by Marie Hall

Created on: November 18, 2008   Last Updated: November 19, 2008

When teachers assign homework, the question they have to ask themselves is what they expect the student to gain from the experience. Unfortunately, all too often homework becomes "busy work" that is meant to practice the concepts introduced in that day's lesson. In other instances it becomes the catch up time for teachers to get students to complete assignments they were not able to cover in class. In either case, homework loses it luster and students will gain little to nothing from the experience because it lacks creativity. Oftentimes, students are already forced to sit still in a traditional classroom environment and follow a scheduled regimen of classes as they move from one subject to the next at a pace that isn't really conducive to the true learning of it. Sending students home with more of the same is a missed opportunity to engage them.

It's important to relay the validity of the subject matter with students by relating it to how it will help them in "real life". Students of every age ask the question "Why do I have to learn this?" Sending home assignments that allow students to take lesson concepts and relate them to as many real life scenarios they can is a great way to get them to think about it, relate to it, and to talk about it. Through this process, students become much more engaged in the material and gain more personal satisfaction in completing it.

The Internet is a wonderful place to have students practice and develop their skills. There are many free Internet sites that offer teachers resources to use for on-line games and skill building (http://www.educational-freeware.com/online/category -K-12.aspx & http://www.ezschool.com/Games/index.html). When it comes to English, Vocabulary and Spelling, these sites are wonderful for helping students practice their grammar skills and further their vocabulary and spelling practice through the use of educational games. This experience, again, becomes a positive one, because the student is doing something different than he/she can in class, and it's something they can already relate to.

For writing assignments, students will almost always have to complete them at home, but the trick is to get them started on the right foot. It is best to break down a writing assignment into stages and have the students practice with you in class on brainstorming thesis statements. Create a thesis statement that the whole class will work from and as a group create the introductory paragraph in class using the opportunity

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