effective than the informal approach of learning to spell through writing, and through personal spelling lists? A classic study in the United States by Rice (1897a, 1897 b), published over 100 years ago, has often been cited as evidence to support keeping formal spelling instruction to a minimum. In a national survey of many thousands of classrooms, Rice found no clear differences in spelling achievement, even though there were many different ways of teaching spelling, and even though the amount of time spent teaching spelling varied widely from one school to the next. Rice felt that the main factor in becoming a good speller was time, or maturation. As pupils got older, they got better at spelling. At that time, given that the amount of time devoted to spelling instruction did not seem to make a difference in spelling achievement, Rice recommended that teachers keep spelling lists and drills to about 15 minutes each day.

This is an example of a spelling plan I have used in the past.

Please feel free to ask questions, challenge and share your spelling programme in the comments section.

Homework - the eternal can of worms for teachers, students and families: "To give or not to give? That is the question!"

Homework comes up every now and again, with the arguments for giving and doing homework as opposed to the arguments for not giving and not doing homework.

Homework has been around forever!!

When I was a kid, in the juniors, we had home reading.  I remember being very excited to get my hard folder with the elastic inside to keep the book safe in my bag.  Mum tells me that it came home about three nights a week and was not tedious at all, because I was a good reader (and better than my brother - don't tell him that though). 

Of course I got older and went into the senior class (we only had two classrooms until late in my Standard 3 year) and the homework was different.  Each week there were two kids in charge of running the homework.  They would decide each day who would do what homework activities for the following day and ran that time at the beginning of each day.  They could divvy out the following:

• book review
• hobby
• mime
• impromptu speech
• blindfold tasting

We also had a country of the week to research.  Mr Smith would work his way through the alphabet as the year went on and we learnt about countries, capital cities and important facts from all over the world, as well as about how to read maps.  I think this is the reason why I know where so many places are and have a rough idea about many countries.  I still am fascinated with maps and the like.

When I was at high school there usually was homework for a class, such as reading a book, writing an essay, drawing pictures, creating 3-D dioramas, memorising chemistry symbols, practising maths which I sucked at.... studying for exams.

Then you go to University and there is always stuff you have to do independently out of lecture and tutorials like reading, research and writing essays... and in the case of training to be a teacher, there is lesson planning and resource making.

This week's #asiaED slow chat on Twitter is focused on homework.  So far three questions have been asked:
Monday: What is your opinion on homework?
Tuesday: How would you define a good homework task in your subject area?
Wednesday: How can technology be used to make homework tasks even better?

A slow chat is when a question is posted fairly early in the day (because it's being posted somewhere in Asia it is about 10 or 11 am New Zealand time) and you have all day to respond.  #asiaEDchat lasts for a week with the same topic but a different question each day.

On Monday I was able to participate.  I happened to be the first person to respond to the first question because I was on Twitter at the time.  Below is a Storify of the chat over the day, which I mostly took from what @asiaEDchat tweeted and retweeted.

Sadly Storify has deleted itself from the Social Media landscape and none of my Storifies exist anymore.  😭😭😭😭

On Tuesday and Wednesday I was not able to participate, but I did Storify the conversation from what was tweeted and retweeted by @asiaEDchat.

Sadly Storify has deleted itself from the Social Media landscape and none of my Storifies exist anymore.  😭😭😭😭

So this is my initial tweet (and I apologise for any spelling errors, my phone and/or tablet and I don't always get it right, and in the heat of the chat we sometimes don't spell check) where I say I can take homework or leave it:

Why can I live without giving homework?  Because that is one less thing I would have to do with my day and my week.  Homework takes up a lot of organisation time, class time, growling at those kids who didn't do it time and analysing time.  Because you see, I don't give out the stock standard worksheet anymore.  Once upon a time I did, and it was easy, and I had them all photocopied out at the beginning of each term for the whole term ready to go before the term even started.  But now I don't.

Here is an outline of what I give for homework:

• reading - if the child is age appropriate or above, I prefer that they choose their own reading material, be it from a browsing box, a library book or a newspaper or other text within the home.
• spelling - each child has their own spelling list.  The words for each child comes after in class testing of the NZCER researched Essential Spelling Lists 1-7 as well as a list called Commonly Misspelt Words.  The child only learns the words they got wrong.  For my more advanced spellers I have a book called Spelling for Frustrated Teachers.  From that book I write up a list of words on the board for children to choose from.  In some multilevel classes I would have three different lists depending on ability for students to choose from.
• basic facts - again this is derived from testing.  I have sourced, through one school I worked at, tests for each Numeracy stage for basic facts.  At Stage 2/3 they must get 28 or more out of 30 to progress to Stage 4.  If the child gets less than 28 correct, their basic facts homework focuses on Stage 2/3.  From Stage 4, a child must get 56 or more from 60 to progress to the next stage.  When some children are very close to the achieved mark I give them the stage that they are working on, plus the next stage up to learn and practise their basic facts with a bit more of a challenge.

And this is why I give homework:  I've seen the reading, spelling and basic facts levels of my students improve - some with little jumps, some with steady jumps, and some have made massive jumps. 

Home reading gives that bit of extra practice on top of the reading we do at school - shared reading with the newsbook and poetry, guided reading, silent reading, reading for research, sneaky reading (aka singing).... and I want home reading to encourage a passion for reading, to read when the teacher isn't looking!  All that reading adds up to a child being a more confident, fluent reader.  This picture below, even though it is from the US, demonstrates the difference for young readers if they do not get enough reading in their day.

Reading is a vital skill for every person, so Dr Seuss said it best when he said this:

Spelling is incredibly important in order to be able to write.  Doing spelling homework alone does not a good speller make.  The writing process, the phonics and word work done during language time, those games we put out to reinforce sounds... it all combines with homework to improve spelling.

Two years ago I had two Year 5 students who could barely write a sentence.  They had no writing vocabulary and no sound knowledge despite having had assistance all through their school years.  We did all of the above in our daily programme.  The RTLB working with them got them My Dictionary books so they could have a place to look for words they wanted to write with and collect words for the stories they wanted to write. 

Each term when we did the tests on the Essential Lists they improved; slow, small steps at first, but by the third term there was a big increase, and the last term I taught them they were having a go at lists they never would have dreamed of doing.  Added to that was the fact they were now using inventive spelling, using their sound knowledge to spell words they had no idea how to spell, and these words were mostly readable in the context of their stories. 

They went from not even being able to write one sentence, to writing a huge paragraph with five or six sentences and even asking to write!  When I asked them what the big difference was for them with their writing, they said it was being able to spell the words they wanted to tell the story with.

These two pieces of writing were written in their second term of Year 6, but this was independent writing, something that a year before they could not do.  I was very proud of them.

They took their spelling homework seriously (as did their mum) and the work they put into it made a big difference in not only their Essential Lists testing, but in their writing and self esteem.  The rest of the class were very encouraging towards these two children in all aspects of learning, even the ones who also had areas they struggled in.

Again I test my basic facts each term.  I set the homework for each child based on the level they are yet to master.  After the first term I also give most of the students the next stage above as well to give them something to aim for; to improve at that level for those who have already had a go at that level, or for the ones who haven't, an opportunity to practice that level.  This is an example from Stage 5:

Some of my top kids in basic facts ask for the work for all the levels available, and despite the fact that I do factor in practice of the lower levels in each level as they progress, who am I to argue with a kid who wants more homework? 

When it comes to the strugglers down on the Stage 2/3 facts, I try not to put the pressure on, but experience tells me that it's not that they don't know the answers, it's just that they don't have the speed to do it in the timeframe of the test.  Consequently I have sometimes given the next level up to them as well in consultation with them and their parents.

I've also been a bit adventurous in giving students the opportunity to do a more inquiry based homework.  Here are some things I have tried and some comments I have about them.

The Alphabet Inquiry was something I came across while relieving at an Intermediate with School of Education students coming in.  One class I was relieving in was actually me supervising a student teacher, and he inspired this piece of work.  It is actually a lot of research, and I mostly used it in this form with Year 7/8 students and it would be two weeks worth of homework.

When I wanted to use it for younger  students I cut down the activities as you can see above.  This homework was presented as shared learning, and this means that I didn't mark it.  We took turns giving our information and discussed and debated it.

The Anzac Day homework is something I give out every year.  The Scavenger Hunt gets the kids looking in the newspapers, magazines or online.  The newspapers are really good at looking at their "local Anzac heroes" so the local small time papers are a treasure trove for kids as well as the bigger national and regional papers that they may or may not get.

I ask the kids to discuss what Anzac Day means to their family and how do they spend the day.  It is amazing how many of these kids inspire their parents to go to the dawn parade with them as a result.

Making Anzac Biscuits always goes down a treat in any house, and if I am really, really lucky the kids will bring in a biscuit or two for me as well.  We often end up making biscuits in class time as well, and we have engaged in taste tests between bought and homemade Anzac Biscuits which resulted in some venn diagrams and persuasive writing.

I also ask the children to look into their own families and see if there is someone who served New Zealand during a war or conflict.  Personally, my great grandfather fought at Passchendaele in WWI; my great Uncle Malcolm was in the first echelon and served through to the end of WWII; my grandad was in the home guard in WWII; my great Uncle Thorold served in Korea and his son Les in Vietnam; and my cousin served with the RNZAF in Somalia.  The personal stories mean so much and create a larger connection for the children, and it is amazing the stories that come in.

Auntie Alice is a song that was Top 40 in New Zealand before I was born, and my dad remembers it!  It is also a really popular song in our schools thanks to Kiwi Kidsongs.

But it has always bothered me:  What did Auntie Alice give the newly weds that had everyone so up in arms?

And the kids always ask this too.

So I put it back onto them and asked them to read the lyrics and come up with what Aunty Alice gave them.  The following Friday brings some interesting contraptions into class.  Some kids make replica old time radios.  Some make a juke box.  I had wiz bang contraptions with I-pods put in for good measure.

It certainly is a task that brings out some creativity.

May is New Zealand Music Month and I am passionate about New Zealand music and expose my class to it as much as possible.

They are actually really surprised at how much New Zealand music they know and I usually end up with a variety of really cool music coming into class. 

In 2012 a Year 5 boy introduced us to Devilskin because his dad is friends with the guitarist who was from Te Awamutu.  Before the year was out they had become one of my favourite New Zealand bands!

May also brings to New Zealand the International Comedy Festival.  So I decided my class should have their own festival!

You will note that I stipulate that the joke I am asking them to present has to be one they can tell the principal and their grandmother!

This gives me the opportunity to whip out all my child friendly bad taste jokes too.

But it also gives the children a chance to present to the class orally, and it is a short presentation so it is ideal in the lead up to speeches (which is often in term two).

It is amazing how many kids revert back to good old Billy T James.  And I have used Billy T James often as a class treat to watch on YouTube.

With this homework project I gave the children three choices:
* stop the birds eating our school strawberries
* stop the birds from flying into our class and multipurpose room
* that annoying fly buzzing around your head as you try to go to sleep.

This is a really good activity to get some technological creativity coming out in the learning, and it is also really good to get a measure of a child's sense of humour and family values.

I had one kid simply bring in a fly swat to combat the third choice.

Another child brought in a bullet to solve the bird problem (hunting and fishing family background).

And then I've had kids that have painstakingly constructed a miniature garden with the apparatus installed or a curtain of beads to cover a doorway!

And by the way, we did use some of the ideas to protect the school strawberry patch that summer.

Allergy Week was a real surprise for me.  Allergies have become an increasing societal problem and more prevalent at schools every year.

So a few days after I sent this homework home, I got a text from the principal's wife as their eldest son was in my class.  She offered to come in on Friday and talk to the kids about allergies.  I knew she had a few allergies, but I didn't truly understand the full impact on her life or how many until she did.

Sarah was able to tell us about how she discovered her allergies, the process of working out what she was actually allergic to, and how she mitigates it.  On top of what the children had found out themselves and presented before Sarah spoke, it became a very powerful discussion.

Consequently, whenever Sarah came into the school afterwards, the children were very aware of what was hazardous to her and would warn her if there was long grass, pollen, an animal or a particular food within the school that day.  That is imbedded learning!

One of the bonuses of doing these inquiries was the family learning that happened.  Mums and Dads would get engaged in the process, and when I would see them at the school gate or the supermarket or elsewhere I would hear the back stories of the projects and how they learnt together.

These inquiry projects bring amazing learning into the class, but I pick and choose whether or not every class can cope with this on top of the basic home learning of reading, spelling and basic facts.  For some classes it is an extra option, with usually the go-getters attempting it.

So lets look at the for and against arguments for homework:

The Benefits

• The first benefit of homework is that it allows students and teachers to work more closely together. 
• The second benefit is that it can bring families closer together as students may ask their parents or siblings for help on their homework; it will also allow parents to get more involved in their child's educational life.
• Thirdly, doing homework will prepare students for the big end tests and also provides students with the opportunity to practice at what it takes to be successful in school.
• Doing homework is also a great way to develop responsibilities;, that it has to be done by the next day.
• And finally it allows parents to see how their children are being educated and they can develop a better idea of how they can help their child.

The Potential Harm

• The first reason that children should not be given homework is that they need time to relax and take their minds off work, and they need time to refresh their minds and bodies.
• Secondly, it reduces the amount of time that children could be spending with their families.
• Thirdly, homework can cause conflict between children and parents when the parent wants to the child to do their homework but meets resistance from the student to do an overwhelming task.
• Too much homework can encourage cheating because children end up copying off one another in an attempt to finish all their assignments. They then end up being rewarded for cheating which doesn't benefit them at all.
• And finally, a lot of teachers don't often have the time to grade papers properly as they are too busy with designing lesson plans and consulting teaching resources in order to just manage lessons. So by the time students are getting their papers back, the class has moved on to a new topic.

The above summary comes from a post called 5 Reasons Kids Need Homework and 5 Reasons They Don't.  Even though it is a bit Americanised, it does ring true to many ideas around homework in New Zealand.

This New Zealand teacher at her blog site Learning My Way has put some thought into it.  Kerri discusses why teachers give homework in her post The continuing debate about homework... and explains how her beliefs have changed and what she does in her homework programme.  In her post Yeah, yeah, yeah... talking homework again! Kerri discusses the results of surveying her students' parents about homework and what sort of home learning programme she runs.

The subject of whether or not to give out homework and what homework should consist of will always be a subject of debate and vexation.  And I will stick to my original assertion, I can live without homework, but I know the benefits of homework and I know the basics work to support in class learning and progress.