by Jessi Michaels

Created on: April 28, 2010   Last Updated: April 29, 2010

As with most things in life, the affects of homework depend on how it is used. The school day takes up the better part of a child's day. It is a stressor of their intellectual, emotional, psychological and physical supply. Therefore as educators, it is important to remember that children learn best when there is balance in their lives. Though teachers face enormous pressures from their districts and various mandates, in the end an over-stressed child is not going to produce and maintain information, if they are overwhelmed.

There is a fine line between homework as enrichment to learning and that of a counterproductive instrument. One of the ways to make homework more worthwhile is to create assignments that both reflect what you are teaching as well as how it connects to student’s lives. Many math and writing assignments can build upon what children experience in their every day existence. By honing in on those areas, homework becomes more natural and less tedious. This point cannot be stressed enough. It is important to remember that often an exhausted child equates to exhausted parents and homework can become truly problematic.

Homework can affect learning in a positive way by making it a more natural process. As an example, my students were learning how to graph in math. At school we used the math program that was selected for our district and though it was a good program, there seemed to be a disconnect between the information and how it pertained to daily life. As a homework assignment, I asked the children to choose 5 foods that their family often had in the house. Then using stickers the child surveyed each member of their home and in some cases their relatives and friends to discover which food was their favorite. The children and the parents enjoyed the assignment. It allowed them to see how graphs can quickly show the results of research, but it also allowed for family involvement that did not mean sitting at a table with frustration mounting. It was fun; and they learned.

This is but one simple example of how homework can affect learning in a productive manner , but there are endless ways of creating the same results, it just takes a little creativity. Remember homework comes at the end of the day, at a time when fatigue and moods may be running high or on empty. There is no point to homework if it is not going to be productive. A little bit of time can go a long way in ensuring that homework will further increase the knowledge which began in the classroom.

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