Homework That Students Actually WANT To Do: How to Make Homework Relevant & Engaging in the Digital Age

by Becca LeCompte

Admit it. You hate bringing your day job home. The idea of sitting on the couch each night grading papers is awful. You want, no, need the time to unwind and not think about the grind of the classroom. Why, then, do we send work home with students each day? What if we focused less on work and more on helping students transfer their learning beyond the classroom walls?

If you’ve been an educator in the past few years, you’ve seen plenty of blog posts and articles advocating for doing away with homework. Districts all over the country have been experimenting with no homework policies in their elementary schools citing studies that show the limited benefits of traditional homework. This is always met with mixed reviews. While parents are thrilled to reclaim their evenings, educators like us worry: “How can I ensure the my students are going to retain what they are learning without the repetition and reinforcement of traditional homework?” The reality is that there are lots of ways to reinforce what you are teaching without sending home packets or worksheets.

Time in Text

“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.”

-Dr. Seuss

We all know that reading has countless benefits for our students. Kids who read more achieve better scores on standardized tests in reading and math and they have larger vocabularies. When we eliminate homework and ask kids to read for, say, 20 minutes each night it’s more likely to become an activity they enjoy rather than a chore. If you then have your students engage in discussion about what they are reading at home, you can help promote a rich variety of reading materials in the classroom. With our wealth of digital and print resources, students will be able to delve into their own interests and find what makes them excited and gets them interested in their world.

Discussion Starters

Talk amongst yourselves - I’ll give you a topic…

Parents overwhelmingly love no homework policies, and, hey, I get it. Many nights have I struggled to get my son to finish the worksheet du jour when he is tired and ready to have some leisure time of his own. Since many parents are  already engaged in enforcing and helping with homework, why not assign a different kind of engagement by sending home topics of conversation? Say you’re teaching your third graders about simple machines. Each night that week send home a picture of a different simple machine like the lever. Ask the kids to bring the picture to their parents and spend some time together looking for examples of levers or wedges around the house. Parents will welcome the relaxed nature of the assignment and kids will love the one-on-one time with mom or dad.

Of course, some moms and dads aren’t home in the evening. A caregiver at an after school program, a babysitter or an older sibling, any trusted adult can participate in this kind of activity. In fact, the more diverse the group of students the more variety kids will hear when you follow-up in class.

Educational Games

“Video games are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock and roll.”

Shigeru Miyamoto (Representative Director at Nintendo)

Math homework is the one that really sends people over the edge. As a former classroom math teacher, I often get sheepish, late-night text messages asking for help with the math homework when everyone is at their wit’s end. When the child is lost and the parent is racking her brain to remember how to multiply fractions, it often ends in frustration and any value that homework may have had is gone.

Take that pressure off of the everyone by sending home a game instead. Print out a simple file folder game or post a link to an online math game reviewing multiplication facts that students can access with their Chromebooks. A few rounds of a game won’t take long but will provide a little bit of reinforcement for your math instruction. Choose games that can be played by 2 or 3 players, but that are just as fun to play alone, remembering that some kids won’t have playmates at home. Any caregiver can participate in these activities with a child, and the conversation in class is more interesting with a greater variety of people participating.

Instructional Videos

Our fifth graders do not remember a world without viral videos. YouTube and Khan Academy  were created before most of them were born! Some of our students spend a regrettable amount of time online every night watching videos about anything and everything they choose. Why not take advantage of that and send home a video link related to what you’re teaching in the classroom? The internet is full of educational videos that can be assigned via Google Classroom. Choose videos that are brief, engaging, and easy to follow from resources like YouTube, Khan Academy, TeacherTube, or Virtual Nerd.  If you’re in for a slightly bigger challenge, you could create your own instructional videos and assign those to your students.

Bring it all back around…

All of these ideas have a common thread:  in-class discussion. If you send home activities, make sure you follow up. Make the time in the classroom to allow kids to share what they learned from that video, game, discussion, or book. Encourage kids to type their responses into the Google Classroom in class. Take the opportunity to make the rounds and talk to your students. You were going to spend the time collecting those homework worksheets anyway...

Sources for More Ideas

Facts about Children’s Literacy: This piece provides us with specific data about the student population that helps support the assertion that “children who are read to at home have a higher success rate in school”.

The Enduring Importance of Parental Involvement: Ongoing research cited in this piece “shows that family engagement in schools improves student achievement, reduces absenteeism, and restores parents’ confidence in their children’s education”.

Harnessing the Power of YouTube in the Classroom: This article provides some ideas for using YouTube for a variety of things in the classroom, including sharing student work and accessing virtual reality.  

Becca LeCompte is a CITT (Curriculum Integration Technology Teacher) for Hampton City Schools. Before taking this role, she taught middle and high school math at Jones, Bethel, Jones again, and then the Spratley Gifted Center in Hampton City Schools. In her spare time she helps run a unique family business with her husband and son and talks about herself in the third person. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaLCITT.