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Is Homework Good for Kids? Here’s What the Research Says

A s kids return to school, debate is heating up once again over how they should spend their time after they leave the classroom for the day.

The no-homework policy of a second-grade teacher in Texas went viral last week , earning praise from parents across the country who lament the heavy workload often assigned to young students. Brandy Young told parents she would not formally assign any homework this year, asking students instead to eat dinner with their families, play outside and go to bed early.

But the question of how much work children should be doing outside of school remains controversial, and plenty of parents take issue with no-homework policies, worried their kids are losing a potential academic advantage. Here’s what you need to know:

For decades, the homework standard has been a “10-minute rule,” which recommends a daily maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Second graders, for example, should do about 20 minutes of homework each night. High school seniors should complete about two hours of homework each night. The National PTA and the National Education Association both support that guideline.

But some schools have begun to give their youngest students a break. A Massachusetts elementary school has announced a no-homework pilot program for the coming school year, lengthening the school day by two hours to provide more in-class instruction. “We really want kids to go home at 4 o’clock, tired. We want their brain to be tired,” Kelly Elementary School Principal Jackie Glasheen said in an interview with a local TV station . “We want them to enjoy their families. We want them to go to soccer practice or football practice, and we want them to go to bed. And that’s it.”

A New York City public elementary school implemented a similar policy last year, eliminating traditional homework assignments in favor of family time. The change was quickly met with outrage from some parents, though it earned support from other education leaders.

New solutions and approaches to homework differ by community, and these local debates are complicated by the fact that even education experts disagree about what’s best for kids.

The research

The most comprehensive research on homework to date comes from a 2006 meta-analysis by Duke University psychology professor Harris Cooper, who found evidence of a positive correlation between homework and student achievement, meaning students who did homework performed better in school. The correlation was stronger for older students—in seventh through 12th grade—than for those in younger grades, for whom there was a weak relationship between homework and performance.

Cooper’s analysis focused on how homework impacts academic achievement—test scores, for example. His report noted that homework is also thought to improve study habits, attitudes toward school, self-discipline, inquisitiveness and independent problem solving skills. On the other hand, some studies he examined showed that homework can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning and limit leisure time for children. At the end of his analysis, Cooper recommended further study of such potential effects of homework.

Despite the weak correlation between homework and performance for young children, Cooper argues that a small amount of homework is useful for all students. Second-graders should not be doing two hours of homework each night, he said, but they also shouldn’t be doing no homework.

Not all education experts agree entirely with Cooper’s assessment.

Cathy Vatterott, an education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, supports the “10-minute rule” as a maximum, but she thinks there is not sufficient proof that homework is helpful for students in elementary school.

“Correlation is not causation,” she said. “Does homework cause achievement, or do high achievers do more homework?”

Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs , thinks there should be more emphasis on improving the quality of homework tasks, and she supports efforts to eliminate homework for younger kids.

“I have no concerns about students not starting homework until fourth grade or fifth grade,” she said, noting that while the debate over homework will undoubtedly continue, she has noticed a trend toward limiting, if not eliminating, homework in elementary school.

The issue has been debated for decades. A TIME cover in 1999 read: “Too much homework! How it’s hurting our kids, and what parents should do about it.” The accompanying story noted that the launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to a push for better math and science education in the U.S. The ensuing pressure to be competitive on a global scale, plus the increasingly demanding college admissions process, fueled the practice of assigning homework.

“The complaints are cyclical, and we’re in the part of the cycle now where the concern is for too much,” Cooper said. “You can go back to the 1970s, when you’ll find there were concerns that there was too little, when we were concerned about our global competitiveness.”

Cooper acknowledged that some students really are bringing home too much homework, and their parents are right to be concerned.

“A good way to think about homework is the way you think about medications or dietary supplements,” he said. “If you take too little, they’ll have no effect. If you take too much, they can kill you. If you take the right amount, you’ll get better.”

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What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

• How long will it take to complete?
• Have all learners been considered?
• Will an assignment encourage future success?
• Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
• Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

Homework challenges and strategies

By Amanda Morin

Expert reviewed by Jim Rein, MA

At a glance

Kids can struggle with homework for lots of reasons.

A common challenge is rushing through assignments.

Once you understand a homework challenge, it’s easier to find solutions.

Most kids struggle with homework from time to time. But kids who learn and think differently may struggle more than others. Understanding the homework challenges your child faces can help you reduce stress and avoid battles.

Here are some common homework challenges and tips to help.

The challenge: Rushing through homework

Kids with learning difficulties may rush because they’re trying to get through what’s hard for them as fast as possible. For kids with ADHD, trouble with focus and working memory may be the cause.

Rushing through homework can lead to messy or incorrect homework. It can also lead to kids missing key parts of the assignment. One thing to try is having your child do the easiest assignments first and then move to harder ones.

Get more tips for helping grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers slow down on homework.

The challenge: Taking notes

Note-taking isn’t an easy skill for some kids. They may struggle with the mechanical parts of writing or with organizing ideas on a page. Kids may also find it hard to read text and take notes at the same time.

Using the outline method may help. It divides notes into main ideas, subtopics, and details. 

Explore different note-taking strategies .

The challenge: Managing time and staying organized

Some kids struggle with keeping track of time and making a plan for getting all of their work done. That’s especially true of kids who have trouble with executive function.

Try creating a homework schedule and set a specific time and place for your child to get homework done. Use a timer to help your child stay on track and get a better sense of time.

Learn about trouble with planning .

The challenge: Studying effectively

Many kids need to be taught how to study effectively. But some may need concrete strategies.

One thing to try is creating a checklist of all the steps that go into studying. Have your child mark off each one. Lists can help kids monitor their work.

Explore more study strategies for grade-schoolers and teens .

The challenge: Recalling information

Some kids have trouble holding on to information so they can use it later. (This skill is called working memory. ) They may study for hours but remember nothing the next day. But there are different types of memory.

If your child has trouble with verbal memory, try using visual study aids like graphs, maps, or drawings.

Practice “muscle memory” exercises to help kids with working memory.

The challenge: Learning independently

It’s important for kids to learn how to do homework without help. Using a homework contract can help your child set realistic goals. Encourage “thinking out loud.”

Get tips for helping grade-schoolers do schoolwork on their own.

Sometimes, homework challenges don’t go away despite your best efforts. Look for signs that kids may have too much homework . And learn how to talk with teachers about concerns .

Key takeaways

Some kids have a hard time doing schoolwork on their own.

It can help to tailor homework strategies to a child’s specific challenges and strengths.

Sometimes, there’s too much homework for a child to handle. Talk to the teacher.

Explore related topics

Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons

Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates

From dioramas to book reports, from algebraic word problems to research projects, whether students should be given homework, as well as the type and amount of homework, has been debated for over a century. [ 1 ]

While we are unsure who invented homework, we do know that the word “homework” dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Memorization exercises as homework continued through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment by monks and other scholars. [ 45 ]

In the 19th century, German students of the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given assignments to complete outside of the school day. This concept of homework quickly spread across Europe and was brought to the United States by Horace Mann , who encountered the idea in Prussia. [ 45 ]

In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ]

Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War . And, in 1986, the US government included homework as an educational quality boosting tool. [ 3 ] [ 45 ]

A 2014 study found kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher. A 2014-2019 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. [ 4 ] [ 44 ]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all school work from home. Washington Post journalist Valerie Strauss asked, “Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?” While students were mostly back in school buildings in fall 2021, the question remains of how effective homework is as an educational tool. [ 47 ]

Is Homework Beneficial?

Pro 1 Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” [ 6 ] Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take-home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. [ 10 ] Read More

Pro 2 Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, co-founders of Teachers Who Tutor NYC, explained, “at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts… [And] these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum.” [ 11 ] [ 49 ] Elementary school students who were taught “strategies to organize and complete homework,” such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and following directions, showed increased grades and more positive comments on report cards. [ 17 ] Research by the City University of New York noted that “students who engage in self-regulatory processes while completing homework,” such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining focused, “are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these processes.” [ 18 ] Homework also helps students develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives: accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving. Freireich and Platzer noted that “homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.” [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 49 ] Read More

Pro 3 Homework allows parents to be involved with children’s learning. Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [ 12 ] Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-American and Hispanic students. [ 20 ] Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: “Students in the TIPS group earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did non-TIPS students.” [ 21 ] Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. Duke University Professor Harris Cooper noted, “Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them.” [ 12 ] Read More

Con 1 Too much homework can be harmful. A poll of California high school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” High-achieving high school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems. [ 24 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, “Kids should have a chance to just be kids… it’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.” [ 27 ] Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies.” [ 48 ] Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework, and 43% of college students engaged in “unauthorized collaboration” on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child’s assignment for them. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Read More

Con 2 Homework exacerbates the digital divide or homework gap. Kiara Taylor, financial expert, defined the digital divide as “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don’t. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology—along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet—the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology.” For students, this is often called the homework gap. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] 30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible. [ 51 ] A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it “potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.” [ 39 ] Read More

Con 3 Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7 ] Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [ 41 ] Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: “They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing their homework.” [ 42 ] In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, “I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside.” He explains, “just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.” [ 52 ] Read More

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom material? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

1. Examine an argument in favor of quality homework assignments from Janine Bempechat.

2. Explore Oxford Learning’s infographic on the effects of homework on students.

3. Consider Joseph Lathan’s argument that homework promotes inequality .

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives .

More School Debate Topics

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms? – Proponents say dissecting real animals is a better learning experience. Opponents say the practice is bad for the environment.

Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? – Proponents say uniforms may increase student safety. Opponents say uniforms restrict expression.

Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools? – Proponents say corporal punishment is an appropriate discipline. Opponents say it inflicts long-lasting physical and mental harm on students.

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When Homework Is Useless

Education experts offer their thoughts on how—if at all—schools should assign, grade, and use take-home assignments.

This is the third installment in our series about school in a perfect world. Read previous entries on calendars and content .

We asked prominent voices in education—from policy makers and teachers to activists and parents—to look beyond laws, politics, and funding and imagine a utopian system of learning. They went back to the drawing board—and the chalkboard—to build an educational Garden of Eden. We’re publishing their answers to one question each day this week. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Today’s assignment: The Homework. Will students have homework?

Rita Pin Ahrens, the director of education policy for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center

Homework is absolutely necessary for students to demonstrate that they are able to independently process and apply their learning. But who says homework has to be the same as it has been? Homework might include pre-reading in preparation for what will be covered in class that day, independent research on a student-chosen topic that complements the class curriculum, experiential learning through a volunteer activity or field trip, or visiting a website and accomplishing a task on it. The structure will be left to the teachers to determine, as best fits the learning objective, and should be graded—whether by the teacher or student. Students will be held accountable for their homework and understand that it is an integral part of the learning process.

Nicholson Baker, the author of Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids

No mandatory homework in elementary school. None. No homework in middle school and high school unless a kid wants to do it. Chronic nightly homework makes for guilt, resentment, and lies—and family arguments and bone weariness. Parents become enforcers. It gets ugly.

Carol Burris, the executive director of the Network for Public Education

When I was a high-school Spanish teacher, I never graded homework.  If students came in with homework, I knew one of two things—either they did it, or they had a good friend who did it. I assigned a reasonable amount, never spent more than five minutes of class time reviewing it, and would collect samples as an informal assessment of whether my students understood the prior day’s lesson.

There is really no reason to assign homework in the early grades, although I know it makes parents anxious when their kids come home without it. Middle-school students will not receive more than an hour of homework, and in high schools, no more than two hours a night will be assigned.

Homework in high school helps students reflect on new learning and it gives them feedback as to whether they understand what they were taught. It also develops good habits for college, especially writing and independent-reading skills.

The research on homework shows beneficial effects on learning when appropriate assignments are given and completed, and the benefits increase with grade level. There is little to no learning benefit in the early grades but substantial benefit by grade 12.

Catherine Cushinberry, the executive director of Parents for Public Schools

Homework provides an opportunity for families to be engaged in the learning process, reinforces what has been taught during the school day, and provides students with an opportunity to learn how to be accountable and responsible to others and meet deadlines. Homework will not be graded, but will provide the class an opportunity to work together either as a large or small group to promote peer-to-peer learning while analyzing the assignment. Incentives that are student-specific will be used to encourage preparedness. If a student has mastered a topic, then he or she will be given an assignment that challenges them toward the next level of that work. The structure of homework will depend on the topic. Some assignments might require students to report on real-world observations, try at-home experiments, or allow them to develop ways that will each student best learn the information.

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Michael Horn, the co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute

Students will have work that may be done in school or at home. We will cease seeing things as just “homework.” The goal of work is to help students build mastery of knowledge and skills that can be applied in different contexts. Students will do as much or as little of certain tasks until they have built mastery. For some students, that will take place at home. Others will do most of their work surrounded by their peers and teachers at school. We will move beyond the notion of letter grades, where we accept failure as part of the system, to a competency-based notion in which students either master a competency or keep working until they do.

As Sal Khan writes in his book, The One World Schoolhouse , “Homework [is] necessary because not enough learning happens during the school day. Why is there a shortage of learning during the hours specifically designed for it? Because the broadcast, one-pace-fits-all lecture—the technique that is at the very heart of our standard classroom model—turns out to be a highly inefficient way to teach and learn.” With blended learning on the rise, we can do better now.

Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation

Homework, in the popular parlance, is thought of as a necessary but dreary component of education.  (An editor once disparagingly described a book manuscript I submitted as feeling like “homework.”) But if properly envisioned, homework can be exhilarating, an opportunity for students to venture independently to pursue in-depth topics first broached in the classroom.

To excite students, homework will be experiential and hands-on. It will encourage students to be explorers and to move beyond what is familiar to them. It will take them into new neighborhoods to interact with people of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds different than their own. Amy Stuart Wells and her colleagues at Teachers College, Columbia University, note mounting evidence that “diversity makes us smarter.” They write that when students come in contact with people “different from themselves,” the “novel ideas and challenges such exposure brings leads to improved cognitive skills, including critical thinking and problem solving.” The primary implication of the research is the need to diversify schools themselves, but short of that, homework assignments, even in racially isolated schools, will encourage students to venture out and learn from all that the world has to offer.

Michelle Rhee, the founder of StudentsFirst and the former chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools

Students will have opportunities to demonstrate their mastery of subjects through homework, but the days of elementary-school students carrying home backpacks full of homework that are heavier than they are will be gone. Students will have in-class and after-class opportunities to complete assignments, and homework will never be given merely for the purpose of being given. Teachers will emphasize the skill sets they would like to grow with assignments, from essay writing to computations. “Flipped” classrooms, where students watch lectures at home the night before and then use class time to engage in discussion and ask teachers in-depth questions, will also be more prevalent.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers

Homework will depend on what’s needed to inform the coming lesson or to reinforce the lesson students just learned. We will never give homework for the sake of giving it.

Excessive homework is excessively stupid—and more and more evidence tells us that assigning hours of homework for very young students is useless at best and counterproductive at worst.

Homework only helps if every child has a chance get something useful from it—so programs to provide resources for kids who might not have homework support at home are critical, whether that’s tutoring, study labs, or just a safe place to sit and think. And while we’re at it, let’s not pretend that everyone has access to high-tech tools at home.

Check back tomorrow for the next installment in this series.

About the Authors

• The Journal
• Vol. 19, No. 1

The Case for (Quality) Homework

Janine Bempechat

Any parent who has battled with a child over homework night after night has to wonder: Do those math worksheets and book reports really make a difference to a student’s long-term success? Or is homework just a headache—another distraction from family time and downtime, already diminished by the likes of music and dance lessons, sports practices, and part-time jobs?

Allison, a mother of two middle-school girls from an affluent Boston suburb, describes a frenetic afterschool scenario: “My girls do gymnastics a few days a week, so homework happens for my 6th grader after gymnastics, at 6:30 p.m. She doesn’t get to bed until 9. My 8th grader does her homework immediately after school, up until gymnastics. She eats dinner at 9:15 and then goes to bed, unless there is more homework to do, in which case she’ll get to bed around 10.” The girls miss out on sleep, and weeknight family dinners are tough to swing.

Parental concerns about their children’s homework loads are nothing new. Debates over the merits of homework—tasks that teachers ask students to complete during non-instructional time—have ebbed and flowed since the late 19th century, and today its value is again being scrutinized and weighed against possible negative impacts on family life and children’s well-being.

Are American students overburdened with homework? In some middle-class and affluent communities, where pressure on students to achieve can be fierce, yes. But in families of limited means, it’s often another story. Many low-income parents value homework as an important connection to the school and the curriculum—even as their children report receiving little homework. Overall, high-school students relate that they spend less than one hour per day on homework, on average, and only 42 percent say they do it five days per week. In one recent survey by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a minimal 13 percent of 17-year-olds said they had devoted more than two hours to homework the previous evening (see Figure 1).

Recent years have seen an increase in the amount of homework assigned to students in grades K–2, and critics point to research findings that, at the elementary-school level, homework does not appear to enhance children’s learning. Why, then, should we burden young children and their families with homework if there is no academic benefit to doing it? Indeed, perhaps it would be best, as some propose, to eliminate homework altogether, particularly in these early grades.

On the contrary, developmentally appropriate homework plays a critical role in the formation of positive learning beliefs and behaviors, including a belief in one’s academic ability, a deliberative and effortful approach to mastery, and higher expectations and aspirations for one’s future. It can prepare children to confront ever-more-complex tasks, develop resilience in the face of difficulty, and learn to embrace rather than shy away from challenge. In short, homework is a key vehicle through which we can help shape children into mature learners.

The Homework-Achievement Connection

A narrow focus on whether or not homework boosts grades and test scores in the short run thus ignores a broader purpose in education, the development of lifelong, confident learners. Still, the question looms: does homework enhance academic success? As the educational psychologist Lyn Corno wrote more than two decades ago, “homework is a complicated thing.” Most research on the homework-achievement connection is correlational, which precludes a definitive judgment on its academic benefits. Researchers rely on correlational research in this area of study given the difficulties of randomly assigning students to homework/no-homework conditions. While correlation does not imply causality, extensive research has established that at the middle- and high-school levels, homework completion is strongly and positively associated with high achievement. Very few studies have reported a negative correlation.

As noted above, findings on the homework-achievement connection at the elementary level are mixed. A small number of experimental studies have demonstrated that elementary-school students who receive homework achieve at higher levels than those who do not. These findings suggest a causal relationship, but they are limited in scope. Within the body of correlational research, some studies report a positive homework-achievement connection, some a negative relationship, and yet others show no relationship at all. Why the mixed findings? Researchers point to a number of possible factors, such as developmental issues related to how young children learn, different goals that teachers have for younger as compared to older students, and how researchers define homework.

Certainly, young children are still developing skills that enable them to focus on the material at hand and study efficiently. Teachers’ goals for their students are also quite different in elementary school as compared to secondary school. While teachers at both levels note the value of homework for reinforcing classroom content, those in the earlier grades are more likely to assign homework mainly to foster skills such as responsibility, perseverance, and the ability to manage distractions.

Most research examines homework generally. Might a focus on homework in a specific subject shed more light on the homework-achievement connection? A recent meta-analysis did just this by examining the relationship between math/science homework and achievement. Contrary to previous findings, researchers reported a stronger relationship between homework and achievement in the elementary grades than in middle school. As the study authors note, one explanation for this finding could be that in elementary school, teachers tend to assign more homework in math than in other subjects, while at the same time assigning shorter math tasks more frequently. In addition, the authors point out that parents tend to be more involved in younger children’s math homework and more skilled in elementary-level than middle-school math.

In sum, the relationship between homework and academic achievement in the elementary-school years is not yet established, but eliminating homework at this level would do children and their families a huge disservice: we know that children’s learning beliefs have a powerful impact on their academic outcomes, and that through homework, parents and teachers can have a profound influence on the development of positive beliefs.

How Much Is Appropriate?

Harris M. Cooper of Duke University, the leading researcher on homework, has examined decades of study on what we know about the relationship between homework and scholastic achievement. He has proposed the “10-minute rule,” suggesting that daily homework be limited to 10 minutes per grade level. Thus, a 1st grader would do 10 minutes each day and a 4th grader, 40 minutes. The National Parent Teacher Association and the National Education Association both endorse this guideline, but it is not clear whether the recommended allotments include time for reading, which most teachers want children to do daily.

For middle-school students, Cooper and colleagues report that 90 minutes per day of homework is optimal for enhancing academic achievement, and for high schoolers, the ideal range is 90 minutes to two and a half hours per day. Beyond this threshold, more homework does not contribute to learning. For students enrolled in demanding Advanced Placement or honors courses, however, homework is likely to require significantly more time, leading to concerns over students’ health and well-being.

Notwithstanding media reports of parents revolting against the practice of homework, the vast majority of parents say they are highly satisfied with their children’s homework loads. The National Household Education Surveys Program recently found that between 70 and 83 percent of parents believed that the amount of homework their children had was “about right,” a result that held true regardless of social class, race/ethnicity, community size, level of education, and whether English was spoken at home.

Learning Beliefs Are Consequential

As noted above, developmentally appropriate homework can help children cultivate positive beliefs about learning. Decades of research have established that these beliefs predict the types of tasks students choose to pursue, their persistence in the face of challenge, and their academic achievement. Broadly, learning beliefs fall under the banner of achievement motivation, which is a constellation of cognitive, behavioral, and affective factors, including: the way a person perceives his or her abilities, goal-setting skills, expectation of success, the value the individual places on learning, and self-regulating behavior such as time-management skills. Positive or adaptive beliefs about learning serve as emotional and psychological protective factors for children, especially when they encounter difficulties or failure.

Motivation researcher Carol Dweck of Stanford University posits that children with a “growth mindset”—those who believe that ability is malleable—approach learning very differently than those with a “fixed mindset”—kids who believe ability cannot change. Those with a growth mindset view effort as the key to mastery. They see mistakes as helpful, persist even in the face of failure, prefer challenging over easy tasks, and do better in school than their peers who have a fixed mindset. In contrast, children with a fixed mindset view effort and mistakes as implicit condemnations of their abilities. Such children succumb easily to learned helplessness in the face of difficulty, and they gravitate toward tasks they know they can handle rather than more challenging ones.

Of course, learning beliefs do not develop in a vacuum. Studies have demonstrated that parents and teachers play a significant role in the development of positive beliefs and behaviors, and that homework is a key tool they can use to foster motivation and academic achievement.

Parents’ Beliefs and Actions Matter

It is well established that parental involvement in their children’s education promotes achievement motivation and success in school. Parents are their children’s first teachers, and their achievement-related beliefs have a profound influence on children’s developing perceptions of their own abilities, as well as their views on the value of learning and education.

Parents affect their children’s learning through the messages they send about education, whether by expressing interest in school activities and experiences, attending school events, helping with homework when they can, or exposing children to intellectually enriching experiences. Most parents view such engagement as part and parcel of their role. They also believe that doing homework fosters responsibility and organizational skills, and that doing well on homework tasks contributes to learning, even if children experience frustration from time to time.

Many parents provide support by establishing homework routines, eliminating distractions, communicating expectations, helping children manage their time, providing reassuring messages, and encouraging kids to be aware of the conditions under which they do their best work. These supports help foster the development of self-regulation, which is critical to school success.

Self-regulation involves a number of skills, such as the ability to monitor one’s performance and adjust strategies as a result of feedback; to evaluate one’s interests and realistically perceive one’s aptitude; and to work on a task autonomously. It also means learning how to structure one’s environment so that it’s conducive to learning, by, for example, minimizing distractions. As children move into higher grades, these skills and strategies help them organize, plan, and learn independently. This is precisely where parents make a demonstrable difference in students’ attitudes and approaches to homework.

Especially in the early grades, homework gives parents the opportunity to cultivate beliefs and behaviors that foster efficient study skills and academic resilience. Indeed, across age groups, there is a strong and positive relationship between homework completion and a variety of self-regulatory processes. However, the quality of parental help matters. Sometimes, well-intentioned parents can unwittingly undermine the development of children’s positive learning beliefs and their achievement. Parents who maintain a positive outlook on homework and allow their children room to learn and struggle on their own, stepping in judiciously with informational feedback and hints, do their children a much better service than those who seek to control the learning process.

A recent study of 5th and 6th graders’ perceptions of their parents’ involvement with homework distinguished between supportive and intrusive help. The former included the belief that parents encouraged the children to try to find the right answer on their own before providing them with assistance, and when the child struggled, attempted to understand the source of the confusion. In contrast, the latter included the perception that parents provided unsolicited help, interfered when the children did their homework, and told them how to complete their assignments. Supportive help predicted higher achievement, while intrusive help was associated with lower achievement.

Parents’ attitudes and emotions during homework time can support the development of positive attitudes and approaches in their children, which in turn are predictive of higher achievement. Children are more likely to focus on self-improvement during homework time and do better in school when their parents are oriented toward mastery. In contrast, if parents focus on how well children are doing relative to peers, kids tend to adopt learning goals that allow them to avoid challenge.

Homework and Social Class

Social class is another important element in the homework dynamic. What is the homework experience like for families with limited time and resources? And what of affluent families, where resources are plenty but the pressures to succeed are great?

Etta Kralovec and John Buell, authors of The End of Homework, maintain that homework “punishes the poor,” because lower-income parents may not be as well educated as their affluent counterparts and thus not as well equipped to help with homework. Poorer families also have fewer financial resources to devote to home computers, tutoring, and academic enrichment. The stresses of poverty—and work schedules—may impinge, and immigrant parents may face language barriers and an unfamiliarity with the school system and teachers’ expectations.

Yet research shows that low-income parents who are unable to assist with homework are far from passive in their children’s learning, and they do help foster scholastic performance. In fact, parental help with homework is not a necessary component for school success.

Brown University’s Jin Li queried low-income Chinese American 9th graders’ perceptions of their parents’ engagement with their education. Students said their immigrant parents rarely engaged in activities that are known to foster academic achievement, such as monitoring homework, checking it for accuracy, or attending school meetings or events. Instead, parents of higher achievers built three social networks to support their children’s learning. They designated “anchor” helpers both inside and outside the family who provided assistance; identified peer models for their children to emulate; and enlisted the assistance of extended kin to guide their children’s educational socialization. In a related vein, a recent analysis of survey data showed that Asian and Latino 5th graders, relative to native-born peers, were more likely to turn to siblings than parents for homework help.

Further, research demonstrates that low-income parents, recognizing that they lack the time to be in the classroom or participate in school governance, view homework as a critical connection to their children’s experiences in school. One study found that mothers enjoyed the routine and predictability of homework and used it as a way to demonstrate to children how to plan their time. Mothers organized homework as a family activity, with siblings doing homework together and older children reading to younger ones. In this way, homework was perceived as a collective practice wherein siblings could model effective habits and learn from one another.

In another recent study, researchers examined mathematics achievement in low-income 8th-grade Asian and Latino students. Help with homework was an advantage their mothers could not provide. They could, however, furnish structure (for example, by setting aside quiet time for homework completion), and it was this structure that most predicted high achievement. As the authors note, “It is . . . important to help [low-income] parents realize that they can still help their children get good grades in mathematics and succeed in school even if they do not know how to provide direct assistance with their child’s mathematics homework.”

The homework narrative at the other end of the socioeconomic continuum is altogether different. Media reports abound with examples of students, mostly in high school, carrying three or more hours of homework per night, a burden that can impair learning, motivation, and well-being. In affluent communities, students often experience intense pressure to cultivate a high-achieving profile that will be attractive to elite colleges. Heavy homework loads have been linked to unhealthy symptoms such as heightened stress, anxiety, physical complaints, and sleep disturbances. Like Allison’s 6th grader mentioned earlier, many students can only tackle their homework after they do extracurricular activities, which are also seen as essential for the college résumé. Not surprisingly, many students in these communities are not deeply engaged in learning; rather, they speak of “doing school,” as Stanford researcher Denise Pope has described, going through the motions necessary to excel, and undermining their physical and mental health in the process.

Fortunately, some national intervention initiatives, such as Challenge Success (co-founded by Pope), are heightening awareness of these problems. Interventions aimed at restoring balance in students’ lives (in part, by reducing homework demands) have resulted in students reporting an increased sense of well-being, decreased stress and anxiety, and perceptions of greater support from teachers, with no decrease in achievement outcomes.

What is good for this small segment of students, however, is not necessarily good for the majority. As Jessica Lahey wrote in Motherlode, a New York Times parenting blog, “homework is a red herring” in the national conversation on education. “Some otherwise privileged children may have too much, but the real issue lies in places where there is too little. . . . We shouldn’t forget that.”

My colleagues and I analyzed interviews conducted with lower-income 9th graders (African American, Mexican American, and European American) from two Northern California high schools that at the time were among the lowest-achieving schools in the state. We found that these students consistently described receiving minimal homework—perhaps one or two worksheets or textbook pages, the occasional project, and 30 minutes of reading per night. Math was the only class in which they reported having homework each night. These students noted few consequences for not completing their homework.

Indeed, greatly reducing or eliminating homework would likely increase, not diminish, the achievement gap. As Harris M. Cooper has commented, those choosing to opt their children out of homework are operating from a place of advantage. Children in higher-income families benefit from many privileges, including exposure to a larger range of language at home that may align with the language of school, access to learning and cultural experiences, and many other forms of enrichment, such as tutoring and academic summer camps, all of which may be cost-prohibitive for lower-income families. But for the 21 percent of the school-age population who live in poverty—nearly 11 million students ages 5–17—homework is one tool that can help narrow the achievement gap.

Community and School Support

Often, community organizations and afterschool programs can step up to provide structure and services that students’ need to succeed at homework. For example, Boys and Girls and 4-H clubs offer volunteer tutors as well as access to computer technology that students may not have at home. Many schools provide homework clubs or integrate homework into the afterschool program.

Home-school partnerships have succeeded in engaging parents with homework and significantly improving their children’s academic achievement. For example, Joyce Epstein of Johns Hopkins University has developed the TIPS model (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork), which embraces homework as an integral part of family time. TIPS is a teacher-designed interactive program in which children and a parent or family member each have a specific role in the homework scenario. For example, children might show the parent how to do a mathematics task on fractions, explaining their reasoning along the way and reviewing their thinking aloud if they are unsure.

Evaluations show that elementary and middle-school students in classrooms that have adopted TIPS complete more of their homework than do students in other classrooms. Both students and parent participants show more positive beliefs about learning mathematics, and TIPS students show significant gains in writing skills and report-card science grades, as well as higher mathematics scores on standardized tests.

Another study found that asking teachers to send text messages to parents about their children’s missing homework resulted in increased parental monitoring of homework, consequences for missed assignments, and greater participation in parent-child conferences. Teachers reported fewer missed assignments and greater student effort in coursework, and math grades and GPA significantly improved.

Homework Quality Matters

Teachers favor homework for a number of reasons. They believe it fosters a sense of responsibility and promotes academic achievement. They note that homework provides valuable review and practice for students while giving teachers feedback on areas where students may need more support. Finally, teachers value homework as a way to keep parents connected to the school and their children’s educational experiences.

While students, to say the least, may not always relish the idea of doing homework, by high school most come to believe there is a positive relationship between doing homework and doing well in school. Both higher and lower achievers lament “busywork” that doesn’t promote learning. They crave high-quality, challenging assignments—and it is this kind of homework that has been associated with higher achievement.

What constitutes high-quality homework? Assignments that are developmentally appropriate and meaningful and that promote self-efficacy and self-regulation. Meaningful homework is authentic, allowing students to engage in solving problems with real-world relevance. More specifically, homework tasks should make efficient use of student time and have a clear purpose connected to what they are learning. An artistic rendition of a period in history that would take hours to complete can become instead a diary entry in the voice of an individual from that era. By allowing a measure of choice and autonomy in homework, teachers foster in their students a sense of ownership, which bolsters their investment in the work.

High-quality homework also fosters students’ perceptions of their own competence by 1) focusing them on tasks they can accomplish without help; 2) differentiating tasks so as to allow struggling students to experience success; 3) providing suggested time frames rather than a fixed period of time in which a task should be completed; 4) delivering clearly and carefully explained directions; and 5) carefully modeling methods for attacking lengthy or complex tasks. Students whose teachers have trained them to adopt strategies such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and planning develop a number of personal assets—improved time management, increased self-efficacy, greater effort and interest, a desire for mastery, and a decrease in helplessness.

Excellence with Equity

Currently, the United States has the second-highest disparity between time spent on homework by students of low socioeconomic status and time spent by their more-affluent peers out of the 34 OECD-member nations participating in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (see Figure 2). Noting that PISA studies have consistently found that spending more time on math homework strongly correlates with higher academic achievement, the report’s authors suggest that the homework disparity may reflect lower teacher expectations for low-income students. If so, this is truly unfortunate. In and of itself, low socioeconomic status is not an impediment to academic achievement when appropriate parental, school, and community supports are deployed. As research makes clear, low-income parents support their children’s learning in varied ways, not all of which involve direct assistance with schoolwork. Teachers can orient students and parents toward beliefs that foster positive attitudes toward learning. Indeed, where homework is concerned, a commitment to excellence with equity is both worthwhile and attainable.

In affluent communities, parents, teachers, and school districts might consider reexamining the meaning of academic excellence and placing more emphasis on leading a balanced and well-rounded life. The homework debate in the United States has been dominated by concerns over the health and well-being of such advantaged students. As legitimate as these worries are, it’s important to avoid generalizing these children’s experiences to those with fewer family resources. Reducing or eliminating homework, though it may be desirable in some advantaged communities, would deprive poorer children of a crucial and empowering learning experience. It would also eradicate a fertile opportunity to help close the achievement gap.

Janine Bempechat is clinical professor of human development at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development.

An unabridged version of this article is available here .

For more, please see “ The Top 20 Education Next Articles of 2023 .”

This article appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of Education Next . Suggested citation format:

Bempechat, J. (2019). The Case for (Quality) Homework: Why it improves learning, and how parents can help . Education Next, 19 (1), 36-43.

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9 Smart Tips for Homework Success

Help kids manage their homework load with these strategies..

Even children who enjoy doing homework can lose their enthusiasm for it over the course of the school year, and find ways to stall or avoid doing it. But after-school study time is important, both for reinforcing the day’s learning and for lending structure to your child’s day.

“Homework isn’t just about academics,” says Karen Burke, SVP of Data Analysis and Academic Planning, Scholastic Education Solutions. “It can help students create routines and build responsible behaviors.”

Playing cop rarely works — micromanaging and nagging only make kids feel incapable or frustrated. Instead, think of yourself as a coach and cheerleader. 

“Generally, the idea of homework should be to help students set goals, build independence, and practice applying the knowledge they are gaining,” says Burke.

To help you get there, we asked teachers and parents to share their strategies for solving the most common homework struggles. These 10 tips will bring harmony back into your homework routine, whether your child is a kindergartner or 5th grader, perfectionist or procrastinator.

1. Do It Early

Give your child a time frame in which to get down to business. In your household, this may be before or after extracurriculars.

Work with your child to identify the time when their energy and focus are at their peak. This gives your child some control over their schedule. (Some kids need a longer break after school, and others need to start right away to keep the momentum going.) 

However, plan on 5 p.m. being the latest they can start their homework.

2. Phone a Friend

From kindergarten onward, kids should have a list of three or four classmates they can call on when they forget an assignment, or even just to ask a question. Study buddies can provide motivation for each other to get the work done. 

3. Collaborate to Build Confidence

When kids don’t understand a concept right away, they may feel like they’re not smart enough and start to shut down, says Sigrid Grace, a 2nd grade teacher in Michigan. 

Short-circuit negative thinking by sitting down with your child and figuring out the first problem in the assignment together. This should help jog their memory to complete the rest. Then, heap on the praise: “You did a great job on that one! Try the next one now.”

4. Change the Scenery

Sometimes something as simple as changing up their workspace can boost a child’s motivation and, in turn, their confidence. If your child has been working alone at a desk or designated study nook, perhaps they’d be more comfortable doing their homework in a public area, like the kitchen table while you’re preparing dinner. 

Conversely, if they’ve been working in a high-traffic part of the house, they might need a more private space in which to focus. 

5. Keep the Positive Feedback Coming

Younger kids need instant feedback, so it’s okay for parents of young grade-schoolers to correct mistakes, says Grace, the 2nd grade teacher. Follow this up with specific praise about what your child has done well.

6. Leave the Room

“Kids who drag things out are often doing so for your attention — they’re enjoying the interaction on some level,” explains Grace. “Avoid joining in.”

If you must stay in the room, have your child work in a spot that’s farther away from whatever you’re doing.

7. Beat the Clock

Sometimes procrastinators just need a jump-start. If that’s true for your child, try this: 

Set a timer for five minutes and have your child work as quickly and steadily as they can until the timer goes off. At that point, they can choose to take a short break or keep going — many kids continue.

“Racing against a timer gives kids an external sense of urgency if they don’t have an internal one,” says Ann Dolin, a former educator. 

However, a timed work session is not an excuse for sloppy work. Make sure your child reviews theirs before submitting it.

8. Plan, Plan, Plan

To get the most out of your days, include every appointment — from sports practice to meals to reading time — on a big calendar or schedule log and stick it in a central place where every member of the household can see it. 

If you know that certain nights present a conflict with your child’s homework schedule, you can ask for the week’s assignments upfront and work with your child to decide the best times to complete them, says Cathy Vatterott, a professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. 

“Teachers will often work with you on this, but most parents are afraid to ask,” she says.

9. Let ’Em Vent 

If your child is resisting doing their homework — or worse, is tearing up over it in frustration — soothe any pent-up worries by letting them complain. Listen, empathize (“Wow, that is a lot of work”), and state their feelings back to them (“You sound upset”). 

Once your child feels understood, they’ll be more likely to accept your suggestions, says Dolin — and better able to focus on what needs to be done.

You can also help by talking to your child about what they remember from class and steering them to the textbook. If they’re still lost, have them write a note to the teacher explaining that they don’t understand.

Get ready for your child to go back to school with our guide — it's full of recommended books, tips to help if your child is struggling with homework , and more resources for starting the year off right . 

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Effective Homework Strategies For Young Learners

Homework can be a challenging task for young learners. However, with the right strategies, it can become a beneficial and stress-free experience. This guide explores effective homework strategies to help young learners succeed.

1. Create a Consistent Routine

Consistency is key to developing good homework habits. Establish a regular homework schedule to help children understand when it’s time to focus on their studies. This routine helps in creating a sense of responsibility and discipline.

Tips for Creating a Homework Routine:

• Set a specific time: Choose a time that works best for your child, whether it’s right after school or after a short break.
• Stick to the schedule: Consistency helps children know what to expect and reduces resistance to starting homework.
• Include breaks: Short breaks between tasks can help maintain focus and prevent burnout.

2. Designate a Homework Space

A dedicated homework space can help children concentrate better. This area should be quiet, well-lit, and free from distractions.

Characteristics of an Ideal Homework Space:

• Comfortable seating: Ensure your child has a comfortable chair and desk.
• Supplies within reach: Keep necessary supplies like pencils, erasers, and paper close by.
• Minimal distractions: Avoid placing the homework space near TVs or high-traffic areas.

3. Break Down Tasks

Large assignments can be overwhelming for young learners. Breaking them into smaller, manageable tasks can make homework more approachable.

How to Break Down Homework Tasks:

• Divide by subject: Tackle one subject at a time to avoid confusion.
• Set mini-goals: Create smaller goals within the assignment to provide a sense of accomplishment.
• Use a timer: Set a timer for each task to help manage time effectively.

4. Encourage Independence

While it’s important to be available for help, encouraging independence can boost a child’s confidence and problem-solving skills.

Ways to Encourage Independent Work:

• Ask guiding questions: Instead of giving answers, ask questions that lead your child to figure out the solution.
• Provide resources: Offer tools like dictionaries, calculators, or educational websites for additional support.
• Praise efforts: Acknowledge their efforts and progress to motivate them further.

5. Make It Fun

Incorporating fun into homework can make the process enjoyable and engaging.

Fun Homework Ideas:

• Use games: Educational games can make learning enjoyable. Use flashcards, educational apps, or board games that align with the homework topics.
• Creative approaches: Allow children to express their understanding through drawing, storytelling, or role-playing.
• Reward system: Implement a reward system where children earn points or small rewards for completing tasks.

6. Stay Positive and Supportive

A positive attitude can significantly influence a child’s approach to homework. Offer encouragement and support to create a positive learning environment.

Tips for Maintaining Positivity:

• Celebrate achievements: Recognize both small and big accomplishments to build confidence.
• Offer reassurance: Remind your child that it’s okay to make mistakes and that learning is a process.
• Be patient: Patience and understanding go a long way in reducing homework stress.

7. Communicate with Teachers

Regular communication with teachers can provide insights into your child’s progress and any areas needing improvement.

How to Communicate Effectively:

• Attend parent-teacher meetings: Regularly attend meetings to stay updated on your child’s academic performance.
• Ask for feedback: Request feedback on your child’s homework habits and areas for improvement.
• Collaborate: Work together with teachers to develop strategies that support your child’s learning style.

Implementing these effective homework strategies can help young learners develop good study habits, reduce homework stress, and improve their academic performance. By creating a supportive and structured environment, parents can make homework a positive and productive experience for their children.

By incorporating these strategies, you can ensure your young learner is set up for success, both academically and personally. For more learning visit us .

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Why is Homework Important?

Why is homework important? Homework can be a divisive topic. In this article, we will discuss why it’s important and how it helps with your child’s development.

There is a strong connection between regularly completing homework and higher accomplishments in subjects such as English, Maths and Science. The Department of Education in the United Kingdom advises that spending time doing homework brings several benefits, more so for the students who put in two to three hours a night. Understanding the value of homework can help increase motivation and productivity. In this article, we’ll help you understand why homework is important and discuss all its benefits for both children and parents.

Benefits of Homework

Homework is important because it develops core skills in young children that will serve them throughout school and working life. Improved grades, discipline, time management, using resources and improving communication are all vital life skills that will open the door to unique opportunities and help children find success in their careers. Doing regular homework should be considered as an investment in your child’s future.

Through encouraging regular homework and supporting your child with their assignments, you can expect to see the following advantages:

1. Discipline of Practice

Repeating a task multiple times can feel arduous, but it’s necessary to help increase your child’s skill and understanding of a subject. Regular homework will make certain concepts easier to understand and put them in an advantageous position should they seek a vocational career.

2. Time Management Skills

Homework goes beyond just the task itself; it helps children take control of their workload and increase their time management skills. Homework is set with a deadline and taking ownership of this deadline helps them think independently and develop problem-solving skills. This is a prime example of why homework is important because time management is a vital life skill that helps children throughout higher education and their careers.

3. Communication Network

Homework acts as a bridge and can help teachers and parents learn more about how students like to learn, providing a deeper understanding of how to approach their learning and development. Many parents also want their child to receive homework so they can understand what they’re learning at school.

4. Comfortable Work Environment

Some children struggle to learn outside of their comfort zone, and while classrooms are designed to be warm and welcoming, there is often no place like home. Homework is an opportunity to learn and retain information in an environment where they feel most comfortable, which can help accelerate their development.

5. Using Learning Materials

Throughout a child’s education, understanding how to use resources such as libraries and the internet is important. Homework teaches children to actively search for information using these resources to complete tasks, and this is a skill that will be fundamental throughout their lives.

6. Revision Discipline

Regular homework helps children discover a pattern that will help them when they’re required to study for important tests and exams. Children who are familiar with a routine of completing homework will find it easy to adapt to a schedule of doing regular revision at home. Skills such as accessing learning materials, time management, and discipline will help improve how children revise, and ultimately, improve their grades.

7. Additional Time to Learn

Children learn at different paces, and the time spent in the classroom might not be enough for some students to fully grasp the key concepts of a subject. Having additional time for learning at home can help children gain a deeper understanding than they would if they were solely reliant on their time in school. Homework is important because it gives parents and children the freedom and the time to focus on subjects that they may be struggling with. This extra time can make a big difference when it comes to exams and grades.

Helping Your Child With Homework

We’ve discussed why it is important to do regular homework, but children may still find it difficult to stay motivated. Parents can play an important role in supporting their child with homework, so here are some of the ways you can help.

1. Homework-friendly Area

Having a dedicated space for children to do homework will help them stay focused. Make sure it is well-lit and stocked with everything they’ll need for their assignments.

2. Routine Study Time

A regular routine helps children get used to working at home. Some children work best in the morning, while others may prefer the afternoon. Work out a routine where your child is their most productive.

3. Make Sure They’re Learning

Homework is important, but only if children use this time to learn. If you do the work for them, they’re not going to see any of the benefits we listed above. It’s important you’re there to support and help them understand the work, so they can do it themselves.

4. Praise Work and Effort

Recognising the hard work that they’re putting in and praising them for it is a great way to get children to respond positively to homework. Pin their impressive test grades up in their homeworking space or around the house for extra motivation.

5. Make a Plan

Children can get overwhelmed if they have a lot of work to do. On homework-heavy nights, help them make a plan and break down the work into sections. This will help make the work more manageable. If your child responds well to this, you could do this each time they sit down to do work at home.

Understanding why homework is important and oftentimes necessary helps improve both motivation and productivity in young children. It also makes parents aware of the role they can play in supporting them. At Nord Anglia Education, we focus on bringing children, parents, and teachers together in a common effort to improve student learning through homework. You can learn more about our schools and the curriculum we teach by exploring our schools .

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ESL Worksheets | Free Worksheets For Teaching English

Welcome to our ESL worksheets page. On this page, you can find many printable ESL worksheets on many topics for English language learners and teachers. All the worksheets on Games4esl are absolutely FREE to download and use in your English classes.

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Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > The Pros and Cons of Homework

School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

Updated: July 16, 2024

Published: January 23, 2020

Remember those nights when you’d find yourself staring at a mountain of homework, eyes drooping, wondering if you’d ever see the light at the end of the tunnel? The debate over homework’s role in education is as old as time. Is it a crucial tool for reinforcing learning or just an unnecessary burden?

For college students, this question takes on new dimensions. Juggling homework with the endless amount of classes, part-time jobs, and social lives can feel like walking on thin ice. The pressure to maintain grades, meet deadlines, and still find time for friends and relaxation can be overwhelming. So, is homework a friend or foe?

Photo by  energepic.com  from  Pexels

The homework dilemma.

A large amount of college students report feeling overwhelmed by their academic workload, leading to high levels of stress and anxiety. According to Research.com , 45% of college students in the U.S. experience “more than average” stress, with 36.5% citing stress as a major impediment to their academic performance. This stress often stems directly from the homework load, leading to symptoms like headaches, exhaustion, and difficulty sleeping. The intense pressure to manage homework alongside other responsibilities makes us question the true impact of homework on students’ overall well-being.

And then there’s the digital twist. A whopping 89% of students confessed to using AI tools like ChatGPT for their assignments. While these tools can be a godsend for quick answers and assistance, they can also undermine the personal effort and critical thinking necessary to truly understand the material.

On the brighter side, homework can be a powerful ally. According to Inside Higher Ed , structured assignments can actually help reduce stress by providing a clear learning roadmap and keeping students engaged with the material. But where’s the balance between helpful and harmful? 

With these perspectives in mind, let’s dive into the pros and cons of homework for college students. By understanding both sides, we can find a middle ground that maximizes learning while keeping stress at bay.

The Pros of Homework

When thoughtfully assigned, homework can be a valuable tool in a student’s educational journey . Let’s explore how homework can be a beneficial companion to your studies:

Enhances Critical Thinking

Homework isn’t just busywork; it’s an opportunity to stretch your mental muscles. Those late-night problem sets and essays can actually encourage deeper understanding and application of concepts. Think of homework as a mental gym; each assignment is a new exercise, pushing you to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in ways that strengthen your critical thinking skills .

Time Management Skills

Do you ever juggle multiple deadlines and wonder how to keep it all together? Regular homework assignments can be a crash course in time management . They teach you to prioritize tasks, manage your schedule, and balance academic responsibilities with personal commitments. The ability to juggle various tasks is a skill that will serve you well beyond your college years.

Reinforcement of Learning

There’s a reason why practice makes perfect. Homework reinforces what you’ve learned in class, helping to cement concepts and theories in your mind. Understanding a concept during a lecture is one thing, but applying it through homework can deepen your comprehension and retention. 

Preparation for Exams

Think of homework as a sound check and warm-up for exams. Regular assignments keep you engaged with the material, making it easier to review and prepare when exam time rolls around. By consistently working through problems and writing essays, you build a solid foundation that can make the difference between cramming and confident exam performance.

Encourages Independent Learning

Homework promotes a sense of responsibility and independence. It pushes you to tackle assignments on your own, encouraging problem-solving and self-discipline. This independence prepares you for the academic challenges ahead and the autonomy required in your professional and personal life.

The Cons of Homework

Despite its potential benefits, homework can also have significant downsides. Let’s examine the challenges and drawbacks of homework:

Impact on Mental Health

Homework can be a double-edged sword when it comes to mental health . While it’s meant to reinforce learning, the sheer volume of assignments can lead to stress and anxiety. The constant pressure to meet deadlines and the fear of falling behind can create a relentless cycle of stress. Many students become overwhelmed, leading to burnout and negatively impacting their overall well-being. 

Limited Time for Other Activities

College isn’t just about hitting the books. It’s also a time for personal growth, exploring new interests, and building social connections. Excessive homework can eat into the time you might otherwise spend on extracurricular activities, hobbies, or simply hanging out with friends. This lack of balance can lead to a less fulfilling college experience. Shouldn’t education be about more than just academics?

Quality Over Quantity

When it comes to homework, more isn’t always better. Piling on assignments can lead to diminished returns on learning. Instead of diving deep into a subject and gaining a thorough understanding, students might rush through tasks just to get them done. This focus on quantity over quality can undermine the educational value of homework. 

Inequity in Education

Homework can sometimes exacerbate educational inequalities. Not all students can access the same resources and support systems at home. While some might have a quiet space and access to the internet, others might struggle with distractions and lack of resources. This disparity can put certain students at a disadvantage, making homework more of a burden than a learning tool. 

Dependence on AI Tools

With the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT , homework has taken on a new dimension. While these tools can provide quick answers and assistance, they also pose the risk of students becoming overly reliant on technology. This dependence can take away from the actual learning process, as students might bypass the critical thinking and effort needed to truly understand the material. Is convenience worth the potential loss in learning?

Finding the Balance

Finding the right balance with homework means tackling assignments that challenge and support you. Instead of drowning in a sea of tasks, focus on quality over quantity. Choose projects that spark your critical thinking and connect to real-world situations. Flexibility is key here. Recognize that your circumstances are unique, and adjusting your approach can help reduce stress and create a more inclusive learning environment. Constructive feedback makes homework more than just a chore; it turns it into a tool for growth and improvement.

It’s also about living a well-rounded college life. Don’t let homework overshadow other important parts of your life, like extracurricular activities or personal downtime. Emphasize independent learning and use technology wisely to prepare for future challenges. By balancing thoughtful assignments with your personal needs, homework can shift from being a burden to becoming a helpful companion on your educational journey, enriching your academic and personal growth.

Homework has its pros and cons, especially for college students. It can enhance critical thinking, time management, and learning, but it also brings stress, impacts mental health, and can become overwhelming. Finding the right balance is key. 

Focus on quality assignments, maintain flexibility, and make sure your homework complements rather than dominates your life. With a thoughtful approach, homework can support your educational journey, fostering both academic success and personal growth.

How can I manage my time effectively to balance homework and other activities?

Create a schedule that allocates specific times for homework, classes, and personal activities. Use planners or digital calendars to keep track of deadlines and prioritize tasks. Don’t forget to include breaks to avoid burnout.

How can I reduce the stress associated with homework?

To manage stress, practice mindfulness techniques like meditation or deep breathing exercises. Break assignments into smaller, manageable tasks and tackle them one at a time. If needed, seek support from classmates, tutors, or mental health professionals.

Is using AI tools for homework cheating?

While AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for quick assistance, relying on them too much can hinder your learning process. Use them as a supplement rather than a replacement for your own effort and critical thinking.

How can teachers make homework more equitable?

Teachers can offer flexible deadlines, provide resources for students who lack them, and design assignments that account for different learning styles and home environments. Open communication between students and teachers can also help address individual challenges.

What are some strategies to make homework more meaningful?

Focus on quality over quantity by designing assignments that encourage deep thinking and application of knowledge. Integrate real-world problems to make homework more relevant and engaging. Provide constructive feedback to help students learn and grow from their assignments.

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| | --> by Claudia Pesce 382,773 views But ESL students, on the other hand, may disagree. Adult learners will argue that they have busy schedules and a life outside the classroom, which translates into “ ”. Young learners and teens may come to terms with the fact that they have to do homework, but do we want them to do it because they are compelled to do it... or do we want them to do it because they are excited to do it? Which would you prefer? The only way to get young students excited about doing homework, and get adults to set aside some time for it, is through . And here are 5 examples: A Word Book or Vocabulary Journal is a classic among teachers of very young learners who are not adept at using dictionaries; here they have a chance to make their own. Help them design their very own Word Book from scratch, out of construction paper, cardboard, or any materials you have on hand. At the end of a reading task or activity, make a list of the words they have learned for the day. Their homework assignment is to enter each of the new words in their Word Book. The littlest ones simply copy the word and draw a picture of it; older students can use the word in a sentence that illustrates its meaning. There is no need to copy “dictionary” definitions. They may also cut out pictures from magazines or newspapers and get as creative as they like. But one thing is certain… these will be words they won’t easily forget! This is an extremely engaging way to provide extended practice of any grammar point. Say you want your students to practice . Tell them you need information on this year's Oscar nominations. Tell them to go to and give them a list of questions they must answer: You may assign any number of research tasks: ideal places for a family vacation ( ), best restaurants in the city ( ), or anything based on local information. Just make sure you give them a website to go to, a set of questions to answer or a task to complete, and above all don't forget to plan the assignment with a grammar point or learning objective in mind. This is an ideal assignment for adult students. Most read the newspaper anyway, right? Or watch the evening news. Ask them to choose a news story that has piqued their interest, and have them: ”, thus prompting them to use , for example ( ) This is clearly one of the homework assignments that works best with adult learners or those who specifically study . Give them an email to read and ask them to write an appropriate reply. Or give them a situation that would require them to compose a message, like a complaint over a bad service experience or an inquiry into vacation rentals. Choose a TV series that is shown in English, either with or without subtitles (you may ask students to cover the subtitles). Choose a show that is suitable to your students’ ages. Tell your students that their homework for that night will be to watch an episode of , whether they usually watch the show or not. Give them a task to complete after viewing the episode: a synopsis of the episode, a character description, or a questionnaire (Do you usually watch this show? If not, would you start watching it? Why/why not?) Another great way to get students actively engaged in their homework assignments is to ask them to come up with some ideas for creative assignments on their own and share them with the class. They may surprise you! And if you’re still stumped as to which worksheets to assign to , , or , BusyTeacher.org is always available to help, 24/7, with wonderful ideas for activities and great ready-to-print worksheets. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English. . That's 4,036 pages filled with thousands of practical activities and tips that you can start using today. 30-day money back guarantee. --> Copyright 2007-2021 пїЅ Submit a worksheet Mobile version Funky Socks & Dragons Teaching English to Kids 3 thoughts on “A to Z of homework for Very Young Learners***” Pingback: Questions about teaching Very Young Learners (aged 2-5) (useful links!) Pingback: EFL metaphors #2: Teachers about their first lessons with VYL - Funky Socks & Dragons Pingback: Wordwall: Top 10 Favourite Activities - Funky Socks & Dragons Leave a Comment Cancel reply You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience. 13 ESL Homework Ideas Homework may not be many students’ favorite thing, but research says it’s truly an effective learning tool that teachers should use . The trick is assigning great homework. To help you do this with ease, we’ve compiled an awesome list of 13 homework assignments that will have your ESL students begging for more. 1. Read a Short Story 2. share a passion, 3. start a chat group, 4. listen to a podcast, 5. write a letter, 6. write an amazon review, 7. do a wikipedia edit, 8. write a short story or poem, 9. share their culture, 10. catch a movie, 11. meet new people, 12. analyze a song, 13. go on a photo scavenger hunt, what makes homework effective. Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download) Have students read a short story for homework and then ask them to tell the class about the story in the next session. I would recommend giving students some suggestions on what short stories to read, depending on the level of your students. Here are some suggestions of short story collections for each level of ESL learner: “The Very First Americans” by Cara Ashrose: This collection of short stories features Native American culture and history, written in simple language. “Oxford Bookworms Library: Starter Level” This series offers simplified versions of classic stories, such as fairy tales, adventure stories and more. “Classic Tales for ESL Students” by L.A. Hill: This collection of classic stories from literature is retold with easier vocabulary and sentence structure. Intermediate “The Best American Short Stories” This series features contemporary short stories from a wide range of American writers, so there’s something for everyone here. “Short Stories in English for Intermediate Learners” by Olly Richards: This collection of engaging stories is designed specifically for intermediate ESL students. “Roald Dahl: The Collected Short Stories” This delightful collection of quirky and imaginative tales has become a favorite of many of my students. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri: This Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories explores the immigrant experience, something which many ESL students can relate to. “Dubliners” by James Joyce: This classic collection of interconnected stories captures the essence of Dublin in 1914. But it still feels modern to many students. “Nine Stories” by J.D. Salinger: This classic collection of short stories is a class favorite when I’ve used it. What do your students really care about? Give them a chance to talk about it in front of the class.  Have each person choose something they’re passionate about, something they might consider themselves an expert on. Challenge students to think of a creative way to present five must-know facts about that subject. They might make a movie, create a poster or brochure, write a song or even put on a skit. Have each person present their creative project to the class, and then give the class five minutes to ask questions of the presenter. Set certain parameters like students must speak in complete sentences or require that every student ask at least two questions at some point during the presentations. Students will love sharing about their passions, and they’ll get some great speaking, listening and discourse information in the process, as well as teach the rest of the class some interesting vocabulary. Ask for class for a volunteer to start a class WhatsApp chat group. They can also decide to use another messaging app like Telegram, Viber, Voxer or any other app that has a group chat function.  Encourage them to send at least one message and to respond to a couple others for their homework.  This text group has the added advantage of students being able to make friends with one another, and a place to ask about missed homework assignments on days when they can’t make it to class. Note that if a student doesn’t want to be included in the chat group, you should have a back up assignment prepared for them. Listening is one of the ESL student’s most difficult skills to acquire, so listening to a short podcast episode is ideal homework. You can ask students to write a little about the podcast to turn in to you, or you can ask them to briefly summarize what they heard for the class in the next session. Here are some suggestions for well done podcasts: The English We Speak : Produced by the BBC, this podcast focuses on teaching commonly used phrases and idioms in conversational English. The Moth : A storytelling podcast where real people share their personal experiences and anecdotes in English. Stuff You Should Know : Though not specifically designed for ESL students, this podcast covers a vast array of interesting topics, providing exposure to diverse vocabulary and subject matters. Ask your students to write a letter . The letter can be written to a friend or family member (which they could then actually mail or email), or it could be a fan letter to a favorite musician or actor. They could even write a letter to Santa Claus or a historical figure.  For example, a student might choose to write a letter to Marie Antoinette, asking her what it was like to be the queen of France at such a young age.  You can also choose to have students write letters to one another. Then the next homework can be writing that letter writer back. Ask you students to review a product on Amazon (or any other shopping website that has reviews). Ask them to select a product they have really used, so they have a genuine opinion on the quality of the product and whether it lived up to their expectations. Then, in the next session, show the reviews on the overhead projector to the class and ask a student to read the review. You can then go over any errors in vocabulary, grammar or sentence structure and revise the review together as a class. Since anyone can edit a Wikipedia article, it’s a great place for ESL students to hone their writing and editing skills, and they’ll have a built-in readership, too! Ask students to select a person that they know a lot about—a well-known figure from history, pop culture, music or film would all work. Then ask them to read the Wikipedia entry to see if they can add anything else to the article. Perhaps the article on Ryan Gosling is missing a key detail about his recent Ken performance. If so, the student will revise and edit the article. They should take notes on what they changed, so they can explain it to you or the class the next day. Ask your students to get creative. Have them write a short story or a poem . This can get them to use descriptive language that they don’t always have a chance to use. One good activity to do before you assign this homework is an adjective bubble chart. For this, you start with one adjective. For example, write “moist” on the board, circle it and then draw 4-5 lines coming off of the”moist” bubble. Ask your students to come up with other adjectives that are related to “moist” and so on. They may come up with “wet,” “watery,” “soaked” or “damp.” Then draw lines from each of those. This can lead to words that you never expected to come up. Have your students select 3-4 adjectives from this introduction activity that they’ll use in their story or poem. Ask your students to prepare a short presentation on an aspect of their home culture to tell the class about in the next session.  For example, a student from China may explain the Lunar New Year, a student from Vietnam may explain Tet or a student from El Salvador may tell the class about their quinceañera . They can use photos, art, a PowerPoint presentation or they can just explain in their own words. Then open the class up for questions. Can you legitimately send students to the movies for homework? You can when you’re teaching ESL. Your students don’t have to commit to a full-length movie. Instead, you can use the videos on FluentU to screen mini-lessons using clips from TV shows and movies, movie trailers, news segments, vlogs or music videos. Use these videos in the classroom or assign homework to watch a few and complete the subsequent quizzes. You can also ask students to complete flashcard quizzes based on vocabulary words you want them to pay special attention to. These quizzes are adaptable so every student will have a unique experience catered to his learning level. There are plenty of ways to use a movie for language development. And whether students watch a new release or catch an old Elvis flick on TV, they can do any of the following activities as homework: Summarize the plot. Describe a main character. Note new or interesting vocabulary (particularly slang) they hear while watching. Write an interview with one of the characters in the movie. I’m sure you also have your favorite movie-related language activities and many work as homework assignments. So get creative with how you have students share about what they watched. For the most part, people are willing to help someone in need, and that is doubly true for someone who needs to complete an assignment for school. That’s why sending students out to interview native speakers on campus is such a fun homework assignment. Start by helping your students write a list of questions they’ll use for their interviews. Students can choose a topic or you can assign one, like leisure activities or celebrity news. Tell students to list five to ten questions they might ask on that topic that will elicit specific answers.  As a class, discuss how students might introduce themselves to a potential interviewee.  Then send students out to their interviews after class. They can share the answers they got in the next session. Music is great for English learners since it stresses many aspects of language that can otherwise be hard to isolate, like the emotion of language, intonation and stress. Have students choose their favorite English language song to listen to for homework and then ask them to do the following: Practice the lyrics to learn intonation and rhythm. Note slang and cultural references in the songs. Summarize the theme of the song, or just what it’s about. Have students share their favorite lyrics and what a particular song means to them. Give individual students or groups of up to three students a list of items to find on their homework scavenger hunt. But instead of being specific in your list (for example, including items such as cat), be descriptive in your list. You might include items such as something frightening, something beautiful, something quiet, something cool. Students find items they think fit the description. For example, someone who is claustrophobic might choose an elevator for something frightening. They then take a picture of it. The next day, have each person get with a partner and show them the pictures they took for each item on the list. If the connection is not obvious, students should ask their partner to explain why they chose a particular item, such as the elevator. Assigning homework that works isn’t as hard as you might think, especially if you focus on the following points. Put your homework in writing. It can be tempting to just announce homework assignments to students at the end of class, but language learners benefit when you reinforce what you say with what they can see. So take a minute to write any homework assignment on the board so students can read it as well as listen to it. Let students know what goals you have for a particular assignment. Is it practicing a certain grammar point ? Improving their listening skills ? Pronunciation practice ? When students know why they’re doing something, they’ll be able to tell on their own when they’ve successfully completed their homework assignment. Keep your homework practical . Your students may not find themselves planning out a menu for Thanksgiving when they leave your ESL classroom, but odds are they’ll have to order food at a restaurant at some point. Think about realistic ways students will have to use English in the real world and try to make your homework practical. Let your students be creative . Give your students choices on how they express themselves or present information. It’s okay for students to make a home movie, put on a one-man play or paint a picture to present to the class. Just because you prefer a particular type of creative expression doesn’t mean your students do, so give them choices and let them express themselves. Make homework fun! Every class has its own personality, so what’s fun for one might not be fun for another. Tailor your assignments to the personality of your class. Think about what they would think is fun, and go with that. No matter what you believed in your student days, homework doesn’t have to be boring. With a little creativity when assigning homework, you might find that the activities you assign for outside of class become the highlights of your students’ days. Related posts: Enter your e-mail address to get your free pdf. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe Young Learners and Homework Let’s talk about homework and small children. In my eikaiwa , or private language school, I assign weekly homework with religious fervor to even my four-year-old nursery students. For some, that might be seen as not only unnecessary but cruel. According to my students, their regular elementary school homework is repetitive and “like torture”. Yet these same students from age four and upwards complete my school’s weekly English assignments in a timely fashion. Moreover, they receive no extrinsic rewards for completing their homework nor any penalties for not completing it. For the most part, their written homework submissions are thoughtful and creative rather than dashed off at the last minute. Also, their speaking homework videos show concentrated faces and happy smiles upon completion. It took a pandemic to make that happen, and since the first submissions were posted on the online platform Padlet in June 2020, I’ve been determined to keep that momentum going. Evolution of a Homework Management System For the first 16 years of its existence, my school had had no homework policy at all. However, after completing a graduate program in TESOL, I realized that my monolingual non-returnee students had not been receiving enough input to make a significant difference in their language learning. After rewriting my school guidelines and policy statements, I began giving homework assignments, correcting student work, and listening to them read aloud the following week in the reception room before class. Was this system successful? Well, some students did begin arriving before class time with their worksheets neatly and accurately done and stories in hand, ready to read aloud to me. Many others, however, arrived having hardly looked at the reading assignments, submitting hastily written or even untouched written work. As you might imagine, appealing to the parents of those children to do homework supervision was unpleasant and yielded mixed results. To complicate matters further, as a result of the homework system, I then had an imbalance within classes—those who did the homework and practiced reading were understandably progressing faster and winning the in-class games. The situation was hardly ideal, but perhaps part of me didn’t believe from the onset that students and parents would take my homework requirement seriously. Grumbling, I stuck with the status quo. When the pandemic struck in March 2020, the status quo was no longer an option. Our school chose to move online almost immediately and the homework system that had never worked properly became no longer feasible. Knowing from experience that the key to survival in the eikaiwa industry is adaptability, my staff and I moved quickly. We chose Padlet , an online bulletin board to both assign homework and provide a space for parents to upload their children’s work. In the weeks that followed, children and parents had time at home together; they downloaded the Padlet application, took photos of completed homework, made speaking videos, and got used to online learning. A Padlet Page with Assignments and Submissions To my surprise, homework was uploaded consistently, and the quality was impressive. Why the change? One reason might have been that homework submissions were posted on a shared class Padlet page and visible to other families, creating a sense of accountability and pride. Another reason might have been that I began writing the assignments and giving detailed feedback in Japanese so that the parents of the youngest children could read my instructions and comments. At any rate, the improvement in both quantity and quality of work submitted was undeniable and when we moved back to live lessons in the fall of 2020, I resolved to continue managing homework online. It’s now a full year later and I am still doing so. Challenges and Benefits of the New System It goes without saying, however, that no learning management system is perfect. I admit that providing specific written feedback in the learners’ L1 is time-consuming for me and that time is precious. My school’s previous approach to feedback had been much more efficient in terms of time: a few words of spoken praise after a story reading, or a big hanamaru (Japanese flowery circle that indicates perfection) and GOOD JOB! written in bold, red ink across the top of worksheets. Yet, how could I have believed that this kind of standardized, impersonal approach was meaningful to or impactful for students? To be painfully honest, most students’ responses had been to glance at their returned papers imperviously, stuff them back into their study bags in a random fashion, and make a beeline for the alphabet puzzles or origami. I now spend significantly more time on homework than I did pre-pandemic. I don’t get that time back, but I am richly rewarded in other ways. Let me mention some of them. The first benefit for me is better parent participation. Perhaps I can best describe this by explaining how the homework system works. For the moment, let’s keep the focus on my youngest students, who are four years old and not yet literate in Japanese. Their homework assignments are designed to develop phonological and phonemic awareness as well as fine motor skills. A typical speaking homework assignment might consist of a short close-up video of myself doing a simple phoneme chant. Students watch it at home, practice, then post their own videos on Padlet . I do watch their videos, and observe closely. Below each child’s video, I add comments in Japanese; my comments are addressed directly to the child and read to them by a parent. What kind of feedback is appropriate at this age? Most little ones are naturally good at catching and repeating sounds, so I focus my comments on personal details rather than accuracy of execution. For example, “I like how you chanted with a big smile and a loud voice!” or “You said the words very clearly—I could understand you easily!” Yet parents can be insecure and sensitive when it comes to pronunciation; they want reassurance that their child is hitting the target sound correctly. Because of this, I do address errors that I judge as easily correctable by offering a simple explanation and encouraging the parent and child to try again. An “easily correctable error,” for instance, would be the voicing of an unvoiced phoneme, such as saying “pa” rather than /p/. This is easily remedied once the child understands that /p/ is made by simply puffing out air, which young children can easily do. Writing is more straightforward. When each child completes a drawing or worksheet, their parent snaps a photo of the completed picture and uploads it to Padlet for me to check. When the parent reads my comments to the child later in the week, the feedback cycle is complete. Figure 2 shows a typical written homework assignment for a four-year-old. Based on a story heard in class, the letter M’s shape is represented as two mountains; details of a pool between the mountains and stick-figure hikers are the student’s own personal touch. A Typical Nursery Class Homework Assignment In short, since recordings, photos, and smartphone uploads are all part of the homework process, parents have become a necessary intermediary between myself and my youngest students. In the past, parents would cheerfully register for classes in April saying, “I’ll leave my son/daughter’s English education up to you, Sensei.” Now, they are informed from the first day that their involvement will be an essential part of the equation. The majority of parents are no longer detached from the language learning experience; they are busy reading the assignments, cheering on their child’s efforts, taking videos, and checking my comments on Padlet . Because personally involved parents clearly see their children’s skills develop, their vocabularies expand, and their confidence increase with each year of study, most parents are highly motivated to continue, even when it means juggling work, health concerns, other weekly lessons, and family commitments. Another benefit of online homework is the chance to dialogue with each student as an individual on a weekly basis. As worksheets requiring students to choose correct answers are hardly conducive to dialogue, my writing assignments are now more open-ended (For instance, questions that can be answered with a picture of the student’s choice) and done in notebooks that form the basis of a portfolio-style assessment at the year’s end. An example of this would be the type of homework assigned to my lower elementary age learners who are still focused on letter and word formation. At this stage in their language development, they are unable to produce written sentences on their own, but enjoy practicing phrases or sentence patterns and adding their own descriptive pictures. As I do with the nursery students, I post a short video of myself standing next to the classroom whiteboard on which the target words, phrases, or sentences are clearly written. In my most engaging teacherly voice, I read the text on the whiteboard aloud, giving students a clear listening model. I then explain the writing task, which involves drawing pictures to match the meaning of what is written. Last, students are challenged to read their own completed assignments back to me and upload to Padlet , which will be their reading/speaking practice. Lower Elementary Level Homework With Feedback When I enlarge their tiny drawings on my laptop every evening, their pictures often show me which concepts they understand and which are still fuzzy on. After offering suggestions on their writing or choice of pictures, I open the conversation by commenting on their drawings. My feedback might include, “Wow! Your dragon looks real!” or “Thanks for drawing all those details. I can see what your house really looks like.” Also, because adult minds are not always aligned with a child’s view of the world, I might ask “What’s that animal on the right? It looks like a cat…” I’ll often get an answer within the week informing me that “Mahiro says it’s not a cat, it’s a fox.” In the next week’s lesson, I often follow up, allowing the artist to have a good laugh over my inability to see the obvious and completing the dialogue full circle. In this way, through noticing the details of their drawings, I get to know my students better as individuals and have a chance to engage with them personally outside of the group. They know I look closely and read the tiny messages they sometimes add in hiragana or English. They know that I find them interesting as people and I suspect that the feeling is mutual. As long as I keep up my end of the bargain—to faithfully look and comment—we are connected. At the end of the last school year, elementary age students reviewed their writing notebooks and assessed their own progress, often sharing details about their study habits, frustrating barriers they encountered, or small achievements that they were proud of. One girl admitted that until recently she could barely remember the names of all the capital and small letters of the alphabet and expressed joy at finally being able to read and write. Another boy complained that doing his homework was a chore until he realized that he could read English words and phrases on TV and in stores; suddenly, he was motivated to sit down and practice reading so he could read more. Many parents, who were also asked to assess their child’s progress, expressed surprise and pleasure at the evidence of their child’s developing literacy and speaking ability. Being asked to fix writing errors or resubmit speaking videos had been stressful and time-consuming, but they recognized the value of perseverance and expressed pride in the results. The notebooks were solid proof of progress, since parents could see their children’s letter formation gradually improve from page to page as their fine motor skills developed. The parents of older children observed the steady development of more complex skills as the target of their children’s assignments changed from writing words to constructing phrases and sentences. Lastly, according to their evaluations, most parents did not mind taking the time to record and upload their children’s speaking assignments. Instead, they were pleased to hear their child’s pronunciation and to hear them reading independently. Reflective Comments by a Student and Her Mother Final Comments In the English as a Foreign Language field, those of us working with young learners cannot avoid confronting the issue of homework. How do we devise assignments that are meaningful and motivating to students? How do we ensure that instructions are understood and followed correctly? How can we use homework to both reinforce previously learned language and create opportunities for connection and communication? What kind of feedback is appropriate and effective? As teachers, how do we justify the time on task? Whatever our teaching context, the questions are the same. Right now, I am focused on the online homework management system that is working for my particular teaching context. Nevertheless, I want to hear what others do and compare their systems with mine. I want to find the hidden pockets of inefficiency and smooth out the rough edges. I believe in the potential of my students and in my own resourcefulness as a teacher. As long as my energy and sense of humor hold out, I’ll be ready for another day of teaching. Ruth Iida has lived and taught in the Kanto region of Japan since 1999. As a longtime owner and head teacher of an eikaiwa in the countryside, she is passionate about developing and refining curricula for young Japanese learners. The challenge of making language meaningful and personal for her students allows her to sing, dance, act, read and write stories, play and referee games, practice yoga poses, and indulge her passion for stationery items. Main navigation Learning english, we found 175 activities for you. Uses of like This activity helps you to practise using like in different sentences I love sports This activity helps you practice using words to do with time and place Family holiday Add some prepositions to a story about going on a family holiday What a great idea! Learn about exclamative clauses See and know Learn about how to use see in spoken English Choose which parts of these sentences have been left out Bank accounts Practice listening with this activity about bank accounts Can you understand? Can you identify what is really being said in this listening activity? Which animal? Answer some questions to learn new words to describe animals Vocabulary for the house and home Practise using vocabulary about the house and home Vocabulary for work and jobs Practise using vocabulary connected to work and jobs Actually and actual Learn about the uses of actually and actual 45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. Take the first step today Meet top uk universities from the comfort of your home, here’s your new year gift, one app for all your, study abroad needs, start your journey, track your progress, grow with the community and so much more. Verification Code An OTP has been sent to your registered mobile no. Please verify Thanks for your comment ! Our team will review it before it's shown to our readers. School Education / Summer Holiday Homework for Kindergarten: Engaging Activities for Young Learners Updated on   Apr 20, 2024 Summer Holiday Homework for Kindergarten: While summer vacation is a time for enjoyment and rest, it’s also a fantastic chance for young children to continue learning and keeping their minds occupied. Put an end to tedious spreadsheets! There are tonnes of original holiday assignment ideas for kindergarten students in this blog post. To make summer learning exciting for kids, instructors, and parents, we will cover themes like nature exploration, arts and crafts, and even healthy living.  Table of Contents 1.1 Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt 1.2 Fingerprint Art Animals 1.3 Beach in a Box 1.4 Build a Cardboard City 1.5 Sing a Song, Learn a Rhyme 1.6 Draw What You See 1.7 Help with the Cooking 2.1 Study of Nature  2.2 Creativity and Narrative 2.3 Family and Community 2.4 Arts and Crafts 2.5 Music and Motion 2.6 Variation in Cultural 2.7 Healthy Living 3.1 Outdoor Art Gallery 3.2 Family Recipe Book 3.3 Musical Instruments 3.4 Family Time Capsule 3.5 Photo Journal Creative Summer Holiday Homework for Kindergarten Class The focus of kindergarten education is on learning through exploration and play. Thus, summer schoolwork should be enjoyable and stimulating to keep young minds occupied! Here are a few creative suggestions for summer holiday homework for kindergarten Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt Make a list of items they can discover outside, such as leaves, flowers, and pinecones, and include images or brief descriptions. Allow them to explore the backyard or park so you can cross them off the list! Fingerprint Art Animals Make use of paper and stamp pads. Allow children to produce fingerprints, then use markers or crayons to transform them into amusing animal shapes. Beach in a Box Sand (or brown sugar) can be used to fill a box, then add little plastic toys like boats, seashells, and toy fish. Allow their creativity to go off! Build a Cardboard City Don’t discard cardboard boxes! Allow them to construct a city with you that includes structures, tunnels, and possibly even a cardboard vehicle. Sing a Song, Learn a Rhyme Select a short rhyme or song with a summer theme. To keep those small voices chirping throughout the holidays, practice it together. Draw What You See Take them to a beautiful location, like a park. Allow children to sketch what they observe, emphasising colours and shapes. Help with the Cooking Even easy chores like combining ingredients or decorating cookies can provide enjoyable learning opportunities. Allow them to assist you in the kitchen this summer! Explore Art Therapy Courses !  Creative Summer Holiday Homework for Kindergarten Class: Common Themes Creating imaginative summer homework for kindergarten students can benefit from concentrating on themes that are interesting and suitable for their age group. You can build a range of interesting and fulfilling summer homework assignments for kindergarten classrooms that meet the interests and developmental needs of the students by incorporating these common themes. The following popular themes might serve as inspiration for imaginative kindergarten activities: Study of Nature  Encourage kids to observe plants, insects, and animals to learn more about the natural world they live in. They can establish a little garden at home, go on family nature walks, and gather flowers and leaves. Creativity and Narrative Encourage kids to use their imaginations to make up stories, characters, and artwork to help them become more creative. They can create their own stories, doodle, or set up scenes to be performed with toys or puppets. Family and Community Encourage kids to find out more about their families and communities to foster a sense of connection and belonging. They can make a family tree, take images of their homes, or conduct interviews with family members. Arts and Crafts Give kids the chance to express themselves through crafts and art. They can create one-of-a-kind masterpieces by painting, drawing, collaging, or working with clay. Music and Motion Encourage kids to experiment with music and movement by having them sing, dance, and play simple instruments. They can manufacture their instruments, choreograph dances, and write songs. Variation in Cultural Honour variety by exposing kids to many cultures, customs, and holidays from across the globe. Through crafts, songs, and stories, they can learn about festivals, holidays, and customs. Healthy Living Encourage youngsters to learn about proper diet, exercise, and self-care to foster healthy behaviours. They can participate in outdoor activities, assist with the preparation of wholesome snacks, or practice mindfulness or yoga as a form of relaxation. Also Read: 5 Best Social-Emotional Learning Activities   Kindergarten Class Holiday Homework Summer Vacation We have some original suggestions for kindergarten class holiday assignments for the summer break in this part. These suggestions provide a variety of entertaining, instructive, and artistic summertime activities to keep kids interested and learning. Outdoor Art Gallery Encourage kids to gather organic elements such as stones, foliage, and blossoms to produce artwork outside. They can take pictures and organise them into shapes or patterns to show the class later. Family Recipe Book Encourage kids to gather their family’s favourite recipes and compile them into a little recipe book. They can assist with basic kitchen duties or create illustrations of the cuisine. Musical Instruments Encourage kids to use common home items, such as empty containers, rice for shakers, or rubber bands stretched over a box to create an improvised guitar, to create simple musical instruments. They can write original music and perform it for their loved ones. Family Time Capsule Encourage kids to construct a time capsule with mementos and souvenirs from their summer break. They can store it away to be opened at a later time or bury it in the backyard. Photo Journal Give every youngster a disposable camera, or let them use a smartphone to snap pictures of their summertime experiences under your supervision. When they get back, they can make a collage or picture journal to present to the class. Explore interesting ideas for school children here :  Ans: Some common kindergarten class summer holiday ideas are: Nature walk, scavenger hunt Fingerprint art animal Beach in a box Build a cardboard city Sing a song, learn a rhyme Ans: The top ideas for summer vacation homework are: Outdoor art gallery Family time capsules Family recipe book Musical Instruments Ans: They can create one-of-a-kind masterpieces by painting, drawing, collaging, or working with clay. To engage children in other school education activities, follow Leverage Edu now!!  Aayushi Vardhan Leave a Reply Cancel reply Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Contact no. * Connect With Us 45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. take the first step today.. Resend OTP in Need help with? Study abroad. UK, Canada, US & More IELTS, GRE, GMAT & More Scholarship, Loans & Forex Country Preference New Zealand Which English test are you planning to take? Which academic test are you planning to take. Not Sure yet When are you planning to take the exam? Already booked my exam slot Within 2 Months Want to learn about the test Which Degree do you wish to pursue? When do you want to start studying abroad. January 2024 September 2024 What is your budget to study abroad? How would you describe this article ? Please rate this article We would like to hear more. Have something on your mind? Make your study abroad dream a reality in January 2022 with India's Biggest Virtual University Fair Essex Direct Admission Day Why attend . Don't Miss Out 143 IMAGES Grammar Summer Homework Pack / A Booklet of Activities for Young Learners Girl is Doing Homework in the Classroom. Back To School! Cute Young Female Tutor Helping Little Elementary School Boy with Homework Letter of the Week Homework for Young Learners by For Schor Learners Homework helps to develop positive study skills and habits. a young boy Revision Homework for young learners COMMENTS Free Worksheets for Kids K5 Learning offers free worksheets, flashcards and inexpensive workbooks for kids in kindergarten to grade 5. Become a member to access additional content and skip ads. Free worksheets for kindergarten to grade 5 kids. Over 10,000 math, reading, grammar and writing, vocabulary, spelling and cursive writing worksheets. Is Homework Good for Kids? Here's What the Research Says A TIME cover in 1999 read: "Too much homework! How it's hurting our kids, and what parents should do about it.". The accompanying story noted that the launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to a push ... What's the Right Amount of Homework? As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don't have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989; Cooper et al., 2006; Marzano & Pickering, 2007). A more effective ... Homework challenges and strategies Rushing through homework can lead to messy or incorrect homework. It can also lead to kids missing key parts of the assignment. One thing to try is having your child do the easiest assignments first and then move to harder ones. Get more tips for helping grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers slow down on homework. The challenge: Taking notes Homework Pros and Cons Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: "They're learning way more important skills when they're not doing their homework." In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. For Young Children, Homework May Be Pointless No mandatory homework in elementary school. None. No homework in middle school and high school unless a kid wants to do it. Chronic nightly homework makes for guilt, resentment, and lies—and ... The Case for (Quality) Homework In short, homework is a key vehicle through which we can help shape children into mature learners. The Homework-Achievement Connection. ... and how researchers define homework. Certainly, young children are still developing skills that enable them to focus on the material at hand and study efficiently. Teachers' goals for their students are ... 9 Best Tips for Homework Success 9. Let 'Em Vent. If your child is resisting doing their homework — or worse, is tearing up over it in frustration — soothe any pent-up worries by letting them complain. Listen, empathize ("Wow, that is a lot of work"), and state their feelings back to them ("You sound upset"). How does homework 'work' for young children? Children's Australian study of 120 young children, aged four to eight years, where. homework emerges as a key part of their everyday lives. Children's. own accounts of their everyday decision-making, using audio-taped conversations and concurrent paper-based timeline activities, show. PDF Increasing the Effectiveness of Homework for All Learners in the ... ssroom applications.Increasing the efectiveness of homework is a multifaceted goal. Accom-modations, organization, structure of assignments, technology, home-school. communication, and students' home life all influence the efectiveness of homework. Teachers are often given the additional challenge of diferentiating i. Effective Homework Strategies For Young Learners Homework can be a challenging task for young learners. However, with the right strategies, it can become a beneficial and stress-free experience. This guide explores effective homework strategies to help young learners succeed. 1. Create a Consistent Routine. Consistency is key to developing good homework habits. Homework Homework is fundamental for learners to make effective progress. Learning a language takes time and time is something we don't always have in the classroom. ... With very young learners you can base your class work around topics like food, toys and clothes. These topics lend themselves particularly well to collecting objects at home to bring ... Cambridge One Engaging design for children, teens and adult learners ensures that students feel motivated and challenged at the right level Data you can trust Meaningful, relevant and actionable data with elements of gamification to guide teachers and keep learners motivated Why is Homework Important? Homework is an opportunity to learn and retain information in an environment where they feel most comfortable, which can help accelerate their development. 5. Using Learning Materials. Throughout a child's education, understanding how to use resources such as libraries and the internet is important. Homework teaches children to actively ... ESL Worksheets On this page, you can find many printable ESL worksheets on many topics for English language learners and teachers. All the worksheets on Games4esl are absolutely FREE to download and use in your English classes. Worksheets For Teaching English. The worksheets on this page are arranged by topic or by grade. The Pros and Cons of Homework Homework has its pros and cons, especially for college students. It can enhance critical thinking, time management, and learning, but it also brings stress, impacts mental health, and can become overwhelming. Finding the right balance is key. Focus on quality assignments, maintain flexibility, and make sure your homework complements rather than ... 5 Most Creative Homework Assignments: Homework That Works Homework Assignments That Work. 1. A Word Book. A Word Book or Vocabulary Journal is a classic among teachers of very young learners who are not adept at using dictionaries; here they have a chance to make their own. Help them design their very own Word Book from scratch, out of construction paper, cardboard, or any materials you have on hand. A to Z of homework for Very Young Learners*** A to Z of homework for Very Young Learners***. November 22, 2020 by Anka Zapart. What a wonderful book this is, The Worst Alphabet Book Ever, by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter. In a way, it has inspired this post here, on all things related to homework for pre-primary EFL students. Mine is a very messy alphabet, with some letters in, some ... 13 ESL Homework Ideas 4. Listen to a Podcast. Listening is one of the ESL student's most difficult skills to acquire, so listening to a short podcast episode is ideal homework. You can ask students to write a little about the podcast to turn in to you, or you can ask them to briefly summarize what they heard for the class in the next session. Young Learners and Homework Young Learners and Homework. Date: January 2022. Issue: The Language Teacher - Issue 46.1; January 2022. Writer (s): Ruth Iida, Rainbow Phonics English School. Let's talk about homework and small children. In my eikaiwa, or private language school, I assign weekly homework with religious fervor to even my four-year-old nursery students. Activities for Learners Answer some questions to learn new words to describe animals. Practise using vocabulary connected to work and jobs. Learn English with our free online listening, grammar, vocabulary and reading activities. Practise your English and get ready for your Cambridge English exam. Summer Holiday Homework for Kindergarten: Engaging Activities for Young 1.1 Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt. 1.2 Fingerprint Art Animals. 1.3 Beach in a Box. 1.4 Build a Cardboard City. 1.5 Sing a Song, Learn a Rhyme. 1.6 Draw What You See. 1.7 Help with the Cooking. 2 Creative Summer Holiday Homework for Kindergarten Class: Common Themes. 2.1 Study of Nature. 7 Best Java Homework Help Websites: How to Choose Your Perfect Match? Java programming is not a field that could be comprehended that easily; thus, it is no surprise that young learners are in search of programming experts to get help with Java homework and handle ... essay homework paper phd review speech study thesis