Monday, 24 October 2022

What is homework?


 




 Homework is form of formative assessment given to learners as a task or activity to do at home in the absence of teachers, this can also be an opportunity for learners to cognitively understand what they have learned and solve problems on their own. In order to reinforce what was taught in class, teachers give out task, activities based on what they taught on that specific day as homework.

Importance of Parents being involved in their children education, homework

 

                                     

Countless studies have found that kids perform better in school when their parents are involved with their schoolwork. Compared to students whose parents are uninvolved, kids with involved parents get better grades and are thought more highly of by teachers. These effects remain in the future, even if parents become less involved as the child ages. Parent involvement in school-based activities seems to have the greatest effect on kids' grades, but home-based parent involvement also plays at least some role. Kids whose parents are involved with their schoolwork attend school more regularly than kids whose parents are uninvolved. This probably occurs for a number of reasons. For one, parents who are involved typically value school highly and encourage consistent attendance. Secondly, kids who get help from parents tend to feel more academically competent, so they are less likely to want to avoid going to school. Finally, parent involvement improves kids' attitudes about school, making school attendance more desirable. Behavior issues often begin to appear during the tween years, especially as kids' cognitive development leads them toward risk-taking. Thankfully, parental attention can help to head off many of these behavior issues. For instance, children with involved parents have lower rates of substance use and delinquent acts compared to kids whose parents are uninvolved. In addition, kids behave better and less aggressively in the classroom when their parents are involved with their education.

How parents can reach out to teachers

 


Set up meetings 

Parents engagement in learners' education is very vital as this improves learners' performance as concerned parents see their children not fostering or performing in their academics. Parents involvement enhance academic achievement indirectly by promoting children's motivation and persistence in challenging educational tasks. Parent involvement bridges two key contexts in children's early development, namely the home and school settings. The importance of parent teacher meeting lies in the fact that it helps to build a bridge between the two important facets of a student’s life. The cognition of a child when they first start school is measured by how fast they are able to replicate words and sentences shown to them in writing or hearing.

Call offline/keep teachers contacts

The best tip for school success is to make sure that parents and teachers are working together as allies. Sometimes, though, it can seem as though there’s a chalk line drawn down the middle of your child’s life, The information on both sides can be combined to create a fuller understanding of your child. This is not only of benefit to them but also to you and their teachers. Try these tips for creating a great relationship with your child's teacher. Building partnerships between parents and teachers can rely on teachers listening to parents and parents taking the time to understand where teachers are coming from. Sometimes parents and teachers both are guilty of dismissing the other’s viewpoint. As a parent, the more dismissed you feel, the less likely you are to participate in your child’s education. As a teacher, the less you feel like you’re being heard, the more likely you are to stop communicating with a parent. Things that may seem confrontational, like an outline of what kind of homework help a teacher wants from a parent or a parent outlining what the school needs to do to accommodate a child’s peanut allergy, aren’t always as demanding as they appear. The end goal is the same for both the parent and the school: helping kids be responsible, safe, and successful.   


How to tackle homework

 

  Find a homework friendly area

Ensure that the child’s working area is neat and clean, child’s stationary should be placed in and orderly form such that when learner needs a pencil or eraser, it is easy for them to access it without having to look for it. A well-organized working area boosts leaners productivity by helping them think clearly and focus well on their work.

2.      Minimize distractions

There should be no television, no music sounds or a distracting sibling in the presence of your child that is trying to do their homework. Try to find a quiet place where your child can focus. Do not give your child any extra house work during their homework time, for example washing dishes, sweeping or sending them around.

3.      Set up a regular homework time

Take two hours a day where your child strictly has to do homework activities only. Setting up a routine timetable for your child can help prepare them mentally and physically for their work.

4.      Motivate your child

Sometimes children get faced with challenging homework tasks and tend to want to give up. Assist the child and motivate them not to give up. Reward the child when they perform well in their school tasks, this motivates them to keep getting good grades.

5.      Praise your child’s work and efforts

Give your child instant feedback and tell them that it is fine to make mistakes. Praise your child for their efforts and emphasize what they have done well.

 If homework still continues to be a challenge, make sure to be in constant communication with your child’s teacher. Some children may need extra help.

 

Advantages and disadvantages of homework

 

Advantages 

learners develop time management 

Learners are always most likely to have better time management when they plan out their study schedule, this is a very useful skill which they will use as they go through their whole educational lifespan. Having set time scheduled for homework ensures that the learners work is completed.

Students engage with their studies 

Being at school the whole day in class is not necessarily enough for learners to engage with their work, doing their homework allows for reinforcement and understand deeper. This also allows for parents to engage with what their children are being taught at school.

Teachers keeps track of learner's progress

When teachers give out tasks to be done as homework, they are able to see weather learners understood what was being taught in class and they are able to pick out the child's weakness and strengths 

Disadventages 

The most argument against homework is that it eats up valuable time kids should have with their family members, while others argues that homework is rarely valuable.

Handy resources

  Plays



The teacher tasks learners to play out topics. Acting out the topics gives the learners opportunity to study the notes while having fun. Both the teacher and learners play out the homework instead of the teacher just in front explaining the whole time.

 Films



the teacher plays videos or film explaining about the homework to the learners. Doing it the visual type of learning.

 Radio programs/podcasts explaining the notes via recording



The learners can keep/store the recording for future us. Recording is better for the reason that learners can always listen to it anytime.

 Digital learning (animation/images) 



The teacher presents the lesson with images. Explaining to the learners using images related to the topic, for the learners to have an idea what’s being explained.

Easy Strategies to implement when doing homework

 

Try to understand the homework

Before attempting to do homework, it is very important to understand all the homework questions, understanding a question is important if one wants to answer to the best of one’s ability, first off. Also, the questions one asks can be very telling in ways not having anything to do with the question itself nor its answer. You can gain significant insight into understanding homework questions before you start doing them, in case the learner does not understand they can seek for assistance from guardian or anyone around.

Start right away

It is important that the learner needs to have a set starting time for their homework, this helps with not forgetting to complete homework and procrastinating. It is important to start right away when learners have homework as it helps to condition the mind of the learner to make time for their schoolwork and for them to become serious

Take breaks


Taking breaks during homework is really vital, several studies suggest that the brain has a limited capacity to register information over a long period of time and when one don’t take a break it causes work overload. During the process of relaxation your mind refreshes and is ready to store more information and functions at its optimum level, hence to improve concentration it is important to take a break. With a refreshed mind you become more focused and are most likely to study well and remember the matter discussed.

Avoid areas where you can sleep

Studying on bed reduces productivity and loss of concentration as learner would be sleepy and too comfortable. Learner feels tired in no time and can’t better assemble and organize their materials. Working on bed reduces focus and most learners tend to associate their bed with comfort zone and sleep. Doing homework on bed can lead to a division of the brain to become lazier and possibly fall asleep.

 

Tools that help with doing homework

 


 

Computers and internet


Computers and internet can be very helpful tools which learners can use to gather information, which is accessible at their disposal, computers can give enough sources of information which can also include fun educational games which helps with relaxation. Computers has variety of functions which can be very helpful towards educational purposes such as watching tutorials from different online platforms.

 

Note taking tools

This are the type of tools that learners can use to remember, take little notes for remembering. This type of tools includes summary books, notepads. Summary books can also be used to find more information on what the learners are working on.

                                                            Family members

At times learners find themselves across a difficult problem which they are unable to solve by themselves and they end up being in need of extra help from someone who has deeper understanding of the problem they need to solve, brothers, sisters, parents can be very helpful towards steering the learner in the right direction in solving the problem.

WhatsApp group/ Zoom

Learners can use each other help when it comes to activities and problems they encounter when doing homework, through using zoom to call each other and WhatsApp groups to discuss the homework which makes the work easier.






A behind the scenes look at schools' operation


A day-to-day operation on the school ground involves learners being in a classroom where they are being taught in which the teachers have a lesson planned, it typically includes the goal what students need to learn, how the goal will be achieved the method of delivery and procedure and a way to measure how well the goal was reached usually via homework assignments or testing. Teachers also have a syllabus which covers details important information that fits into an overarching curriculum, which describes a class in general terms. Together, a curriculum and a syllabus account for all of the topics you plan to teach, the resources you’ll use to teach them, and the individual lessons that support each topic. Through having a syllabus and lesson plan a teacher therefore prepares a lesson and comes prepared to class on what they are going to teach that specific day and what homework they are going to give, after teaching the learners are given homework on which the learners are supposed to go complete at home and to see if learners understood what was being taught during class. The next day learners are expected to have completed their homework and they discuss the homework in class and do corrections. However, before the lessons the teacher makes a recap on the previous day topic which was discussed to see if learners understood.

Conclusion

 


In conclusion, Cooper found that students who completed homework had better report cards and test results than those who didn't (1989 cited by Epstein & Van Voorhis 2001). Homework helps with making students accountable and taking ownership of their learning. Children need to understand the value of hard work and to form the obligation and self-regulation to commit to their projects and see them through. Homework can help students form a hardy work ethic that they will take with them to college and beyond, from kindergarten to senior year, kids and teens struggle to manage time and prioritize their to-do list. For young children, parents tend to these assignments to guide kids to develop this important skill. The goal for high school students means eventually learning how to manage multiple tasks to fit it in their schedule, and plan which will take longer or shorter depending on their skill level, strengths, or weaknesses

What is homework?

   Homework is form of formative assessment given to learners as a task or activity to do at home in the absence of teachers, this can also ...