Every June when school lets out kids are relieved, because they don’t have any homework for 3 months. Honors kids at Green High School don’t get this pleasure. Every summer kids who are in Honors Language Arts have a summer reading assignment. I believe that summer homework assignments for honors students are not necessary or effective.
Honors students do their summer reading every summer, because they care about their grades, and they don’t want to put their GPA at risk, but are these summer reading assignments as effective as administrators think? I interviewed Jessie Spoerndle, a freshman honors student at Green High School. When I asked Jessie if she thought summer homework benefited and expanded her language arts skills she said, “Nope….
The Honors Program student embodies the virtues of independence, academic talent, intellectual curiosity, and persistence. In a brief essay, of approximately 500 words, please tell us how your reasons for admission to the Honors Program as well as your long and short terms academic goals speak to these four virtues. In doing so, you might consider the following questions:
The “no” author presents her case more effectively. Nancy acknowledges the other side, but clearly maintains her stance. For example, she says, “I’m hugely in favor of students reading over the summer, but asking them to plow through a long required-reading list turns an activity that should be fun into a dreaded chore,” which proves that she’s in favor of students continuing to progress their knowledge, but wants them to enjoy their summer. She also recognizes that there are important things other than academics. As shown in paragraph 4, she says, “But there are a few things summer homework does accomplish effectively: It steals time away from other important aspects of learning, such as play, which helps young people master social skills and teamwork. In addition, writing book reports means fewer hours being physically active, which is essential for good health and weight control, not to mention proper brain development.” This shows that being physically active and learning social skills/teamwork can play a part in proper brain development. This made her argument stronger because it demonstrates logos, which added to the logical appeal.
Summer break can be relaxing, however, students begin to be too comfortable with it; instead of studying during school, they grow to be as lazy as they are during the summer. The Editors, author of the article, Crush of Summer Homework, interviewed the chairman of the psychology department at Duke University, Harris Cooper. He stated, “The long summer vacation disrupts the rhythm of instruction, leads to forgetting, and requires time be spent reviewing old material when students return to school in fall” (The Editors). Consequently, an inactivated studying habit remains unacceptable as the behavior in school requires academic and engaged activeness. Not only do colleges also require heaps of effort, even high school. A.P. classes require to
Michael Henry’s article “Whats with This Summer Reading” has readers pondering why summer reading has students “moving one step further from reading.” Michael Henry explains that one day he saw a teenager becoming very frustrated with the book he was reading. He asked why the young man was reading the book and the boy said, because it was a summer reading assignment. This made Henry think and he began to research summer reading assignments. He wanted to find out what was causing so much frustration.
I honestly think teachers would like to assign homework over the summer for students to do to make sure they don’t forget anything that they learned over the year. Or for instance take an introduction of what they are going to be doing during the upcoming year in August. I personally think that students would not do that homework over the summer that was assigned to them. Summer is for a break from school, a time to relax and not have to worry about school, two months to do whatever we wanted. To sleep in and stay up late not having to worry about waking up early and going to school. I would assume that teachers would think handing out homework to do over summer is beneficial but do they honestly really think that the students will do it?
No one wants homework over the summer. I see summer as a time to forget about school, and just have fun. I think most people feel the same, but despite how most people feel some of my teacher assigned homework over the summer. As you could image, I was highly upset about this. I was even thinking about not doing my assignment, but I knew that I didn’t want to start the year off failing. Little did I know that by the end of the summer my life would be changed, and I would be a new person. All thanks to Sandra Cisneros.
Summer reading should be engaging. It should force students to think deeper and question societal
The CDE (Colorado Department of Education) has an idea, give students homework over summer. I personally think that is a silly idea. I also have proof that this is a silly idea. I’ll be using studies, and research articles. To prove the CDE shouldn’t give students homework over summer.
Being in the Honors Program would be challenging obstacle. You will have more tests, more homework, and will be able to take the AP exam for some classes. So in the process of these classes you are being prepared for higher classes like the IB and/or AP courses. I think that the Honors Program will prepare me for the higher courses because in the classes they prepare you for your future. The classes will will help you to exceed in IB and/or AP because of the high expectations that the teachers hold to your ability. Also in college when high expectations need to be met you will have a lot more confidence because you know what the teachers are going to expect from you. This program will also help my writing skills improve because in High School
Do you think that you spent your summer break productively? Some schools require that students participate in or complete summer projects. Some of these schools assign these projects themselves, and others let the students pick the activities or projects that they need to complete, but which way leads to better results? I believe that teachers assigning the projects over summer is better, because it ensures what they are doing is productive, it doesn't leave the students with all of the responsibility, and it ensures that what they are doing will actually help them remember what they need to.
Many Classes, mostly English, send homework home with students over the summer. Lately, it has been quite the controversy weather or not students should have to do summer homework. Teachers most commonly send home homework for the summer so that when school starts the teacher can jump right into the lectures, and quizzes. Teachers do not usually send homework for the summers unless the students are in and AP, or honors class, and this usually only occurs with English, summer reading. There are many reasons why summer homework is beneficial, and why it is not beneficial such as the student may forget what was learned over the summer, when they forget to do the work, the student will not have as much time to do what they want to do, and the student signed up for that class.
The main argument of this article is the importance of summer reading for economically disadvantaged students. Research shares, “ensuring easy and continuing access to self-selected books for summer reading is one potential strategy for addressing summer reading setback and therefore, addressing the reading achievement gap that exists between students from more and less economically advantaged families” (Allington et al, 2010, p. 423). Even though teachers “do not work” during the summer months, it is crucial to help economically disadvantaged students to become equipped with summer reading materials. Many students are often bored after a few days of summer vacation therefore, teachers can provide reading material that meets the needs of students
Why do you think we need summer vacation? Students can take creative classes ranging from karate to screenwriting to relieve stress. According to Nora Huynh, when some people in high school get lower grades on their report cards, this why we need summer vacation to relieve stress. This also happens in college when people get low grades, there are some group activates that help boost a grade. As well as stress can be hard on a person’s life and could lead to the teen harming themselves or others. Sometimes if you have to much homework we don’t get to have as much time with our families or our friends that is why people need less homework to help relieve stress. (Huynh). Over summer vacation a kid’s mind is open and he or she is ready for the new school year, this can help with a kids learning skills and his or her life memories. The kids can build up allot of stress during the school year (Huynh). This why kids need to have summer off. Parents don’t have time to help their children do homework because they work.
This summer I had a summer reading problem. I had a list of books that I got before school ended, that I had to choose a book from to read over the summer. I also had to read a book of my choice for a total of 2 books. For the next month and a half I read my usual summer books and totally forgot that the list even existed. One day while I was biking with my neighbor she asked me how I was going on my summer reading project. I only had two weeks to get on of the books and read it. Teachers say that we should read books over the summer so that when we get back to school, teachers can get to teach the important things for the year, but is summer reading a good idea?
It is important for adolescents to participate in extracurricular activities. Student who participate in these activities improve their academic scores and social life. Extracurricular activities can also help reduce many peer pressure related problems. “They enrich the lives of the students, their families and our communities. These activities create well rounded children who learn what their interests and talents are because they have been exposed to such opportunities” (Extracurricular Activities, Blogadmin). For most adolescents extracurricular activities should be required among what they do outside of school.