Homework bound – Scheduling influences study time

Homework is a part of life for high school and junior high school students.

Emily Keizer, a seventh-grader at South Junior High School, types on her home computer while preparing a presentation for her geography class. Some junior high school students say block scheduling lightens homework load.

Scheduling during school days has a lot to do with the amount of homework, teachers said.

“Because of the block schedule, there is a lot more time to do homework,” said Carol McFall, an English teacher at South Junior High School. “And we have much more time in class. For kids who have a lot of after-school activities, homework is the biggest stress causer because they don’t have as much time as other kids; same thing goes to the kids who are in band or orchestra. They don’t have a study hall.”

Is homework essential?

Harlanne Roberts, reading specialist at South Junior High, believed so.

“Students have enough homework,” Roberts said. “The block schedule can be useful for having time in class to work on their homework and get help if they need it. Homework is helpful and sometimes essential to practice a concept and learn it for the long term.”

South Junior High students also said block scheduling helped ease the burdens of homework.

“I do have a lot of homework sometimes, but not so much that I feel overwhelmed,” said Allison Burke, South seventh-grader. “The block schedule is probably the reason for this.”

Unlike South, West and Central junior high schools, Southwest has a modified block schedule. Southwest has a basic eight-period day on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Instructional time in classes those days is 45 minutes. Because of early release of students for staff collaboration time on Wednesdays, instructional time those days is 70 minutes for each class. Classes on Thursday are 94 minutes of instructional time. Southwest also rotates periods Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“I get about 45 minutes to one hour and 30 minutes (of homework a day),” said Lauren Bandle, a seventh-grader at Southwest. “I am really scared about next year because I think I am going to get so much more than this.”

Tommy Cottin a Central eighth-grader, accepts his homework load.

“I say people should just stop complaining about how much homework we get,” he said. “If all you do is complain, nothing will happen. Just do the homework, learn the material, and move on.”


Emily Keizer is a seventh-grader at South Junior High School.