Dear Teachers Q & A

When Is Retention the Answer?     

Question: The school wants to keep my son in third grade again next school year. They say he is not working on grade level in reading, math, science or social studies. Do you think this is a good idea? – Looking for an answer

Answer:  If retention is truly going to be successful, it definitely needs to be done in the lower elementary grades. Whatever problems your son has, retention is not likely to solve them. Many years of research have shown retention to be ineffective in helping children improve the skills that caused them to be retained in the first place. Most children do not “catch up!” Furthermore, although some retained students do better at first, these children often fall behind in later grades. In addition, retention after fifth grade is rarely successful. Plus, it is usually very traumatic for older children.

There are still 6 to 8 weeks left of this school year, enough time for you and the teacher to devise a plan that will start working on improving your son’s skills. Testing might be advisable to make sure that his academic problems are not a learning disability and should identify exactly where his problems lie.

Fortunately, there is an entire summer to bring up his many weak skills. Summer school, a tutor, a college learning center for reading and math help—all are good choices to help him.

Frequently, multiple skill weaknesses are connected to reading problems. You should start reading aloud nightly with your son to bolster his confidence in his ability to read. Go also online to the Dear Teacher website where you will find ways to improve his reading in our Skill Builders section. If you start working now and throughout the summer with your son, he should be better prepared to handle the challenges of fourth grade and avoid being retained.

Cutting Homework Time

Question:  Is there anything parents can do to cut children’s homework time? Doing homework at our house just takes so long there is not time for family fun activities.  – Too Much Work

Answer: You really can’t do much about your children’s volume of homework, but you can help them be more efficient in the way they handle it—reducing homework time. Whether you like it or not, your job is to help your children learn how to take care of the details of homework, so homework time is reduced. First of all, have an established homework routine so time is not wasted on battles about when kids should do their homework.

Have a dedicated homework area. It should be away from the nosiest and most distracting part of your home. The area should definitely have good lighting and have a large, flat surface for doing work. It’s also helpful to have a box, bin or shelf filled with all the supplies children are likely to need, like pencils, pens, ruler, stapler, notecards, notebooks, glue, colored pencils, crayons, dictionary and thesaurus so time will not be wasted looking for materials.

One reason homework may take too long is that children do not have a plan of attack for the order in which they will do assignments. Work with your children on this until they can handle it themselves. Some like to do the easier assignments first, and some prefer to start with the more difficult ones.

When children simply cannot do an assignment, you may need to do some teaching. Always try to use concrete materials when teaching them. If this occurs frequently, it is time for a chat with their teachers as this may be why homework is taking them so long to do.

Parents should send questions and comments to dearteacher@dearteacher.com or the Dear Teacher website. ©Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2020