Homework Help for Parents!
Helping your son with his Salesian High homework assignments can be a challenge.
 
Here is some information you should know...
  • Your son has no time to do his homework in school
    • Unlike your high school days, Salesian High has no study halls
    • Your son's "lunch hour" is only 35 minutes, so he cannot complete his homework during lunch
      • Therefore, he has NEVER finished his homework in school
  • Your son has about two hours of homework every day
    • He will have writing assignments, questions to answer, and math problems to complete
      • This will not take two hours, and this is NOT all your son has to do
    • He should work on his Cornell notebooks every day
      • Usually, students fill notebooks with words and never look at them before exam time
      • When your son rewrites his notes into his Cornell notebook, he's actually studying!
      • He is also thinking about what he learned and using the left border for further study and note taking
        • Click here to learn more about Cornell note taking
    • He has reading to complete in his textbooks
    • He has novels to read for English class
    • He has studying to do for tests and quizzes
      • So when your son is "done" with his homework after a half-hour, he's skipped most of this list
  • There are 500 students in our school and only 46 seats in the library
    • The library is open for only 30 minutes before homeroom; not enough time to complete homework
    • The library is open for only 35 minutes during lunch; not enough time to complete homework
    • The library is open for only one hour after school; also not enough time to complete homework
  • Planning your son's 2 hours of homework
    • It need not be two hours straight
      • Instead consider an hour before supper and an hour after supper
    • He should have a set place to work
      • It should be in a quiet place without distractions, like TV
  • Your son follows a "Block Schedule"
    • He attends each class for a double-period every other day
    • Example...
      • Your son has English on Monday, Day 1
        • He will receive homework on Monday
        • He will try to ignore this homework Monday night
      • He will not have English again until Wednesday, Day 3
        • He will want to put off his English homework until Tuesday night
      • Do NOT permit this!
        • By Tuesday, he will have forgotten much of what he learned on Monday
        • If he does his homework Monday night and has problems, he can check with his English teacher on Tuesday
        • He will have gotten lots more homework on Tuesday and is now overloaded
    • You should insist that your son does all of his homework for all of the classes he had THAT day
  • Insist that your son use his Agenda Book
    • He should record all of his assignments and deadlines in his Agenda Book
      • He should check off each assignment when he completes it
    • He should have phone numbers of fellow students so he can check on assignments when he's absent from school
      • With a Block schedule, when he's absent one day, he misses two class periods
    • He should record his grades in the Agenda Book "Record of Achievement"
      • You will always know how your son's doing in school if you can see all of his grades in his "Record of Achievement"
        • Click here to learn more about the Agenda Book

For Homework Help Resources for Parents, click here.
To see teachers' office hours
(for extra help for your son) click here.
Click here to return to the Parents' Page.