When dealing with packets, students are given the ability to manage their time how they please. For example if student A has basketball on Mondays, he or she can do it the next day since they would have more time. Also, it teaches students good work ethic because they learn not to procrastinate and finish their work in whatever method they work best with. At the end of the day, it not only teaches kids the subject matter but also good work ethic.
I'm a student myself and my English teacher continues to give me and the whole class packets. We've told her we disagree with this type of learning . No one is ever really paying attention in her class because the information is already there. We are on our phones constantly because there is no learning done. It is proven that students learn better by writing it or hearing it, in my class we never take notes ONLY PACKETS
Too many teachers have given up on the profession. They forgot, or never cared in the first place, how important interaction with a student is. You can tell an involved teacher from a lazy one by how excited the students are, how the kids look forward to the class. Learning is, or should be, interactive
Think about it this way, when you actually use the method of teaching a student, they are there to actually process and understand it because whilst taking notes, they're able to constantly review the given information. No lets wind the clock back a little and say you give them a packet with them having 0% knowledge on what they are doing, how will they understand, It's quality over quantity when it comes to this kind of educational gestures because you want their brains to process it not stress over it. In fact studies show that students who break down their studying time and not study at a whole chunk are more likely to process the information needed than taking a whole chunk of an assignment and cramping it into your brain.
What do the students do with the packets? They full in the blanks by reading a passage or listening to the teacher. Ever heard of blooms taxonomy? That is the lowest level. Remembering, is the lowest level of learning. They need to create their own notes. When they do that they start with a sheet of lined paper and they turn it into so much more. When I studied with flash cards I would know more just from writing the things in. I used to have this math teacher that would give us packets of notes and we would fill in the blanks. I would not get very good grades on her tests. Many people, including me, got low bs. The teacher moved halfway through the year and a teacher relaxed her. This teacher was amazing. It was nothing she said though. She had us make out own notes and from that point on I did not have to study for math and I got an A+ on every test. Students will learn more if they write their own notes because they write down the definition of a term which makes it easier for them to do it on the test.
Who gave me math homework that involved LOOKING UP INFORMATION ON THE COMPUTER. This was not a research project; it was MATH homework. Shouldn't teachers tell us the information we need? Do we really have to look it up ourselves? Because if not, our educational system has become absolutely ridiculous.
What Debatingishealthy says is right; students need an actual teacher if they're going to learn properly. And if students are instead receiving an incredibly long homework assignment, they're not learning anything at all. Here are my reasons for saying no:
1. Homework is made for memorization. You learn things at school and get homework so you can practice what you learned. Now, if homework is made to help you memorize, then keep in mind that when you memorize something, it helps to pace yourself. Don't do it all at once: do one question at a time. Practice 10 minutes a day or something. But if you just get a giant packet, you can't really practice 10 minutes a day or something. . . You just have to do it all at once.
2. Long homework is stressful. If you don't do it all at once like I just mentioned, you constantly have it lingering over your head. It's hard to enjoy anything when you know you have homework to do, even if it's on the weekend.
In order for a child to learn properly they must have a teacher to teach them visually. Some teachers give students tons of homework so they can 'understand' it but really it doesn't help children. More homework actually stresses kids out so they are too focused on trying to finish the homework so they don't put time and effort into it. By the time they finish the assignment they weren't focused on the material and feel confident about what they have accomplished, they feel relieved that they could finish it. So everything they were supposed to learn was thrown out the door because of stress and trying finish it, and not taking time to think.
If a student sits in a completely quiet and still classroom, sifting through a packet and waiting for a class to be over, they are not learning! With both my experience and knowledge from articles I've read, the best way to learn is hands-on activity, and students will learn and remember more if a teacher says something memorable. A teacher is there to teach, why don't some do it?