do czy make homework

‘Make homework’ vs. ‘do homework’ in English

First, let me note that “homework” is an uncountable (mass) noun in English. It is a common mistake, even among some non-native teachers of English as a foreign language, to say things like, “Hand in your homeworks, please.” The word “homework”, being uncountable, does not have a plural form. If you really must refer to several separate “pieces” of homework, the word you are looking for is “assignment”:

It is also not possible to use “homework” with “a”:

Let’s move on to the main topic of this article. Without further ado, the correct verb to use with “homework” is “do”, not “make”:

“Homework” is not in any way special in this respect. We always use “do” with activities and “make” with objects that are being made. Just like we “do work”, not “make work”, we also “do homework”, meaning the activity.

The confusion arises from the fact that the most direct translation of “homework” into other languages often refers to the sheets of paper on which the assignments are written, hence it would make sense to “make it”. For the very same reason, we wouldn’t usually speak about “writing homework”:

By the way, have you already seen my brand new web app for non-native speakers of English ? It's based on reading texts and learning by having all meanings, pronunciations, grammar forms etc. easily accessible. It looks like this:

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DO & MAKE – How to talk about housework in English

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427 comments.

THANKS a LOT

Thank you ma’am Ronnie :),. May I asked you to give us explanations about when to use “have been” and “had been” on a sentence?

Thanks alot

Hi Ronnie, Thank you for all the lessons. I have an important question: What’s the Difference Between “Like” and “Such As”? Thank you

Such as we usually use to give and example – it is more formal than like. EX… My hobbies are playing sports, such as hockey, football, baseball. You can also say My hobbies are playing sports, like hockey, football, baseball Like is more casual and we use it more often!!!!!!

Hi Ronnie.First of all you’re the great teacher.You’re my best teacher.But i have a problem.I want to ask one thing.I’m really confuse about idioms and phrase.So please help me.And tell me what do i do?And if you know about any book or website which of my English would be good so please tell me.I’m waiting your reply…………………………..

The best way to learn idioms is to go to a country where they speak English OR you can watch movies!!!!!!! The problem with books is that there are MILLIONS of idioms that we never use!

Oh, What a nice surprise!

hi ronnie you are so talented woman, thank u so much

Thanks for your input you make it incredibly easy to understand … successes Ronnie

hi Ronnie thank yoooooooooooooooo alot

5 out of 5…yey!!!

Ronnie, You are a very nice person and a excellent teacher. Ilike you a lot. Please, tell me what should I do to improve my listening in English??

Listen to English music, tv shows, movies and people if you can!!!!

Ronnie, You are a very nice person and a excellent teacher. Ilike you a lot.

Excellent !!!!!

Dearest Ronnie, its an excellent way to teach. i m not good in English but amazingly i understood each and every world i listened.hope you will teach me more lesson like this but with different verbs. God bless you.

Ronnie, But we can use make for unmaterial things, like mistake, wish or something like that. Could you explain us how we can use DO or MAKE for these cases? Are there some secret or trick for it?

Hugs to you.

Hi Marcio, I believe we use ‘do’ for repetitive actions such as doin’ someone a favour , do an exam e.t.c while ‘make represents originality when you make coffee, it doesn’t always taste the same or when you make a mistake there is originality in it . We make cake,decision, wish ,noise e.t.c … but we can do the sound of a bird ( repeating what’s already in existence) ..

Look at the RESOURCES section on the site – there is a list off ALL the uses!!!!!!!!!!!!

it tooks me a while to understand about ‘do n’ make’ too. now is easier 4 me. see u Ronnie, I have to make my messy bed. make love instead war. that’s what I’m think.

Hi Ronnie. Good lesson! thx for all

I loved this Video Classes.I have many years triying to learn English.I hope this classes goin to help me a lot.Thanks very much for this webside.I will be conected with you.Thanks Again.

thank Ronnie. my question is this lesson or this course American accent or British. thanks again..

this is American Accent

really very helpful topic, my idea wasn’t strongly clear but now i can say after listen this listen i gave test this lesson too in order to i took in this 5 out of 5 , thanks Thanks Teacher

Hi !! Ronnie its me Taimoor Alvi ned to know about how to speak English like native speakers and what about the slang in English language ?

thanks Ronnie

I really want to study English on internet. so please everyone tell me, about studying on internet

Thanks ronnie ju are exelent teacher …I like your lessons..

Hi Ronnie , i have one question for u,ok? when do we use For and Since? thinks

For with a number. I’ve lived her for 3 years. Since with a date. (day/month/year) I’ve lived here since January.

Hi Ronnei, I learn a lot from your lessons. Thank you, you are a wonderful teacher.

thanks it is so useful for us

Hi Ronnie, Is there a specific verb to cleaning furniture?

NO! You can just say I cleaned the _______ (furniture name)

you can also “dust the furniture”

Thanks a lot for both answers: Ronnie and Engvid!

great teacher may you explain if conditional cause im confused between second and third case¿

\i have made a video on conditionals = it will be on the site soon!

Ronnie you are the best teacher. Thank you for this lesson! What a pity that you don’t teach English in my school!

mam your teching method is fantastic

hi ronnie how r u i dont speak very well english and can’t write aslo but you u r very good teacher never saw in life.yours teaching way i like very much if get a change i want to meet u one day i learn form u very well thanks

i’m learning a lot in this page…and i have to do all my homework tomorrow..

Hi my teacher Sorry for my weak language because I am new student, I admired you when I saw you the first time in our class “in school”, Please accept me as student at you. sorry again for errors in my language, thank you teacher I will wait your advice to improve my language

hi,ronni can i ask you a question do you know where the action is in this town? what does the expression means !

It means where is the party or good place in town!

thanks alot ronni

thanks alot for ur explanion i’d like to ask u a question my mananger speaks english fastly, and don’t repeat any word and that make a problem for me

Tell your manager to speak more slowly!

Hi I would like to tell you,I have problem with listen.When I listen a lesson as quick I forget.I need your advice to going be better.Many Thanks Heman

The best way to remember something is to see or listen to it many, many times!

Thanks alot for the piece of information you gave to us And also the way you presented it was great.

hi.plz slove my problum this word in garmmer.;bear; ;back; ;blow; ;beat; plz arranged the lesson

thanks very much

well, you are extraordinary! I love your style, your lessons are very enjoyable, don`t stop :)

thank you…you are a great teacher…I hope I can be a good teacheras you are 5 years later…

Thanks a lot Ronnie . i love your style of teaching and also lessons .

You scored 4 out of 5.

Thanks a lot Ronnie. You’re great. I really enjoy your lessons. Greetings from Brazil.

Thank you so much.

I love your teaching so much , many thanks Appreciated

My compliment!

Hi Ronnie. I have problem between idioms and phrasal verbs.So please tell me what do i??Because I’m really confused that where can we use the normal verbs and phrasal verbs and idioms.so please tell me i’m really confused.So please help me and give me your some advise. And one more question that where can we use the having word and hell.. Example is…. What the hell and you having us etc………… i hope you would understand what i want to say you…………….

Thank you. You’re really cute :D

Everything is very clear Ronnie, Thanks Jayathilake Sri Lanka

really it’s a very usful video for veiwers ….. really today i learn do & make … i understood thx a lot

Wow, i fell luck i found this website ! Thanks a lot to you all teachers ! I’m from Rio de Janeiro – Brazil and you can bet that i’ll come everyday !

My score was 4/5 !

Thanks you!! a lot

That’s it! I made five points. Teacher, i have some questions and i guess you’re the one to solve them. I always make mistakes with “IN”, “AT” and “ON”. Is there a way to know when we have to use each of them ?

Thanks a lot Ronnie!

hey Ronnie ! thanks for the lesson :) i like your way of teaching it’s so exinting !

Thank you Ronnie to your advice , I will try it in the future .

Thank you for providing the correct usage of do and make.I really appriciate your help.

Hi Ronnie… Thanks alot for your Lessons…..

Hi, Ronnie. Your lessons are really amazing. They are designed so fantastically that we can bring them into practical use soon after listening to them.

Hi Ronnie. I have problem between idioms and phrasal verbs.So please tell me what do i??Because I’m really confused that where can we use the normal verbs and phrasal verbs and idioms.so please tell me i’m really confused.So please help me and give me your some advise. And one more question that where can we use the having word and hell.. Example is…. What the hell and you having us etc………… i hope you would understand what i want to say you…………….

It’s a very useful lesson! And yes, They are kinda confusing.

thanks alot teacher

many many thanks Ronnei,

Mrs. Ronmie, thank you very much for your clear explanation, but I want to ask about something! when you were explaining, at once you said the word ( creating ), and you also said the same word but in a different order, which is ( creation ). I believe both of them were used as nouns, could you please tell us the difference between both. I have had this question for a long time, but I hope it’s going to be clear enough to me by your answer. The same thing with the word ( communicating ), and the word ( communication. I also know when we add the ING to a verb, it changes to a noun, so I have an idea about how the gerund goes, but knowing the differences between ( creating, and creation ) is not clear enough to me. Thank you.

Creating = present continuous. “I am creating a necklace.” Creation = noun. “My creation is a necklace.”

Thank you very much Mrs. Ronnie,,

thank you for the lessons teacher Ronnie :) 5 out 5 yes!

Ronnie, I desperately need help about pronunciation. Just tell me how am I supposed to pronounce endings of specific words such se PRONUNCIATION, CALCULATION, AVIATION? I used to pronounce it, for example /pr-nan-si-ei-sn/, but after I’ve watched your lesson where you said we should pronounce /pr-nan-si-ei-sin/. I mixed all those words in my head, and everything I used to know, now I don’t. Please tell me hoe to pronounce them :(

They all end in “shin”. Cal-ku-lay-shin. A-v-a-shin

Hi Ronnie, many confuses to pronoun vocabulary in English at first word: Ex: aviation from you A-v-a-shin but someone read ei-vi-ei-shion or idea read ai-dia but Indian not read ai…..ete. could you show me how to indicate reading the words. thanks

Hello Sir, i am very glade form youer teaching but i have a one quishion. can we use short form in english like u r (youer) and 2 buzy (to buzy )

nice job Ronnie, tell me is their difference in American English and Canadian and Australian

Awesome video’s… Thank you…..

Awesome video’s…:-) Thank you….

your great person and we never meet but i think your the best thanx

Thanks Madam Ronnie you are great that you are providing good communication skills .You delivered lecture DO ,Make . I want to ask you Is this correct use of DO, Make ?

Do the dishes . I am doing dishes . Did you not do dishes ?

Great work! But you need to say “the dishes” in all the sentences!

I made it.thanks Ronnie to give me full marks

Hi Ronnie.First of all you’re the great teacher.You’re my best teacher.But i have a problem.I’m facing IELTS exam end of this year please give me some advices for decrease my tension,I’m waiting for your advice……….

Don’t worry about it – just try your best and you will do well!

Hi Ronnie, you’re a great teacher.I realy like you lessons

hi ronnie, ur good at ur teaching can u make a video on if clause and unless I am bit confused with that…………….. waiting for ur replay……. Harin

OK I will try to make a video for you!

Thank you very much Ronnie

Hi, Ronnie! I hope you’re doing great. Sorry to bother you by my irrelevant questions but I really don’t know anyone who can help me more than you! I’ve 3 questions concerning syntax. 1) What is the present third-person singular (s 3d) of “have” and “be”? 2)If I asked you to fill out the noun paradigms of: fish, clothes, physics and measles, what would you write in the “-s plural” column for each one? 3) When filling out the comparable paradigms, I fail to know which adjectives take the -ER cp and -SP cp (like healthy, healthier, healthiest), and which adjectives don’t but rather be proceeded by more and most (like honest, more honest, most honest). Could you tell me a rule or a solution for this problem, please? Thanks in advance and I really hope that I don’t annoy you!

1) They 2) fish -fish (OR fishes if you are talking about different species of fish). clothes-clothes, measles-measles. 3) If the adjective has 1-2 syllables, you use – er -est. If the adjective has 2 or more syllables, add more/the most. The problem is that these rules overlap (2 syllables) Two-syllable adjectives ending in –er, -le, or –ow – ous -ed -est ……add –er and –est to form the comparative and superlative forms. Some 2-syllable adjectives can use BOTH !!!!!!!! clever gentle friendly quiet simple

Thanks, Ronnie, very useful lesson

Hi Ronnie, I watched your video on q&a in job interview. I went for a job interview last week, I didn’t get the job however that was the best interview I have had in a long time, many thanks! Alison

Hi! Miss Ronnie p;z solve my problem for the words glisten, glitter, shine, gleam, glow, sparkle, shimmer, bright plz make a lesson for these words Thank you

Ok I will try!

Hi Ronnie. Congratulations. You’re a great teacher. I liked your lesson so much. Watching you to teach, the English language seems very easy. Thank you for help me learn English.

Ronnie, really my back ground to be rural but really enjoyed and understood ur session…!if it possible can u send any English material to my mail Id.

great lesson,but my question is what is the difference between close and near?

They are the same. Except we have to say close + to and near we NEVER use a preposition!! I live near the river. I live close to the river!

Hellow There will iam junaid alam i have been following your lessons closely and i am of the view that you that are the best teacher believe me . Maam i am going to take toefl test this january and i am having difficulty dealing with expression like that is and oh yes and many others Can you help me out in this regard i will be really thank ful i really need your help.

Thanks ronnie for giving us good topics to learn. i really appreciate on how you deliver your teaching.

Hi teacher I Arabian, I would speak English can you my friend via messenger please ^_^

I am an Arab sorry ^_^

great Ronnie Gianfranco

I’ve done 5 of 5!!! Very useful lesson. Thank You!!!

Hello my dearest teacher Ronnie,your style of teaching is very well.I am from India and want to work in USA.So help me to improve my English.Thanks a lot.

thanks a lot. this’s realy great!

hello rannie I just wanted 2say THANK YOU ( you r the best )

Tks Ronnie. You’re so kind. Lily from Brazil

Hi Ronnie thank you thank you thank you :) You have a beutiful way to teach us and i love it I saw your leasons in youtybe then I enthusiastic to learn more , Then I SignUp in this site:) “sorry for spelling ;)”

I like the way you teach RRRonnie THANK YOU…….. I used to live in the USA but now I live in Mexico city and Im a teacher and I have alot of problems in teaching.I DONT wanna bother you, I JUST WANNA have a friend like you…right now were in vacatios 10 days..do you vave some tips to teach adjectives and adverbs.than you again talk to later

Search the site for adjective and adverb – there is a video for it! Good luck!

Do you do this about yourself. your a hart worker,you are a good person. I wish i can be like you.Merry Christmas and a happy new year

hi miss ronnie thank for all your lessons … i really like it .. but im new in thes web & i dont know from where to start on .so if you can help me and tell me from where to start

Ronnie, how i can play your lesson continue?

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooood

hi that,s great lesson

hi Ronnie I want to ask about If someone didn’t understand me I can say don’t get me wrong . Is that correct ? please correct me If I’m not mistaken thanks….

No – we use don;t get me wrong when we are justifying our opinion. Ex… I hate Christmas. Don’t get me wrong I like the food, just not the shopping.

Ronnie you are the best teacher. Thank you for this lesson!

Ronnie, you are just hilarious teacher! That vacuum looked like a armchair with a sucking dust bottom! that is an idea for a new generation vacuums! :)

thank you so much ronnie , you are great because your lessons are very clear and funny ,thank you and merry christmas

Hi Ronnie can you help me.(when Iam writing Ihave some mastek) Ex v-f-ph

Hi Ronie the lesson it’s very helpfull and very clearly thanks a lot happy new year.

Hi Ronnie i would like to say tanks-for helping me to improve English .and i always looked your videos keep it up . but one thing i want to ask you .there is a problem in me when every thing i understand but i can’t remember it so can you give me some ways to recognize my lesson ? OK I am waiting for you to answer my questons

THe only way to remember anything is to repeat and review it!

dear ronnine,you have an excellent teaching method. I love it.keep it up

hi Ronnie, you are nice teacher. thank you for this exercise.

Thank you But if it is possible to let the quota be a good interpreter Thanks once again (in other words what you are saying is written on screen)

HI Ronnie, You are a very nice person and a good teacher. I like you a lot. thanks for you

hi Ronnie, thanks for lesson

Hi Ronnie teacher. I want to speak in english plz help me.

Ronnie, thank U so much. I understood everything that you said, I hope with your lessons I will improve my English. Thank U.

Madam Ronnie You are a good tutor, and describing things very clearly thanks a lot

that a great lesson, thank you Ronnie

Good evening my teacher , realy you are very exclent teacher . Thank you

Madam Ronnie you are the best teacher . thank u so much .i understanding everything you said but i have writing and pronunciation problem so what you advise me to do madam

As far as pronunciation = listen and repeat English phrases! Writing = write a diary everyday.

hey! Ronnie its a great lesson love ya

thx very much,so interesting

awww i got 3 out 5…mam how i can improve my english…?? what shuld i do…? plz tel me…i luv to speak englsh bt i can’t…help me mam…:(

If you are having trouble in grammar, you just need to review and practice the rule you are learning. Make example sentences to help you! If you love to speak that you CAN do it!!! Just don’t worry about making a mistake!

Thanks for leassons. You are very good teacher. From Azerbaijan

thank u am proud 2b 1 of your students

Thanks Ronnie,The first time I heard that’s word (Chores).Now ,I know that mean is housework .God bless you,you’re the best.

hello ronnie.ı trouble with preposoitions in english.in addition being used at sentences as location,date,adress,we need methods which is used long sentences.could you help me.thanks

http://www.engvid.com/prepositions-how-to-use-in-at-and-on-in-english/ http://www.engvid.com/prepositions-of-place-at-on-in-grammar/ http://www.engvid.com/how-to-give-directions-in-english/ Check out these lessons!

Ronnie,Many thanks for lesson. Could you please explain me the correct option of this sentence which is ” his car is not so good because its break does’nt work properly Or his car is not so good beacuse its break not works properly Or his car is not so good because its break not working properly”?

hello ronnie, thank you so much for your lesson , you are the best =), but please help me, I have a big problem with vocabulary and ” writing” I don’t know how to express or how to write correctly my text, and I’am worried about that, because I have the final baccalauriat exam in english this year, and I don’t know what to do, What do you advice me ? Thank you so much!!!!

Write a diary in English about your life! Write a sentence everyday, the try 2 sentences, then 3!! Just write about what you did that day or how you feel or any exciting/bad news!

Ronnie, you are the best! Thanks a lot for your funny but important lessons.

Thank you, you are the best teacher, it is very accessibly and available

Thanks for your great job. :)

hii Ronni thanks a lot for this lession .Ronni really you are a good teacher .you teach english in a better way but iam so confused in writing an essay ,tell me how to write an essay in english.If you can provide an english video lecture then please…….. Thenkew very much

Google “how to write an essay” – then you can have written examples! Good luck!

Hi Ronnie, Thank you so much for the lesson. I really like the way you’re teaching…

i got 4 of 5 corretly…

i got 4 out of 5.. why “I make my homework every day after school” is wrong?

You don’t make/create the homework – the teacher does!

HI, thank you for the lesson… i have a question, what does mean “to make do”.. i read that in the list of verbs… thank you very much!

To make do = to use what little supplies you have!

I LOVE YOUR EXPLANATION, THANK YOU

Ronnie,thank you! You are a very talented teacher. I love all your lessons.I have a question. You wrote “You don’t make/create the homework – the teacher does!”, but do=wash

hi first of all thank you so much for this lesson really it’s good lesson. i would like to speak with teacher Ronnie in Skype if possible please because reality she’s best teacher for me. so i can’t know how i thank you hope to see you soon

s0 interesting….

you are a good teacher tnx a lot i learn something in this lessen

Hi Ronnie!! This is an interesting video!!! Thank you!!!

Ronnie,Many thanks for lesson. Could you please explain me the differences among the verbs “take place, occur n happen?

They are all the same! However, in Canada/US we say happen more than occur/take place!

salam thnks ronnie ma’am u teach vry well.will u help us about all use of tenses.thnks

Hi Ronnie, once again a wonderful lesson! i just wanna know how do we pronounce ‘Chores’ in American English?? as i have been pronouncing it ‘kores’ n i heard it as ‘Chores’ from ur mouth…plz guide on the correct pronunciation of this word. Apart i have been taught british english since childhood so often there is little confusion in the pronunciation of words correctly and now i m keen on learning american english n wanna get fluency in the same as now i am staying in the US from past 6months,,, so plz suggest me ways to enhance my american ascent n fluency…(like sounds of R & T) Thanks in advance

It is not “k” it is CH like choo choo!

Thanks Ronnie. I’d like to see some examples with the phrase “to make do”. Thank you in advanced.

thanks alot teacher Ronnie.I wanna to ask you how to learn english fast what is the method Iam awaiting for reply.thenks second you are deadly

Thanks….They you are teaching is just amaizing…

Mam i would like to thank 4r a best teaching u know we Asian are so weak in english .

What can I say you’re terrific. Loves from Izmir,TURKEY

Hi Ronnie,could you please send me 02 examples for ‘mess’.

5 out of 5…yey!!! thanks ronnie Mam..

thx u r the best one i love u sooooo much thx thx

Hi! Excellent substitution do-wash Great lesson, thanks a lot

hi ronnie thanks for lesson

I’m Iraqi English teacher, but I’m interested in your lessons. You are mild and likeable, every one like to watch your Video lessons. Please can I get your new lessons on my email? your prompt action will be highly appreciated. profound regards

Sorry, I don’t know how to do that!

Hi there!!! Thanks a lot for your lessons. When you have enough time, I would you like to see a class concerning an unique word: “to figure out”. I hear it millions of times everyday, but sometimes I don´t know what it is meaning exactly. Ta-ta for now.

To figure out means to understand/comprehend something that may have taken a long time. Ex. I finally figured out what the problem was with my computer!

Ronnie I m a student in a high school and I love you a lot and I really wish u were my aunt.(I would spend all my time with u):) I watch your videos every week. u are really funny.If u come to Turkey I really wanna meet u.

i would like to say you are excellent teacher really i learn alot from you and your childhood trick awesome … tell me how can i over come my spelling mistakes and how can i improve writing like office emails and proposals ect..

As far as spelling mistakes, you should install spell check so that the computer corrects the spelling mistakes for you!

Ronnie thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

hello >>> ronnie i really thanks you so i have questions?

1_ what is the difference between this two sentences :

who did eat the chicken ?

who ate the chicken?

and when we use each one please explain

2_ i heard a singer said :

she dont sleep

but why he used dont i should be doesnt

and i also heard one said:

she lookin at me

why he did not put” is ” please explain >>>>>>>>>>>finally thanks

who ate the chicken? = correct. who did eat the chicken? = wrong = you can only have 1 verb in this sentence. Singers NEVER use correct grammar!

thank you Ronnie your way is very fantastic

thanks for this explanation. I’ve learned by heart DO and MAKE before I visit this www. but made a mistake sometimes. You did a great job for me: Do = wash, make = creation. Bravo

Hello, would you like to lern English together protanya?

Thanks a lot teacher Ronnie i love the way you’re teaching. well, i got some difficulties with ” active voice/passive voice” and ” direct speech/indirect speech in english i don’t know if you’re already made some videos lessons on them, if yes i’d like to have the link. Thank you so much. Jude from Haiti.

The direct/indirect speech video will be up soon! Go to the site search for “passive”, there is a lesson for you!

hello madame, i faced problem of different between Do and MAKE , know i am very clear about it. i am confused about ON and IN (on leave , in leave) please help me on this chores

Search for “prepositions” on the site – there are many lessons to help you! Leave on = keep on top of something. Leave in = keep inside of something!

Thanks a lot Ronnie. I dont understand “I have to vacuum” it means “I do the vacuuming” or “I need to vacuum”? pls help

“I need to vacuum”

Hello Ronnie again i wanna dustareb you that several i tolled you a bout tag question but didn’t answer me why if you thought a bout that plz sand me the link to find it out okay wish you don;t mind that love you all by

http://www.engvid.com/english-grammar-tag-questions/

thanks ronnie i learnt a lot from tag question what ever you thought us again thanks from the core of may heart love you all

Hai Ronnie ! Could you answer me these questions:

1. The phrases ‘ me too’ or ‘ mine too’. Which is the correct? Why?

2. Which the sentences is correct? ‘ Do you done your homework’ or ‘ Do you finished your homework?

3. If we are in university, the lecturer give me some exercise. Can we say that exercises is treated as ‘ homework’ or ‘ assessment’ or ‘ exercise’ other? Why?

I hope to hear back from you soon. Thank you kindly!

With regards, Fong

thnks for the lesson .

thanks good lesson

i love your teaching way…:)

Hi Ronnie, you have a funny way to teach, I love it! I want to ask you, when should I to use the progressive form?, for example: “I like working”, “what do you like doing?” (I have seen these sentences in a handbook) sincerely I would write them: “I like to work”, “what do you like to do?” Thanks for your help, Ronnie. Best wishes.

Check out this lesson to help you! http://www.engvid.com/gerund-or-infinitive/

i am dalmar i want to learn engilsh how can i learn in english plz

my name is nuune i want to learn enlish plz help me from nuune cadde

Hi Ronnie i love your lessons you too much good. After i learn your teaching now i am able to write you some thing. thank you so much and God give you a better life. bye take care your self.

Hi Ronnie, very good lessons could you recommend me a good and easy book for speaking, grammar and with a lot of exercises. Thanks

Sorry, I do not know any good textbooks to help you!

The way you deliver your lessons is quite interesting and amusing. Thanks.

hello ronnie,

you’re a good english teacher and all of your lesson’s are very excellent!.but i suggest one thing,could you add “subtitles” in your video so we can understand you well,

I don’t know how to do that…sorry!

Thanks for answering my comment, I want you recommend me an good english workbooks for grammar and for speaking

Sorry, I really don’t know any good workbooks…I think they are all pretty much the same. If you want to learn slang….you can get a series of books called “Slangman”. http://www.slangmanpub.com/

hey ronnie! correct me… i’m busy in house chores. i’m busy with house chores.

I’m busy with house chores.

I have so many chores .soI dnt get more time to watch engvid lessons.but I make my bed anddo the launtry.Im fromKERALAinINDIA..I want to get a penfriend to improve my english.KERALA is aGODs on country.Ialso invite all of you kerala.

Ronnie this video is very useful, thanks a lot

I’m back…Thank you Ronnie.

hi guys! im doing private lessons to a girl about thirty years old and we ware friends and its the first time i do this job. what are the very first lessons to do for the level of beginner?

Teacher, making a mess means we tidy something, isn’t it?

No! Making a mess is the opposite of tidy. Make a mess = dirty!

I was born in C anada too!

Many thanks Ronnie

Ronnie I’m very confused among thse words : washroom ,bathroom toilet,lavatory ,prissy ,Latrine. can you explain them to me please and may allah reward you highest paradise

Thank very much Ronnie it has been so good!

Thank you so much Madam, you’re the best.

thanks alot

Thanks a lot ,,,,

I love this website!

hello dear Ronnel i am sayed naqib sahar i one request u that when u make u r new video plz sand it to may Emil address okay love u all

Sorry, I cannot send videos to your email!

Excellent lesson Ronnie!!!

Hi, can i say: i´ll make the dishes, or i´ll make laundry, or i´ll do the bed, or i´ll do my lunch. is taht correct?.

NO. Watch the lesson again.

Hi Ronnie! Thanks for God we have teacher like you. You are great!! I´ve been watching you classes few days ago and I really appreciated them. You are a very special teacher. Bye!

Ronnie, You are a very nice person and a excellent teacher.

thanks ronnie. i got 5 out of 5 ,

thanks i benefit your lesson

i got 5 out of 5 thank u for teaching us.

hi ronnie thank u from morocco nice teacher love u we invite u to morocco

Teacher You’re a so great, You got a felling, thanks for the way You teach

Thank you very much ronnie, you are nice teacher as always

Ronnie I don’t understood you said that “do”is when been wash like the floor and etc… but “Do the homework” was strange because you don’t wash the homework (kkk)For me understand better can you explain for me ? THANKS SO MUCH YOU’RE THE BEST !!

I’m waiting for answers!! kisses

Thank you very much!! I’m Mongolian.. And do you know Mongolia?

Thanks a bundle.

thankz a lot. you are a good teacher.

Let me tell you, you’re the best teacher. I love the way you teach people.

Vacume or Vacuume ?

i now notice that – vacuum not vacuume :)

Many thanks i really leaned.and wish you all the best

hi can i participate in your chat?i want to improve my English language

Dearest Ronnie, I would like to say that your lessons are fantastic! Every night i access the Internet to watch your videos. Thanks for all!

hi Ronnie, do you have any video such as (any,some,much)

Thank you teacher.

Ronnie your each and every lecture is extremely useful for me.

Teacher Ronnie thank you so much, this lesson reminds me of my childhood friend that normally visits me. he was a good boy that does his housework before going out to play, we used to play together before heading either his house or mine to have a lunch. Thank you Ronnie and all the entire staffs of envid , you people are wonderful. kudos

Thank you so much for your lessons its so useful for us.

thank you Ronni. It is so useful for me.

u r awesome dear but onething u mentioned here about some interview questions and answers about that plzzzzzzzzz its a kind request thank u…bye

5/5 Thanks a looooot Ronni ^^

how can i use if ,were,would,and will the proper way tell me about all way

your lesson as sweet as you are ^^

Thank you very much for all the efforts .. Grateful to you ……

Hello Ronnie, I would like to say that your lessons are fantastic! Thank you so much…

you are awsomen! you make english so funny…thanks

thank you so much Ronnie. its the best lesson i found it in internet and you are the best Teacher. i liked your lesson so much Jamal. from. Libya

I LOVE this lesson! It’s so good! It helped me a lot in my grammar! Waiting for more lessons!

I REALLY like this lesson!!

Hi my best teacher just i want say thank youuuuuu……….

dear ronnie : good afternoon you great teacher and good style lesson thanks

Thank you very much teacher Teacher can you help me ? Can you explane the phreasl verb do & make

Thanks Ms Ronnie. I loved your tips. Could you explain me about some slangs?. when you can speak or not. Thanks

Thanks I got 8

OK I got 10 Thanks dear Ronnie

yap i will got 5 out of 5 continue 4 times….

thanks for u r great job. i like u r site. i will improve my english help of u r site…. really thanks a lot..

Hi, Ronnie, I hope you are doing great. I do like your way when you are teaching. Thank you and of all of you

Ronnie, hi! Could you please clear this up for me? Is it correct that making the bed means both making in look nice and tidy in the morning and prepare it before sleeping in the night? Thank you very much!

Thanks teacher Ronnie you are unique person I know

Excuse me teacher Ronnie can you help me I want to learn English quickly what way I have to do I hope you help me

I’ve been watching some video of yours. You have a very good sense of humour I think. I like the way you talk and your facial expression. Everytime I watch your video, it makes smile. And thnks for your lesson.

Tanks for the lesson Ronnie. I´m improving day after day.

Hey Ronnie, what are you up to? I really like your classes and I was wondering if you could teach us the most common phrasal verbs and idioms used in everyday conversation. Congrats, you’re an amazing teacher

Dear Ronnie!thank you very much for ur english, ur explanations. U are a great specialist!

Expand your vocabulary, improve your grammar skills, and develop your own unique writing style.

'Do Your Homework' or 'Do The Homework'. Which Is Correct?

The expression “do homework” refers to the work that a teacher gives a student to do at home.

The expression “ do homework ” refers to the work that a teacher gives a student to do at home.

Doing homework is a boring activity for some students.

Use the article “the” or a possessive pronoun (my, your, his, etc.) to be more specific.

Have you done your math homework ?

Since homework is an uncountable noun, it is not possible to use the indefinite article a/an.

The history teacher gave us some homework to do by Monday.

The history teacher gave us a homework to do by Monday.

1. Homework Is Uncountable

2. using other determiners with ‘homework’.

“ Homework ” is an uncountable noun; therefore, it does not have a plural form.

I have some homework to do.

I have three homeworks to do.

Being uncountable, " homework " is always followed by a singular verb.

The science homework was extremely difficult.

And you cannot put the article a/an in front of it.

You should do some homework today.

You should do a homework today.

But you can use the word “ assignment ” to mention separate pieces of homework.

Complete the three homework assignments .

Rebecca, you did an impressive job on the homework assignments .

Or just say “ a/one piece of homework ” or " a bit of homework ".

You still have one piece of homework left to do.

Note that we always say “ do homework ”. Avoid the verbs make or write with this word.

It’s worth doing a bit of homework before playing video games.

It’s worth making/writing a bit of homework before playing video games.

But you can use the verbs give or help (somebody).

The teacher gave us some homework to do by Friday.

My mother used to help me with my homework .

Instead of referring to the work that a student is asked to do at home, you can use “ homework ” as a synonym of preparation.

Since we have done our homework , we are well prepared for the meeting with the investor.

Using "a" or "the" with common activities

We commonly add a possessive pronoun (my, your, his, her, our, their) before “ homework ”.

Do your homework before dinner.

Have the kids done their homework ?

Jennifer is very good at doing her homework .

But you can also use other determiners, such as:

• some (affirmative sentences)
• any (interrogative and negative sentences)

The teacher gives too much homework .

I don’t have any homework .

We can also omit the determiner to speak about homework in a general way.

Homework is boring.

Is it bad to do homework in bed?

For homework , finish the exercise on page 8.

PristineWord

Read more posts by this author

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Do or make homework

The correct way is: do homework .

You use "Do" to express daily activities, jobs or other common activities. They usually do not produce any physical objects, in contradiction to "Make", which you use when you are physically creating something.

You make a cup of coffee or you make a mess out of your room. But you do the dishes, and you do your homework.

It's: homework

Add your answer:

What is the plural form of the word homework?

The collective noun for the noun 'homework' is a slew of homework.

What does pro homework mean?

It means the person is for homework and definitely believes in it (i.e. they probably like homework or give out homework often).

Can you say you have many homework?

No, you can say "I have a lot of homework." Or "I have to much homework"

What is the root word in homework?

What type of speech is homework.

Homework is a noun.

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• English Only

Make or Do my Homework?

• Thread starter Luixmy
• Start date Nov 2, 2008
• Nov 2, 2008

They also asked me something like this: I can´t go with you because i have to ------- my homework A)MAKE B)DO C)HAVE D)MADE With this kind of questions they make me feel saaaaaadddd Thanksss!!!!!!!  

Broccolicious

Senior member.

Hi there Don't feel sad! But I'm afraid you have to attempt an answer first, before we can help you. (And don't forget the capital 'I'!) Broc  

Oh! Of course! I forgot to put the answer I wrote! It was letter B, Do my homework. Thankss a lot!  

yourfairlady05

That's correct. You do homework. There are certain types of homework you can make, for example you can make a model for your homework, but the correct phrase is " do your homework"  

But why A) is incorrect?  

We don't use "make" in this way in English, although many languages do. English often uses "do" where other languages use "make."  

Luixmy said: But why A) is incorrect? Click to expand...

JamesM said: We don't use "make" in this way in English, although many languages do. English often uses "do" where other languages use "make." Click to expand...

The point I was trying to make, while still avoiding the use of other languages (this being English Only), is that this is an understandable confusion. Many languages would use words that would literally translate to "I make my homework" where we say "I do my homework." As tomy8s and Dimcl have said, "make" implies creation of something in this context. The teacher makes an exercise paper for the students by creating the exercises. The students do the exercises.  

GreenWhiteBlue

In English, work of all kind is done , and not made . This includes the simple form "work", and any combined form built on it: The carpenters did their work skillfully. Students should do their schoolwork carefully. As Jane does her housework , she always listens to music on the radio. You must do your homework before you can go play.  

• Sep 17, 2012

Hello, this might be quite an old thread but my question deals with this. Is it right if you say: I m ade all those difficult grammar exercises in ten minutes. It was amazing! Thanks a lot  

Allegra Moderata (Sp/Eng, Cat)

No, you don't make exercises, in the same way that you don't make homework. I did the exercises... I finished/completed/solved the exercises.... but not 'made'.  

ok thanks a lot  

• Apr 5, 2013

Then if I'm a professional who create exercises to examinations, I might say for example 'I made some exercises for the English examination'.  

No, still not 'made'. The exam compiler might say, speaking to another examiner, 'I did these exercises'. A better choice is 'composed' or 'compiled'.  

Keith Bradford

I think that Daffyduck has the right idea: the only person who makes the exercises is their creator (a teacher or an examiner). The really strange thing is not the distinction between make and do , which other languages than English seem to lack. It's the fact that we make physical objects, but not (usually) intellectual ones. Poets and dramatists don't usually talk about making a poem or a play, like they did in the 16th century. So we have three words: You create or compose an intellectual work (exercises for the English examination, novel, symphony, computer program...). You make a physical object (bookcase, garden, knitted pullover...). You make abstractions (love, noise, trouble, work for other people to do...). You do things created by others (work, crossword puzzles, tasks, translations...).  

• Apr 6, 2013

Thank you for the replies. I guess this is very commom doubt because in many languages there's only one verb usually used for all these situations. << deleted - this is English only >>  

Keith Bradford said: the only person who makes the exercises is their creator (a teacher or an examiner). Click to expand...

You create or compose an intellectual work (exercises for the English examination, novel, symphony, computer program...). You make a physical object (bookcase, garden, knitted pullover...). You make abstractions (love, noise, trouble, work for other people to do...). You do things created by others (work, crossword puzzles, tasks, translations...). Click to expand...

• Apr 7, 2013

wandle said: That is true (as a question of fact); but it is also true that the creator of the exercise would not usually describe that in the words 'I made that exercise'. He or she would say 'I composed it' (speaking precisely) or 'I did it' (speaking more generally). Those are good, typical examples of how those verbs are used. Nevertheless, it remains true that the verb 'to do' can be correctly used instead in all these cases by someone who is not concerned at the time to be precise in choice of terms. Click to expand...

JamesM said: I disagree. I don't think you can say "Don't do trouble" instead of "Don't make trouble", for example. I certainly wouldn't. "I made love" doesn't work well as "I did love". Click to expand...

• Apr 8, 2013

Daffyduck said: Thank you for the replies. I guess this is very commom doubt because in many languages there's only one verb usually used for all these situations. << deleted - this is English only >> Click to expand...

• Nov 1, 2014

Hey guys, I am new here. I know this thread is old, but do people actually understand if I say I make the homework? I know its wrong but can i compare it to saying "I am creating my homework."? So it sounds wrong but everybody does know I do my homework, thats what I mean? Or wouldnt people understandit in any way? So its a bad bad mistake nobody gets or a minor mistake which can be understood?  

• Nov 2, 2014

Bhausen said: Hey guys, I am new here. I know this thread is old, but do people actually understand if I say I make the homework? ... Click to expand...

• Nov 3, 2014

So it is understandable? I mean yes it is a mistake but often mistakes will be understood? so there woudlnt be a problem in terms of sense, or at least not that much to not understand it? ANd do you actually replace verbs with make? In germany we often do this, how is it in english. Can you say I make a cake, instead of bake, I make dinner, instead of cook, etc.? And if it is wrong, is it again understandable even though people recognize the msitake?  

Bhausen said: So it is understandable? I mean yes it is a mistake but often mistakes will be understood? so there woudlnt be a problem in terms of sense, or at least not that much to not understand it? ANd do you actually replace verbs with make? In germany we often do this, how is it in english. Can you say I make a cake, instead of bake, I make dinner, instead of cook, etc.? And if it is wrong, is it again understandable even though people recognize the msitake? Click to expand...

Dimcl said: "Make" means to create something. You are not "creating" your homework. "Do" means to accomplish something ie: "Our guests are arriving shortly. I must do the housework!" "It's almost time for bed and you still haven't done your homework?" Click to expand...

Bhausen said: So it is understandable? ... Click to expand...

Many teachers would use "prepare" in this context to mean create, or compile, or compose. "I've prepared an exercise on ..."  

• Our Mission

5 Ways to Make Homework More Meaningful

Use these insights from educators—and research—to create homework practices that work for everyone.

Homework tends to be a polarizing topic. While many teachers advocate for its complete elimination, others argue that it provides students with the extra practice they need to solidify their learning and teach them work habits—like managing time and meeting deadlines—that have lifelong benefits. 

We recently reached out to teachers in our audience to identify practices that can help educators plot a middle path. 

On Facebook , elementary school teacher John Thomas responded that the best homework is often no-strings-attached encouragement to read or play academically adjacent games with family members. “I encourage reading every night,” Thomas said, but he doesn’t use logs or other means of getting students to track their completion. “Just encouragement and book bags with self selected books students take home for enjoyment.” 

Thomas said he also suggests to parents and students that they can play around with “math and science tools” such as “calculators, tape measures, protractors, rulers, money, tangrams, and building blocks.” Math-based games like Yahtzee or dominoes can also serve as enriching—and fun—practice of skills they’re learning.

At the middle and high school level, homework generally increases, and that can be demotivating for teachers, who feel obliged to review or even grade halfhearted submissions. Student morale is at stake, too: “Most [students] don’t complete it anyway,” said high school teacher Krystn Stretzinger Charlie on Facebook . “It ends up hurting them more than it helps.”    

So how do teachers decide when to—and when not to—assign homework, and how do they ensure that the homework they assign feels meaningful, productive, and even motivating to students? 

1. Less is More

A 2017 study analyzed the homework assignments of more than 20,000 middle and high school students and found that teachers are often a bad judge of how long homework will take. 

According to researchers, students spend as much as 85 minutes or as little as 30 minutes on homework that teachers imagined would take students one hour to complete. The researchers concluded that by assigning too much homework , teachers actually increased inequalities between students in exchange for “minimal gains in achievement.” Too much homework can overwhelm students who “have more gaps in their knowledge,” the researchers said, and creates situations where homework becomes so time-consuming and frustrating that it turns students off to classwork more broadly.

To counteract this, middle school math teacher Crystal Frommert said she focuses on quality over quantity. Frommert cited the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics , which recommends only assigning “what’s necessary to augment instruction” and adds that if teachers can “get sufficient information by assigning only five problems, then don’t assign fifty.” 

Instead of sending students home with worksheets and long problem sets from textbooks that often repeat the same concepts, Frommert recommended assigning part of a page, or even a few specific problems—and explaining to students why these handpicked problems will be helpful practice. When students know there’s thought behind the problems they’re asked to solve at home, “they pay more attention to the condensed assignment because it was tailored for them,” Frommert said. 

On Instagram , high school teacher Jacob Palmer said that every now and then he condenses homework down to just one problem that is particularly engaging and challenging: “The depth and exploration that can come from one single problem can be richer than 20 routine problems.” 

2. Add Choice to the Equation 

Former educator and coach Mike Anderson said teachers can differentiate homework assignments without placing unrealistic demands on their workload by offering students some discretion in the work they complete and explicitly teaching them “how to choose appropriately challenging work for themselves.” 

Instead of assigning the same 20 problems or response questions on a given textbook page to all students, for example, Anderson suggested asking students to refer to the list of questions and choose and complete a designated number of them (three to five, for example) that give students “a little bit of a challenge but that [they] can still solve independently.” 

To teach students how to choose well, Anderson has students practice choosing homework questions in class before the end of the day, brainstorming in groups and sharing their thoughts about what a good homework question should accomplish. The other part, of course, involves offering students good choices: “Make sure that options for homework focus on the skills being practiced and are open-ended enough for all students to be successful,” he said. 

Once students have developed a better understanding of the purpose of challenging themselves to practice and grow as learners, Anderson also periodically asks them to come up with their own ideas for problems or other activities they can use to reinforce learning at home. A simple question, such as “What are some ideas for how you might practice this skill at home?” can be enough to get students sharing ideas, he said. 

Jill Kibler, a former high school science teacher, told Edutopia on Facebook that she implemented homework choice in her classroom by allowing students to decide how much of the work they’ve recently turned in that they’d like to redo as homework: “Students had one grading cycle (about seven school days) to redo the work they wanted to improve,” she said. 

3. Break the Mold 

According to high school English teacher Kate Dusto, the work that students produce at home doesn’t have to come in the traditional formats of written responses to a problem. On Instagram , Dusto told Edutopia that homework can often be made more interesting—and engaging—by allowing students to show evidence of their learning in creative ways. 

“Offer choices for how they show their learning,” Dusto said. “Record audio or video? Type or use speech to text? Draw or handwrite and then upload a picture?” The possibilities are endless. 

Former educator and author Jay McTighe noted that visual representations such as graphic organizers and concept maps are particularly useful for students attempting to organize new information and solidify their understanding of abstract concepts. For example, students might be asked to “draw a visual web of factors affecting plant growth” in biology class or map out the plot, characters, themes, and settings of a novel or play they’re reading to visualize relationships between different elements of the story and deepen their comprehension of it. 

Simple written responses to summarize new learning can also be made more interesting by varying the format, McTighe said. For example, ask students to compose a tweet in 280 characters or less to answer a question like “What is the big idea that you have learned about _____?” or even record a short audio podcast or video podcast explaining “key concepts from one or more lessons.”

4. Make Homework Voluntary 

When elementary school teacher Jacqueline Worthley Fiorentino stopped assigning mandatory homework to her second-grade students and suggested voluntary activities instead, she found that something surprising happened: “They started doing more work at home.” 

Some of the simple, voluntary activities she presented students with included encouraging at-home reading (without mandating how much time they should spend reading); sending home weekly spelling words and math facts that will be covered in class but that should also be mastered by the end of the week: “It will be up to each child to figure out the best way to learn to spell the words correctly or to master the math facts,” she said; and creating voluntary lesson extensions such as pointing students to outside resources—texts, videos or films, webpages, or even online or in-person exhibits—to “expand their knowledge on a topic covered in class.”

Anderson said that for older students, teachers can sometimes make whatever homework they assign a voluntary choice. “Do all students need to practice a skill? If not, you might keep homework invitational,” he said, adding that teachers can tell students, “If you think a little more practice tonight would help you solidify your learning, here are some examples you might try.”

On Facebook , Natisha Wilson, a K–12 gifted students coordinator for an Ohio school district, said that when students are working on a challenging question in class, she’ll give them the option to “take it home and figure it out” if they’re unable to complete it before the end of the period. Often students take her up on this, she said, because many of them “can’t stand not knowing the answer.” 

5. Grade for Completion—or Don’t Grade at All  

Former teacher Rick Wormeli argued that work on homework assignments isn’t “evidence of final level of proficiency”; rather, it’s practice that provides teachers with “feedback and informs where we go next in instruction.” 

Grading homework for completion—or not grading at all, Wormeli said—can help students focus on the real task at hand of consolidating understanding and self-monitoring their learning. “When early attempts at mastery are not used against them, and accountability comes in the form of actually learning content, adolescents flourish.” 

High school science teacher John Scali agreed , confirming that grading for “completion and timeliness” rather than for “correctness” makes students “more likely to do the work, especially if it ties directly into what we are doing in class the next day” without worrying about being “100% correct.” On Instagram , middle school math teacher Traci Hawks noted that any assignments that are completed and show work—even if the answer is wrong—gets a 100 from her.

But Frommert said that even grading for completion can be time-consuming for teachers and fraught for students if they don’t have home environments that are supportive of homework or if they have jobs or other after-school activities. 

Instead of traditional grading, she suggested alternatives to holding students accountable for homework, such as student presentations or even group discussions and debates as a way to check for understanding. For example, students can debate which method is best to solve a problem or discuss their prospective solutions in small groups. “Communicating their mathematical thinking deepens their understanding,” Frommert said. 

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Khan Academy Blog

Making Homework Easier: Tips and Tools for Parents 

posted on September 20, 2023

By Stephanie Yamkovenko , group manager of Khan Academy’s Digital Marketing Team.

Homework can present challenges for parents and children alike. You naturally want to provide support for your child’s learning journey and ensure they are reaching their full potential. In this blog post, we will delve into practical strategies to assist your child with their homework. From fostering understanding and offering encouragement to breaking down tasks and implementing rewards, we will explore a variety of effective approaches to help your child achieve academic success.

Step 1: Set Up Your Child for Success

Your child’s study environment can have a significant impact on their homework performance. Create a space that is free from distractions like the television, smartphones, or noisy siblings. The study space should be comfortable, well lit, and have all the necessary materials your child might need, such as pens, papers, and textbooks. If your child’s workspace is noisy or uncomfortable, they may have difficulty focusing on their homework, resulting in lower productivity. 

For example, if you live in a small apartment, consider setting up a designated corner with a small desk or table where your child can focus on their work. You can use dividers or screens to create a sense of privacy and minimize distractions.

If the only place to do homework is in the dining room or kitchen, try to establish a routine where the area is cleared and organized before study time. This can help signal to your child that it’s time to concentrate and be productive.

Remember, it’s important to adapt to your specific circumstances and make the best of the available space. The key is to create a dedicated study area that promotes focus and minimizes interruptions regardless of the size or location of your home.

Try Confidence Boosters for Your Child Here!

Step 2: make it fun.

It’s important to make homework fun and engaging for your child. Here are some examples of how you can do it:

• Use games : Incorporate educational games like card games, board games, or puzzles that align with the subject your child is learning. For instance, use Scrabble to practice spelling or Sudoku to enhance problem-solving skills.
• Turn it into a challenge : Create a friendly competition between siblings or friends by setting goals or time limits for completing assignments. Offer small rewards or incentives for accomplishing tasks.
• Make it interactive : Use hands-on activities or experiments to reinforce concepts learned in class. For science or math, conduct simple experiments at home or use manipulatives like blocks or counters to visualize abstract concepts.
• Use technology : Explore online educational platforms or apps that offer interactive learning experiences. There are various educational games, virtual simulations, and videos available that can make homework more enjoyable.
• Incorporate creativity : Encourage your child to express their understanding through art, storytelling, or multimedia presentations. For example, they can create a comic strip to summarize a story or make a short video to explain a concept.

Remember, by making homework enjoyable, you can help your child develop a positive attitude towards learning.

Step 3: Use Rewards

Rewards can be a powerful motivational tool for children. Offering positive reinforcement can encourage them to complete their homework on time and to the best of their ability. 

Here are some examples of rewards our team has used with their children:

• Extra screen time: “I use Apple parental controls to add screen time on their iPad.”
• Access to a favorite toy: “My eight year old has a drum kit, which drives us all up the wall. (Thanks, Grandma!) But when they’ve been doing a lot of school work, we put on headphones and let him go nuts.”
• Praise for a job well done: “Specific, measurable praise is what works best.” 
• Trip to the park: “A trip to the park is good for everyone, especially for the kids to run around with the doggos.”
• Movie night: “I know every word and song lyric in Moana ; we now reserve showings for good behavior.” 
• Stickers or stamps: “Gold stars were such a thing growing up in the 80s; turns out they still work.”
• Stay up a little later: “An extra 30 minutes feels like a whole day for my young ones; use this reward with caution as it can become the expectation!”

So, celebrate your child’s efforts and encourage them to continue doing their best.

Step 4: Break Down Difficult Tasks

When facing daunting homework assignments, follow these step-by-step instructions to break down the tasks into smaller, manageable chunks:

• Understand the requirements and scope of the task.
• Break down the assignment into individual tasks or sub-tasks.  
• Splitting the middle term
• Using formula
• Using Quadratic formula
• Using algebraic identities
• Determine the order in which tasks should be completed based on importance or difficulty. 
• Start with the easiest task. Begin with the task that seems the least challenging or time-consuming.
• Progress to more challenging tasks: Once the easier tasks are completed, move on to more difficult ones.
• Take breaks: Schedule short breaks between tasks to avoid burnout and maintain focus.
• Check completed tasks for accuracy and make any necessary revisions.
• Finish the remaining task(s) with the same approach.
• Celebrate small achievements to boost confidence and keep motivation high.

By following these steps, you can make daunting homework assignments more manageable and less overwhelming for your child.

Step 5: Get Targeted Help

If your child is struggling with homework, it might be worth considering seeking personalized assistance. You have the option to search for professional tutors or explore online tutoring platforms, such as Khan Academy’s AI tutor, Khanmigo .

This AI tutor can offer personalized guidance and support tailored to your child’s specific needs, helping them grasp complex concepts and practice essential skills. Incorporating this approach can effectively complement your child’s learning and enhance their homework performance.

Enhance your child’s learning and boost homework performance!

Homework can be a challenge for both parents and children. But with the right approach, you can help your child overcome difficulties and support their learning. Encourage and understand your child, create a comfortable environment, break down difficult tasks, use rewards, get professional help when needed, and make it fun. With these tips and techniques, you can help your child achieve success, develop a love for learning, and achieve academic excellence. Remember that each child learns differently, so it’s essential to adjust your approach to meet their unique needs.

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How to Enjoy Homework

Last Updated: April 19, 2023

This article was co-authored by Emily Listmann, MA . Emily Listmann is a Private Tutor and Life Coach in Santa Cruz, California. In 2018, she founded Mindful & Well, a natural healing and wellness coaching service. She has worked as a Social Studies Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and an SAT Prep Teacher. She received her MA in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 2014. Emily also received her Wellness Coach Certificate from Cornell University and completed the Mindfulness Training by Mindful Schools. This article has been viewed 52,715 times.

Homework can often feel stressful and boring. Unfortunately, if you're in school it's a part of life. If you consistently dread doing homework, you should look into ways you can enjoy the task. This way, school will be more pleasant for you overall. You can start with subjects that interest you, give yourself breaks and rewards, and work on changing your mentality regarding homework in general.

Planning Homework Time

• It may help to take a few days to measure your natural ebb and flow of energy. You may find that, during late afternoon, you feel a sudden slump in energy. However, as it gets closer to the evening hours, you may suddenly have a boost in energy. Therefore, instead of doing homework after school, try to do your homework after dinner each night.
• You'll feel happier and more productive if you're studying during a time when you're experiencing a peak in energy. Homework will seem to go by faster, and you will not struggle as much to concentrate.

• You can alternate between subjects you like and dislike. This can help give you motivation while moving through subjects that bore you. For example, if you love science but hate history, do half of your science assignment, then half of your history one, and then return to science.

• Even small changes can make homework time more enjoyable. You could, for example, move your desk near the window. Natural light may lead to a more calming environment, and you can occasionally look up and enjoy the view.
• You can also think about studying outside the house. If you love hanging out at a local coffee shop, try doing your homework there. You can get a latte or a coffee as a treat as you move through your homework.

• You may have to experiment with different songs. Some songs may be distracting. If a song makes you want to get up and dance, for example, it may not the best to include on a homework playlist, as you will lose focus in your homework. Some people find that classical music is very helpful when studying.
• Not everyone can concentrate with music in the background. If you find music is making it harder for you to study, you may want to nix the playlists and focus on other means to enjoy your homework.

Giving Yourself Motivation

• Good examples of what to do during your breaks are taking walks, meditating, stretching, or getting yourself a snack.
• Many people find it's most effective to work in short spurts. You may want to plan to work in half hour to 45-minute intervals, for example, and then take a 5 to 10-minute break.
• Be careful with breaks, however. Make sure you time your breaks wisely so they don't end up running over. If you allow yourself a 10 minute Facebook break every 40 minutes, set a timer on your phone to make sure you do not end up procrastinating on social media for hours.

• Be careful who you include in a study group. While you want to be able to enjoy yourself, you also want to get work done. Choose people who are serious enough students that you won't end up distracted all night.
• Together as a group, you can brainstorm ways to have fun. For example, you can agree you'll do homework in silence for 40 minutes and then take a 15 minute break to chat.

• Be careful, however, not to do sloppy work. If you're trying to break a record, you may speed through your homework. Strive to work efficiently rather than quickly.
• Talk to your parents to see how the topic your studying may affect them in the present day.
• Be careful not to get distracted in this extra research or you’ll lose focus on your homework. Set a timer for yourself so you don’t spend too much time doing it.

Changing Your Mindset About Learning

• It can help to make a to-do list. Your studies are items you can check off the list, allowing you to relax and unwind. You'll also feel a sense of achievement with each item you check off your list.
• Stop and think about what you've accomplished when you finish your homework. Try to feel proud of yourself for getting your work done. You'll learn to work towards this sense of accomplishment in the future.

• If you dislike your writing assignments, pause and consider how good writing skills can help you get a job. If you dislike your computer class, try to keep in mind that basic computer skills will be important in college and the working world.

Expert Q&A

• If you have a friend who's a serious student, ask him or her for tips on how to make homework fun. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you are reviewing for a test, review it for 15 minutes then give yourself a break. Go back to studying for 15 minutes and then take another break. This method can help you to process the information, which in the end should result in better results! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/how-to-enjoy-studying-flow/
• ↑ https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/studying-fun.html

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Smart Homework: 13 Ways to Make It Meaningful

by MiddleWeb · Published 08/04/2014 · Updated 11/17/2019

In the first installment of Rick Wormeli’s homework advice, he made the case for take-home assignments that matter for learning and engage student interest . In Part 2, Rick offers some guiding principles that can help teachers create homework challenges that motivate kids and spark deeper learning in and out of school.

These articles are adapted and updated from Rick’s seminal book about teaching in the middle grades, Day One & Beyond: Practical Matters for New Middle Level Teachers . Rick continues to offer great advice about homework, differentiation, assessment and many other topics in workshops and presentations across North America. Check back in Part 1 for some additional homework resources.

I’ve been accumulating guiding principles for creating highly motivating homework assignments for many years — from my own teaching and from the distilled wisdom of others. Here are a baker’s dozen. Choose the ones most appropriate for students’ learning goals and your curriculum.

1. Give students a clear picture of the final product. This doesn’t mean everything is structured for them, or that there aren’t multiple pathways to the same high quality result. There’s room for student personalities to be expressed. Students clearly know what is expected, however. A clear picture sets purpose for doing the assignment. Priming the brain to focus on particular aspects of the learning experience helps the brain process the information for long-term retention. Setting purpose for homework assignments has an impact on learning and the assignment’s completion rate, as research by Marzano and others confirms.

2. Incorporate a cause into the assignment. Middle level students are motivated when they feel they are righting a wrong. They are very sensitive to justice and injustice. As a group, they are also very nurturing of those less fortunate than them. Find a community or personal cause for which students can fight fairly and incorporate your content and skills in that good fight— students will be all over the assignment.

4. Incorporate people whom students admire in their assignments. Students are motivated when asked to share what they know and feel about these folks. We are a society of heroes, and young adolescents are interested in talking about and becoming heroic figures.

5. Allow choices, as appropriate. Allow students to do the even-numbered or odd-numbered problems, or allow them to choose from three prompts, not just one. Let them choose the word that best describes the political or scientific process. Let them identify their own diet and its effects on young adolescent bodies. Let them choose to work with partners or individually. How about allowing them to choose from several multiple-intelligence based tasks? If they are working in ways that are comfortable, they are more likely to do the work. By making the choice, they have upped their ownership of the task.

6. Incorporate cultural products into the assignment. If students have to use magazines, television shows, foods, sports equipment, and other products they already use, they are likely to do the work. The brain loves to do tasks in contexts with which it is familiar.

7. Allow students to collaborate in determining how homework will be assessed. If they help design the criteria for success, such as when they create the rubric for an assignment, they “own” the assignment. It comes off as something done by them, not to them. They also internalize the expectations—another way for them to have clear targets.

With some assignments we can post well-done versions from previous years (or ones we’ve created for this purpose) and ask students to analyze the essential characteristics that make these assignments exemplary. Students who analyze such assignments will compare those works with their own and internalize the criteria for success, referencing the criteria while doing the assignment, not just when it’s finished.

9. Spruce up your prompts. Don’t ask students to repeatedly answer questions or summarize. Try some of these openers instead: Decide between, argue against, Why did ______ argue for, compare, contrast, plan, classify, retell ______ from the point of view of ______, Organize, build, interview, predict, categorize, simplify, deduce, formulate, blend, suppose, invent, imagine, devise, compose, combine, rank, recommend, defend, choose.

10. Have everyone turn in a paper. In her classic, Homework: A New Direction (1992), Neila Connors reminded teachers to have all students turn in a paper, regardless of whether they did the assignment. If a student doesn’t have his homework, he writes on the paper the name of the assignment and why he didn’t do it.

11. Do not give homework passes. I used to do this; then I realized how much it minimized the importance of homework. It’s like saying, “Oh, well, the homework really wasn’t that important to your learning. You’ll learn just as well without it.” Homework should be so productive for students that missing it is like missing the lesson itself.

12. Integrate homework with other subjects. One assignment can count in two classes. Such assignments are usually complex enough to warrant the dual grade and it’s a way to work smarter, not harder, for both students and teachers. Teachers can split the pile of papers to grade, then share the grades with each other, and students don’t have homework piling up in multiple classes.

There are times when every teacher on the team assigns a half-hour assignment, and so do the elective or encore class teachers. This could mean three to four hours of homework for the student, which is inappropriate for young adolescents.

13. Occasionally, let students identify what homework would be most effective. Sometimes the really creative assignments are the ones that students design themselves. After teaching a lesson, ask your students what it would take to practice the material so well it became clearly understood. Many of the choices will be rigorous and very appropriate.

This is one reason I always recommend that, as a basic premise, we avoid Monday morning quizzes and weekend or holiday homework assignments. Sure, there will be exceptions when long-term projects come due. But if we are really about teaching so that students learn and not about appearing rigorous and assigning tasks to show that we have taught, then we’ll carefully consider all the effects of our homework expectations. Our students will be more productive at school for having healthier lives at home.

▶ More resources from Rick Wormeli:

Although Rick never mentions the word homework in this article about helping adolescent students improve their “executive function,” you will immediately see the connections! At the AMLE website .

NEXT: In our final excerpt from Day One & Beyond, Rick Wormeli shares his approach to homework assessment – with an clear emphasis on maintaining teacher sanity.

His books include Meet Me in the Middle ; Day One and Beyond ; Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessment and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom ; Differentiation: From Planning to Practice; Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject, and Summarization in Any Subject , plus The Collected Writings (So Far) of Rick Wormeli: Crazy Good Stuff I Learned about Teaching Along the Way .

He is currently working on his first young adult fiction novel and a new book on homework practices in the 21 st century.

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Tags: Day One & Beyond grading homework homework homework guidelines homework policies Rick Wormeli why homework

MiddleWeb is all about the middle grades, with great 4-8 resources, book reviews, and guest posts by educators who support the success of young adolescents. And be sure to subscribe to MiddleWeb SmartBrief for the latest middle grades news & commentary from around the USA.

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This is a really great article. It has helped me tremendously in making new and better decisions about homework.

Fabulous sage advice! Although I love every single suggestion you’ve included, I am particularly fond of the elimination of the “homework pass”. As a former middle-level teacher and administrator, I too found the homework pass diminished the importance of follow-up work – a necessary component in determining the level of student understanding.

I do give 2 passes, but they just extend due date by a day. And if not used, they may be returned at the end of the 9 weeks for extra credit.

Rick Wormeli’s ideas and tips in this article continue to be stimulating and useful. That said, it’s been more than a decade since the first edition of his book on grading, homework and assessment, Fair Isn’t Always Equal appeared.

In the intervening years, Rick’s thinking about homework has benefited from his work with teachers and in schools and plenty of debate. In April 2018, he published a new 2nd edition of Fair Isn’t Always Equal that includes an even deeper discussion of homework and its relationship to best practice, differentiation, and the moral obligation of educators to insist on effective homework policies.

Visitors to the Stenhouse page for the new book can preview the *entire* text for free, so be sure to check that out.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the new book:

Tenet: Homework should enable students to practice what they have already learned in class and should not present new content for the first time. Principled Responses:

• I will not assign homework to students who do not understand the content. • I will give homework to some students and no homework or different assignments to others, depending on their proficiency. • I will use exit slips and formative assessment during class so I can determine proper after-school practice for each student. • I will not give homework because parents and administrators expect me to do so, or assign homework because it’s a particular day of the week. • I will assign homework only if it furthers students’ proficiency in the field we’re studying.

Thanks to Rick for giving us permission to share this!

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How to Do Homework: 15 Expert Tips and Tricks

Coursework/GPA

Everyone struggles with homework sometimes, but if getting your homework done has become a chronic issue for you, then you may need a little extra help. That’s why we’ve written this article all about how to do homework. Once you’re finished reading it, you’ll know how to do homework (and have tons of new ways to motivate yourself to do homework)!

We’ve broken this article down into a few major sections. You’ll find:

• A diagnostic test to help you figure out why you’re struggling with homework
• A discussion of the four major homework problems students face, along with expert tips for addressing them
• A bonus section with tips for how to do homework fast

By the end of this article, you’ll be prepared to tackle whatever homework assignments your teachers throw at you .

So let’s get started!

How to Do Homework: Figure Out Your Struggles 

Sometimes it feels like everything is standing between you and getting your homework done. But the truth is, most people only have one or two major roadblocks that are keeping them from getting their homework done well and on time. 

The best way to figure out how to get motivated to do homework starts with pinpointing the issues that are affecting your ability to get your assignments done. That’s why we’ve developed a short quiz to help you identify the areas where you’re struggling. 

Take the quiz below and record your answers on your phone or on a scrap piece of paper. Keep in mind there are no wrong answers! 

1. You’ve just been assigned an essay in your English class that’s due at the end of the week. What’s the first thing you do?

A. Keep it in mind, even though you won’t start it until the day before it’s due  B. Open up your planner. You’ve got to figure out when you’ll write your paper since you have band practice, a speech tournament, and your little sister’s dance recital this week, too.  C. Groan out loud. Another essay? You could barely get yourself to write the last one!  D. Start thinking about your essay topic, which makes you think about your art project that’s due the same day, which reminds you that your favorite artist might have just posted to Instagram...so you better check your feed right now. 

2. Your mom asked you to pick up your room before she gets home from work. You’ve just gotten home from school. You decide you’ll tackle your chores: 

A. Five minutes before your mom walks through the front door. As long as it gets done, who cares when you start?  B. As soon as you get home from your shift at the local grocery store.  C. After you give yourself a 15-minute pep talk about how you need to get to work.  D. You won’t get it done. Between texts from your friends, trying to watch your favorite Netflix show, and playing with your dog, you just lost track of time! 

3. You’ve signed up to wash dogs at the Humane Society to help earn money for your senior class trip. You: 

A. Show up ten minutes late. You put off leaving your house until the last minute, then got stuck in unexpected traffic on the way to the shelter.  B. Have to call and cancel at the last minute. You forgot you’d already agreed to babysit your cousin and bake cupcakes for tomorrow’s bake sale.  C. Actually arrive fifteen minutes early with extra brushes and bandanas you picked up at the store. You’re passionate about animals, so you’re excited to help out! D. Show up on time, but only get three dogs washed. You couldn’t help it: you just kept getting distracted by how cute they were!

4. You have an hour of downtime, so you decide you’re going to watch an episode of The Great British Baking Show. You: 

A. Scroll through your social media feeds for twenty minutes before hitting play, which means you’re not able to finish the whole episode. Ugh! You really wanted to see who was sent home!  B. Watch fifteen minutes until you remember you’re supposed to pick up your sister from band practice before heading to your part-time job. No GBBO for you!  C. You finish one episode, then decide to watch another even though you’ve got SAT studying to do. It’s just more fun to watch people make scones.  D. Start the episode, but only catch bits and pieces of it because you’re reading Twitter, cleaning out your backpack, and eating a snack at the same time.

5. Your teacher asks you to stay after class because you’ve missed turning in two homework assignments in a row. When she asks you what’s wrong, you say: 

A. You planned to do your assignments during lunch, but you ran out of time. You decided it would be better to turn in nothing at all than submit unfinished work.  B. You really wanted to get the assignments done, but between your extracurriculars, family commitments, and your part-time job, your homework fell through the cracks.  C. You have a hard time psyching yourself to tackle the assignments. You just can’t seem to find the motivation to work on them once you get home.  D. You tried to do them, but you had a hard time focusing. By the time you realized you hadn’t gotten anything done, it was already time to turn them in. 

Like we said earlier, there are no right or wrong answers to this quiz (though your results will be better if you answered as honestly as possible). Here’s how your answers break down: 

• If your answers were mostly As, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is procrastination. 
• If your answers were mostly Bs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is time management. 
• If your answers were mostly Cs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is motivation. 
• If your answers were mostly Ds, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is getting distracted. 

Now that you’ve identified why you’re having a hard time getting your homework done, we can help you figure out how to fix it! Scroll down to find your core problem area to learn more about how you can start to address it. 

And one more thing: you’re really struggling with homework, it’s a good idea to read through every section below. You may find some additional tips that will help make homework less intimidating. 

How to Do Homework When You’re a Procrastinator  

Merriam Webster defines “procrastinate” as “to put off intentionally and habitually.” In other words, procrastination is when you choose to do something at the last minute on a regular basis. If you’ve ever found yourself pulling an all-nighter, trying to finish an assignment between periods, or sprinting to turn in a paper minutes before a deadline, you’ve experienced the effects of procrastination. 

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you’re in good company. In fact, one study found that 70% to 95% of undergraduate students procrastinate when it comes to doing their homework. Unfortunately, procrastination can negatively impact your grades. Researchers have found that procrastination can lower your grade on an assignment by as much as five points ...which might not sound serious until you realize that can mean the difference between a B- and a C+. 

Procrastination can also negatively affect your health by increasing your stress levels , which can lead to other health conditions like insomnia, a weakened immune system, and even heart conditions. Getting a handle on procrastination can not only improve your grades, it can make you feel better, too! 

The big thing to understand about procrastination is that it’s not the result of laziness. Laziness is defined as being “disinclined to activity or exertion.” In other words, being lazy is all about doing nothing. But a s this Psychology Today article explains , procrastinators don’t put things off because they don’t want to work. Instead, procrastinators tend to postpone tasks they don’t want to do in favor of tasks that they perceive as either more important or more fun. Put another way, procrastinators want to do things...as long as it’s not their homework! 

3 Tips f or Conquering Procrastination 

Because putting off doing homework is a common problem, there are lots of good tactics for addressing procrastination. Keep reading for our three expert tips that will get your homework habits back on track in no time. 

#1: Create a Reward System

Like we mentioned earlier, procrastination happens when you prioritize other activities over getting your homework done. Many times, this happens because homework...well, just isn’t enjoyable. But you can add some fun back into the process by rewarding yourself for getting your work done. 

Here’s what we mean: let’s say you decide that every time you get your homework done before the day it’s due, you’ll give yourself a point. For every five points you earn, you’ll treat yourself to your favorite dessert: a chocolate cupcake! Now you have an extra (delicious!) incentive to motivate you to leave procrastination in the dust. 

If you’re not into cupcakes, don’t worry. Your reward can be anything that motivates you . Maybe it’s hanging out with your best friend or an extra ten minutes of video game time. As long as you’re choosing something that makes homework worth doing, you’ll be successful. 

#2: Have a Homework Accountability Partner 

If you’re having trouble getting yourself to start your homework ahead of time, it may be a good idea to call in reinforcements . Find a friend or classmate you can trust and explain to them that you’re trying to change your homework habits. Ask them if they’d be willing to text you to make sure you’re doing your homework and check in with you once a week to see if you’re meeting your anti-procrastination goals. 

Sharing your goals can make them feel more real, and an accountability partner can help hold you responsible for your decisions. For example, let’s say you’re tempted to put off your science lab write-up until the morning before it’s due. But you know that your accountability partner is going to text you about it tomorrow...and you don’t want to fess up that you haven’t started your assignment. A homework accountability partner can give you the extra support and incentive you need to keep your homework habits on track. 

#3: Create Your Own Due Dates 

If you’re a life-long procrastinator, you might find that changing the habit is harder than you expected. In that case, you might try using procrastination to your advantage! If you just can’t seem to stop doing your work at the last minute, try setting your own due dates for assignments that range from a day to a week before the assignment is actually due. 

Here’s what we mean. Let’s say you have a math worksheet that’s been assigned on Tuesday and is due on Friday. In your planner, you can write down the due date as Thursday instead. You may still put off your homework assignment until the last minute...but in this case, the “last minute” is a day before the assignment’s real due date . This little hack can trick your procrastination-addicted brain into planning ahead! 

If you feel like Kevin Hart in this meme, then our tips for doing homework when you're busy are for you. 

How to Do Homework When You’re too Busy

If you’re aiming to go to a top-tier college , you’re going to have a full plate. Because college admissions is getting more competitive, it’s important that you’re maintaining your grades , studying hard for your standardized tests , and participating in extracurriculars so your application stands out. A packed schedule can get even more hectic once you add family obligations or a part-time job to the mix. 

If you feel like you’re being pulled in a million directions at once, you’re not alone. Recent research has found that stress—and more severe stress-related conditions like anxiety and depression— are a major problem for high school students . In fact, one study from the American Psychological Association found that during the school year, students’ stress levels are higher than those of the adults around them. 

For students, homework is a major contributor to their overall stress levels . Many high schoolers have multiple hours of homework every night , and figuring out how to fit it into an already-packed schedule can seem impossible. 

3 Tips for Fitting Homework Into Your Busy Schedule

While it might feel like you have literally no time left in your schedule, there are still ways to make sure you’re able to get your homework done and meet your other commitments. Here are our expert homework tips for even the busiest of students. 

#1: Make a Prioritized To-Do List 

You probably already have a to-do list to keep yourself on track. The next step is to prioritize the items on your to-do list so you can see what items need your attention right away. 

Here’s how it works: at the beginning of each day, sit down and make a list of all the items you need to get done before you go to bed. This includes your homework, but it should also take into account any practices, chores, events, or job shifts you may have. Once you get everything listed out, it’s time to prioritize them using the labels A, B, and C. Here’s what those labels mean:

• A Tasks : tasks that have to get done—like showing up at work or turning in an assignment—get an A. 
• B Tasks : these are tasks that you would like to get done by the end of the day but aren’t as time sensitive. For example, studying for a test you have next week could be a B-level task. It’s still important, but it doesn’t have to be done right away.
• C Tasks: these are tasks that aren’t very important and/or have no real consequences if you don’t get them done immediately. For instance, if you’re hoping to clean out your closet but it’s not an assigned chore from your parents, you could label that to-do item with a C.

Prioritizing your to-do list helps you visualize which items need your immediate attention, and which items you can leave for later. A prioritized to-do list ensures that you’re spending your time efficiently and effectively, which helps you make room in your schedule for homework. So even though you might really want to start making decorations for Homecoming (a B task), you’ll know that finishing your reading log (an A task) is more important. 

#2: Use a Planner With Time Labels

Your planner is probably packed with notes, events, and assignments already. (And if you’re not using a planner, it’s time to start!) But planners can do more for you than just remind you when an assignment is due. If you’re using a planner with time labels, it can help you visualize how you need to spend your day.

A planner with time labels breaks your day down into chunks, and you assign tasks to each chunk of time. For example, you can make a note of your class schedule with assignments, block out time to study, and make sure you know when you need to be at practice. Once you know which tasks take priority, you can add them to any empty spaces in your day. 

Planning out how you spend your time not only helps you use it wisely, it can help you feel less overwhelmed, too . We’re big fans of planners that include a task list ( like this one ) or have room for notes ( like this one ). 

#3: Set Reminders on Your Phone 

If you need a little extra nudge to make sure you’re getting your homework done on time, it’s a good idea to set some reminders on your phone. You don’t need a fancy app, either. You can use your alarm app to have it go off at specific times throughout the day to remind you to do your homework. This works especially well if you have a set homework time scheduled. So if you’ve decided you’re doing homework at 6:00 pm, you can set an alarm to remind you to bust out your books and get to work. 

If you use your phone as your planner, you may have the option to add alerts, emails, or notifications to scheduled events . Many calendar apps, including the one that comes with your phone, have built-in reminders that you can customize to meet your needs. So if you block off time to do your homework from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, you can set a reminder that will pop up on your phone when it’s time to get started. 

This dog isn't judging your lack of motivation...but your teacher might. Keep reading for tips to help you motivate yourself to do your homework.

How to Do Homework When You’re Unmotivated 

At first glance, it may seem like procrastination and being unmotivated are the same thing. After all, both of these issues usually result in you putting off your homework until the very last minute. 

But there’s one key difference: many procrastinators are working, they’re just prioritizing work differently. They know they’re going to start their homework...they’re just going to do it later. 

Conversely, people who are unmotivated to do homework just can’t find the willpower to tackle their assignments. Procrastinators know they’ll at least attempt the homework at the last minute, whereas people who are unmotivated struggle with convincing themselves to do it at a ll. For procrastinators, the stress comes from the inevitable time crunch. For unmotivated people, the stress comes from trying to convince themselves to do something they don’t want to do in the first place. 

Here are some common reasons students are unmotivated in doing homework : 

• Assignments are too easy, too hard, or seemingly pointless 
• Students aren’t interested in (or passionate about) the subject matter
• Students are intimidated by the work and/or feels like they don’t understand the assignment 
• Homework isn’t fun, and students would rather spend their time on things that they enjoy 

To sum it up: people who lack motivation to do their homework are more likely to not do it at all, or to spend more time worrying about doing their homework than...well, actually doing it.

3 Tips for How to Get Motivated to Do Homework

The key to getting homework done when you’re unmotivated is to figure out what does motivate you, then apply those things to homework. It sounds tricky...but it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it! Here are our three expert tips for motivating yourself to do your homework. 

#1: Use Incremental Incentives

When you’re not motivated, it’s important to give yourself small rewards to stay focused on finishing the task at hand. The trick is to keep the incentives small and to reward yourself often. For example, maybe you’re reading a good book in your free time. For every ten minutes you spend on your homework, you get to read five pages of your book. Like we mentioned earlier, make sure you’re choosing a reward that works for you! 

So why does this technique work? Using small rewards more often allows you to experience small wins for getting your work done. Every time you make it to one of your tiny reward points, you get to celebrate your success, which gives your brain a boost of dopamine . Dopamine helps you stay motivated and also creates a feeling of satisfaction when you complete your homework !  

#2: Form a Homework Group 

If you’re having trouble motivating yourself, it’s okay to turn to others for support. Creating a homework group can help with this. Bring together a group of your friends or classmates, and pick one time a week where you meet and work on homework together. You don’t have to be in the same class, or even taking the same subjects— the goal is to encourage one another to start (and finish!) your assignments. 

Another added benefit of a homework group is that you can help one another if you’re struggling to understand the material covered in your classes. This is especially helpful if your lack of motivation comes from being intimidated by your assignments. Asking your friends for help may feel less scary than talking to your teacher...and once you get a handle on the material, your homework may become less frightening, too. 

#3: Change Up Your Environment 

If you find that you’re totally unmotivated, it may help if you find a new place to do your homework. For example, if you’ve been struggling to get your homework done at home, try spending an extra hour in the library after school instead. The change of scenery can limit your distractions and give you the energy you need to get your work done. 

If you’re stuck doing homework at home, you can still use this tip. For instance, maybe you’ve always done your homework sitting on your bed. Try relocating somewhere else, like your kitchen table, for a few weeks. You may find that setting up a new “homework spot” in your house gives you a motivational lift and helps you get your work done. 

Social media can be a huge problem when it comes to doing homework. We have advice for helping you unplug and regain focus.

How to Do Homework When You’re Easily Distracted

We live in an always-on world, and there are tons of things clamoring for our attention. From friends and family to pop culture and social media, it seems like there’s always something (or someone!) distracting us from the things we need to do.

The 24/7 world we live in has affected our ability to focus on tasks for prolonged periods of time. Research has shown that over the past decade, an average person’s attention span has gone from 12 seconds to eight seconds . And when we do lose focus, i t takes people a long time to get back on task . One study found that it can take as long as 23 minutes to get back to work once we’ve been distracte d. No wonder it can take hours to get your homework done! 

3 Tips to Improve Your Focus

If you have a hard time focusing when you’re doing your homework, it’s a good idea to try and eliminate as many distractions as possible. Here are three expert tips for blocking out the noise so you can focus on getting your homework done. 

#1: Create a Distraction-Free Environment

Pick a place where you’ll do your homework every day, and make it as distraction-free as possible. Try to find a location where there won’t be tons of noise, and limit your access to screens while you’re doing your homework. Put together a focus-oriented playlist (or choose one on your favorite streaming service), and put your headphones on while you work. 

You may find that other people, like your friends and family, are your biggest distraction. If that’s the case, try setting up some homework boundaries. Let them know when you’ll be working on homework every day, and ask them if they’ll help you keep a quiet environment. They’ll be happy to lend a hand! 

#2: Limit Your Access to Technology 

We know, we know...this tip isn’t fun, but it does work. For homework that doesn’t require a computer, like handouts or worksheets, it’s best to put all your technology away . Turn off your television, put your phone and laptop in your backpack, and silence notifications on any wearable tech you may be sporting. If you listen to music while you work, that’s fine...but make sure you have a playlist set up so you’re not shuffling through songs once you get started on your homework. 

If your homework requires your laptop or tablet, it can be harder to limit your access to distractions. But it’s not impossible! T here are apps you can download that will block certain websites while you’re working so that you’re not tempted to scroll through Twitter or check your Facebook feed. Silence notifications and text messages on your computer, and don’t open your email account unless you absolutely have to. And if you don’t need access to the internet to complete your assignments, turn off your WiFi. Cutting out the online chatter is a great way to make sure you’re getting your homework done. 

#3: Set a Timer (the Pomodoro Technique)

Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro technique ? It’s a productivity hack that uses a timer to help you focus!

Here’s how it works: first, set a timer for 25 minutes. This is going to be your work time. During this 25 minutes, all you can do is work on whatever homework assignment you have in front of you. No email, no text messaging, no phone calls—just homework. When that timer goes off, you get to take a 5 minute break. Every time you go through one of these cycles, it’s called a “pomodoro.” For every four pomodoros you complete, you can take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.

The pomodoro technique works through a combination of boundary setting and rewards. First, it gives you a finite amount of time to focus, so you know that you only have to work really hard for 25 minutes. Once you’ve done that, you’re rewarded with a short break where you can do whatever you want. Additionally, tracking how many pomodoros you complete can help you see how long you’re really working on your homework. (Once you start using our focus tips, you may find it doesn’t take as long as you thought!)

Two Bonus Tips for How to Do Homework Fast

Even if you’re doing everything right, there will be times when you just need to get your homework done as fast as possible. (Why do teachers always have projects due in the same week? The world may never know.)

The problem with speeding through homework is that it’s easy to make mistakes. While turning in an assignment is always better than not submitting anything at all, you want to make sure that you’re not compromising quality for speed. Simply put, the goal is to get your homework done quickly and still make a good grade on the assignment! 

Here are our two bonus tips for getting a decent grade on your homework assignments , even when you’re in a time crunch. 

#1: Do the Easy Parts First 

This is especially true if you’re working on a handout with multiple questions. Before you start working on the assignment, read through all the questions and problems. As you do, make a mark beside the questions you think are “easy” to answer . 

Once you’ve finished going through the whole assignment, you can answer these questions first. Getting the easy questions out of the way as quickly as possible lets you spend more time on the trickier portions of your homework, which will maximize your assignment grade. 

(Quick note: this is also a good strategy to use on timed assignments and tests, like the SAT and the ACT !) 

#2: Pay Attention in Class 

Homework gets a lot easier when you’re actively learning the material. Teachers aren’t giving you homework because they’re mean or trying to ruin your weekend... it’s because they want you to really understand the course material. Homework is designed to reinforce what you’re already learning in class so you’ll be ready to tackle harder concepts later.

When you pay attention in class, ask questions, and take good notes, you’re absorbing the information you’ll need to succeed on your homework assignments. (You’re stuck in class anyway, so you might as well make the most of it!) Not only will paying attention in class make your homework less confusing, it will also help it go much faster, too.

What’s Next?

If you’re looking to improve your productivity beyond homework, a good place to begin is with time management. After all, we only have so much time in a day...so it’s important to get the most out of it! To get you started, check out this list of the 12 best time management techniques that you can start using today.

You may have read this article because homework struggles have been affecting your GPA. Now that you’re on the path to homework success, it’s time to start being proactive about raising your grades. This article teaches you everything you need to know about raising your GPA so you can

Now you know how to get motivated to do homework...but what about your study habits? Studying is just as critical to getting good grades, and ultimately getting into a good college . We can teach you how to study bette r in high school. (We’ve also got tons of resources to help you study for your ACT and SAT exams , too!)

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Does homework really work?

by: Leslie Crawford | Updated: December 12, 2023

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You know the drill. It’s 10:15 p.m., and the cardboard-and-toothpick Golden Gate Bridge is collapsing. The pages of polynomials have been abandoned. The paper on the Battle of Waterloo seems to have frozen in time with Napoleon lingering eternally over his breakfast at Le Caillou. Then come the tears and tantrums — while we parents wonder, Does the gain merit all this pain? Is this just too much homework?

However the drama unfolds night after night, year after year, most parents hold on to the hope that homework (after soccer games, dinner, flute practice, and, oh yes, that childhood pastime of yore known as playing) advances their children academically.

But what does homework really do for kids? Is the forest’s worth of book reports and math and spelling sheets the average American student completes in their 12 years of primary schooling making a difference? Or is it just busywork?

Homework haterz

Whether or not homework helps, or even hurts, depends on who you ask. If you ask my 12-year-old son, Sam, he’ll say, “Homework doesn’t help anything. It makes kids stressed-out and tired and makes them hate school more.”

Nothing more than common kid bellyaching?

Maybe, but in the fractious field of homework studies, it’s worth noting that Sam’s sentiments nicely synopsize one side of the ivory tower debate. Books like The End of Homework , The Homework Myth , and The Case Against Homework the film Race to Nowhere , and the anguished parent essay “ My Daughter’s Homework is Killing Me ” make the case that homework, by taking away precious family time and putting kids under unneeded pressure, is an ineffective way to help children become better learners and thinkers.

One Canadian couple took their homework apostasy all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. After arguing that there was no evidence that it improved academic performance, they won a ruling that exempted their two children from all homework.

So what’s the real relationship between homework and academic achievement?

How much is too much?

To answer this question, researchers have been doing their homework on homework, conducting and examining hundreds of studies. Chris Drew Ph.D., founder and editor at The Helpful Professor recently compiled multiple statistics revealing the folly of today’s after-school busy work. Does any of the data he listed below ring true for you?

• 45 percent of parents think homework is too easy for their child, primarily because it is geared to the lowest standard under the Common Core State Standards .

• 74 percent of students say homework is a source of stress , defined as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems.

• Students in high-performing high schools spend an average of 3.1 hours a night on homework , even though 1 to 2 hours is the optimal duration, according to a peer-reviewed study .

Not included in the list above is the fact many kids have to abandon activities they love — like sports and clubs — because homework deprives them of the needed time to enjoy themselves with other pursuits.

Conversely, The Helpful Professor does list a few pros of homework, noting it teaches discipline and time management, and helps parents know what’s being taught in the class.

The oft-bandied rule on homework quantity — 10 minutes a night per grade (starting from between 10 to 20 minutes in first grade) — is listed on the National Education Association’s website and the National Parent Teacher Association’s website , but few schools follow this rule.

Do you think your child is doing excessive homework? Harris Cooper Ph.D., author of a meta-study on homework , recommends talking with the teacher. “Often there is a miscommunication about the goals of homework assignments,” he says. “What appears to be problematic for kids, why they are doing an assignment, can be cleared up with a conversation.” Also, Cooper suggests taking a careful look at how your child is doing the assignments. It may seem like they’re taking two hours, but maybe your child is wandering off frequently to get a snack or getting distracted.

Less is often more

If your child is dutifully doing their work but still burning the midnight oil, it’s worth intervening to make sure your child gets enough sleep. A 2012 study of 535 high school students found that proper sleep may be far more essential to brain and body development.

For elementary school-age children, Cooper’s research at Duke University shows there is no measurable academic advantage to homework. For middle-schoolers, Cooper found there is a direct correlation between homework and achievement if assignments last between one to two hours per night. After two hours, however, achievement doesn’t improve. For high schoolers, Cooper’s research suggests that two hours per night is optimal. If teens have more than two hours of homework a night, their academic success flatlines. But less is not better. The average high school student doing homework outperformed 69 percent of the students in a class with no homework.

Many schools are starting to act on this research. A Florida superintendent abolished homework in her 42,000 student district, replacing it with 20 minutes of nightly reading. She attributed her decision to “ solid research about what works best in improving academic achievement in students .”

More family time

A 2020 survey by Crayola Experience reports 82 percent of children complain they don’t have enough quality time with their parents. Homework deserves much of the blame. “Kids should have a chance to just be kids and do things they enjoy, particularly after spending six hours a day in school,” says Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth . “It’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.”

By far, the best replacement for homework — for both parents and children — is bonding, relaxing time together.

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Do American students have too much homework, or too little? We often hear passionate arguments for either side, but I believe that we ought to be asking a different question altogether. What should matter to parents and educators is this: How effectively do children’s after-school assignments advance learning?

The quantity of students’ homework is a lot less important than its quality. And evidence suggests that as of now, homework isn’t making the grade. Although surveys show that the amount of time our children spend on homework has risen over the last three decades, American students are mired in the middle of international academic rankings: 17th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math, according to the most recent results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

In a 2008 survey , one-third of parents polled rated the quality of their children’s homework assignments as fair or poor, and 4 in 10 said they believed that some or a great deal of homework was busywork. A recent study , published in the Economics of Education Review, reports that homework in science, English and history has “little to no impact” on student test scores. (The authors did note a positive effect for math homework.) Enriching children’s classroom learning requires making homework not shorter or longer, but smarter.

Fortunately, research is available to help parents, teachers and school administrators do just that. In recent years, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists and educational psychologists have made a series of remarkable discoveries about how the human brain learns. They have founded a new discipline, known as Mind, Brain and Education , that is devoted to understanding and improving the ways in which children absorb, retain and apply knowledge.

Educators have begun to implement these methods in classrooms around the country and have enjoyed measurable success. A collaboration between psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis and teachers at nearby Columbia Middle School, for example, lifted seventh- and eighth-grade students’ science and social studies test scores by 13 to 25 percent.

But the innovations have not yet been applied to homework. Mind, Brain and Education methods may seem unfamiliar and even counterintuitive, but they are simple to understand and easy to carry out. And after-school assignments are ripe for the kind of improvements the new science offers.

“Spaced repetition” is one example of the kind of evidence-based techniques that researchers have found have a positive impact on learning. Here’s how it works: instead of concentrating the study of information in single blocks, as many homework assignments currently do—reading about, say, the Civil War one evening and Reconstruction the next—learners encounter the same material in briefer sessions spread over a longer period of time. With this approach, students are re-exposed to information about the Civil War and Reconstruction throughout the semester.

[RELATED READING: Parents Wonder: Why So Much Homework? ]

It sounds unassuming, but spaced repetition produces impressive results. Eighth-grade history students who relied on a spaced approach to learning had nearly double the retention rate of students who studied the same material in a consolidated unit, reported researchers from the University of California-San Diego in 2007. The reason the method works so well goes back to the brain: when we first acquire memories, they are volatile, subject to change or likely to disappear. Exposing ourselves to information repeatedly over time fixes it more permanently in our minds, by strengthening the representation of the information that is embedded in our neural networks.

A second learning technique, known as “retrieval practice,” employs a familiar tool—the test—in a new way: not to assess what students know, but to reinforce it. We often conceive of memory as something like a storage tank and a test as a kind of dipstick that measures how much information we’ve put in there. But that’s not actually how the brain works. Every time we pull up a memory, we make it stronger and more lasting, so that testing doesn’t just measure, it changes learning. Simply reading over material to be learned, or even taking notes and making outlines, as many homework assignments require, doesn’t have this effect .

According to one experiment , language learners who employed the retrieval practice strategy to study vocabulary words remembered 80 percent of the words they studied, while learners who used conventional study methods remembered only about a third of them. Students who used retrieval practice to learn science retained about 50 percent more of the material than students who studied in traditional ways, reported researchers from Purdue University in 2011. Students—and parents—may groan at the prospect of more tests, but the self-quizzing involved in retrieval practice need not provoke any anxiety. It’s simply an effective way to focus less on the input of knowledge (passively reading over textbooks and notes) and more on its output (calling up that same information from one’s own brain).

[RELATED READING: Redefining 'Cheating' With Homework ]

Another common misconception about how we learn holds that if information feels easy to absorb, we’ve learned it well. In fact, the opposite is true. When we work hard to understand information, we recall it better; the extra effort signals the brain that this knowledge is worth keeping. This phenomenon, known as cognitive disfluency , promotes learning so effectively that psychologists have devised all manner of “ desirable difficulties ” to introduce into the learning process: for example, sprinkling a passage with punctuation mistakes, deliberately leaving out letters, shrinking font size until it’s tiny or wiggling a document while it’s being copied so that words come out blurry.

Teachers are unlikely to start sending students home with smudged or error-filled worksheets, but there is another kind of desirable difficulty — called interleaving — that can readily be applied to homework. An interleaved assignment mixes up different kinds of situations or problems to be practiced, instead of grouping them by type. When students can’t tell in advance what kind of knowledge or problem-solving strategy will be required to answer a question, their brains have to work harder to come up with the solution, and the result is that students learn the material more thoroughly.

Researchers at California Polytechnic State University conducted a study of interleaving in sports that illustrates why the tactic is so effective. When baseball players practiced hitting, interleaving different kinds of pitches improved their performance on a later test in which the batters did not know the type of pitch in advance (as would be the case, of course, in a real game).

Interleaving produces the same sort of improvement in academic learning. A study published in 2010 in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology asked fourth-graders to work on solving four types of math problems and then to take a test evaluating how well they had learned. The scores of those whose practice problems were mixed up were more than double the scores of those students who had practiced one kind of problem at a time.

The application of such research-based strategies to homework is a yet-untapped opportunity to raise student achievement. Science has shown us how to turn homework into a potent catalyst for learning. Our assignment now is to make it happen.

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How to Get Homework Done when You Don't Want To

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Ashley Pritchard, MA and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden . Ashley Pritchard is an Academic and School Counselor at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Ashley has over 3 years of high school, college, and career counseling experience. She has an MA in School Counseling with a specialization in Mental Health from Caldwell University and is certified as an Independent Education Consultant through the University of California, Irvine. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 251,281 times.

Homework can be a drag, but it's got to be done to keep your grades up and stay on track during school. Going somewhere quiet, making a plan, and giving yourself breaks can all help you stay focused and on task to get your work done quickly. Try to keep your assignments organized and give yourself credit for completing hard or boring work, even if you didn’t want to.

Getting Motivated

• Keep a list of your assignments and check them off as you finish them. This can give you a sense of accomplishment that can motivate you to keep going.

• Make it the rule that you work for a certain amount of time, or until a certain amount of work has been accomplished. Afterward, you can hang out. Stick to this schedule.
• Try this out and see if it works. If you're too distracted by having friends around, make a date to hang out after homework instead.

• Make sure you keep the competition to yourself. Competing with your friends isn’t fun, especially over homework assignments and grades.

• Learning something that will probably help with future assignments, even if you don't know what they are yet.
• Proving to your teacher that you understand the homework so that they don’t keep assigning it over and over.
• Improving your GPA.
• Getting a good grade.

• Try not to reward yourself with food, as that can lead to snacking when you aren’t really hungry.

Staying Focused

• For instance, tell yourself that if you finish your first assignment in 20 minutes, you can go on your phone for 5 minutes.

• Make sure you stand up and do something when it's your break, or you won't get your wiggles out.
• Set a timer on your phone or use a kitchen timer to let yourself know when it's time to switch tasks.

• If you don't have control over the subject, try to find connections between the topic and something you care about. Find aspects of the subject that interest you.
• For instance, if you have to study History but you care the most about fashion, investigate the styles of the times and places you are studying. Learn how political and economical developments changed the way people dressed.

• You can find playlists on Spotify and YouTube that are made for studying and doing homework.

• When you're struggling to focus, sign out of your email and all social media so you don't check them as a reflex.

Creating Good Study Habits

• If you have many textbooks and worksheets, stack them and put them to the side.
• Get things like pencils, erasers, calculators, rulers, and paper.

• Having a planner will make it less tempting to procrastinate, as long as you have broken up your studying into manageable chunks.
• Your planner can be paper, or you can get one on your phone. Just make sure it has space for task lists as well as events.
• Once you have completed a task, cross it off or put a check next to it. Seeing that you're getting your work done will make you feel better, which in turn will motivate you to keep up the good work.
• Don't put more than you can do in one day on a list! Split up your week's work so that every day has a manageable amount.

• If you have a job or extracurricular activities that change your daily schedule, determine a weekly schedule that you stick to as much as possible.

• Sometimes just explaining what you have to do will help you understand it better.
• Talking to another person is a great way to brainstorm ideas. They may ask you questions or provide comments that can help you organize your ideas.
• Other times, the person you are talking to will notice something about the prompt that you overlooked.

Supercharge Your Studying with this Expert Series

Expert Q&A

Reader Videos

• Try asking a family member to help you remember when to start your assignments so you don’t forget. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2
• If you’re really struggling with a topic, consider going to a tutor for extra help. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2
• Getting motivated can be tough. Just try your best, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2

Tips from our Readers

• Set up a dedicated study area at home with your needed supplies, to establish a consistent homework routine. Having everything in one prepared place helps minimize distractions.
• Use a planner to schedule out all your assignments. Break them into small, manageable pieces so it's less overwhelming. Checking tasks off as you finish motivates you along.
• If completely stuck on an assignment, reach out and talk it through with someone. Verbalizing it can provide new insights to move forward.
• Take short activity breaks every 45 minutes. Get up, stretch, grab some water. It refreshes your mental focus so you stay engaged.
• Incorporate a fun personal interest into an assignment when possible. Writing about something you care about keeps you absorbed.
• When you really need to concentrate, eliminate enticing distractions like your phone. Logging out keeps you on track.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/comm/files/smarttalk_staff_guide.pdf
• ↑ http://www.wcsu.edu/housing/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2018/05/Handout-V6N6.pdf
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/worry-wise/201410/how-prevent-homework-procrastination
• ↑ Ashley Pritchard, MA. Academic & School Counselor. Expert Interview. 4 November 2019.
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html
• ↑ http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/organize-focus.html?WT.ac=p-ra#
• ↑ https://www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/sites/default/files/homework_tips.pdf
• ↑ https://childmind.org/article/strategies-to-make-homework-go-more-smoothly/
• ↑ http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html#

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How to Make Homework Fun

• Post author By admin
• September 6, 2023

Discover engaging strategies for how to make homework fun. Explore personalized study spaces, gamification, collaboration, and more to make learning enjoyable.

Hey there, homework warriors! Let’s face it, homework often gets a bad rap for being a total buzzkill. The mere thought of it can make us want to escape to a world of video games, socializing, or anything but those looming assignments. But guess what? It doesn’t have to be that way!

In this article, we’re about to embark on a journey to uncover the secret sauce of making homework downright fun. That’s right, we’re flipping the script and turning the dreaded “H-word” into an exciting adventure.

So, if you’re ready to banish the boredom and inject some pizzazz into your study sessions, keep reading. We’ve got 15 game-changing tips coming your way to transform homework from a chore into a choice activity!

Table of Contents

How to Make Homework Fun?

Have a close look at how to make homework fun:-

Design a Homework Haven

Transforming a corner of your room into a cozy study nook is all about creating an inviting space that inspires productivity. Consider adding a:

Comfy Chair

Choose a chair with good lumbar support and a cushioned seat for long study sessions.

Soft Cushions

Scatter a few soft cushions on your chair or on the floor to make the nook extra inviting.

Motivational Posters

Hang up posters with motivational quotes or images that resonate with your goals. For instance, a poster featuring a quote like “You’ve Got This!” can provide daily encouragement.

Set a Homework Schedule

Creating a daily study schedule tailored to your rhythm can significantly boost your productivity. Here’s how to go about it:

Identify Your Peak Hours

Pay attention to when you feel most alert and focused during the day. Are you a morning person, or does your energy peak in the evening?

Designate Prime Study Time

Once you’ve identified your prime hours, set aside that time for your most challenging subjects or tasks. For example, if you’re a night owl, designate 8 PM to 10 PM as your prime study time.

Set Goals and Rewards

Setting goals and rewards can turn studying into a thrilling game. Here’s how to make it work:

Task-Based Rewards

Break your study session into smaller tasks. For instance, if you have a 2-hour study session, set a timer for every 30 minutes. When you complete a task within the allotted time, reward yourself with a mini-break or a quick treat.

Dance Breaks

After accomplishing a particularly tough assignment or study session, treat yourself to a five-minute dance break to your favorite upbeat song.

Group Study Sessions

Studying with friends can make homework a social and interactive experience. Here’s how to organize a productive group study session:

Choose Study Buddies

Invite friends who are equally committed to studying. Avoid distractions and focus on collaborative learning.

During breaks, enjoy some snacks and refreshments together. It’s an excellent opportunity to bond and recharge.

Gamify Your Homework

Turning your assignments into a game can make them engaging and competitive. Here’s an example:

Math Challenges

For every correct math problem you solve, award yourself points. Set a target, like 100 points. Once you reach that goal, treat yourself to a favorite dessert or activity.

Use Technology Wisely

Leveraging educational apps and websites can make learning enjoyable. Consider:

Learning Languages

Apps like Duolingo and Babbel gamify language learning with interactive lessons and quizzes.

Science Simulations

Websites like PhET Interactive Simulations offer fun science experiments and simulations.

Listen to Music

Creating a playlist for different study moods can set the tone for productive work:

Upbeat Playlist

Compile lively tunes for subjects like math or science to keep your energy high.

Chillout Playlist

Use calming melodies for reading assignments or essay writing to stay focused.

Change Your Study Materials

Enhance your study materials with colors and visual appeal:

Colorful Notes

When taking notes, use different colored pens for headings, key points, and examples. Highlight important concepts with bright markers.

Create a Homework Playlist

Crafting a motivational playlist can boost your enthusiasm for study sessions:

Personalized Mix

Include songs that motivate you. Whether it’s energetic rock, inspiring pop, or calming instrumental, curate a playlist that resonates with you.

Relate Homework to Real Life

Connecting assignments to real-life situations can make them more meaningful. For example:

Applying Math

If you’re learning about percentages, practice by calculating discounts while shopping online. It’s a practical application of what you’re studying.

Ask for Help When Needed

Don’t hesitate to seek assistance when you’re stuck:

Online Tutors

Utilize online tutoring services like Khan Academy or Chegg when you need clarification on complex topics.

Celebrate Your Achievements

Reward yourself for completing challenging assignments:

Mini Rewards

After finishing a tough essay or solving a set of difficult problems, treat yourself to a favorite snack or a short episode of your favorite TV show.

Use Colorful Visual Aids

Visual aids can make complex topics easier to understand:

Timeline for History

Create a timeline of historical events using colorful markers and sticky notes. It helps you visualize the sequence of historical occurrences.

Stay Organized

Organization is key for effective studying:

Digital Planner

Use digital tools like Google Calendar or Todoist to keep track of assignments and due dates. Set reminders to stay on top of your tasks.

By incorporating these detailed strategies and examples, you can transform your homework routine into an enjoyable and productive experience tailored to your preferences and learning style.

These examples demonstrate practical ways to infuse fun and engagement into your homework routine, making the learning process more enjoyable and productive.

What are ways to make homework fun?

• Create a Comfortable Space: Design a cozy study spot with your favorite things.
• Set a Schedule: Stick to a regular study routine that suits you.
• Break Tasks Down: Divide homework into smaller, manageable chunks.
• Reward Yourself: Treat yourself after completing tasks or goals.
• Study with Friends: Make it social by studying with buddies.
• Use Apps: Try fun and educational apps for learning.
• Listen to Music: Create a motivating study playlist.
• Make It Visual: Use colors and visuals to make notes pop.
• Connect to Real Life: Relate homework to everyday situations.
• Stay Organized: Use planners to stay on top of assignments.

These simple tips can make homework less daunting and more enjoyable.

How do I make my homework less boring?

Want to jazz up your homework and banish the boredom? Here’s the lowdown:

Create Your Happy Place

Start by transforming your study spot into a haven of fun. Add some quirky decorations, fairy lights, or even a cozy blanket fort – whatever makes you smile.

Slice and Dice

Homework can feel like a mountain, right? Well, cut it into bite-sized chunks. Tackling one piece at a time feels way less overwhelming.

Goals with a Side of Rewards

Set yourself mini-goals and sprinkle rewards on top. Finish that math problem? Treat yourself to a victory dance or a mini snack party.

Study Squad

Invite a friend for a study date. You can help each other out and share some giggles during breaks.

Homework Gamified

Turn your homework into a game. Assign points or rewards for completing tasks. Hit a certain score, and it’s time to indulge in your favorite treat.

Dive into educational apps or websites. Learning becomes a blast when it’s interactive and entertaining.

Musical Motivation

Craft a playlist with your favorite tunes. Pop on some energetic beats for those math equations, or soothing melodies for reading assignments.

Colorful Creativity

Don’t just take notes, make them a work of art with colorful pens and highlighters. Visuals can make studying way more interesting.

Real-World Homework

Connect your assignments to real life. If you’re tackling percentages, apply them to calculate discounts while shopping online.

Stay Organized and Sane

Keep your homework organized using planners or digital tools. No more last-minute panics about forgotten deadlines.

With these tricks up your sleeve, homework will become a breeze, and you might even have some fun along the way!

How do I make myself enjoy homework?

Making yourself enjoy homework can be a challenge, but it’s possible with a few mindset shifts and strategies:

Find Purpose

Understand why you’re doing the homework. Connect it to your long-term goals and how it benefits you. Knowing the “why” can make it more meaningful.

Positive Mindset

Approach homework with a positive attitude. Focus on the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel when you complete it.

Set Realistic Goals

Break your homework into smaller tasks and set achievable goals. Completing each part can give you a sense of progress and satisfaction.

Create a Comfortable Space

Design a cozy and organized study area that you enjoy spending time in. A pleasant environment can make a big difference.

Mix up your subjects and tasks to avoid monotony. Switching between different assignments can keep things interesting.

Set a Schedule

Establish a study routine that suits your natural rhythm. Find the time of day when you’re most alert and use it for more challenging tasks.

Reward Yourself

Treat yourself after completing homework or reaching specific milestones. It can be as simple as a small snack, a short break, or doing something you love.

Stay Engaged

Try to actively engage with the material. Ask questions, discuss concepts with classmates, or relate it to real-life situations.

Study Groups

Consider joining or creating study groups with friends. Discussing topics and helping each other can make the process more enjoyable.

Celebrate Progress

Celebrate your achievements, even small ones. Recognize your efforts and improvements.

Mindfulness Techniques

Practice mindfulness or relaxation techniques before starting homework to reduce stress and increase focus.

If you’re struggling with a particular subject, don’t hesitate to ask for help from teachers, classmates, or online resources.

Visual Aids

Use visual aids like diagrams, charts, or flashcards to make studying more engaging and easier to grasp.

Incorporate Interests

If possible, relate homework topics to your interests or hobbies. It can make the material more relatable and enjoyable.

Use planners or digital tools to keep track of assignments, due dates, and progress. Being organized can reduce stress.

Remember that enjoying homework might not happen overnight, but by implementing these strategies and maintaining a positive mindset, you can make the process more enjoyable and rewarding.

How can I make my high school homework fun?

Making high school homework fun requires creativity and a positive attitude. Here are some tips to make your high school homework more enjoyable:

Personalize Your Space

Create a study environment that reflects your personality and interests. Decorate your study area with posters, photos, or artwork that inspires you.

Set a Homework Routine

Establish a consistent homework routine that aligns with your energy levels. Determine the best time of day for you to focus and stick to it.

Break Tasks into Smaller Steps

Divide your assignments into smaller, manageable tasks. Completing each step feels like an accomplishment and keeps you motivated.

Incorporate technology into your homework. Explore educational apps and websites that make learning interactive and engaging.

Study with Friends

Organize study groups with friends to tackle assignments together. You can explain concepts to each other and share different perspectives.

Gamify Your Learning

Turn your homework into a game. Set challenges, time limits, or point systems for completing tasks. Reward yourself when you meet your goals.

Create playlists for different subjects or moods. Upbeat music can boost your energy for math, while calming tunes can help you concentrate on reading assignments.

Experiment with different study materials. Use colorful pens, highlighters, or digital tools to make your notes visually appealing.

Real-Life Applications

Relate your homework to real-life situations whenever possible. For example, if you’re studying economics, analyze current events or business news .

Seek Support

Don’t hesitate to ask for help when needed. Reach out to teachers, classmates, or online resources for clarification or guidance.

Celebrate Achievements

Celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small. Reward yourself with a treat, a short break, or an activity you enjoy after completing homework.

Use planners, to-do lists, or digital tools to stay organized and track assignments and deadlines.

Challenge Yourself

Set personal challenges to make homework more engaging. Aim to finish assignments faster or with higher accuracy than before.

Whenever possible, relate homework topics to your interests or future career goals. It can make the material more relatable and engaging.

Stay Positive

Maintain a positive attitude toward your homework. Focus on the sense of accomplishment and knowledge gained through your efforts.

By incorporating these strategies into your high school homework routine, you can make the experience more enjoyable and productive while achieving academic success.

In conclusion, making homework fun is not just a distant dream; it’s a practical approach that can transform the way you tackle your assignments.

By personalizing your study space, setting goals and rewards, collaborating with friends, and gamifying your learning, you can turn the once-dreaded homework into an engaging adventure.

Incorporating technology, music, colorful materials, and real-life connections adds an extra layer of enjoyment. Remember to celebrate your achievements along the way and stay organized to reduce stress.

With a positive mindset and these strategies in your arsenal, you can embark on your homework journey with enthusiasm, making it not only bearable but genuinely enjoyable.

So, let’s turn the page and dive into the exciting world of learning, one fun homework assignment at a time!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i really make homework fun.

Absolutely! With the right approach and mindset, homework can be an enjoyable part of your academic journey.

What if I can’t concentrate with music?

Not everyone finds music helpful. Experiment with different study environments to discover what suits you best.

How do I avoid procrastination?

Creating a schedule and setting achievable goals can help you stay on track and avoid procrastination.

What if I still find a particular subject boring?

Try to connect it to your interests or real-life situations to make it more engaging.

How can I make studying with friends productive?

Ensure that your study group remains focused on the task at hand and avoids distractions.

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Recent Posts

Why homework matters

Homework is the perennial bogeyman of K–12 education. Any given year, you’ll find people arguing that students, especially those in elementary school, should have far less homework—or none at all . I have the opposite opinion. The longer I run schools—and it has now been more than sixteen years—the more convinced I am that homework is not only necessary, but a linchpin to effective K–12 education.

It is important to remember that kids only spend a fraction of their time in school. The learning that does or does not take place in the many hours outside of school has a monumental effect on children’s academic success and is a root cause of educational inequity.

The pandemic gave us a stark demonstration of this reality. Achievement gaps widened between affluent and low-income children not only because low-income students received less in-person or high-quality online instruction during the years of disrupted school, but also because children of college-educated and affluent parents were already less dependent on schools for learning. Affluent children are far more likely to have the privilege of tutors or other types of supplementary instruction, as well as a family culture of reading, and opportunities to travel, visit museums, and more. Homework is a powerful tool to help narrow these inequities, giving children from all backgrounds the opportunity to keep learning when they are not in school.

At Success Academy, the charter school network I founded and lead, we seek to develop students as lifelong learners who have the confidence and curiosity to pursue and build knowledge in all facets of their lives. Homework cultivates these mindsets and habits. Indeed, when teachers don’t assign homework, it reflects an unconscious conviction that kids can’t learn without adults. Kids internalize this message and come to believe they need their teacher to gain knowledge. In reality, they are more than capable of learning all sorts of things on their own. Discovering this fact can be both incredibly exciting and deeply empowering for them.

We also know that none of these benefits accrue when homework is mere busywork. Low-quality homework is likely what drives the mixed research evidence on the impact of homework on student achievement. It also sends the message to kids that doing it is simply an exercise in compliance and not worth their time. Homework must be challenging and purposeful for kids to recognize its value.

For this reason, at Success, we take great care with the design of our homework assignments, ensuring they are engaging and relevant to what takes place in class the next day. When done well, homework can be a form of the “flipped classroom”—a model developed by ed tech innovators to make large college lecture classes more engaging. In flipped classrooms, students learn everything they can on their own at home (in the original conception, via recorded lectures); class time builds on what they learned to address confusion and elevate their thinking to a more sophisticated level. It’s an approach that both respects kids’ capacity to learn independently, and assumes that out-of-class learning will drive the content and pace of the in-person lesson. 

Students always need a “why” for the things we ask them to do, and designing homework this way is motivating for them because it gives them that clear why. Class is engaging and interesting when they are prepared; when they aren’t, they won’t have the satisfaction of participating.

At this point, some teachers may be saying, “I can’t get my kids to hand in a worksheet, let alone rely on them to learn on their own.” And of course, effective use of homework in class relies on creating a strong system of accountability for getting kids to do it. This can be hard for teachers. It’s uncomfortable to lean into students’ lives outside of school, and many educators feel they don’t have that right. But getting over that discomfort is best for kids.

Educators should embrace setting an exacting norm for completing homework. This should include a schoolwide grading policy—at Success schools, missing and incomplete homework assignments receive a zero; students can get partial credit for work handed in late; and middle and high schoolers can revise their homework for a better grade—as well as consistently and explicitly noticing when kids are or are not prepared and offering praise and consequences. Enlisting parents’ help in this area is also highly effective. I guarantee they will be grateful to be kept informed of how well their children are meeting their responsibilities!

Ultimately, minimizing homework or getting rid of it entirely denies children autonomy and prevents them from discovering what they are capable of. As we work to repair the academic damage from the last two-plus years, I encourage educators to focus not on the quantity of homework, but instead on its quality—and on using it effectively in class. By doing so, they will accelerate kids’ engagement with school, and propel them as assured, autonomous learners and thinkers who can thrive in college and beyond.

Eva Moskowitz is the CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools .

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Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > The Pros and Cons of Homework

School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

Updated: July 16, 2024

Published: January 23, 2020

Remember those nights when you’d find yourself staring at a mountain of homework, eyes drooping, wondering if you’d ever see the light at the end of the tunnel? The debate over homework’s role in education is as old as time. Is it a crucial tool for reinforcing learning or just an unnecessary burden?

For college students, this question takes on new dimensions. Juggling homework with the endless amount of classes, part-time jobs, and social lives can feel like walking on thin ice. The pressure to maintain grades, meet deadlines, and still find time for friends and relaxation can be overwhelming. So, is homework a friend or foe?

Photo by  energepic.com  from  Pexels

The homework dilemma.

A large amount of college students report feeling overwhelmed by their academic workload, leading to high levels of stress and anxiety. According to Research.com , 45% of college students in the U.S. experience “more than average” stress, with 36.5% citing stress as a major impediment to their academic performance. This stress often stems directly from the homework load, leading to symptoms like headaches, exhaustion, and difficulty sleeping. The intense pressure to manage homework alongside other responsibilities makes us question the true impact of homework on students’ overall well-being.

And then there’s the digital twist. A whopping 89% of students confessed to using AI tools like ChatGPT for their assignments. While these tools can be a godsend for quick answers and assistance, they can also undermine the personal effort and critical thinking necessary to truly understand the material.

On the brighter side, homework can be a powerful ally. According to Inside Higher Ed , structured assignments can actually help reduce stress by providing a clear learning roadmap and keeping students engaged with the material. But where’s the balance between helpful and harmful? 

With these perspectives in mind, let’s dive into the pros and cons of homework for college students. By understanding both sides, we can find a middle ground that maximizes learning while keeping stress at bay.

The Pros of Homework

When thoughtfully assigned, homework can be a valuable tool in a student’s educational journey . Let’s explore how homework can be a beneficial companion to your studies:

Enhances Critical Thinking

Homework isn’t just busywork; it’s an opportunity to stretch your mental muscles. Those late-night problem sets and essays can actually encourage deeper understanding and application of concepts. Think of homework as a mental gym; each assignment is a new exercise, pushing you to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in ways that strengthen your critical thinking skills .

Time Management Skills

Do you ever juggle multiple deadlines and wonder how to keep it all together? Regular homework assignments can be a crash course in time management . They teach you to prioritize tasks, manage your schedule, and balance academic responsibilities with personal commitments. The ability to juggle various tasks is a skill that will serve you well beyond your college years.

Reinforcement of Learning

There’s a reason why practice makes perfect. Homework reinforces what you’ve learned in class, helping to cement concepts and theories in your mind. Understanding a concept during a lecture is one thing, but applying it through homework can deepen your comprehension and retention. 

Preparation for Exams

Think of homework as a sound check and warm-up for exams. Regular assignments keep you engaged with the material, making it easier to review and prepare when exam time rolls around. By consistently working through problems and writing essays, you build a solid foundation that can make the difference between cramming and confident exam performance.

Encourages Independent Learning

Homework promotes a sense of responsibility and independence. It pushes you to tackle assignments on your own, encouraging problem-solving and self-discipline. This independence prepares you for the academic challenges ahead and the autonomy required in your professional and personal life.

The Cons of Homework

Despite its potential benefits, homework can also have significant downsides. Let’s examine the challenges and drawbacks of homework:

Impact on Mental Health

Homework can be a double-edged sword when it comes to mental health . While it’s meant to reinforce learning, the sheer volume of assignments can lead to stress and anxiety. The constant pressure to meet deadlines and the fear of falling behind can create a relentless cycle of stress. Many students become overwhelmed, leading to burnout and negatively impacting their overall well-being. 

Limited Time for Other Activities

College isn’t just about hitting the books. It’s also a time for personal growth, exploring new interests, and building social connections. Excessive homework can eat into the time you might otherwise spend on extracurricular activities, hobbies, or simply hanging out with friends. This lack of balance can lead to a less fulfilling college experience. Shouldn’t education be about more than just academics?

Quality Over Quantity

When it comes to homework, more isn’t always better. Piling on assignments can lead to diminished returns on learning. Instead of diving deep into a subject and gaining a thorough understanding, students might rush through tasks just to get them done. This focus on quantity over quality can undermine the educational value of homework. 

Inequity in Education

Homework can sometimes exacerbate educational inequalities. Not all students can access the same resources and support systems at home. While some might have a quiet space and access to the internet, others might struggle with distractions and lack of resources. This disparity can put certain students at a disadvantage, making homework more of a burden than a learning tool. 

Dependence on AI Tools

With the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT , homework has taken on a new dimension. While these tools can provide quick answers and assistance, they also pose the risk of students becoming overly reliant on technology. This dependence can take away from the actual learning process, as students might bypass the critical thinking and effort needed to truly understand the material. Is convenience worth the potential loss in learning?

Finding the Balance

Finding the right balance with homework means tackling assignments that challenge and support you. Instead of drowning in a sea of tasks, focus on quality over quantity. Choose projects that spark your critical thinking and connect to real-world situations. Flexibility is key here. Recognize that your circumstances are unique, and adjusting your approach can help reduce stress and create a more inclusive learning environment. Constructive feedback makes homework more than just a chore; it turns it into a tool for growth and improvement.

It’s also about living a well-rounded college life. Don’t let homework overshadow other important parts of your life, like extracurricular activities or personal downtime. Emphasize independent learning and use technology wisely to prepare for future challenges. By balancing thoughtful assignments with your personal needs, homework can shift from being a burden to becoming a helpful companion on your educational journey, enriching your academic and personal growth.

Homework has its pros and cons, especially for college students. It can enhance critical thinking, time management, and learning, but it also brings stress, impacts mental health, and can become overwhelming. Finding the right balance is key. 

Focus on quality assignments, maintain flexibility, and make sure your homework complements rather than dominates your life. With a thoughtful approach, homework can support your educational journey, fostering both academic success and personal growth.

How can I manage my time effectively to balance homework and other activities?

Create a schedule that allocates specific times for homework, classes, and personal activities. Use planners or digital calendars to keep track of deadlines and prioritize tasks. Don’t forget to include breaks to avoid burnout.

How can I reduce the stress associated with homework?

To manage stress, practice mindfulness techniques like meditation or deep breathing exercises. Break assignments into smaller, manageable tasks and tackle them one at a time. If needed, seek support from classmates, tutors, or mental health professionals.

Is using AI tools for homework cheating?

While AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for quick assistance, relying on them too much can hinder your learning process. Use them as a supplement rather than a replacement for your own effort and critical thinking.

How can teachers make homework more equitable?

Teachers can offer flexible deadlines, provide resources for students who lack them, and design assignments that account for different learning styles and home environments. Open communication between students and teachers can also help address individual challenges.

What are some strategies to make homework more meaningful?

Focus on quality over quantity by designing assignments that encourage deep thinking and application of knowledge. Integrate real-world problems to make homework more relevant and engaging. Provide constructive feedback to help students learn and grow from their assignments.

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