AF Amistad High School Family Handbook 2017-2018 | 46 Homework at AFAHS requires careful thought and attention to detail. Students should not expect to complete homework quickly or while engaging in other tasks, such as riding on the bus, eating meals, socializing, texting, talking on the phone, “Facebooking,” watching television, and gaming. Students need a range of study habits to ensure they complete top-quality homework. These habits include time management, initiative (not procrastinating), intentionally completing more difficult assignments first, asking questions about assignments when confused, re-reading difficult passages, and strategically studying for tests and quizzes. AFAHS parents are expected to partner with the school and their child in helping students develop these study habits. In particular, parents can help by providing their child with a quiet space at home, free from distractions, where their child can complete homework. Parents are encouraged to remove obstacles from the student’s path including television, computers, gaming systems, phones, and to the extent possible, household chores and babysitting. Homework must be a priority for the family, and it is critical that parents communicate the importance of homework completion to students. Following an absence, students are expected to return to school with the homework completed that was due on the day of the absence. Students who return from an absence and do not submit the assignments that were due the day they were absent are subject to the school’s missing and late homework penalties. This work is make-up work from the absence, so it is assigned in addition to the work assigned on the day of their return to school. Make-Up Work After an Absence After returning from an absence, scholars are expected to complete any missed assignments. The parent must help the scholar check on missed assignments, and any missed work must be completed. The time generally allowed to complete this work will be the number of days the scholar was absent, except in the case of an extended illness. For example, if a scholar was absent for one day, then he or she will have one day to make up any missed work. In the event of a planned absence (one that you know about in advance), parents/guardians should notify teachers several days in advance so that they can prepare a packet of work for scholars to complete during the absence. Again, absences from school really compromise a child’s academic progress. A child should only be absent in the case of medical necessity, serious illness or real family emergency. Cheating, Plagiarism, and Copying Others Work Cheating on homework or exams, using resources inappropriately, and copying other people’s work – scholars’ or otherwise – is not only unfair, but in the case of plagiarism, it is illegal. If scholars are unsure about an assignment or unsure about a test question or testing procedure, they should go to their teacher and ask for direction. Specific guidelines regarding cheating and plagiarism will be reviewed with scholars during Scholar Orientation and continued throughout the year. The school will determine appropriate consequences, but cheating, plagiarism, and