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Teachers give home work for a wide variety of reasons. These may include, extending the lesson to include independent research of a subject, differentiating the areas in which certain children may need extra practice, or giving able children a higher level of work to stretch them. Whatever the reason for the homework being given, a learner will benefit of independent work and research.

Often learners will overly rely on the teacher's presence to check or give advice, to be asked to work independently will once mastered increase confidence and enhance the earning process. Sometimes, especially in primary school, things like spellings and reading books are better done at home as this can be done by parents freeing lesson time for more productive or group work with the teacher.

Often a primary school teacher wants the children to produce practical art or craft activity but wants them to be individual, showing the imagination and work of each child. A good way of doing this is to ask learners to do them at home in this way they can avoid having 30 identical pieces of work.

A child working with the help of parents is often beneficial too. Parents will have a good idea of the subjects being studied and at which levels. This will allow the parent to be involved in their child's education and provide suitable resources; this may be looking up related websites in the subject, going to areas of local interest or simply discussing the subject with their child.

In producing independent homework will also raise a pupil's self esteem as the very act of working through the challenge and producing the work on their own will be rewarding and inspiring. This is equally true for a high school student completing an essay or a year one child taking in their work to show their teacher.

When a child becomes eventually goes to college much or the work there is course work to be done individually at home or independently in college. All the practice and self esteem gained from the homework at school can then be used. The study skills, research skills, time management, discipline to do the work before going out with friends are essential skills for college life that have been established through out their school lives if regular homework has been completed.

There are views that all school work should be done in school hours. However, if a good routine is established and homework is done regularly at certain times there should be plenty of free time left. The benefits to be gained are too great to complain about lack of time to do homework. Even in these days of parents both going out to work homework should still be incorporated into the daily routine. A child's education is too important to be neglected; it is the responsibility of parents to provide support.

We can see therefore, that there are many reasons for giving homework as well as many benefits for the learner. Homework is an invaluable aid to extend learning, differentiate, offer extra support and encourage independent learning.

Learn more about this author, Angel Quinton.
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