Home, the Family, and Language Development

Second language, or ELL students and students with disabilities struggle more with homework than their non-disabled classmates (McNary et al., 2005). Homework design and its completion has many influences. Among them:

• Student accommodations
• Organization and a student’s ability to remain organized executive functioning
• Structure of assignments
• Availability of technology
• Home-school communications
• Life influences

ELL students that are challenged by homework and language may exhibit distractedness, procrastination, constant reminders about it, failure to complete, daydreaming (Patton, 1994). While many of these influences are outside of the control of the immediate classroom environment such as life influences, language spoken at home, cultural background, educational experiences, parental support, and any student accommodations, many are within the teacher’s control, such as homeschool communications, structure of assignments, and help with organization.  How can we make homework most effective for our students?

• By designing and assigning homework that meets specific purposes and goals (Voorhees, 2011).
• By connecting homework directly to classroom instruction (Redding, 2000)
• By making homework purposeful (Vatterott, 2010), and meaningful with methods that work into students' learning styles.

Here are some more suggestions for making homework purposeful:

• Do not assign topics already taught; rather, homework should support and expand on what is taught, or prepare students for upcoming lessons (Redding, 2000).
• Tie homework into what students will understand the cultural background or history of, not what will be completely foreign to them. 
• Make homework efficient (Vatterott, 2010).  Students should understand clearly what the homework is to be used for, and how to complete it – a clear sense of what to do, and how to do it (Protheroe, 2009).
• While homework should require thinking, it should not take an inordinate amount of time to complete either. The recommendation is less than 90 minutes at the middle school level, and less than 60 for elementary (Carr, 2013).

The following factors contribute to homework effectiveness for ELLs:

• Allowing students ownership over and feel competent about their homework
• Provide students with as much choice as possible to create a greater sense of ownership
• Refrain from the one-size fits all for homework, and while it might take more time (at first) to design, assign homework that provides choice while differentiating for various learners and levels of English language mastery. For example, instead of giving all students a story map to complete, allow some to tape a retelling, others to recreate the story through a timeline, and others a comic strip.
• Giving homework aesthetic appeal (Vatterott, 2010) by making it visually appealing, or involving the creation of visuals. If note-taking is assigned, allow ELLs to draw out their ideas. Allow them to illustrate paragraphs and other chunks of text to reinforce and communicate understanding.
• Make them visually appealing, uncluttered with less information on a page versus more
• Offer plenty of room to write, make graphics, or use clip art to make tasks look more appealing and inviting (Vatterott, 2010)

Other Homework Tips:

• Assign homework at the beginning of class
• Explain homework and the directions with directions posted somewhere in writing – on the board or the Smartboard (McNary et al., 2005)
• Have students begin the homework in class (Cooper & Nye, 1994; McNary et al., 2005; Patton, 1994) and check for student understanding before releasing them on their own.
•  Collect, grade and Return all homework as soon as possible, and as close to other related tasks with feedback (Redding, 2006).  Grade it, comment on it, make it as meaningful and relevant as possible to what they are doing in class.

Parental Involvement in Homework

• Parental involvement in students’ homework has proven to lead to higher completion rates and higher student achievement (Keith, 1992).
• Communicate clearly the consequences of not completing homework to parents.
• Differentiate homework whenever possible through various rubrics, shorter assignments, shorter reading passages based on reading level. Never give homework that is beyond a student’s independent completion ability.
• Adjust and be flexible about timeframes for homework completion when possible. ELL students may take as much as three times longer to complete something (Patton, 1994).
• Coordinate with other teachers to make sure students aren’t overwhelmed by too much homework due at the same time, or homework beyond their language reach such as longer projects. This will keep parents from becoming overwhelmed as well.
• Increase parental involvement by holding homework workshops at the beginning of the school year on how to best help their child with homework; send notes with clear instructions for homework completion, show them examples of video of how to effectively help with homework, such as what questions to ask, how to help versus do it for them, and how to coach their overall effort; send home school newsletters with visual/pictorial information to communicate effective homework assistance strategies..

Helping Parents Help Children With Homework - Tips to Pass Along to Parents

"According to a  scientific analysis of 25 studies…when parents are simply more involved than average, their children are an astonishing 30 percent more successful in school." –The Parent Institute, 2004

Help Children Develop Organizational Skills

Helping children develop organizational skills is catalyst to establishing good work study and homework habits. We can help them by showing them how we organize our own world; show them shopping and "To Do" lists, provide them an assignment notebook or daily planner so they can make their own "To Do" list for school.

Establish a Study Spot

When we take our ritual spot on the couch, chair in the kitchen, etc., to pay our bills or read the newspaper, we are demonstrating for our children the importance of establishing their own space for homework. Encourage parents to be sure a homework spot is well lit, quiet (NO television!), comfortable, neat and stocked with supplies such as pencils, paper, dictionary, etc., with minimal disruptions.

Routine is Everything

Some tips for helping establish the kind of routine that will facilitate an independent homework ethic include having children study every day – even when they don’t have homework, allowing study breaks of 5 to 10 minutes for every 20 to 30 minutes of study time, staying near enough to offer help when needed, having children study the more difficult subjects first – while energy is higher and before it gets too late.

Helping Versus Doing It For Them

When we might give  in to the  temptation to  give an answer to a child, this only adds to their struggles. Allowing  them  to  find  their  own  answers facilitates long-term understanding. Ask questions that will help them find their own answer, such as, "What do you think that means?" 

Carr, N. S. (2013). Increasing the effectiveness of homework for all learners in the inclusive classroom. School Community Journal, 23(1), 169-182.