homework tasks ideas

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20+ creative alternative homework ideas for teachers

When giving homework, it must always be based on learning goals your students have to reach, just like in your lessons. But it’s sad to see that lots of teachers are using homework as extra lesson time. Of course, as a teacher, you’re on a clock. But that doesn’t mean your students have to suffer from it and keep working on those boring textbooks and worksheets at home.

Consider goals like attitudes, real-life experiences, and practice, physical exercise, social encounters, creative solutions, and philanthropy as crucial as your lesson goals. These are things students don’t just pick up in your classroom. These are things they pick up in life.

In this blog post, I’ll give you some innovative homework ideas that will engage your students more. These alternatives to traditional homework will thereby also teach your students new things that can’t be taught in the classroom. You will find a variety of homework ideas: online and offline.

I will mention homework alternatives for primary school and high school. Some of these ideas can be changed a little bit, so they are the perfect fit for the right audience.

20 Creative homework ideas

You can divide homework tasks into the following themes or categories:

• Crafts & arts
• Outdoor activities & outings
• Games and activities
• Physical activities
• Digital or computer activities
• Philanthropy & social work

💡 Good to know : all the ready-to-use homework activities are created with BookWidgets . You can easily create activities like these yourself or duplicate an activity below for free, edit it if needed, and share it with your students. You can do so in the examples separately, or you can find all the homework examples in the BookWidgets Blog group folder .

Crafts and arts homework

1. prepare a dish from a recipe book.

2. Make a board game

3. Create a birdhouse

4. Transform a fictional book character into a hand puppet

Outdoor homework activities and outings

5. coupon game.

Students can also go grocery shopping with their parents. Here, they have to read the ingredients of the products and help their parents choose the healthiest products for the best prices, figure out the best deal between the sizes of items, …

6. Visit the zoo

7. Visit the local dumping ground or container park

8. Build a tree house

Games and activities as homework

9. bookwidgets games.

10. Minecraft

11. Play Cards

12. Play Zoo Tycoon or Rollercoaster Tycoon

Physical homework activities

13. rope skipping.

Many rope-skipping songs let your students do different tricks while rope-skipping. This is an excellent opportunity for homework as well. Ask your students to transform a rope skipping song into a song with lesson content. Let them count or spell or even sum up the different states or capitals. To engage their lifestyles even harder, you can additionally give them the assignment to create a TikTok in which they are jumping and singing.

Click here to see how you can get Tiktok more involved in the classroom.

14. Walking quest

If there aren’t any walking quests in the neighborhood, you could ask your students to create a walking quest like this for their fellow students. What a fun day it will be!

15. Obstacle Quiz

In order for students to answer the questions, they have to run and pass a challenging parkour. This is a fun homework exercise, and in the end, it’s a great lesson starter or lesson end.

16. Swimming games

After the activity, they can fill out an Exit Slip:

Digital or computer homework activities

17. create a picture album.

This teaches them to handle the online software, add pictures and write without spelling mistakes. And of course, creating memories is so much fun!

18. Video job application

19. Your life in 10 minutes - video

20. Email pen-pals

Is it still too complicated? Read the messages from your students, before they send them, and provide them with some feedback.

Philanthropy and social homework

21. grow a community garden.

22. Help in a retirement home

23. Help at a homeless shelter

24. Collect litter

Here’s another homework tip: Don’t call homework “homework”. Call it a challenge. Homework has become a negative word for students, and I bet they start rolling their eyes as you even mention the word.

Still looking for more inspiration? Check out the blog on short films and lesson activities that spice up your Google Classroom . Tip: even if you don’t use Google Classroom, there is a lot of inspiration back here.

Above you have read single assignments. But, you also have the option to involve your homework in a project. Find out more here .

So, as I mentioned earlier, there are many fun alternatives to traditional homework. Now it’s up to you to apply this in the classroom as well. In this folder , you will find all the examples you have come across.

Which idea do you or perhaps your students like the most? Let us know on Twitter . Of course, there are many more alternatives. If you have other ideas, you are always welcome to share it with other teachers in our Facebook group .

One more thing: don’t forget to say hi👋 on LikedIn .

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Your Career• 3 Min read

6th September 2020

Creative Homework Ideas

How can you create homework assignments that build on the day’s lessons and encourage creative, student-led learning? It’s a challenge for most teachers, especially as motivating pupils to complete homework can add a whole extra layer to your lesson plans. But it’s essential to bridge the gap between teacher and student learning –  the skills gained through independent study reinforces knowledge from your class, as well as a host of other benefits:

• Extended learning time – outside of the constraints of the school day, students are free to learn at their own pace and in their own environment.
• Independent learning – vital skills for exam preparation and higher education
• Teaches students to be resourceful and to overcome challenges independently.
• Gives students the freedom to be creative in their learning, gain valuable problem-solving skills and confidence in their own abilities.

Tips For Setting Creative Homework

• Plan independent learning both in and out of the classroom – you can monitor students effectiveness and address issues that may arise in the classroom before they become problematic for pupils at home.
• Don’t leave homework assignment to the end of the lesson, rushing through the task might leave some students confused which inevitably leads to a lower homework completion rate. Write plenty of time for explaining homework assignments into your lesson planning – read our Beginner’s Guide To Lesson Planning here
• Homework should to not too easy nor not too hard, offering pupils a challenge that reinforced the topics learnt during the day
• Give room for creative expression – allowing students to add their own diagrams, decorations or chose their own project topics from a selection. 
• Try using peer or self-assessment to mark homework – a double whammy of reducing your workload and allowing pupils to take control of their own learning.
• Include timings and explicit steps for completing more complicated assignments, especially for pupils that you anticipate might struggle. Comprehension of the task is the biggest hurdle in getting pupils to work on an independent basis.
• Self-driven projects, posters, creative tasks and research are more exciting than standard comprehension tasks and might encourage pupils that find sitting and writing dull or hard to complete the homework set – give students the freedom to learn and be creative in their home study.
• Provide specific instructions and internet safety reminders for research-led assignments. It’s very easy for children to find research overwhelming with a vast amount of information available online. Provide suggested websites and links in your homework to keep things on track!
• Don’t introduce a new topic for homework – keep it to topics that you’ve already covered in class
• Taking note of the subjects that excite and engage your class and set homework accordingly – try keeping dryer topics and  for the classroom so that you can monitor engagement
• Mark work promptly – essential to keep students motivated to complete work in their own time!
• Offering students the opportunity to select the homework that they would like to do from a selection guarantees a higher rate of completion. We’ve seen some teachers create grids or sheets of homework assignments for the pupils to select, or offer baskets of activities for younger children to take home and complete with an adult.

Creative Homework Ideas For All Ages

Coming up with innovative ways for students to reinforce their knowledge at home can be difficult – many of these ideas would be suitable for lots of subjects with a little tweaking!

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5 alternatives to homework (that help teachers out, too)

Amanda Clark January 10, 2019

What a dilemma homework can be! When you mention it, you probably hear grumbles from the crowd. And let’s be honest, grading is also probably not your favorite task as a teacher. Maybe you assign a lot, maybe you assign a little, or perhaps you don’t believe in homework at all.

How about a compromise?

Some experts argue that working at home decreases motivation, but experts also agree that quality homework has benefits, too.

Did you know that there are many alternatives to homework that don’t require just filling in bubbles and worksheets? If you’re interested in finding some non-traditional homework that your students will be thrilled to complete, explore these sweet homework alternatives.

1. Get busy with projects

Research suggests that projects can increase students’ motivation and benefit learning outcomes . So why not allow students to work on projects at home?

Not only do projects appeal to students more than homework, but they also save teachers valuable prep time. When I integrated project-based learning into my curriculum, it relieved some significant stress (for them and for me).

I enjoyed telling students that their only homework was to continue their projects. Then I’d provide them a set due date for chunks of the task. So, yes, they still had to regulate their time and do independent work at home, and I had to keep tabs on them and guide them along the way. But they had more freedom to manage their time and exercise their creative muscles.

The projects also still require work on the teacher’s behalf. As you’re aware, you can’t just tell them to do their projects at home without clear expectations, or without grading. However, once you set the proper guidelines, you’ll open up some time for yourself to grade a stack of papers in the meantime.

You could also incorporate progress checks or have a specific project task that you check the next day. Students could even earn a homework grade for staying up to date with their projects. There are many ways you can integrate projects into your homework plan, but the above techniques have worked for me.

I highly recommend assigning projects for homework because they also influence the work ethic in class. How? Students would often buckle down on their project in class when it came time to work on it — because if they didn’t, they knew they’d have to complete more at home. Other kids even appeared to genuinely enjoy working on these assignments!

Ask yourself this: Would you rather work on a scrapbook that documents the Revolutionary War or complete a multiple-choice worksheet on the subject?

Projects for homework are simple assignments, but you do have to give the students some guidance and a timeline of expectations. Check out these five project-based learning ideas to get you started.

2. Assign educational video games

My students loved education video games, and I frequently assigned them for homework ( gasp! ).

My students enjoyed playing Spelling City to practice spelling and vocabulary, and Grammar Gorillas was another hit that hammered down the parts of speech.

Do you remember any educational video games from when you were growing up? I used to love an online geometry game that was based on billiards. Honestly, that game and the Pythagorean theorem are all I remember from geometry.

Classcraft is another educational video game-like platform that makes for excellent homework play. Students can go home and complete a quest, which is basically a curriculum-based task assigned by their teacher. The alluring graphics and avatars might make parents double-check their kids’ laptops, but just like Spelling City and Grammar Gorillas, this educational platform is legit.

3. Read what you love!

I live in Marion County, Florida, and the school system recently made headlines when superintendent Heidi Moore decided to cut traditional homework for the lower grades.

Instead of completing homework, students had to read a book of their choosing each night. This decision was based on research that there are few (if any) benefits to doing homework until the higher grades.

So why not assign 20 minutes or more of reading a night? When your students ask what they should read, tell them this is entirely up to them — and watch as their jaws drop! Odds are that more of them will read if you give them a choice as opposed to flinging them a dusty copy of Great Expectations . I still love that book, and assigned reading certainly has its place in the classroom — but so does student choice.

If you’re concerned about checking up on the reading, you have a few options: Have a parent sign a sheet to verify that their child read that night, or have the kids come in and write a paragraph about what they read the night before.

Could they cheat the system? Sure. But you might be surprised to find that students who are given a choice of what to read will actually follow through and do as you’ve asked. This makes sense since various studies have found that intrinsic motivation trumps extrinsic motivation.

As long as kids are reading, who cares if they’re busting out Captain Underpants or endless editions of Animorphs ? Reading is reading.

4. Learn some necessary, PRACTICAL life skills

When I was in graduate school for teaching, I took an educational trip to New Zealand . Why? It turns out this country has one of the top middle school philosophies in the world.

One of the lessons I took away was from a teacher who had an excellent (and innovative) homework idea. Students received what looked like a Bingo card, and it had random homework assignments on each square. Students had a month to complete all of the tasks. These squares didn’t include multiple-choice tests or hundreds of questions about Shakespeare, but rather life skill activities and project-based assignments.

Some tasks were to do the laundry, write poetry in the woods, interview an elder, and propose a sustainable invention.

It was a brilliant idea.

5. Take a legit break and play

One of my favorite homework assignments that I gave my students is to go out and play. Yep, you read that right. You might be scratching your head in wonder, but there are times when I firmly believe that students need a break.

I didn’t assign this every single night, obviously. However, I commonly assigned it at the end of each quarter when students had just finished midterms, big papers, projects, or other intensive work.

Like teachers, students need a break. You know the look — glassy, eyes, irritable temper, and tired expressions. Assigning them to write a paper on grammar at home was not going to benefit anyone. But telling them to go home and play gave them a spark in their eyes. It also encouraged them to come to school the next day ready and eager to learn again, with renewed energy.

Adults don’t function well on burnout, so why should we expect kids to?

And for younger students, the power of play is essential. Yet with increased standardized testing and after-school activities, kids don’t have a lot of time to play.

So that’s right — one alternative homework assignment is to get some air and take a breather. And this “assignment” isn’t just for the kids; it’s for you, too.

Perhaps you can go home and relax as well. Brain breaks are necessary for everyone — regardless of your age.

Why not give these homework alternatives a try?

Regardless of your school’s policy on homework (or your own), you might be able to find some ways to squeeze in these alternatives to traditional homework to keep everyone happy and learning.

You might feel that traditional homework assignments still have a valid place in your classroom, and you’re totally right! But maybe try implementing a different type of homework task here and there to keep things fresh.

So, give it a try see how it goes! You might be surprised by the positive outcomes.

Photo credit: Rawpixel.com ; Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com;  Freepik.com ; Miika Laaksonen , Jo Szczepanska , Jordan Whitt  / Unsplash.com

Personalized Learning

28 Ideas On How To Make Homework Fun For Students

Do your children seem to need continual nagging to complete their homework? If your answer is “yes,” then don’t worry; we’ve all been there. Parents naturally want their kids to advance and do well in class, but after a full day of paper, pens, and books, many students won’t feel like doing their assignments.

No matter what the ages or grades of the students are, academic burnout may happen to any student, which affects overall learning and development. To solve this issue, we have brought 28 ideas on how to make homework fun and interesting for students of any age. Not only for parents but also if you are a tutor, these tricks and tips will come to your use.

28 Ideas on How To Make Homework Fun for Students

Homework enables the students to revise and evaluate the classroom learning and develops a habit of self-study, which in turn helps the students to score better. But it can be energy-draining, challenging, monotonous, and difficult to focus upon for students of any age.

Getting students to enjoy their homework and assignments could be immensely difficult at times. Especially after a long break or vacation, they find it difficult to focus on homework. Simultaneously, the importance of home tasks cannot be ignored. Wondering what the solution is?

It’s easy – why not make the homework fun and engaging? Yes, this is the ALL-IN-ONE solution to create a spark of interest in homework. There is practically a plethora of ways to let students feel enthusiastic while doing homework. However, not every strategy suits every student.

For instance, some students love to go outdoors and complete their homework or study amidst nature. On the other hand, some students simply want to stay indoors and complete home tasks in their study area.

So, while implementing a strategy or adopting ways to make homework fun and interesting, you must make sure you are doing the right thing for the right individual so that the student receives maximum benefits.

Here are 28 brilliant ideas that will guide you on how to make homework fun for elementary, middle, and high schoolers. Take a look:

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1. rewards are magical motivators.

It’s nothing new to provide children with little rewards in the classroom. But when it comes to the concept of homework for students, these approaches are rarely used. Instructors aren’t always aware of what’s offered or if it’s useful, and some parents may create their rewards. A great idea is to offer rewards inside the classroom.

Giving out vouchers, stickers, snacks, toys, or meal coupons that let youngsters earn money by doing their homework is something we advocate. The advantages of these magical motivators include having a friend sitting next to you in class, access to the internet, and unscheduled time in the classroom. If they link accomplishing their tasks to positive classroom experiences, students will be more engaged and motivated both inside and outside of the classroom.

2. Get Some Favorite Snacks

How to make homework fun and captivating? Let’s face the truth: A hungry student will be disinterested, uninspired, and miserable. Give them something healthful and palpable to eat while they do their schoolwork because most young kids are ravenous when they get home from school. Some options are apple slices, popcorn, grapes, crackers, flapjacks, and cheese.

If you want to attempt something a little more systematic, make a list of nutritious after-school snack suggestions and recipes and try them out every day. A delicious, crunchy apple is one of the healthiest nutrients for youngsters’ brain development. Some other nutritious and palpable snacks for students are Pancakes, Butter Popcorn, Fruit-flavored Yogurt, nut mix, sliced pears with ricotta cheese, Banana Smoothies, etc.

3. Beat the Clock

This is perfect for young kids who are reluctant to complete their schoolwork. Try it out, and you’ll thank us later. Young children like competing in races. By creating timed tasks, you may make schoolwork feel more like a race. For instance, keep track of the number of words they can spell properly or the number of arithmetic problems they can do in five minutes. Challenge your child to beat their previous best the next day.

To make it more fun, a little competition with siblings or best friends will work great. Nevertheless, make sure that the competition is healthy and doesn’t turn into an aggressive one. Often, students’ psychology works differently, and they tend to be violent in these kinds of situations.

4. Get A Homework Buddy

Allow your child to have a buddy or two over to study if they struggle with a particular topic or have difficulties concentrating in a quiet, empty room. If a second child is too distracting, set an example by helping your youngster. You may pay bills, prepare supper, respond to emails, or even work on a crossword puzzle or other mental exercise while they are doing their schoolwork.

Working on homework teaches children that work is a part of life, not just school, and fosters friendship without being overpowering.

5. Design an Awesome Workspace

Improve the area where your kids complete their schoolwork to increase efficiency, creativity, and problem-solving abilities. Have tools and materials available, such as cool notepads or notebooks, colored pens, highlighters, and sticky notes, to assist students in completing difficult projects.

Use calendars, whiteboards, chalkboards, corkboards, or even simply paper and tape to help them visualize and keep track of all they need to complete. You may also decorate it with art and other items that inspire you. For pupils older than 5 years old, you may also hang up some aesthetically pleasing motivating quotations and photos in their study space to help them stay focused and goal-oriented.

6. Make Them Feel Comfortable

The comfort level of the students is the first and foremost thing you have to take care of while making them complete their homework. Not every learner has the same comfort level in the same ways, and these levels tend to differ from one person to another. It’s the responsibility of a parent or a teacher to understand their comfort zone and then plan accordingly.

For instance, provide them with a variety of alternatives or let them design their strategy. You might also inquire as to what time they like to complete their assignment. You won’t need to repeatedly remind people of their duties if you reach an agreement.

7. Incorporate Intervals and Breaks

Some learners might be able to finish their entire load of homework in one sitting. If your class has any pupils that can’t sit still, think about introducing breaks into the assignment process. Weekly study regimens can accommodate breaks.

Give a food break, allow them to complete one level of a video game, or let them talk to a buddy during a quick break. To establish expectations for when and how homework breaks should be taken, teachers might talk about these concepts with parents and students.

This functions in two main ways. It first rewards pupils for finishing their schoolwork. In addition, it gives them a mental break so they can come back to their job reenergized and motivated.

8. Role Plays Work Wonders

Create your little school and let your youngster take the role of the instructor to make enjoyable learning-based games. Assume the position of the student, and have your youngster explain a concept to you in the teacher’s role. This game will help players better comprehend the topic and develop their logical and reasoning abilities. It works especially well with courses that call for theory, like science.

By letting your kid pick their favorite stuffed animals and playthings and placing them in their little classroom, you can make schoolwork enjoyable. Begin by registering, saying “mummy,” “gift,” “Mr. Teddy,” etc. Since kids love to pretend to be teachers, you’ll soon notice that your kid is becoming more self-assured.

9. Make Them Stay Positive and Focused

Ensure to keep the students’ attitudes toward school and the values of their schoolwork are always positive. To keep them inspired and on track, shower your youngster with compliments on how great they’re doing. If they are getting pissed off with the pressure of homework, make them understand its importance and how positively it can impact their learning.

Spend five minutes after each homework session going over your child’s accomplishments. Have a look at our selection of free-to-download home learning packs if you’re out of things to do. To keep them motivated, you can reward or recognize their achievements in front of their peers. This will not only boost their confidence but also will help them maintain a positive outlook toward homework and studies.

10. Take It Outside

Outdoor learning is one of the most feasible ways to do homework with fun in a natural environment. If the weather is good, create a cozy and safe study space outside and let the student finish all the homework outdoors.

Studies also demonstrate that being outside, nearer to nature enhances productivity. The fresh air can aid students’ attention if they have spent the entire day in a classroom. In between jobs, rewarding them with a brief game of football or Frisbee will keep them engaged. You can conduct some fun outdoor Math or English fun homework activities.

11. Altering the homework concept

Many kids feel burdened by their homework assignments. What if, though, you adopt a whole new approach to homework? It can be argued that schoolwork has a lot of unfavorable associations. These concepts usually start early in life and persist into college.

By referring to assignments in different ways, teachers can change these mental habits. Better ways to describe homework include home learning, brain workouts, and study time. You might try using these phrases in place of homework in the classroom.

12. Get Help If You Need

Homework can be frustrating if your child doesn’t understand the material or gets bored easily. Furthermore, excessive pressurizing or insisting on too much can mess up the student’s psychology. To be honest, in extreme cases, none of the methods will work. If your child or student is struggling beyond the normal limit, get them some expert help!

Education Advisors have plenty of advice for students who are not able to cope with homework. They also conduct counseling sessions from time to time in case it’s required.

13. Go for Audio-Visual Resources

Engaging additional senses in the at-home learning process is another technique to cheer up your boring assignments. Focus may be improved by using a child’s perception of touch, smell, or taste in a unique manner.

Sending kids home with instructions for making scented play dough, for instance, improve learning. The dough may be used in classes including math and spatial concepts. Plus, the aroma of scented/colored clays keeps kids focused while they work. Additionally, it enables children to link the smell to what they learned, improving memory and recall.

Another item that teachers might give their pupils as a take-home is a stress ball. Before, during, or after tasks, using a stress ball can encourage creative thinking and anxiety reduction positively.

14. Meditation Can Reduce Stress

Stress is not something that happens only to adults. With the increased competition in academics, young learners nowadays are suffering from severe stress, which ushers’ negative impacts on their mental health. Sometimes, both the little children and older students can’t express this stress and fail to explain how they are feeling.

Homework pressure often creates such challenging situations which disrupt the emotional equilibrium of youngsters. In situations like this, meditation can reduce stress and improve focus. Positive thinking, fear and the tension and anxiety that lead to depression may all be lessened by meditation. Being aware without judgment is one of the foundational elements of meditation, and this attitude of acceptance may ward against unpleasant thoughts.

15. Make It a Group Effort

Since time immemorial, team working is super effective for any activity. The same applies to homework as well. If students sit for the home task in a group, they will be able to wrap all the assignments up quickly.

Now the question is – how? Teamwork involves group discussions as well as brainstorming, which gives rise to new ideas. Students try to develop new ways to complete homework through mutual discussion.

16. Take Help from Learning Apps and Libraries

If your child struggles with their homework, it can be difficult for you as well. Games and visual examples in amusing math practice applications may be a terrific way to give your youngster practice with things he is having trouble with. Therefore, make schoolwork enjoyable for your youngster by downloading an app that simplifies the subject.

There are so many online applications and libraries that will help students enjoy fun and encouraging homework sessions. If the toddler or an older student specifically refers to a particular app or a website, talk to him/her about it properly. Then visit the online resource, and if you think it is a legit and helpful one, let your child or student use it during his/her homework time.

17. Tell Them Not to Take It Too Seriously

There are more important things in life than homework and grades. Too much focus on grades can affect your child’s love for learning. Think about what values you want to instill in your child and make sure the homework is not getting in the way.

If you believe your child’s teacher is giving out too much homework after you see your child demonstrate an understanding of the subject, don’t be afraid to voice your concern. Even if nothing changes, it will show your children that you care and empathize with them. That matters a lot!

18. Storytelling Can Be a Great Idea

Storytelling is a fantastic idea to make children complete their homework without facing any boredom. Especially for specific subjects like Math, History, and Literature, storytelling develops a context that allows the students to grasp things very easily.

If you find a student is finding it difficult to understand a concept and complete assignments on it, you can give a try to the storytelling method a since it works well. Storytelling has the power to captivate learners and keep them engaged irrespective of their age and grades.

19. Create A Homework Mood

Creating a mood for homework is a bit difficult for younger students but setting the right environment can help them complete the tasks as quickly as possible. However, it’s not an issue for the senior students but can be a bit overwhelming for the little kids.

You can select a comfortable location for them to study and use their favorite stickers, lights, etc., to decorate the space. Keeping in mind the results as well as their abilities to take the pressure, set goals and establish rewards. It’s vital to make them understand the goals and disclose a bit about the rewards but don’t let them know exactly what’s going to happen. This will create an enthusiasm to complete the homework in no time.

20. Turn on Some Music

The psychological effects of music are undeniable. Music brings concentration and helps to focus on a particular work pleasantly. Then why not use it for your children’s homework? Science dictates that music is the best aid for studying.

Play some soft music while the student is doing his/her homework and this will help to create an ambiance. You can also play cool, energetic, upbeat music since it radiates energetic vibes and the student will find immense energy as well as positivity to complete the tasks.

21. Ask Them to Do the Tough Tasks First

One more cool thing to try out is doing the tough tasks first. It’s a perfect strategy if the student has a list of various tasks of different levels of complexity. You will be able to realize how much time he/she needs to complete the tasks and edit afterward if needed.

Completing the more complex tasks at first enables a student to think and decide critically. The remaining time can be enjoyed with much lower stress while doing the easier assignments. If your child gets bored very quickly you can try this method out.

22. Get Creative

Wondering how to make homework fun creatively? Homework doesn’t sound exciting to students. To be more specific, solving sums after sums or writing science projects doesn’t sound fun alone. Rather, if you mingle these tasks with an artsy adventure, the same old boring homework sessions become interesting.

For instance, you can ask them to paint out the math problems, prepare a model for their science projects, or act a portion of the history or literature books. Some other effective ideas may include creating a range of paintings while explaining a paragraph to a child, making clay characters, and doing some moves with the music.

23. Doing Homework at School

Nowadays, as the syllabuses are changing, students have too much pressure from homework to deal with. After coming home from school, it’s quite natural for them to feel exhausted. At times it becomes impossible for a kid to keep their eyes open for homework.

The best remedy here is to complete the majority of their homework at school. Your child also doesn’t have to stay up all night looking for answers or trying to understand how to remember academic facts. They can use their free time at school to complete some of the homework to stay relaxed later. Also, completing homework with peers involves so much engagement and fun.

24. Ask Them to Work on Different Subjects in a Session

Are you trying to know how to make homework fun without putting in much effort? Plan a routine for your child so that they can work on different subjects in a single session. Try to mix and match the subjects to make them feel comfortable with the pace of the study.

Working on a maximum of 3 subjects a session will help a student to get rid of the homework quickly without considering it as a pressure. Ensure they are not in a rush to complete one subject after another. Make it as systematic and orderly as you can to avoid any unwanted confusion.

25. Get Academic Help

Getting a little homework help is a feasible way to make homework fun. Nevertheless, you must make sure that none of you, the teachers, or the program facilitators are not spoon-feeding them, or else it will affect the student’s development in terms of learning.

If there is a math problem that is too difficult to solve or a paragraph with heavy words, you or the tutor can give your helping hand to the student so that he/she can complete it on his/her own. For instance, you can give a clue to solve the sum or narrate the context of the paragraph.

26. Planning Is the Key

Planning is a powerful habit to make homework sessions fun and organized. Not only at school, but also this habit will help a student throughout his/her life. It’s required for a student to be extremely serious about homework in a studying period and systematic planning can help in completing all the assignments on time.

If your child is in high school or middle school, you can guide him/her to make homework routines. However, elementary school kids and preschool students need their parents’ or teachers’ assistance to make advanced homework plans.

27. Ask Them to Write on Their Favorite Topics

Working on something you love will make you feel more connected to the work. The same applies to both the kids’ homework and older students’ homework. If you are thinking about how to make doing homework fun, you can ask them to write a paragraph or a short essay on their favorite topics.

To implement this strategy, first, talk to the students on a one-on-one basis and try to know their individual preferences in terms of writing. Then assign them a task where they will write whatever they want on their favorite topics. This will act as a warm-up session before doing the homework.

28. Provide Choice

One of the key reasons why younger and older students become disengaged with their homework is they find it meaningless. This is where the mentors and the parents have to play the biggest role. They need to make the student understand why homework is important and how it can benefit them in the future.

This will make the kids’ homework sessions more engaging and they will be able to connect emotionally or personally. How to make homework fun in this way? It’s simple, provide the students with more choices while assigning the homework. For instance, if there is a tough project, they can choose to work alone on it or work with partners.

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Elementary school homework tips.

Homework gives elementary students a way to practice the concepts. But you have to be very careful while making them do the home tasks as at this age they don’t develop an understanding regarding the benefits of homework. To them, homework is just something that parents and teachers use to restrict them from doing what they want.

Below are some effective tips on how to make homework fun for kindergarten students.

• Make sure kids have a creative, engaging, and well-lit place to do the homework.
• Give the kids delicious snacks from time to time so that they don’t get distracted due to hunger.
• Encourage the children to complete their homework by giving them small rewards or recognizing their efforts to make the entire process more manageable.
• Instead of dictating to them what to do and threatening them, be a mentor, a leader, and a motivator.
• Create a homework routine for elementary students manually or use desktop app for planning your homework. Don’t forget to keep short breaks in between.
• Try to keep distractions to a minimum. This means no phone calls, loud music, and TV during homework time.

Set good examples for them but without comparing them with anybody. Have you ever seen your little one saving money? Point that quality out, praise him/her for it, and set it as an example.

Middle School Homework Tips

Middle school students develop a fair understanding of the importance of homework. So, you are not supposed to face much trouble to make them complete their tasks. Check out these middle school homework tips below. These tips will work wonders if you are looking for ways to make homework fun for 7th graders or 8th graders.

• Designate a specific amount of time for homework. This will help them to complete work on time.
• Help them prioritize which tasks to do on a priority basis. In this way, they will develop the ability to make decisions.
• Continuously encourage them to evaluate their work so that they can find the mistakes and correct them on their own.
• Put away the phone to prevent them from being distracted from time to time.
• When needed, help them to complete homework instead of spoon-feeding the whole thing. Give clues to solve a sum, point out some important areas, or explain them in a paragraph so that they can complete the next tasks by themselves.
• Don’t pressurize or force yourself to do homework. Parents need to know when to stop, especially when they are feeling exhausted, frustrated, and confused.

High School Homework Tips

When it comes to homework, high school students are better able to manage their time, stay focused and finish their tasks. This enables them to understand the value of homework. They don’t do any tantrums and get less distracted because they understand the consequences of not completing home tasks on time. But if you want to know how to make homework more enjoyable for high school students throughout the school year, here are some effective tips:

• Tell them to write down their homework every day in a notebook, or a planner to keep it more organized.
• Ask them to write their homework with a blue pen on a white sheet to remember their writing. Also, it’s the best combo to do homework faster.
• Help your teens to divide their homework schedule in a planned way and keep short breaks to freshen up their minds. For instance, if they work for 30 minutes, they can take a 5 minutes break.
• Doing homework with buddies is a proven method to complete homework on time and also in an accurate manner.
• If they get stuck while doing any specific homework, ask them to take help from online resources, libraries, video demonstrations, and journals.

Homework Dos and Don’ts

Let’s face it – nobody loves homework although it’s super important for your child’s learning and development. While high school students understand the importance and need of doing school assignments at home, elementary and preschool children can’t develop the understanding at their age.

Several things are to be kept in mind while expecting homework from students in proper time. To make the students complete their homework happily, we have brought some amazing dos and don’ts that parents or teachers need to follow:

Homework Do’s

1. monitor the answers.

After your child has completed his/her homework, check it once to find what went right and what went wrong. If you find any mistake in his/her work, try not to point that out directly. Instead, give your youngster clues so that he/she can find out the mistakes now.

2. Remove the Distractions

Thinking about how to make homework more fun for your child? Remove the distractions from the study room first including social media on the computer, mobile phones, unnecessary toys, etc. Remember, a decluttered environment is the reason behind a decluttered head. They will be able to focus more on the homework when there isn’t a pile of distractions around them.

3. Be A Cheerleader

Always be your child’s motivator when he/she is doing homework. Students may not be correct always but humiliating them may make them demotivated and frustrated at the same time. Celebrate small successes such as completion of the tasks within time, the maximum number of correct answers, the maximum time the child has devoted to homework, etc. Give treats like candies, stickers, pens/pencils, and colored boxes to celebrate their success.

4. Work in Collaboration

The parents and the children need to work together in terms of homework. There must be a proper channel of communication between both parties so that the child’s overall performance can be monitored.

Homework Don’ts

1. don’t force them to homework.

Forcing a student to do the homework can bring immensely negative results. Children won’t like homework – it’s quite normal but forcefully making them do it is tremendously fatal as it will develop a permanent fear or discomfort that will hamper their overall growth.

2. Don’t Show Them Your Frustration

Kids have a lot of tantrums. Especially, the tantrums increase while doing homework. Often teachers and parents get frustrated but showing them the frustration is not at all a good idea. Not only will the child become stubborn but also, they will develop a fear of doing assignments or getting help from you. If you want to make homework fun for 6th graders or students of any other grades, don’t show your frustration in front of them.

3. Don’t Compare with Their Peers

Comparison is something that demotivates a child to a great extent. It develops a deep resentment in their mind which doesn’t fade away even after growing older. Comparing their grades or skills with their peers is probably the worst idea to make students do homework.

4. Don’t Keep Electronic Devices in Front of Them

Yes, you can give the students electronic gadgets for a few minutes as small rewards but don’t keep the devices in front of them all the time when they are doing homework. This may loosen their concentration and will make them distracted from their respective tasks.

How A Homework Planning App Can Help a Student?

A homework app is the best time-management tool that enables students to organize everything they need to do throughout a week, month, academic year, or semester. It’s an easy way to keep your homework sessions organized. In case you are still thinking about how to make homework fun for your child, software with proper features of homework planning can help him/her out.

The academic pressure on school children sometimes becomes too difficult to handle, especially when there is so much to do. This is where student planners for their home assignments are found to be beneficial. Here is an explanation of how an efficient home assignment planning tool can help students finish their tasks on time:

1. Gives Students A Break

It might also be helpful to make sure that kids have some downtime to unwind and not become overburdened with assignments. If teachers are assigning homework through software, they will see how long a piece of homework will take to be completed, and they can allocate the tasks accordingly scheduling breaks in between.

2. Reduces Stress

Homework pressure may not sound like a big deal to you because you have already left those days behind but to your child, it’s a headache. The fear of being scolded by parents/teachers is one of their biggest concerns to them. Thanks to digital planners, these tools know exactly how to help each student in a customized way.

3. Increases Productivity

How to make homework interesting? Students who use a school planner are more productive and can manage their time more effectively. Students today struggle with procrastination because the internet age offers so many diversions. However, if they have noted down the tasks they must complete, they will be more motivated to complete them.

4. Easier for Parents and Teachers

A homework app with intuitive features of planning helps to complete an assignment within time in a systematic manner. Younger students who still rely on the help of their parents and teachers to do their schoolwork often fail to inform them about their homework status. Having homework software can easily sort this problem out and reduces mentors’ work and hassle.

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How to make homework fun with clarifi.

To assist students to achieve their highest potential, Clarifi is a homework software that acts as an ideal digital homework attention coach. We are dedicated to helping students achieve their academic goals. The pupils may complete their homework independently with the help of this digital planning app for homework.

It is a straightforward and uncomplicated desktop program that gives them more confidence to finish their assignment as quickly and effectively as possible. It is the only research-backed desktop application that enables children who are easily distracted to do their schoolwork without a parent watching over them. Monitoring student behavior is the only way to be sure they are doing their assignments.

However, keeping track of pupils’ activity is a time-consuming and important duty. However, Clarifi is available to make this procedure as easy as possible. With the aid of this program, students can effortlessly enter each homework assignment and keep track of the due dates for each one based on the class or the current day.

They receive prizes from the automated coach for maintaining concentration and doing their homework. When all pupils turn in their schoolwork on time, they will receive diamonds as a reward. This element motivates pupils to develop the positive habit of finishing their home assignments on time. Clarifi is an easy digital homework attention planner that provides kids with the ability to filter out distractions, improve their executive functioning, and keep all of their assignments organized in one location.

Clarifi guarantees to raise their capacity for concentration and focus as well as their academic performance. It incorporates functions that provide users the means to remain centered, motivated, and organized while finishing their schoolwork on their own. When kids use the app, it is specially designed with cutting-edge technology that blocks all other apps.

Generating an undistracted and focused environment for students with Clarifi is the answer to “how to make homework less boring.”

Students Can Now Complete Homework with Fun!

With these tricks and tips, students can now efficiently engage themselves in homework. Learners need to study and complete their homework/assignments with a positive mindset and not forcefully. As soon as a student starts doing his/her homework strenuously, the interest is eventually lost, leading to mistakes and burnout.

But with the tricks mentioned above, homework sessions can now be immensely fun and interesting. Whether you are a teacher, parent, or student, these are some tried and tested ways to complete home tasks engagingly. Stay tuned to Clarifi for similar informative blogs like this. If to need help with your children’s homework and know more about how to make homework fun get in touch with Clarifi today.

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Creative Homework Ideas For Your Students

Setting appropriate homework tasks is a big part of your teaching role. Setting homework is an opportunity to ensure that your students have absorbed the lesson and can apply what they've learnt to individual study. Homework allows students to reflect on your teachings and broaden their understanding of a particular subject or topic.

However, motivating your class to view homework this way might be something of a challenge! Most young people find settling down to complete homework outside of school hours challenging. If the task feels overwhelming or difficult or seems monotonous, they might just go through the motions of getting it done rather than giving it their full energy and attention and completing it the best they can.

So how can you ensure students' love of learning continues outside the classroom and that they not only give their all to completing homework but actually enjoy it too?

By getting creative with the work you set and thinking about how you can engage and motivate students to complete their homework, you will undoubtedly see better results.

Here are some excellent homework ideas to help encourage creative, student-led learning.

Exciting, engaging homework ideas to keep your students paying attention

Write their own lesson plan.

If you want to give your students a chance to step into your shoes for the day, why don't you ask them to create their own lesson plan around a topic they've learnt about or are about to learn? This will give them a chance to showcase their knowledge, do research and think creatively. You'll also learn more about how your students like to work and what would make a good lesson from their perspective, which could help inform how you shape your lessons in the future.

Write a speech or story from a different perspective

If your students are learning about a famous historical figure or studying a classic text, why not get them to think about different perspectives? You could ask them to embody someone influential from a particular period or a character from a play or story and write a speech or story from that person's point of view.

Create a board game

Gamification is always a fun idea to try to inject energy into the classroom, and getting your students to create their very own board game is a fantastic way to keep things fun while also getting them engaged in their learning. Games could centre around a particular topic; they could be quiz-based, matching games, or number games - let them get as creative as they like. You can then have fun in class playing the best ones too.

Go on a treasure hunt

As a fun homework task that will get your students out and about, ask them to go on a treasure or scavenger hunt, finding certain things that are related to your topic. For younger children, this could be as simple as collecting leaves, flowers, or twigs they might find in their local park, or particular shapes or colours, but older children can benefit from this kind of task too by setting more complicated challenges.

Create a collage

Creating collages can be a fun and interesting way for students to demonstrate their learning, improve their research skills and use their creativity and imagination and can be based on a variety of different topics so they work well across lots of subjects. Encourage them to stick cutouts, fabrics, tickets, photographs, and any other relevant materials to make up their collages, and then they can take turns presenting these in class.

Film a video

If your students are older and have mobile phones, you could set a video-making task for them to do at home. This could involve interviewing friends and relatives about a topic or filming themselves talking about a specific subject, or answering a particular question. Students could share their videos in class and will love being able to use their phones in school for once!

Create a crossword

Get your students to think creatively about questions and answers by asking them to create their very own crossword puzzle, using the material you've taught them in class as a basis. You can ask them to bring all their crossword puzzles into class and then swap them with each other to see if other students can fit the answers in correctly.

Find fun facts

Almost every subject has weird and wonderful facts surrounding it. Did you know, for example, that the word 'hundred' derives from an old Norse term 'hundrath,' which actually means 120?! Or that water can both boil and freeze simultaneously? Encourage your students to find the most obscure or interesting facts about the subjects you are teaching them, and then you can all share your findings in class.

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Engaging and exciting homework tasks – Part Two

In her previous post, Joanna Szoke emphasized the importance of planning the homework we set students, of making sure they understand what they have to do, as well as making homework more personally relevant and interesting.

In this second post, Joanna shares some ways to incorporate 21st century skills into homework.

There are many such skills, all crucial, but the 4 most well-known are: creative thinking, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration – the 4 C’s.

Let’s see how this can work in practice with some simple examples! I’ll show you 3 quite traditional tasks and what we can do with them to incorporate some of the 4C’s:

Connect the new terms with their definitions – A staple in almost every course book but not so exciting. What we can do to make it collaborative is to build in a crossword game! Just keep the terms, ask your students to prepare definitions for them, and type them into a free template offered by crosswordlabs.com . They take part in the defining process and they can then fill in the crossword in pairs, which improves their communication skills as well.

2. Communicate

Write a 150-word letter of complaint to the restaurant manager – This is a typical exam task. To make it a little different, you could include some research or some real experiences. Ask your students to look up a unique restaurant online (they might even go and try the food there), try to imagine what they could complain about, and then put it on padlet.com with the image of the restaurant. You can also appoint restaurant managers whose responsibility is to respond to these complaints under the original Padlet post. A similar but more life-like twist could be to make your students write Google Maps reviews – they might even post it in the end!

3. Do research, advance preparation

You just finished a unit, will start a new topic next, and have nothing really to give as homework – Imagine that you finished everything and have no idea what to do with your students. They can either have some time off or… You could ask them to do some research on the topic that’s coming up next and record their findings via videoask.com , flipgrid.com or vocaroo.com (this one’s audio only). You could also ask them to look for something specific – a surprising fact, a controversial idea, a scandal, or something inspiring. They can watch each other’s short videos before the lesson with some guided task, and come to class prepared.

So to sum up the main takeaways: To make homework tasks more engaging, try making them more personalised, authentic, and challenging by integrating several 21st century skills and involving the real world around your students . Don’t hesitate to share your ideas here or on social media!

Joanna is a very active educator, trainer and blogger.

Check out her blog (highly recommended): http://www.shortandsimpleenglish.com  

Follow Joanna on: http://linkedin.com/in/joanna-szoke https://twitter.com/jo_shortnsimple

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• Making learning accessible to everyone - #smoothstarts
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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.

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Homework Ideas for Teachers to Try

Too often, homework assignments get a bad reputation for being tedious, repetitive, or unnecessarily lengthy. As educators, we aim to provide work that is rigorous, purposeful, and engaging. T he last type of task we want to assign is an irrelevant or disconnected assignment used solely as “busy work.” Homework is meant to allow time to practice and reflect on the skills or concepts that we have been teaching in class. Of course, assignments cannot always engage every student on every level. However, a few different strategies can ensure that, as much as possible, students bring home tasks that hold their attention, assess their skills, and promote reflective practices concerning their learning styles.

Provide opportunities for student choice as often as possible

T his could mean that students are given the option to choose from a list of assignments, all with the same objectives or learning goals. The idea behind this is simple: the manner in which students exhibit their learning is not what matters . P roviding options that boost engagement can often enhance learning. Assignment options can range from a paragraph or collage to a PowerPoint or Adobe Spark page. With a wide range of possibilities, students are able to play to their strengths. A tech-savvy student and an artistically-inclined student can both exhibit knowledge of the content or skill, but produce different representations of their knowledge. This allows students to focus on the same learning goals and participate in the same instruction, while allowing them to differentiate the product that they create.

Permit students to opt-out of homework they have mastered

Along with student choice should be an opportunity to “opt-out” of certain assignments—for instance, a student that aces an algebra practice test may be given the option to opt out of the night’s homework involving the same concepts. This idea supports the notion that busy work not only lends itself to boredom, but also has the potential to lower motivation and determination. If a student has proven mastery of a concept, rote or redundant practice is unnecessary.

Create a weekly or monthly calendar of assignments

T his not only helps teachers with their planning, it also assists students with organization and proactivity. The calendar acts as a visual or digital reminder of assignments that are coming down the pike. Be sure to include the date that the task was assigned, as well as the due date. Double check that a week’s worth of assignments is balanced and reasonable—i.e. , something that students can realistically accomplish in the timeframe given. Encourage students to cross off tasks as they are completed. Also, allow students to submit work prior to the due date. This way, students that struggle with disorganization or misplacing papers can rid themselves of the assignment before it disappears.

Hold a homework session during lunch

T his can be as frequent as needed, but once a week is a good start. Allowing students to have a quiet place to work is a benefit to them and you , as well. By working through an assignment with students, teachers are better able to gauge the effectiveness of their instruction. A lunch session also allows students to ask questions or voice confusion over a particular homework task.

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10 entertaining homework ideas for online English Language Learners

Did hearing the words, “do your homework,” when you were a child excite you? 

For most of us, the word homework doesn’t conjure up exciting or fun memories. 

Homework was likely one of the last things you wanted to do as a student!

However, what if you could make homework fun for students? What if homework was entertaining? 

In this article, we share some entertaining homework ideas for English language learners to help them improve their English while having fun!

You might be familiar with lots of ESL games and activities for your students , but assigning the right homework can feel overwhelming. 

This is particularly true if you don’t want to burden your students with a tremendous amount of information. 

Have you ever thought about combining games with homework? 

There are many alternative ways to create memorable lessons, such as incorporating karaoke songs to learn English. 

Here are 10 fun and entertaining homework ideas for your ESL students:

• Cafe hopper
• Tiktok star
• Let’s go to the movies
• Hello Mr. Teacher
• Interview a stranger
• Shine like a Karaoke star
• Expert on the loose
• 24 hour challenge
• It’s a wrap!
• Masterchef in the making

1. Cafe hopper

Most people love checking out cafes and this is an easy homework task to assign to your students.  

Have your students visit a variety of cafes as part of their homework. 

Then, consider what they could do for homework in a cafe of their choice.

Here are some fun ideas for turning cafe-hopping into homework:

• Practice ordering in English off of the menu.
• Take a photo of the cafe’s and share the differences and similarities with you in class.
• Speak to a stranger in each cafe in English and ask them some interesting questions about their life.
• Interview the barista about their favorite kind of coffee or beverage.

This is a stress-free homework idea that your students will love, especially if they are coffee or tea lovers!

2. TikTok star

Tiktok is a fun social media application where you can watch videos and songs from creators. You can also watch creators lip-synching to catchy tunes.

Show some fun examples in your class of some famous TikTok songs being lip-synched to by others and practice doing one together.

• For homework, have them choose their favorite song on TikTok.
• They can lip-synch to the song and download the song to their camera album without having to actually post it to TikTok.
• Have them share their creation with you in the next class!

Depending on the age and location of your student, TikTok might not be an option for them. If you are teaching older students or adults , then it might be easier for them to use social media for this homework assignment rather than young children.

If they are too young to use the app, have them find an online video of their favorite song and ask a parent to record them singing!

3. Let’s go to the movies

Going to the movies doesn’t sound like homework, does it? Well, as you might already be discovering, homework doesn’t have to be conventional!

Find some interesting movies that are playing in your students’ area or ask them to watch a movie of their choice in English. 

Tell them that their homework is going to be based on the movie they watch.

Here are some ideas for making going to the movies part of their homework:

• Have them write a summary of the movie or their favorite part.
• Tell them that they have to give you a movie review in your next class.
• Have them act out their favorite part of the movie with a sibling or family member and record it (in English of course!).
• Ask them to make a poster advertising the movie with captions, titles and text to accompany any drawings.

If you are struggling to find movies they can go and watch in the cinema, you can always use these ESL movies and TV shows as a resource. 

Students can also watch movies from the comforts of their homes. 

4. Hello Mr. Teacher!

Students love playing the role of the teacher! 

This can work for in-person or online ESL classes.  

Tell them that as part of the next classroom activity, the first 5 – 10 minutes will be their time to shine as the teacher!

For homework, ask them to:

• Think of one topic that they know a lot about (This could be a sport, musical instrument, game, topic, etc…).
• Have them prepare 5 important things that someone needs to know about their topic.
• Tell them that in their next class they will be the teacher and share their knowledge! (They can even give you homework!).

Have fun with this homework idea and role-play the student where you ask them questions after they finish. 

Your students will love this one!

5. Interview a stranger

This one might need some parent support and guidance if you are teaching children, but having them interview someone is an entertaining homework idea for English language learners.

• It encourages their own voice as they come up with ideas.
• It helps with writing skills as they write out their questions.
• Interviewing encourages conversation and role playing which is a fun way to learn English.

You could have your younger students interview a family member and ask questions related to that family member’s childhood. 

Here are some sample questions you could help your students form:

• What kind of things did you like to do when you were my age?
• What was your favorite thing about school?
• What types of sports did you play when you were young?
• Tell me about what life was like when you were a child.

Have them choose and write out 5-10 questions and come back to class to report on their findings!

6. Shine like a Karaoke star

Who doesn’t like a bit of karaoke? Imagine….singing your heart out to “I love rock n roll” in the privacy of your own home!

You don’t need to go to a karaoke place to actually sing karaoke songs. There are lots of great karaoke songs available online to learn English with your students.

YouTube is a great place to start, just by searching for your favorite song + “karaoke lyrics” in the search bar.

In class, help your student(s) choose a song and task them with finding the online karaoke lyrics to sing along.

Have them sing this for homework! You could even ask a parent to help them record it if they are comfortable with that.

Here are some fun and popular karaoke songs online to learn English:

• “I Will Survive” with Gloria Gaynor
• “Livin’ on a Prayer” with Bon Jovi
• “Summer Nights” with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John
• “Don’t Stop Believin’” with Journey

7. Expert on the loose

There is an expert in all of us, including your students!

In this fun and entertaining homework idea, have your student share their expertise on something!

To add a different dimension to the homework idea, “Hello Mr. Teacher,” task your students to dress up as the expert and make a short speech on their topic of choice.

Here are some examples:

• Harry Potter
• Michael Jordan (to talk about basketball)
• Favorite sports athlete
• Insect scientist
• Astronaut (if your student knows a lot about space)
• Presidential candidate
• Pilot (for students who know a lot about countries)

Even if they are not an expert on the topic, part of the homework assignment could be to do some research and learn more about their chosen field.

You could even ask them to dress up and come to class in the role, ready to share their knowledge with you! 

8. 24 hour English challenge

This one is self-explanatory and incredibly fun!

Set a challenge for your student to only speak in English for 24 hours. 

This means that you might need to get parents involved with the homework assignment, so that they can help out.

The idea is that they have to speak only in English (as much as is possible given their situation) when interacting with family, friends and at school.

Your students might already be immersed in English environments, but, oftentimes, they are speaking their native language at home with family and friends.

Having your students force themselves to only speak in English is challenging and a great way to encourage English outside the classroom.

9. It’s a wrap!

Lots of students love to rap! Rap music is poetic and encourages a lot of ESL language skills that we want to build in our students.

This is an activity that you can model with your students in class and assign it for homework for them to create their own rap.

Again, they can come back to class and rap their new song to you! It might, however, work better with older students who have a good base level of English, to begin with.

Here are some fun homework assignments incorporating rap:

• Create their own rap if they are the creative type
• Find a well known rap online and practice it to present in class
• Assign your students to find a rap online that they sing and record with their friends

10. Masterchef extraordinaire

For the food lovers, creating a homework assignment that includes cooking can be really fun.

Most kids love the idea of cooking, especially if it centers around cooking their favorite food!

When considering this as a homework idea, consider these possible assignments:

• Create and write out a recipe for a unique culinary dish.
• Make a video about the cooking experience.
• Record a tutorial of how to cook something.
• Turn it into a competition if you have multiple students.

Plus, this works with physical and online classrooms. 

Of course, if you have a physical classroom with multiple students, this could be a really fun in-class experience with some homework assignments to accompany it.

Who doesn’t love a food-related assignment? 

If you choose Masterchef extraordinaire, allow your students to share the food they make with the class and encourage lots of conversations in English.

Homework doesn’t have to be boring!

As you can see, homework doesn’t have to be boring! 

Most of your ESL students have a lot to do even outside class, and that’s why assigning homework that doesn’t feel like homework is ideal!

This is an opportunity to get creative, creating excitement for your students to learn English.

If you use some of the homework ideas mentioned here, make sure you document the experience and continue to discover new activities that bring laughter and joy to the classroom. 

And when you are applying to online teaching jobs , be sure to share how you plan to creatively incorporate class assignments and homework for your students!

Enjoy the process and make learning an enjoyable experience for everyone. 

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11 vocabulary homework ideas and how to motivate students to do it, by: vocab gal.

Homework is such a valuable formative assessment for both teachers and students, and yet students are motivated* by many different factors when it comes to their desire to actually complete the work. In this article, I'm sharing how to motivate students to do their homework and 11 vocabulary homework ideas and worksheets that work in grades 1–12. Plus, preview and grab my 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework Kit .

Keep scrolling to find vocabulary homework ideas! 

How to motivate students to do their homework.

As a teacher, I try to concentrate students’ learning on activities done in class, because asking some students to complete work at home can be daunting. Many times in my career I have been discouraged when more than half the class does not return to class with their homework assignment complete.

Yet we only have so many minutes with our students, and we need them to practice the concepts and skills they are learning until the knowledge becomes ingrained. Most students have a homeroom, study hall, or other downtime during the day in which they could complete activities, they just have to be motivated to do it.

Many studies cite “student choice” as one of the most important factors in inspiring students to learn. When students have the opportunity to select what questions to answer, what activity to complete or what role to play, they tend to feel more comfortable and confident about performing.

Additionally, research shows that when students are dedicated to a task important to them, like improving their video game scores, or optimizing their success on a playing field, they will go to great lengths to improve. While probably not as meaningful as their video game level, students will be more excited to answer questions about themselves than a generic worksheet.

By providing students with both choice and a topic that is personally meaningful, homework can be a great learning exercise as well as an important formative assessment.

Steps to Ensure Students Complete Homework

There are a few other motivating factors that can help establish homework as a meaningful part of a student’s educational experience. Here are suggested steps a school, parish, department, or teacher might take to ensure successful homework completion.

Step One First, confirm that students have a strong rapport with their teacher(s). While it is difficult to cultivate a deep relationship with each student, teachers should strive to show students that they value their students and are committed to helping them learn and grow to their fullest potential. I would encourage teachers not to assign homework for the first few weeks of school until they develop a classroom community of respect and appreciation for learning.

Step Two Second, once the classroom community has been established, teachers should specifically explain the importance of homework as a way of deeply ingraining knowledge. Teachers should also make it clear that homework is a meaningful formative assessment where both they and their students can understand what students know and where there are knowledge gaps.

Step Three Third, some students may be quite unhappy when being mandated to do specific work. Therefore, teachers should stress the choices a student gets when completing their homework and that students get to complete the work that best reflects their own sense of self.

Step Four Finally, the teacher should praise students individually, as well as praise the class when homework is turned in on time. Many students thrive on positive reinforcement and also many may feel guilt if they let their classmates or teacher down. Additionally, as many teachers know, a word of encouragement or a small sticker can make the difference to many.

How to Respond When Homework is Not Completed

When at last it comes time for homework collection, there will be students who did not complete the assignment, no matter how well it was set up. Teachers can again encourage students who did not complete the homework in time to think about what may motivate them to complete it. If a student seems to dislike direct mandates, providing support such as, “I know that you value your learning and will find a way to demonstrate your abilities,” might be more effective than, “Turn in your paper by Thursday or it’s a zero!”

For others who seem driven by the need to please or help others, teachers might encourage students by stating, “I’m disappointed that you weren’t able to complete your work on time, and I know you will submit your work in order to show us both what you know and understand,” might work better than, “Don’t you want the credit for this assignment?”

Vocabulary Homework Ideas for Students

For this post, I have a few homework assignments that model these ideas. Both in my new It's All About Me vocabulary practice page, and my tried-and true,  7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle, students are motivated to continue their learning because they have both choice and a focus on themselves, a topic in which they are already invested.

My new It's All About Me Vocabulary Activity tasks students with answering a series of questions about themselves using vocabulary words in context. On the first page of this download students will list their vocabulary words and write their own brief definitions. On the second page student will answer eight prompts. Each response should include at least one of the vocabulary words from their list in context . In each of their answers students must underline the context clues that would help someone unfamiliar with the word understand what it means.

With the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle, students can choose from a variety of fun and engaging activities for learning or reviewing vocabulary words. In addition to the homework selection sheet, the bundle includes worksheets for vocabulary homework ideas number five and six. The other vocabulary homework options can be completed on a plain piece of paper or in student workbooks.

Here are the vocabulary activities listed on the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework handout:

#1 Say Your Words

Do you love the sound of your own voice? Do you tend to learn information by teaching others? Then try saying each of the vocabulary words, out loud and in context, to friends, family, strangers, etc. Use either your flashcards or your list of words, and make sure to get initials from someone who heard you say your vocabulary sentence. If you can’t get a signature, just explain when and how you said the sentences and we will invoke the HONOR SYSTEM! Create two sentences per word.

Do you love to write? Do you copy your notes to help you remember information? Then try writing two sentences for each vocabulary word. These can either be two individual sentences for each word or you can put all of your words together in a story. (If you write a story, you only have to use each word once). Have fun and get creative – amuse me and impress me, but make sure you use your vocabulary words in context!

#3 Write Your Words in Other Classes

As an alternative to the above “Write your Words,” use your vocabulary in your assignments for other classes – social studies essays, science notes, art descriptions, etc. Write down the vocabulary you used for this assignment (For example: On my science test I said “Newton was meritorious,” etc.). You can abbreviate your explanations slightly, as long as I understand you know the word’s meaning; remember to use each word twice.

#4 Become Your Words

Do you gesture when you talk? Is it hard for you to sit still? Then consider creating motions to go along with your words. Cry for lament , raise your arms in praise for approbation , etc. See me during class to “perform” your motions, or write them down, making sure that the connection between word, meaning, and gesture makes sense.

#5 Draw Your Words

Are you an artist? Do you constantly doodle? Then create cartoons or drawings that illustrate each word’s meaning. Create one drawing or cartoon per word and make them neat, using clean white paper (consider using recycled paper that has printing on the other side). Paperclip all your drawings together for the end of the week.

#6 Sing Your Words

Do you love to sing? Are you constantly creating your own raps? Try rewriting the lyrics to a song to incorporate each of your vocabulary words or write your own song, rap, etc. You can also write poetry; regardless of the form you choose, the words should be used in the correct context.

#7 Test Your Words

Do you want to play teacher and write the test as well as take it? Now you can! Create a vocabulary test using all the words in a variety of different types of questions. Make sure to create the answer key to the test as well.

Download the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle and have students keep the selection sheet in their binders. Now they have seven weeks of vocabulary homework assignments!

Additional Vocabulary Homework Ideas

Ultimately, establishing a culture of community and trust in the classroom, explaining the reasoning behind and the benefits of homework, and providing choice and meaningful topics can make a significant difference in completion rates. Even if homework is not completed on time, teachers can still work to connect with each student to provide motivation to complete the assignments.

As educators, we all strive to make learning exciting and applicable to our students. By setting up clear expectations and providing interesting options, we can make any homework, including vocabulary homework, meaningful and valuable to students.

 *I have recently completed Gretchen Rubin’s audiobook The Four Tendencies about what motivates different groups of people. Many of the ideas about motivating students come loosely from her book as well as my own observations. I highly recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn how to better motivate themselves and others.

9 better alternatives to homework

by Katrina | Aug 31, 2022 | Lesson Ideas

Traditionally homework has been school work that students complete outside of the classroom and outside of school hours. This usually consists of textbook questions, worksheets, or research tasks.

Studies have been inconsistent in providing concrete evidence for the benefits of homework, and the effectiveness of set homework tasks depends greatly on the task itself.

This list of 9 alternatives to homework will help you give students a break from the norm while still impacting their learning and character development. 

alternatives to homework in middle school

Disclaimer: This blog post, ‘9 better alternatives to homework’, may contain affiliate links. This means I may receive a small commission on qualifying purchases. This is of no extra cost to you and it helps me to continue writing awesome content for you! Read full disclaimer here .

Alternatives to homework

It is worth noting that I don’t use the word ‘homework’. Why? Because it has such a deeply ingrained negative connotation for both students and parents.

Terms I prefer to use instead include:

• At home learning
• Daily / Weekly Practice
• Consolidation

These terms don’t have the same negative connotation as ‘homework’ and help the students think about the tasks in a more positive way. 

Before I get into my suggestions, here are some benefits of using alternatives to homework:

1. You don’t have to mark them. These activities are designed to be able to be marked simple as participated or not. Not all home learning tasks need to add to your workload!

2. They encourage the development of character traits and skills – not just academic ones.

3. They are simple and easy to assign to almost any topic – and in fact, they don’t need to be specifically linked to a topic at all.

4. The nature of the tasks remind students to maintain balance between school / study and home life. 

5. They can be easily differentiated to cater for the variation of student situations.

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1. Baking from a recipe

Following instructions is very important in life as well as most subjects. For example, in subjects, such as science, students need to be able to work safely in a laboratory.

Setting a home task where students need to bake something following a recipe is a great alternative that allows students to practice these skills in a fun way.

Have students either bring you a photo of them in action baking, or evidence of the product itself!

Be mindful: Check any food allergies of your students if you want students to bring in the treats they bake.

2. Photo challenge 

Having students take a photo of their learning as applied in real life. This is a great way to help students practice being observant and also see the relevance of their learning outside of the classroom.

Be mindful: Students may not have access to a camera or smartphone. They could just write a short description of what they saw and where they saw it.

3. Play a board/card game 

Playing board games or card games requires students to practice their social and problem-solving skills. These are skills that are essential in the classroom and also in the real world. 

I love alternatives to homework that help build student character in addition to academic skills. 

Be mindful: Depending on your context, students may not have access to board games or they may not have family members around each day to play a board game with. Often school libraries contain games that can be rented out.

4. Home learning / flipped learning

Flipped learning is different from homework in that rather than practicing a skill they have learned in class, they learn the skill so they come to class ready to practice the skill.

This is usually done with the teacher filming a short tutorial to be watched at home before the upcoming lesson.

Flipped learning helps to develop autonomy and allows students to take their learning at their own pace since they can pause, rewind and rewatch the video as many times as they need to. 

The videos are usually less than 10 minutes in length so it is also a nice quick learning opportunity. 

Be mindful: Ensure all students have access to the technology required to watch the video.

5. Activities that apply their learning 

Activities that focus on applying their learning in practical ways are effective alternatives to homework tasks of a traditional sense.

For example, have you taught students about the unit cost in maths? The home task could be going shopping with a parent and photographing different options and calculating the best buy option.

Or maybe you’ve been learning about density in science? Have students compare the density of various household items in water at home. 

6. Reflect on learning

Asking students to write a small paragraph to reflect on the things they learned in your class that day or week is a really valuable use of their time and a great alternative to homework.

Reflecting and writing it down helps their brain to recognize the information as important. 

Are you reading this thinking ‘yeah but its so annoying to mark’. 

Then don’t! Just mark it as a participation home task. Whether students submit their paragraph on Google Classroom or hold up their book in class for you to tick off ‘complete’, it doesn’t have to be an onerous task for you.

7. Interview someone

Interviewing someone can be as simple as giving the students 3 questions to ask someone at home. It could be about their own views on a topic, where they see the usefulness of your subject, or about their career. 

This activity builds student skills in communication and listening whilst also providing an opportunity to build or deepen connections with people.

Be mindful: Some students may not have access to someone to interview every day. Try to give a few days so students have the opportunity. If they don’t have anyone at home you could suggest they interview a teacher, another student or even the bus driver. 

8. Call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while

Promoting the continuation and building of connections during term time is important for students to maintain balance in their lives. Some students struggle to do this themselves and so may feel the need to have ‘permission’ from their teacher. 

Be mindful: Some students may not have access to a phone or enough credit to make long calls. Provide alternatives such as chatting with a neighbour in person. 

9. Spend time with family

If a student spends 60 minutes completing homework, then for a family whose parents don’t get home from work until after 5pm, and who go to bed around 9pm, that is one quarter of their family time taken away by homework every day. Add in an extracurricular activity or sport and students are missing out on significant family time.

The simple act of not setting any homework or task can make a significant difference in the home lives of our students. 

Encouraging them to spend quality time with their family instead is a valuable alternative to homework. 

Homework is not bad and it does have its benefits. However, having a range of alternatives to the typical homework tasks allows for students to enjoy a balanced life while also building skills other than just the academic ones. 

Have you tried any of these alternatives to homework?

Comment below!

Written by Katrina

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13 Fun Homework Ideas: The Best Ways To Make Homework Fun For Kids Quickly & Easily

Sophie Bartlett

Figuring out how to make homework fun can be a tricky task for parents.

Does it feel like you’re constantly nagging your kids to do their homework? If your answer is yes, know that we’ve all been there! It’s natural for parents to want their children to progress and do well in school, but after an entire day of paper, pencils, and books many youngsters will resist getting on with their homework – and that’s putting it mildly!

Top Tips To Make Homework Fun:

1. work together, 2. use rewards and incentives, 3. make them a snack, 4. make it visual, 5. try different learning apps, 6. set up a homework play date, 7. go outside, 8. turn it into a game, 9. let them play teacher, 10. use a timer, 11. create a special homework space, 12. remember to be positive, 13. get help if you need it.

Thankfully, there are ways of making homework less boring and that are a little bit more fun for your child. Whether they need to practice spelling, learn their times tables or revise for an important exam, our top fun homework ideas will help you magically take the ‘work’ out of homework.

Adults often work best in the company of others, and the same can be said of kids, so why not sit with your child while they’re studying and get on with some of your own work or life admin?

Whether you’re returning emails or doing your online banking, creating a shared workspace and modeling focused work is a great way to spend quality time together while they complete their homework. Win-win!

Quick win : While your child is tackling their fractions homework, you could sit down with them and take a look through your finances.

Rewards and incentives are great when it comes to getting your children to follow your household rules and routines, and homework is no different. Things like stickers or the promise of time on their iPad or games console for slightly older children can all work wonders in getting them to do their homework without a battle.

Quick win: For every few questions they answer they could get a minute of screen time!

Let’s face it: A hungry child is an unfocused, unmotivated and unhappy child.

Most children come out of school ravenous, so let them nibble on a nutritious after-school snack while they get on with homework; things like popcorn, apple slices, grapes, or crackers and cheese are all great snack options.

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, Active for Life has a list of healthy after-school snack ideas and recipes to try.

Quick win: One of the best brain foods for kids is a nice and crispy apple! So when your child is craving something sweet just cut up an apple and let them munch away.

Help to eliminate the late night ‘Oh, I forgot to do that’, and create a weekly homework chart so your child can see what they have to do each day and check off each ‘to do’ task as it’s been completed.

Again, Pinterest has some great free printables to help keep kids organized. Get them involved by letting them color it, or decorate it with their favorite stickers, and pin it up somewhere at their height, where they will see it easily every day as a reminder. Some exciting new stationery and colorful pens might help too.

Quick win: An easy way to make homework fun is to grab a piece of paper and get your child to draw out and decorate a ‘homework chart’ consisting of 5 days. Stick it on the fridge and add a sticker to each day after they’ve done their homework, when they’ve collected 5 stickers they get a treat!

If your child prefers to be online, there are some great online apps around that children will have fun using, yet encourage learning too. Here are our favorite free math websites for example. Speak to your child’s teacher too and see which apps the children use in school so you can support what they’re doing at home.

Quick win: One of our favorite websites that makes homework fun is Tang Math !

Holding a homework playdate where your child can invite one of their best school buddies over to do homework together can be a great way for them to learn and make sure the work gets done, especially older children in elementary school.

Plus, it’s likely that their parents will be delighted!

Younger children may need a bit more support and guidance but can still gain a lot from the experience of learning together with a friend – think of this as a mini-educational play date for them.

Quick win: Let your child and their friend play for a while, and then get them to work through their homework with the incentive of a yummy ‘ice cream party’ when they’ve completed all of their homework.

If the weather allows, create a comfortable outside study space and allow your child to do their homework outdoors.

The fresh air can help kids with their concentration if they’ve been stuck in a classroom all day, and studies also show that being outside, closer to nature, can increase productivity. The reward of a quick game of Frisbee or a kick-around of a soccer ball between tasks will help them stay motivated too.

Who said home learning had to be boring? If children enjoy what they’re learning, they’re more likely to remember what they’re being taught, so turn their learning into a fun game. Using sweets like Smarties to help with math and number work can turn the experience from a chore into a treat. If they get the right answer, they get to eat some!

Another trick that you can use when your child is learning spellings is to write them in shaving cream or in magnetic letters. It sounds simple but we can guarantee that it will make homework a lot more fun for your child.

These math games for kids and times tables games are a great place to start.

Quick win: If you’re looking for some fun homework ideas then check out this simple multiplication activity you can do at home, it’ll even get in one of your child’s five a day!

Make another fun homework game by creating your own mini-classroom and letting your child step into the role of teacher.

Have your child explain a concept to you as a teacher, as you, or their sibling, play the role of the student. This game works particularly well with subjects that require theory, like Science for example, as it will improve their understanding of the concept and build logic and reasoning skills.

Quick win: Make homework fun by getting your child to choose their favorite teddies and toys and setting them up in their own mini- classroom. Start off with registration, ‘mom’ ‘present’, ‘mr teddy’ ‘here’ etc. You’ll soon notice that your child is growing in confidence regardless of the topic as children love playing teacher!

Some children may have difficulty working for prolonged periods of time without a break, so using a timer can be great for getting them to complete homework without whining. For example, if your child is given 20 math problems for homework, you can say “Complete the first 10 questions, then we’ll take a 5-minute break, then complete the next 10 questions”.

Many children will need a mental break and will work more effectively when given the opportunity to take one. At the end of the task, they get to pick an activity of their choice. If your child gets easily distracted, a timer game can work well to keep them focused on the task in hand.

Quick win: Put the timer on your phone so that your child can see the countdown while they’re working.

A special study space can make homework more fun and help motivate your child to get it done! Choose a space in your house that’s least likely to distract your child, and create simple, organized, and kid-friendly homework.

You could hang up some of their artwork above the desk, and have all their school essentials nearby so everything is close to hand.

Quick win: Make sure that they aren’t surrounded by things that will distract them. Televisions and iPads are a no go at homework time!

Remember to always be upbeat and positive about school and the importance of their homework. Give your child lots of praise and encouragement about how well they’re doing to help them stay motivated and on track.

Quick win: After every homework session, spend five minutes talking through what your child has accomplished. If you’re running out of activities to do, have a look at our list of home learning packs – all free to download.

Homework can be frustrating if your child doesn’t understand the material or gets bored easily. If your child is struggling, get them some expert help!

Quick win: Third Space Learning has plenty of advice on learning math for kids and parents but if you need more support, our primary school math tutors are easy to organize and very affordable.

Do you have students who need extra support in math? Give your students more opportunities to consolidate learning and practice skills through personalized math tutoring with their own dedicated online math tutor. Each student receives differentiated instruction designed to close their individual learning gaps, and scaffolded learning ensures every student learns at the right pace. Lessons are aligned with your state’s standards and assessments, plus you’ll receive regular reports every step of the way. Personalized one-on-one math tutoring programs are available for: – 2nd grade tutoring – 3rd grade tutoring – 4th grade tutoring – 5th grade tutoring – 6th grade tutoring – 7th grade tutoring – 8th grade tutoring Why not learn more about how it works ?

The content in this article was originally written by primary school teacher Sophie Bartlett and has since been revised and adapted for US schools by elementary math teacher Christi Kulesza.

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PEMDAS Math Poster (Spanish Version) [FREE]

Trying to help remember what the mnemonic PEMDAS stands for? Display this poster to engage young learners with answering questions on the order of operations.

Check out more English and Spanish posters available in our US resource library!

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| | --> by Chris Speck 50,914 views Used correctly, it’s the springboard to with students doing most of the work before they even sit down. It’s also the first ten minutes of your lesson already planned. Find something on YouTube that is relevant to your topic, vocabulary set or grammar point. For some great videos, check out Jamie Keddie’s lesson stream . Mr. Bean is great for lower levels; Monty Python are funny for higher ones. Make sure you talk to students about what they watched. Did they enjoy it? Did they hate it? Generate discussion on and from the video you all watched. However, the greatest academic and business minds regularly set aside time to think and plan what they are going to say or do. Here are a couple of thinking questions you could give as homework. ‘Think about the best things about your country. Explain them to yourself in English. You’ll tell the class about it tomorrow.’ ‘Think about the most important person in your life and why they are/were important. Describe them to yourself in English. You’ll tell your partner about it tomorrow.’ ‘Think about your ambitions. Explain what you hope to do in the future to yourself in English. You’ll tell the class about them tomorrow.’ In the digital age this could be a picture or a a film as well as something real. Students bring in an item and then tell the rest of the class about it. Make sure you get other students to ask questions and, if you have a very , split the learners into groups so you can get through the presentations quicker. If students can’t talk to each other then they might be able to find someone online using or on a virtual world like . Lots of students only want to practice with native speakers or those who speak English fluently. Don’t let them think speaking to each other won’t help them improve. There are hundreds of great discussion questions from ITESLJ http://iteslj.org/questions/ As always, make sure you ask them questions about what they talked about in the next session. . Set one as a piece of homework asking students to notice something about the lyrics. This could be a language point or the story. Grammar songs Present Simple/continuous She is leaving Home – The Beatles It’s Raining Men – The Weather Girls Singing in the Rain Past Simple Summer Loving – Grease Soundtrack / Candle in the Wind – Elton John / Dido – Best Day Present Perfect I’ve had the time of my life – B.Medley and J. Warne Future Tense I Will Always Love you – Whitney Houston/ My Heart Will go on – Celine Dion Conditionals If I was a Rich Girl – Gwen Stefani / If I had a Million Dollars – Bare-naked Ladies Superlatives – Simply the Best – Tina Turner Story Songs A boy named Sue – Jonny Cash (Brilliant story and song that everyone will love…) One Piece at a Time – Jonny Cash (a man steals a whole car by taking one piece of it at a time from the factory where he works) She’s Leaving Home – The Beatles Bare-naked Ladies – Bank Job (lovely story about a heist gone wrong) Waltzing Matilda – The Pogues I got students , among other things, their dream house, their dream car, an invention they would like to create, the perfect school, the perfect jail or the perfect hotel. A word of warning though, confident students who are creative will love these tasks but other students might bitterly hate them. of something that they will show to the rest of the class in the next lesson. You could get them to email this to you or print it out, or just show it on their phone. It could be something they love, hate, need, an important possession, a person…anything… as long as they can talk about it with the rest of the class. Again, the assessment for this activity lies in the students taking time to think about what they are going to say. Make sure students ask questions about the pictures. For homework, ask students to find a good anecdote in their language which they can then recount to the rest of the class in English. There are some great anecdotes at , but if you have your own they will be much better. Comics are great homework reading - click for a big list There are also some good ‘choose your own adventure’ kind of stories at ‘ ’. Really… Ask your students to play them and then tell you what they enjoyed or didn’t enjoy about them. These could be games they already have at home or something online. Vocab and grammar games like are great for improving spelling and the mechanics of language, but there isn’t anything to talk about. Adventure games ( )– are a great way of getting students to engage with something and they will have something to discuss in class about what they saw. A classic is . 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 Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar DIY Home Projects Ideas for Summer Free Email Series Published: Aug 5, 2021 · Modified: Aug 28, 2021 by Rachel 30+ Homework Station Ideas for Kids and Teens Ready to make your family’s after-school or home school routine a bit less stressful? An organized homework station is the answer! I’ve included easy tips for small spaces and multiple kids so everyone can have a quiet, supervised space to study. Table of Contents It’s back to school time again and along with that comes a flood of emotion. While its sad to see our babies growing up, my inner organizing dork gets a boost of excitement. Create a cheerful space with these homework station ideas to inspire learning, even if you’re short on space! A homework station is an inviting area that is dedicated to learning, homework, and informal learning like arts and crafts project. Although the kitchen table will suffice for a quick review or a worksheet, we’ve found it’s nice to have a homework zone where school supplies, books, and school calendars can have a dedicated place of their own. This cuts back on clutter and distractions. I was inspired to write this post because of what I’ve learned from our frustrations with my son’s severe ADHD. At first, homework hour was a stressful experience full of tears (mine), yelling and every possible distraction under the sun. No exaggeration – 20 minutes of homework regularly took almost 2 hours. The material was never the issue. Home school moms, you have my admiration! That’s where a dedicated space and equitable ground rules saved the day (and my sanity!) How To Setup a Homework Station I’ve learned a lot over several incarnations of our homework space. Creating a basic homework station area is simple and effective with these tips below: Choose a quiet area. The biggest chance of success is to limit distractions. Preferably with a handy outlet for a laptop, or charging accessories like headphones. For my son, I find that headphones with music (on loop) works wonders. Stock it with necessities. My son is the king of wasting time looking for misplaced items. Before official homework time, I ask if he has everything he needs to minimize the chances of him getting up from the desk. Set a routine. Same time + Same space = Success. I personally give my son a short break after school before we get down to business. Keep ’em close. While we must balance distractions, young children especially need supervision and usually help. Minimize your own distractions. When my son was in elementary school, I couldn’t continue working from home during homework time. It wasn’t fair to ask him to stay focused, when I myself wasn’t focused on his questions. So I placed a tiny desk in our kitchen. That way I had both eyes on him while I washed dishes or prepped dinner. I was available, yet still productive. Homework Station Supplies Below is a handy list of supplies that are sometimes useful. Pens and pencils Loose leaf paper for scratch paper or notes A timer or clock A folder with pockets 1 box of color pencils or crayons Computer and charger A planner (checklists are the lifeblood of this house!) Craft supplies as necessary – glue sticks and scissors are examples A comfy chair Homework Station Setup Ideas Finding the right space is often the most challenging part! I’ve included some inspirational ideas below to get focused. You don’t need to have an elaborate space, but these are great jumping off points to inspire your creativity. Nooks & Crannies While most of us don’t have room for a dedicated office, there’s usually space to spare like under the staircase, an unused closet, or an awkward alcove . These centrally located spaces are often quiet and can be quite magical. A small closet can be transformed into a useful desk space. Source: This Old House. The unused space underneath a staircase like this desk is also perfect for using as a small homework station. This design utilizes fun lines and strokes to make it visually interesting. Homework Stations that Foster Creativity I honestly believe that adding a little creativity to the space fosters the desire to learn and leads to great ideas. Classrooms are full of stimulating decorations for a reason. Here’s a few creative concepts to enhance your learning environment: Inspirational quotes on a paintable chalkboard from Dawn Nicole add a touch of whimsy and keep students motivated during tough assignments. A simple wall Children’s art display like the desk above allows kids to hang their accomplishments and past artwork. Add a splash of color or maybe some wall flash cards. While these beautiful spaces are awesome, sometimes we just need a simple option like this portable homework station . More portable homework station ideas : Use a bath caddy to hold supplies so you can grab and go. A tiny desk and rolling cart makes it easy to move supplies where you need them, when you need them. I love my car seat organizer for homework on-the-go. It’s a lifesaver when I have to run errands. This fold away desk vault in a box is brilliant! Room for Two (or more) If you have more than one child, figure out how they learn best. Do they prefer to  study  together? Try setting up the desk so it can accommodate everyone. A collaborative study area is less isolating. I’m a big fan of this option . Everyone has dedicated space and no one is encroaching on the other’s turf. This desk utilizes a stacking bookshelf to create two separate work areas and provide ample storage for each user. To save space, you could also have the desks face each other with the bookshelf between them. This study zone melds learning and fun. It’s an especially fantastic space for large families. The multi-functional area can accommodate everything from homework, to art projects, and amazing Lego builds. During my own work hours, I share a space with my son. Our craft room makeover project had to include key elements like tandem workspaces, ample organization elements and creative ways to display our greatest hits! PRO TIP: Peg Boards are excellent additions to any Homework Station. They allow you to customize your storage and wall display without limits. Here’s how we built a DIY pegboard organizer. Space Saving Solutions House a homework nook in even the tiniest space. These space saving desks are brilliant! Wall Mounted Desk Ladder Shelf Wall mounted Space Saving Shelf Desk Do you have a dedicated studying area in your home? What’s your top tip for handling the daily homework assignments? Sign up below to receive updates including free printables, organization tips, home improvement projects, recipes and more! More Ideas You May Enjoy PS I love seeing your creations! Be sure to take a photo and tag  #cravingcreative  on Instagram ! You can also  stay in touch with me through following me on  Instagram ,  Pinterest , and subscribing to the newsletter! Reader Interactions Leave a reply cancel reply. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting. August 31, 2015 at 11:36 pm Meredith @ The Palette Muse says August 31, 2015 at 10:42 pm Teach Starter, part of Tes Teach Starter, part of Tes Search  everything  in all resources Homework Activities Teaching Resources An extensive collection of resources to use when compiling a range of learning at home tasks. Homework gives students opportunities to explore concepts at home which have been covered in class. Engaging homework activities can also encourage students to explore new ways of thinking away from the classroom. Resources in this collection involve a variety of learning areas for all ages. Teaching Resource 301 English Language Arts  119 Reading  85 Writing  51 Phonics  33 Whole Number Operations  32 Types of Writing  32 Vocabulary  23 Narrative Writing  19 Fractions  19 Foundational Language Skills  14 Proportional Relationships  14 Spelling  14 Expository Writing  13 Measurement  13 Number Lines  13 Percentages  12 Number Patterns  12 Science  12 Reading Fluency  12 Decoding  11 Decimals  11 Grammar  11 Division  10 Reading Comprehension  10 Place Value  10 Sight Words  9 Geometry  9 Synonyms  9 Addition  9 Number Sense  9 Report Writing  8 Parts of Speech  8 Word Problems  8 Number Recognition  8 Dolch Sight Words  8 Operations With Fractions  7 Social Studies  7 Story Starters  6 Multiplication  6 Antonyms  6 Earth and Space Science  5 Alphabet  5 English Language Arts and Reading  5 Subtraction  5 Graphing  5 Long Vowel Words  5 Rounding Whole Numbers  4 Life Science  4 Addition Strategies  4 Text Structures  4 Percent of a Number  4 Types of Graphs  4 2D Shapes  4 Phonemic Awareness  3 Space Science  3 Reading Passages  3 Earth, Sun and Moon  3 Patterns  3 Compare and Order Whole Numbers  3 Collecting Data  3 Subtraction Strategies  3 Leveled Readers  3 Reading and Writing Numbers  3 Alphabetical Order  3 Consonant Blends  3 Bar Graphs  3 Solar System  3 Mathematics  3 Skip Counting  3 Measurement Conversions  3 Perimeter  3 Expanded Form  3 Compound Words  2 Area of a Triangle  2 Handwriting  2 The Human Body  2 Sentence Structure  2 Earth Science  2 Process Standards  2 3D Shapes  2 Physical Science  2 Weathering and Erosion  2 Opinion Writing  2 Health Education  2 Prefixes and Suffixes  2 Silent Letters  2 Decimal Operations  2 Syllables  2 Personal and Community Health  2 Comparing Fractions  2 Landforms  2 Kindergarten 60 1st Grade 119 2nd Grade 129 3rd Grade 103 4th Grade 95 5th Grade 78 6th Grade 88 7th Grade 10 resource types Worksheets 157 Task Cards 32 Templates 21 Color By Code Worksheets 12 Sorting Activities 11 Dominoes 10 Matching Games 10 Tarsia Puzzles 9 Graphic Organizers 7 Cut and Paste Worksheets 6 Classroom Posters 5 Tracing Worksheets 4 Board Games 4 Mini Book 3 Flashcards 3 Crossword Puzzles 3 Writing Templates 3 Classroom Decor 2 Matchup Games 2 Customizable Teaching Resources 1 Word Walls 1 Logic Puzzles 1 Word Searches 1 Inquiry Based Learning Activities 1 availability Premium 265 file formats Printable PDF 280 Google Slides 162 Adobe Reader (.pdf) 16 Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) 1 Teach Starter Publishing 302 Student Reading Log Printables Track your students' at-home reading with this printable reading log. K-2 Math Homework Helpers Give your students handy Math Homework Helper printables to reference when working in class or at home. Glorious Grammar Volume 1 Workbook 50 activities in one booklet which all revolve around learning grammar in the classroom. Tracing Numbers 0-20 Practice writing numbers 0–20 with this tracing activity.  Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Worksheets Use this set of five grammar worksheets to teach about the structures of simple, compound and complex sentences.  Converting Percentages – Math Mazes Practice converting fractions, decimals, and percentages with this set of math mazes. Tracing and Drawing 2-D Shapes – Worksheet A simple trace and draw worksheet for 2-D shapes. What's Missing? - Alphabet Worksheet A set of worksheets to practice writing the letters of the alphabet in order. Jack and the Beanstalk Retelling Activity Cards Teach your students about retelling with this set of sequencing cards for Jack and the Beanstalk. Opinion Paragraph - OREO Planning Template Help your students write well constructed opinion paragraphs using the OREO acronym with these planning templates. Integer Number Sentences - Tarsia Puzzle Practice solving addition and subtraction number sentences involving integers with a printable Tarsia puzzle! Adding and Subtracting Integers - Codebreaker Worksheets Crack the positive and negative number code with four adding and subtracting integers worksheets. One-Step Equations (Addition and Subtraction) – Worksheet Explore pre-algebra concepts by adding and subtracting whole numbers, decimals, and fractions with this one-step equations worksheet. Comparing Integers – Math Mazes Compare positive and negative numbers while you work your way through this set of math mazes. Understanding Positive & Negative Numbers – Worksheet Explore positive and negative numbers by plotting integers on a number line and identifying opposites with this worksheet. Color by Letter (c, k, e, h, r) - Dog Use this free printable color by letter activity with students when practicing letter recognition for the letters c, k, e, h, and r. Open-ended Math Problem Solving Cards - Upper Elementary A set of 20 open-ended problem solving cards covering a range of mathematical concepts. Sporting Picture Stories - Sequencing Activity A set of sequencing cards for students to use as an independent writing activity. Tracing Numbers 0-10 A worksheet to assist students when learning how to write the numbers 0–10. Editable Homework Bingo Templates Provide your students with novelty and choice by assigning them a Homework Bingo Game instead of traditional homework assignments! K-2 ELA Homework Helpers Give your students handy ELA Homework Helper printables to reference when working in class or at home. Positive and Negative Number Line - Worksheet Practice locating integers on a positive and negative number line with a printable integer worksheet. Jump Strategy - Number Line Addition Worksheet Practice adding two-digit numbers with regrouping using a number line and the jump strategy with a printable number line worksheet. Daily Vocabulary Dive - Synonyms Worksheet Give your students a daily dose of vocabulary practice with a five-day Synonym Review Worksheet. Homework Activities Worksheets Homework Activities Task Cards Homework Activities Puzzles Homework Activities Games Homework Activities Templates Homework Activities Color by Code Homework Activities Mazes Homework Activities Sorting Activities Homework Activities Dominoes Homework Activities Matchup Games Homework Activities Tarsia Puzzles Homework Activities Graphic Organizers Homework Activities Cut and Paste Worksheets Homework Activities Posters Homework Activities Tracing Worksheets Homework Activities Board Games Homework Activities Mini Book Homework Activities Flashcards Homework Activities Crossword Puzzles Homework Activities Writing Templates Homework Activities Labels Signs Decorations Homework Activities Bingo Homework Activities Custom Studio Resources Homework Activities Word Walls Homework Activities Logic Puzzles Homework Activities Word Searches Homework Activities Projects Homework Activities for Pre-K Homework Activities for Kindergarten Homework Activities for 1st Grade Homework Activities for 2nd Grade Homework Activities for 3rd Grade Homework Activities for 4th Grade Homework Activities for 5th Grade Homework Activities for 6th Grade Homework Activities for 7th Grade Our Mission Rethinking Homework for This Year—and Beyond A schoolwide effort to reduce homework has led to a renewed focus on ensuring that all work assigned really aids students’ learning. I used to pride myself on my high expectations, including my firm commitment to accountability for regular homework completion among my students. But the trauma of Covid-19 has prompted me to both reflect and adapt. Now when I think about the purpose and practice of homework, two key concepts guide me: depth over breadth, and student well-being. Homework has long been the subject of intense debate, and there’s no easy answer with respect to its value. Teachers assign homework for any number of reasons: It’s traditional to do so, it makes students practice their skills and solidify learning, it offers the opportunity for formative assessment, and it creates good study habits and discipline. Then there’s the issue of pace. Throughout my career, I’ve assigned homework largely because there just isn’t enough time to get everything done in class. A Different Approach Since classes have gone online, the school where I teach has made a conscious effort as a teaching community to reduce, refine, and distill our curriculum. We have applied guiding questions like: What is most important? What is most transferable? What is most relevant? Refocusing on what matters most has inevitably made us rethink homework. We have approached both asking and answering these questions through a science of learning lens. In Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning , the authors maintain that deep learning is slow learning. Deep learning requires time for retrieval, practice, feedback, reflection, and revisiting content; ultimately it requires struggle, and there is no struggle without time. As someone who has mastered the curriculum mapping style of “get it done to move on to get that next thing done,” using an approach of “slow down and reduce” has been quite a shift for me. However, the shift has been necessary: What matters most is what’s best for my students, as opposed to my own plans or mandates imposed by others. Listening to Students To implement this shift, my high school English department has reduced content and texts both in terms of the amount of units and the content within each unit. We’re more flexible with dates and deadlines. We spend our energy planning the current unit instead of the year’s units. In true partnership with my students, I’m constantly checking in with them via Google forms, Zoom chats, conferences, and Padlet activities. In these check-ins, I specifically ask students how they’re managing the workload for my class and their other classes. I ask them how much homework they’re doing. And I adjust what I do and expect based on what they tell me. For example, when I find out a week is heavy with work in other classes, I make sure to allot more time during class for my tasks. At times I have even delayed or altered one of my assignments. To be completely transparent, the “old” me is sheepish in admitting that I’ve so dramatically changed my thinking with respect to homework. However, both my students and I have reaped numerous benefits. I’m now laser-focused when designing every minute of my lessons to maximize teaching and learning. Every decision I make is now scrutinized through the lens of absolute worth for my students’ growth: If it doesn’t make the cut, it’s cut. I also take into account what is most relevant to my students. For example, our 10th-grade English team has redesigned a unit that explores current manifestations of systemic oppression. This unit is new in approach and longer in duration than it was pre-Covid, and it has resulted in some of the deepest and hardest learning, as well as the richest conversations, that I have seen among students in my career. Part of this improved quality comes from the frequent and intentional pauses that I instruct students to take in order to reflect on the content and on the arc of their own learning. The reduction in content that we need to get through in online learning has given me more time to assign reflective prompts, and to let students process their thoughts, whether that’s at the end of a lesson as an exit slip or as an assignment. Joining Forces to Be Consistent There’s no doubt this reduction in homework has been a team effort. Within the English department, we have all agreed to allot reading time during class; across each grade level, we’re monitoring the amount of homework our students have collectively; and across the whole high school, we have adopted a framework to help us think through assigning homework. Within that framework, teachers at the school agree that the best option is for students to complete all work during class. The next best option is for students to finish uncompleted class work at home as a homework assignment of less than 30 minutes. The last option—the one we try to avoid as much as possible—is for students to be assigned and complete new work at home (still less than 30 minutes). I set a maximum time limit for students’ homework tasks (e.g., 30 minutes) and make that clear at the top of every assignment. This schoolwide approach has increased my humility as a teacher. In the past, I tended to think my subject was more important than everyone else’s, which gave me license to assign more homework. But now I view my students’ experience more holistically: All of their classes and the associated work must be considered, and respected. As always, I ground this new pedagogical approach not just in what’s best for students’ academic learning, but also what’s best for them socially and emotionally. 2020 has been traumatic for educators, parents, and students. There is no doubt the level of trauma varies greatly ; however, one can’t argue with the fact that homework typically means more screen time when students are already spending most of the day on their devices. They need to rest their eyes. They need to not be sitting at their desks. They need physical activity. They need time to do nothing at all. Eliminating or reducing homework is a social and emotional intervention, which brings me to the greatest benefit of reducing the homework load: Students are more invested in their relationship with me now that they have less homework. When students trust me to take their time seriously, when they trust me to listen to them and adjust accordingly, when they trust me to care for them... they trust more in general. And what a beautiful world of learning can be built on trust. Homework for ESL Students – 10 Ideas for Teachers Meet  David De’ Ath , founder, editor, and writer at Wonderful World English. With his extensive background as an English teacher, David provides valuable insights and practical tips on ESL for students and teachers alike. Learning English as a Second Language (ESL) is an enriching venture and offers students the ability to access global opportunities. Homework in ESL is crucial, serving as a bridge between classroom theory and practical language use. It’s essential for reinforcing learned concepts and enhancing general language proficiency. To make this learning journey both effective and enjoyable, it’s important to craft homework tasks that are engaging and tailored to diverse learning styles. This approach helps to maintain students’ interest and motivation, which are key to successful language acquisition. These ESL homework ideas are designed to enhance language learning and engage students both in and out of the classroom: Daily journaling, vocabulary flashcards, reading comprehension, listening to podcasts/songs, video diaries, role-play scenarios, grammar worksheets, online games, book club discussions, and a pen pal program. I am an experienced ESL teacher, and I can attest first-hand to the importance of self-study, homework, and review. Our carefully selected ten homework ideas aim to transform routine learning into an exciting adventure. These activities are more than just assignments; they’re interactive experiences designed to deepen students’ understanding of English. From creative writing to practical exercises, these tasks are intended to make learning English a dynamic and enjoyable process, paving the way for a richer, more confident use of the language. Homework Ideas for ESL Students ESL students need more than just traditional classroom lessons. Homework is a vital part of their language development and serves as a bridge between acquired knowledge and practical application. The following homework ideas are designed to captivate students’ interest, deepen their understanding, and enhance their fluency in English in the classroom and real-life situations. Let’s dive into these creative and effective homework strategies that promise a richer, more interactive language learning experience: 1. Daily Journaling This is a great idea to engage students by embracing the habit of maintaining a daily journal. Writing about their daily experiences, emotions, thoughts, or selected topics can sharpen their writing skills while learning to articulate their feelings and ideas in English. This journaling process serves a dual purpose: it strengthens their grasp of the language and provides a personal space for self-expression. As they regularly engage with this practice, English becomes an integral part of their daily routine and will facilitate a more natural and fluent use of the language in their everyday lives. This activity bolsters their linguistic abilities and fosters a deeper connection with English as a medium of personal reflection and expression. Writing is a huge aspect of mastering a language. For a guide on how to improve writing skills for yourself or your students, click the link below! Related Article: How to Sharpen Writing Skills – Full Guide 2. Making Flashcards Students can develop their vocabulary skills through the classic and effective method of creating flashcards. This exercise involves students writing down new words and their meanings on individual cards. They can add illustrations or use words in sentences to make the learning process more engaging and impactful. This visual and contextual approach helps better retain and understand new vocabulary. By regularly reviewing these flashcards, students can gradually build a robust vocabulary base, which is essential for fluency in English. This method will reinforce their word knowledge and encourage active engagement with the language, making vocabulary learning a more interactive and enjoyable experience. Flashcards are suitable for students of all ages and can be fun. For some great insights on effectively teaching ESL students vocabulary, the guide below is for you! Related Article: How to Teach Vocabulary to ESL Students – The Guide 3. Reading Comprehension Exercises Immerse more advanced students in the world of English reading by assigning short stories or articles complemented by comprehension questions. This exercise is pivotal in enhancing their reading skills and deepening their understanding of various contexts in English. Students encounter different writing styles, vocabularies, and themes by engaging with diverse texts, enriching their language experience. The follow-up questions serve to test their understanding and encourage critical thinking about the content. This approach bolsters their ability to comprehend English texts and stimulates their analytical skills, making them more adept at interpreting and engaging with the language in its written form. Such reading exercises are fundamental in helping students gain confidence and proficiency in navigating English literature and media. 4. Podcasts and Songs Teachers can offer listening exercises in their curriculums by using English podcasts and songs. This method exposes students to a variety of accents, speaking speeds, and vocabulary in a natural context. After listening, students can engage in activities like writing summaries or answering questions about what they heard. These post-listening tasks are crucial for enhancing their comprehension and retention. This approach is great at improving listening skills while making the learning process more enjoyable and relatable. By regularly interacting with authentic English content, students develop a better ear for the language and learn to appreciate its rhythm and nuances in different forms of media. This not only aids in language acquisition but also connects them culturally to the English-speaking world. Check out the guide below for a list of the BEST English podcasts! Related Article: Best Podcasts to Learn the English Language in 2024 (Top 10) 5. Video Diaries This one encourages students to create short video diaries as a regular assignment. This task provides them with a platform to practice speaking about a variety of topics in English. Whether they choose to talk about their daily life, share opinions on current events, or discuss their hobbies, these video diaries offer a unique opportunity for students to engage actively with the language. This activity not only improves their spoken English skills but also significantly boosts their confidence in using the language. It helps them to overcome any hesitation or fear of speaking by providing a safe, personal space to express themselves. The process of recording and watching their own videos can also be a powerful tool for self-evaluation and progress tracking. This innovative approach to language learning empowers students to become more fluent and self-assured English speakers. 6. Role-play in Real-world Scenarios Ask your students to prepare role-plays that mimic real-world scenarios, such as shopping, ordering food, or making appointments. This practical approach to learning takes them beyond the confines of traditional classroom exercises and immerses them in everyday situations. T Through role-playing, students get to practice conversational English in a structured yet dynamic context. It allows them to apply their language skills in practical situations, enhancing their ability to communicate effectively in real-life settings. This method is particularly effective in familiarizing them with common phrases and vocabulary used in daily interactions. Additionally, role-playing can be a fun and interactive way to learn, helping to reduce the anxiety often associated with speaking a new language. By engaging in these simulated experiences, students gain confidence and fluency, which are crucial for their overall language development. 7. Grammar Worksheets This is a classic form of homework for ESL students, to offer them worksheets that concentrate on specific grammar points, such as verb tenses, sentence structure, or prepositions. Regular practice with these worksheets is instrumental in solidifying their understanding of English grammar. This methodical approach allows students to focus on one aspect of grammar at a time, ensuring a thorough grasp of each concept. Such targeted exercises help correct common mistakes and deepen their comprehension of the language’s structure. By consistently working through these grammar worksheets, students build a strong grammatical foundation, which is vital for effective English communication. This foundational knowledge enhances their writing and speaking skills and boosts their confidence in correctly using the language in various contexts. For some tips on how to teach grammar to ESL students, we’ve put together a guide to help teachers everywhere! Related Article: How to Teach Grammar to ESL Students – Teacher’s Guide 8. Online Games Motivate your students to engage with educational language games available online. These games offer a fun, interactive way to learn and practice English. Students can improve various language skills through game-based learning, including vocabulary, grammar, reading, and even listening comprehension. The interactive nature of these games makes the learning process more enjoyable and less intimidating, especially for younger learners or beginners. As students play, they receive immediate feedback on their performance, which helps reinforce correct usage and understanding. This approach enhances their language skills and keeps them motivated and engaged in their learning. Online language games provide a dynamic and enjoyable way to supplement traditional learning methods, making language practice an activity that students can look forward to. For some ideas of classroom games, both traditional and digital, check out the guide below! Related Article: Fun Classroom Games to Play – Teacher’s Guide 9. Book Club Another great idea is to start a book club in your class, where students can read and discuss a common book. This collaborative activity enhances their reading skills and promotes critical thinking and group discussion skills in English. Choosing books that are appropriate for their language level, the book club encourages students to dive into stories and themes, expanding their vocabulary and comprehension. Discussing the book with their peers allows them to share perspectives, articulate their thoughts, and engage in meaningful conversations in English. This interactive and social approach to learning also builds a sense of community among the students, making English learning a shared and enjoyable experience. The book club thus becomes a platform for growth, not just in language proficiency but also in cognitive and social skills. 10. Pen Pal Program The tenth great homework idea for ESL students is to start a pen pal program with English-speaking individuals from different parts of the world. This initiative provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in regular written communication with native English speakers. Through exchanging letters or emails, students practice their writing skills in a real-world context, learning to express their thoughts and ideas clearly in English. This regular interaction not only improves their language proficiency but also offers valuable insights into different cultures and lifestyles, enhancing their cultural understanding and global awareness. The pen pal program is more than just a language exercise; it’s a bridge that connects students across cultures, promoting international friendships and broadening their perspectives. This kind of cultural exchange can be a highly rewarding and motivating experience, encouraging students to apply their language skills in meaningful and authentic interactions. You can reach out to other teachers on platforms like LinkedIn and see if they would be willing to start a pen pal initiative for both them and your students. The homework ideas presented for ESL students transcend the traditional concept of assignments. They are designed as interactive learning experiences that not only build language skills but do so in a way that is practical, enjoyable, and highly effective. Integrating these varied activities into the ESL curriculum allows teachers to cultivate a dynamic and nurturing learning environment. Such an approach encourages students to actively engage with the English language, not just within the confines of the classroom but in their everyday lives as well. Promoting this kind of immersive learning experience makes students more likely to develop a lasting proficiency and a genuine appreciation for the language. These activities, therefore, play a crucial role in shaping confident, competent English speakers who are prepared to navigate the global landscape. We hope you find value in this article; let us know if you require any assistance. Have a wonderful day! Image Attribution: All images licensed via canva.com Don’t miss out! We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Leave a Comment Cancel reply Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 13 Exciting Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets! Who likes homework? Nobody, right? Especially not if it’s the same dreary worksheets and textbook exercises every time. I used to find setting homework a challenge in EFL/ESL classes. What can you do to give them good practice and develop confidence without boring them to tears? 1. Word Hunts A Word Hunt is a vocab acquisition activity (a technique I describe in my article How to Elicit Vocabulary ). Any student who has their own phone can do this activity. For younger kids, you’ll need the support of the parents. 2. Narrative Telephone The way it works is the teacher records themself reading a short story and sends it to one of their students. That student listens ONCE. Then they record themself re-telling the story and send it on to the next student who does the same. When choosing a story, keep it relatively short (a couple of paragraphs at most) and use it to introduce or consolidate new vocab and grammar. 3. What Do You See? For beginners, this can just be individual words. For intermediates it could be sentences like “I see a woman jogging with her dog.” And for advanced students, challenge them to create a full description of the place, taking into account all the senses. 4. Write a Blog This one isn’t great for young kids who aren’t used to using tech yet, although if their parents are on board, they can help get things set up. It’s super easy to set up a blog nowadays, and students can post articles from home or from their phone while travelling. You could make it an account of what they did that week, an explanation of something they know a lot about, or a review of a film or series they recently watched. 5. Record a vlog A word on privacy and safety. If you’re going to do this with students under 18, DEFINITELY get their parents’ permission. Most will be perfectly fine with this. 6. Scavenger photos With beginners, this can be household items, food, common things in the city, etc. It’s a great way to introduce new vocabulary. Challenge students with more abstract things, like “something that is squishy” or “something that you can’t break”. And go a step further: “something you couldn’t live without” or “something which terrifies you”, or “something worth over a million dollars”. 7. Watch films & series A word on subtitles: Advanced students should try to watch the English version without subtitles. For most, though, this is too difficult. Just make sure subtitles are in English, not their native language, otherwise you lose all benefits of the activity. 8. Write a journal Either at the start of the day or before they go to bed, writing a short English entry into a journal is a powerful way of embedding English in students’ day-to-day lives. This activity is for most ages, except the youngest kids. 9. Listen to podcasts Podcasts get more and more popular with every year. You can find them on pretty much any topic, and they provide excellent listening practice. 10. Write to a pen pal Alternatively, write the responses yourself. Have an ongoing back and forth of letters between you and your students, where you can get to know each other (and give some helpful corrections!) 11. Prepare a mini-presentation Mini-presentations are a great peer-teaching activity. Give students a topic (can be anything: grammar, a famous person, a favourite hobby, etc.) and have them do a 1-minute presentation on it in the next class. Scripts are optional. Personally, I prefer my students to speak without a script, but for those who aren’t as confident, encourage them to make brief notes. 12. Read the news For more advanced learners, any news network is great. I prefer BBC News for the quality and clarity of writing. 13. Enjoy some English Music This one applies to learners of all ages and levels. Many students will already listen to music in English, as it’s popular around the world. You can make this a structured homework, assigning specific songs, with the aim of recognising certain words or grammar structures. Supplement this by studying the lyrics in class. With younger kids, just having them listen to English songs is enough. Give parents a playlist to put on in the car or when they wake up in the morning. The important thing is to know your students and keep things varied – that way you won’t have to chase your students up every week. Similar Posts 9 efl/esl games and activities for advanced learners, 5 brilliant house & home activities for efl/esl, 5 engaging ways to teach health & the body in efl/esl, actually useful ideas for beginner conversation in efl/esl, 9 classy efl/esl games & activities for adults (+ tips), 5 exciting ways to teach celebrations & festivals in efl/esl. International Education Jobs Schools directory Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search Romeo & Juliet: List of Homework Task Ideas Subject: English Age range: 11-14 Resource type: Worksheet/Activity Last updated 7 February 2015 Share through email Share through twitter Share through linkedin Share through facebook Share through pinterest Creative Commons "Attribution" Your rating is required to reflect your happiness. It's good to leave some feedback. Something went wrong, please try again later. jfranciswilliams Empty reply does not make any sense for the end user ashleigh_gill Rosiebaldieri. Great resource and wonderful ideas for engaging pupils with SEN ...thank you Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch. Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource: 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 / Ideas for Holiday Homework for Class 3 Computer Updated on   Jun 19, 2024 As the summer holiday approaches, it gives students a chance to relax, refresh, and spend quality time with loved ones. However, it is also a valuable time to learn new things outside the classroom. To balance both relaxation and learning, we have designed computer holiday homework ideas for Class 3 students. In this section, we’ll look at activities like Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ), Fill-in-the-blanks, short and long-answer questions, and projects to keep you engaged and intellectually active during the break.  Table of Contents 1.1 1. Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) 1.2 2. Short Questions 1.3 3. Match the terms to their correct definitions. 1.4 4. True or False 1.5 5. Fill in the blanks 1.6 5. Exercise Computer Holiday Homework for Class 3 Check out the ideas for holiday homework for class 3 computer students  1. Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) 1.1. What is the main part of the computer that processes data and runs programmes? – Monitor – Keyboard – CPU – Mouse 1.2. Which device is used to point and click on items on the screen? – Keyboard – Mouse – Printer – Speaker 1.3. Which of the following is used to store data permanently? – RAM – ROM – Hard Drive – Processor 1.4. Which of these is a type of software? – Keyboard – Operating System – Monitor – Mouse 1.5. Which part of the computer displays the output?  – Keyboard – Monitor – Mouse – CPU Also Read : Creative Holiday Homework for Nursery Class: Top 11 Ideas and Themes 2. Short Questions 1. What does ‘CPU’ stand for? 2. Name two input devices. 3. What is the purpose of an operating system? 4. What does ‘RAM’ stand for and what is its purpose? 5. What is a computer network? Also Read : Exciting Class 2 Holiday Homework Ideas: Sparking Creativity and Adventure 3. Match the terms to their correct definitions. a) Monitor 1. Prints documents b) Keyboard 2. Visual display screen c) Printer 3. Main processing unit d) Mouse 4. Inputs text and commands e) CPU 5. Pointing device used with GUI Also Read : 7 Creative Ideas For Holiday Homework for Class 4 Science   4. True or False 1. A monitor is an input device. (True/False)                                                           2. The CPU is sometimes called the brain of the computer. (True/False)   3. RAM stores data permanently, even when the computer is turned off. (True/False)   4. A mouse can be used to type letters. (True/False)   5. An operating system is hardware. (True/False)   Also Read : Summer Holiday Homework for Kindergarten: Engaging Activities for Young Learners 5. Fill in the blanks Also Read : Holiday Homework for Class 4 Social Science   5. Exercise 1. Create a Digital Poster: Use a drawing or graphic design program to create a digital poster about the different parts of a computer. Include at least five parts (e.g., monitor, CPU, keyboard, mouse, printer) and describe their functions. Be creative with colours and images to make your poster interesting and informative. 2. Create a digital storybook using easy presentation software such as PowerPoint or Google Slides. Students can create a short story, add graphics with digital drawing tools, and use animations or transitions between presentations. They can then share their storybook with the class or family members. Ans: Computer activities are important for students as they help them understand the workings of computers and their importance in daily life. Ans: A computer is an electronic device that is used for storing and processing information. There are a lot of interesting facts to learn about computers, along with their functions. Ans: A computer can be used to educate the students. They can learn about various subjects and skills from the computer. Apart from studies, it can be used for the entertainment of the kids There are various ways to entertain children with computers, like playing video games that develop their cognitive skills and watching interesting films that teach them new things about the world. Explore interesting ideas for school children here :  To refer to interesting ideas related to children’s school education and Holiday Homework activities, follow Leverage Edu now!!  Bhumika Sharma 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 Aileen Cannon Is Who Critics Feared She Was The judge handling Trump’s classified-documents case has shown that she’s not fit for the task. Listen to this article Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration. One year ago, when former President Donald Trump was indicted on charges related to his hoarding of classified documents, the case was randomly assigned to Aileen Cannon, a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida. Cannon’s selection immediately stirred up worries. She had little trial experience, having been appointed to the bench at just 39. She was an appointee of Trump himself. And she had already raised concerns with her rulings in favor of Trump in a precursor to the case, which were later reversed by a sharply critical appeals court. These objections might have been premature: Interpreting a judge’s mindset, and assessing her shortcomings, from the outside can be difficult . But after a year of action—and, perhaps more important, inaction—from Cannon, it seems that many of the worst fears about her were not just well founded but understated: Her track record in the case has been extremely favorable to Trump, to a degree that undermines any faith in her ability to adjudicate it fairly going forward. The latest astonishing development is a New York Times report yesterday that two other federal judges in Florida’s Southern District sought to persuade her to step aside from the case and let another jurist take it. One colleague argued to Cannon that it would be better for a judge in Miami, rather than her satellite Fort Pierce courthouse, to deal with the case, in part because the Miami courthouse has a facility for sensitive documents, the paper reported. When Cannon demurred, the chief judge of the district called her and argued that her reversed decision earlier meant that her having this case would look bad. She again declined to hand it off. David A. Graham: The cases against Trump—a guide Whether Cannon’s colleagues were concerned about inexperience or bias is not clear from the reporting, but what is striking is that they seem to have reached the same conclusion that many outsiders did at the time and later: Cannon has no business presiding over the case. Comparing Trump’s different indictments is dicey, and two other cases against Trump, which accuse him of subverting American democracy itself, have overshadowed the documents case. But in this case, Trump stands accused of something very dangerous—extremely careless handling of the nation’s most sensitive secrets. He allegedly tried extensively to hide documents from the government, even after a subpoena. Nor does much doubt exist about whether he had the material, because FBI agents recovered it in a search of his Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022. No felony case against a former president is simple, but the basic outlines of this one are straightforward and quite serious. After the documents were recovered, Cannon ruled that prosecutors couldn’t review the files until a special master had filtered them—a ruling that would have benefited Trump by freezing the investigation and potentially discarding evidence. “This would seem to me to be a genuinely unprecedented decision by a judge,” Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor and an occasional Atlantic contributor , told the Times then . But an appeals court overturned Cannon, saying her approach “would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.” The investigation continued, and an indictment followed, but Special Counsel Jack Smith had a stroke of bad luck when Cannon randomly drew the assignment. That’s turned into a bad-luck streak, as Cannon has repeatedly moved back deadlines . The trial was once scheduled to begin in May; now no tentative date even exists. She’s also ruled against prosecutors again and again. In March, she told both sides to submit proposed jury instructions, an odd suggestion so early in the process. Moreover, her order implied that she was taking seriously a Trump argument that the Presidential Records Act allowed him to retain some “personal” documents. In a frustrated response, Smith’s team called the theory “pure fiction” and asked for a quick ruling on the question. She replied that the request was “unprecedented and unjust.” In May, she delayed a deadline for major filings. Later that month, after Trump falsely claimed that the FBI had planned to assassinate him in the Mar-a-Lago search, prosecutors asked that he be barred from making statements about law enforcement. Instead, Cannon threatened to sanction them for not first conferring with defense lawyers. And earlier this month, she removed a paragraph from the indictment, saying it was not connected to any specific charge against Trump. Today, she will hear arguments over whether Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional, a strain of argument that other courts have long rejected. She has also agreed to hear arguments from third parties on the question, which is highly unusual in trial courts. Even when Cannon has ultimately rejected defense claims, she has first held hearings on matters that few judges are willing to entertain. The case is crawling forward at the same time that the Supreme Court has been dilatory in ruling on Trump’s argument that he should be immune to prosecution for acts taken as president—a claim that could upend his federal indictment for subverting the 2020 election. And just as no mechanism exists to speed up the justices, prosecutors have little recourse with Cannon. They don’t have any of the hard evidence that would justify a recusal, and though they might be able to successfully appeal, that takes time—and Smith is on the clock. Already, voters seem unlikely to get a ruling before they cast ballots this fall; the question now is whether Trump wins and is able to have the case against him dismissed. David A. Graham: The stupidest crimes imaginable If Smith’s filings show a rising irritation, outsiders who have no need to be polite have not been. “The fact these motions are even being entertained with a hearing is itself ridiculous,” the national-security lawyer Bradley Moss told CNN . “The magnitude of the legal mistakes that are happening is weird. They’re always in the same direction, right? The legal mistakes are always Trump-favorable,” the University of Texas law professor Lee Kovarsky told New York . “It’s clear that she is going in a ridiculous direction,” Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge, told Politico . The attorneys Dennis Aftergut and Laurence Tribe wrote in Slate that Cannon “is quietly sabotaging” the case. “Judge Cannon is proving that she is not fit for this moment,” the former CIA attorney Brian Greer wrote in the Times . That these commentators would be critical of Cannon is perhaps no surprise—they include Democratic appointees, Trump critics, and federal prosecutors, all people inclined to be sympathetic to Smith. What affirms their concerns is that Cannon’s colleagues—people who intimately know the court, the law, and the judge herself—evidently agreed. *Lead-image sources: Southern District of Florida; Associated Press; Drew Angerer / Getty; Giorgio Viera / AFP / Getty; Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty 391 IMAGES 7 Ways To Make Homework Fun For Back To School 7 Ways To Make Homework Fun For Back To School Homework Twist Task Cards: 25 Fun Tasks to Make Homework More Fun! Back to School: Fun Homework Ideas 10 Helpful Homework Ideas and Tips for Primary School Teachers 37 Printable Homework Planners (Only the BEST) ᐅ TemplateLab VIDEO holiday homework ideas ✨💫|| topic- the importance of🌹💫🌺 3'R #art #holidayhomework holidays homework project ideas @LEARN-N-FUN #art #schoolproject #teacher #easyproject #ideas ideas for home work #ideas || smart homework tips || new homework tips advertisement ideas 💡 for students homework 📚 #ideas #homework #summer #students #studentlife How to Assign Homework Tasks Decorated working sheet ideas for projects COMMENTS 20+ creative alternative homework ideas for teachers 2. Make a board game. This is definitely one of the most creative homework assignments. Let your students come up with an idea for a board game about the lesson content. They have to make cards, and pawns, draw, write, cut, and paste. They have to use their imagination and inventive ideas to create a coherent board game. Click to open. Creative Homework Ideas Self-driven projects, posters, creative tasks and research are more exciting than standard comprehension tasks and might encourage pupils that find sitting and writing dull or hard to complete the homework set - give students the freedom to learn and be creative in their home study. ... Creative Homework Ideas For All Ages. 13 Fun Homework Ideas: The Best Ways To Make Homework Fun Set up a homework play date. Go outside. Turn it into a game. Let them play teacher. Use a timer. Create a special homework space. Remember to be positive. Get help if you need i t. Thankfully, there are ways of making homework less boring and that little bit more fun for your child. 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. 10 Helpful Homework Ideas and Tips for Primary School Teachers Firstly, divide your class into smaller ability groups, 3 or 4 groups would work. Each group can be given their own coloured homework basket. You then fill the coloured homework baskets with activities, games and task cards that the students can take home and play with parents, carers or older siblings throughout the week. 5 alternatives to homework (that help teachers out, too) Check out these five project-based learning ideas to get you started. 2. Assign educational video games. My students loved education video games, ... But maybe try implementing a different type of homework task here and there to keep things fresh. So, give it a try see how it goes! You might be surprised by the positive outcomes. 28 Ideas On How To Make Homework Fun For Students Working on homework teaches children that work is a part of life, not just school, and fosters friendship without being overpowering. 5. Design an Awesome Workspace. Improve the area where your kids complete their schoolwork to increase efficiency, creativity, and problem-solving abilities. Creative Homework Ideas For Your Students Go on a treasure hunt. As a fun homework task that will get your students out and about, ask them to go on a treasure or scavenger hunt, finding certain things that are related to your topic. For younger children, this could be as simple as collecting leaves, flowers, or twigs they might find in their local park, or particular shapes or colours ... Engaging and exciting homework tasks So to sum up the main takeaways: To make homework tasks more engaging, try making them more personalised, authentic, and challenging by integrating several 21st century skills and involving the real world around your students. Don't hesitate to share your ideas here or on social media! Joanna is a very active educator, trainer and blogger. 13 ESL Homework Ideas Great ESL homework ideas can be difficult to come up with. So check out these 13 great ideas for ESL homework assignments that your students will love. ... 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 ... Homework Ideas for Teachers to Try Encourage students to cross off tasks as they are completed. Also, allow students to submit work prior to the due date. This way, students that struggle with disorganization or misplacing papers can rid themselves of the assignment before it disappears. Hold a homework session during lunch. This can be as frequent as needed, but once a week is ... Entertaining homework ideas for English language learners 1. Cafe hopper. Most people love checking out cafes and this is an easy homework task to assign to your students. Have your students visit a variety of cafes as part of their homework. Then, consider what they could do for homework in a cafe of their choice. 11 Vocabulary Homework Ideas And How To Motivate Students To ... In addition to the homework selection sheet, the bundle includes worksheets for vocabulary homework ideas number five and six. The other vocabulary homework options can be completed on a plain piece of paper or in student workbooks. Here are the vocabulary activities listed on the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework handout: #1 Say Your Words 9 better alternatives to homework These terms don't have the same negative connotation as 'homework' and help the students think about the tasks in a more positive way. Before I get into my suggestions, here are some benefits of using alternatives to homework: 1. You don't have to mark them. These activities are designed to be able to be marked simple as participated or ... 13 Fun Homework Ideas: The Best Ways To Make Homework Fun Quick win: After every homework session, spend five minutes talking through what your child has accomplished. If you're running out of activities to do, have a look at our list of home learning packs - all free to download. 13. Get help if you need it. Homework can be frustrating if your child doesn't understand the material or gets bored ... Ten Easy Homework Tasks to Set Here are a couple of thinking questions you could give as homework. 'Think about the best things about your country. Explain them to yourself in English. You'll tell the class about it tomorrow.'. 'Think about the most important person in your life and why they are/were important. Describe them to yourself in English. 30+ Homework Station Ideas for Kids and Teens Homework Station Supplies. Below is a handy list of supplies that are sometimes useful. Pens and pencils. Loose leaf paper for scratch paper or notes. A timer or clock. A folder with pockets. Calculator. 1 box of color pencils or crayons. Computer and charger. PDF Creative Homework Tasks The tasks are designed to appeal to all learning styles but particularly to kinaesthetic and visual learners. Even the most reluctant children will be keen to meet the challenge of these homework tasks. Activities to Challenge and Inspire 9-11 Year Olds 9 781905 780563 ISBN 978-1-905780-56-3 E-books ISBN 978--85747-002-7 Homework Activities Teaching Resources Homework Activities. An extensive collection of resources to use when compiling a range of learning at home tasks. Homework gives students opportunities to explore concepts at home which have been covered in class. Engaging homework activities can also encourage students to explore new ways of thinking away from the classroom. How to Improve Homework for This Year—and Beyond A schoolwide effort to reduce homework has led to a renewed focus on ensuring that all work assigned really aids students' learning. I used to pride myself on my high expectations, including my firm commitment to accountability for regular homework completion among my students. But the trauma of Covid-19 has prompted me to both reflect and adapt. Homework for ESL Students 10. Pen Pal Program. The tenth great homework idea for ESL students is to start a pen pal program with English-speaking individuals from different parts of the world. This initiative provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in regular written communication with native English speakers. 13 Exciting Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets! 8. Write a journal. Either at the start of the day or before they go to bed, writing a short English entry into a journal is a powerful way of embedding English in students' day-to-day lives. This activity is for most ages, except the youngest kids. Image by Pexels from Pixabay. Science Homework Tasks for KS1 Homework Tasks for Every KS1 Objective for Year 1 and Year 2. Each contains 3 ideas. Tes paid licenceHow can I reuse this? Reviews Something went wrong, please try again later. This resource hasn't been reviewed yet. To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it ... Romeo & Juliet: List of Homework Task Ideas Age range: 11-14. Resource type: Worksheet/Activity. File previews. doc, 40 KB. Printable handout worksheet including a list of homework tasks to cover a whole half term of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. Could be used as it is, with dates adapted, or just used as an ideas sheet to inspire your own homework setting. Ideas for Holiday Homework for Class 3 Computer To balance both relaxation and learning, we have designed computer holiday homework ideas for Class 3 students. In this section, we'll look at activities like Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ), Fill-in-the-blanks, short and long-answer questions, and projects to keep you engaged and intellectually active during the break. Aileen Cannon Is Who Critics Feared She Was One year ago, when former President Donald Trump was indicted on charges related to his hoarding of classified documents, the case was randomly assigned to Aileen Cannon, a federal judge for the ... assignment essay homework paper phd report resume speech thesis