​The Honors Academy of Literature recognizes that there are solid arguments to be made both in favor and against homework, and can find research to support both practices. However, in surveying local high schools, all reported that they require students to complete homework, and that homework makes up a portion of the students’ grade. A study conducted by Challenge Success from 2018-2020 found that high school students spend on average 2.7 hours per night working on homework. We believe that it is important to build work-at-home stamina among scholars, so that they are best prepared for high school, and have instituted a developmental homework progression plan to support scholars in building this skill set. Our homework policy requires each scholar to complete 10 minutes per grade-level per night (4 nights a week) of homework:
 
Kinder- does not apply, please see info from your teacher for expectations
1st- 10 minutes per night x 4 nights per week = 40 minutes total per week
2nd 20 minutes per night 4 nights per week = 80 minutes total per week
3nd 30 minutes per night 4 nights per week = 120 minutes total per week
4th 40 minutes per night 4 nights per week = 160 minutes total per week
5th 50 minutes per night 4 nights per week = 200 minutes total per week
6th 60 minutes per night 4 nights per week = 240 minutes total per week
7th 70 minutes per night 4 nights per week = 280 minutes total per week
8th 80 minutes per night 4 nights per week = 320 minutes total per week
 
We also know that families’ schedules are busy! To help you and your scholar better manage the homework expectation, we assign homework weekly on Monday and it is not due until the following Monday. This gives you the whole school week and weekend to fit it in around your family’s schedule.
 
We want to reduce the burden on families and teachers that homework can create as much as possible while still giving scholars the opportunity to build the habits they will need to be successful with homework in high school. I am pleased to tell you that we will be using a website called IXL as our primary resource for homework this year. IXL is a comprehensive learning program offering unlimited math, language arts, science, and social studies practice across thousands of skills—all of which are aligned to the Nevada Academic Content Standards. Your scholar will be accessing this program at home, so you have a chance to see their progress!
 
To get your child started on your home computer, please follow these easy steps:
 
1.Go to academyoflit.org
2.Navigate to the Helpful Links section of the homepage and select IXL

 
3.Enter your child's username and
4.Once logged in, your scholar should start with the Skills assigned by their teacher
 
 
Scholars must earn a Smart Score of 70 or higher for the skill to be considered complete.
 
 
 
If your scholar is struggling with the skill, there are resources to help built in. They can click on the “Learn with an Example” dropdown at the top of the page. If they continue to struggle with the skill, there is a link to foundational resources at the bottom of the page.

5.Once your scholar has completed the assigned skills, they are free to choose any tasks from the recommendations page. This portion of the program is designed to help your child learn at their own pace. The program is adaptive and will adjust based on your child's demonstrated understanding of the material. There is no Smart Score with Recommendations that you need to worry about. All of your child's results will be saved, so you can monitor their progress anytime by clicking on Analytics.
 
For on-the-go practice, you can download IXL’s free mobile apps for Apple, Android, or Kindle and sign in with your child’s username and password.
 
I hope you'll encourage your child to use IXL regularly; however, all of their assigned homework time should not be on IXL. Your scholar’s teacher may have other tasks to complete listed on their weekly homework card in Altitude. We also always encourage scholars to spend some time reading at home every day, and this time can also count towards homework minutes.
 
Please note, homework is to be completed outside of school time. If your scholar says that they finished their homework in class, that is great, that means they got some extra class time practice; however, that does not meet the requirement for homework because it does not work to build the stamina they will need for completing homework in high school. All homework is to be done outside of the regular school day.    
 
Please feel free to reach out with any questions!