Each student at the middle school is issued an assignment notebook, or daily planner, at the beginning of the school year. These are invaluable tools for keeping track of assignments and other school responsibilities. Most students use them as they feel a need to do so.
Some students are finding the additional academic responsibilities expected at middle school a bit challenging. One of the most effective ways we can help a student who is finding it difficult to get homework done is for her or him to use the assignment notebook on a daily, class-by-class basis. Here is the way this works best:
1. The student fills in the homework assignment in the notebook in each class - even if there is no assignment - and brings it to the teacher to sign. Writing down the assignment is the student's, not the teacher's, responsibility.
2. The notebook is taken home and shown to you, who will then know what, if any, the assignment is.
3. A program of consequences is arranged at home (removal of TV or game privileges or other restrictions are common strategies) if the student
a) does not bring the notebook home,
b) has not filled it in,
c) has not gotten the teachers' signatures, or
d) has not brought the homework materials home.
4. Students must present these homework items for parental review - even if they were completed in school. You may then decide if your child has dedicated appropriate effort to the assignment, and provide assistance if you so wish.
Assignment notebooks do place an additional burden on the teacher, student, and parent alike. The goal, of course, is to have the 6th-grade student take care of these responsibilities on his or her own, but we parents and teachers, who care so deeply for these children, will provide this extra help and guidance so long as it is needed. Perhaps after several weeks or months (when, hopefully, the use of the assignment notebook has fostered good homework habits) with the concurrence of the three parties, we may try having the notebook used without the teacher signature, and then without parental review.
If a student loses an assignment notebook, another one is available in the middle school office for $3.00
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