Homework or not?

Hi friends!  I posted a question on my Facebook page the other day asking whether teachers though homework was a good thing or not.  The teachers that left comments all indicted that they DID NOT like homework.  My children currently go to a school where homework is not formally given, the are encouraged to do home reading and to finish any tasks that were not finished at school, sometimes I like this, sometimes not.  My children seem to finish everything at school, so homework is usually reading and piano practice for my daughter (she loves it so not really a chore for her)
I think this is a topic that is hotly debated by both parents and teachers so I thought I would open it up here for discussion.
As a teacher I dislike assigning homework, copying, marking it and following up on those that didn't do it and were unlikely to ever do it for whatever reason.  As a parent I dislike the time it cuts into my family time, I am not of a worksheet mentality I would rather have my kids doing hands on as much as they can.

As a parent I like to read with my child, I like to see what they are doing in the classroom and I like to see where they need help so that I can be part of their schooling without having the opportunity to be in their classroom.  At the moment I don't think I am getting a complete picture of that on a weekly basis.

So you can see why I sometimes like it, sometimes not.  There have been many articles and studies done on whether we need homework or how homework is outdated and needs to be more reflective of our modern lifestyle as indicated in this article.

Over the last couple of years I would like to think that in my classroom I have slowly been modifying my homework to reflect the modern lifestyle will all have.  I have given my students a rubric that allows them to make choices about the activities they complete and they amount that they do.  My homework also includes family activities so that any extra curricula activities are part of their "home"work.  The student would have to complete the shaded activities and then choose any of the others that they would like to.  I just noticed that record the spelling strategies you used should be shaded.

Here is a quick sample of  one week.  Please note this is not current as I am subbing at the moment.

After I had written this post I noticed a fabulous blogger I follow Amanda at Teaching Maddeness  has just done a blog post on how she sets up her homework which has another spin on homework, so why not head over and check it out.  If you have a way that motivates your students or parents to engage in homework please feel free to leave a comment