Making homework less stressful for school students

Education is incomplete without students being assigned to do homework regularly. In fact, in the curriculum and ERP for school, assignments and projects are very important for the evaluation of student progress.

Homework is assigned with the objective that a child will revise and study the topics which have already been taught at school. However, there will always be students who do not benefit from the homework. They end up overwhelmed and stressed, unable to complete their assignment. Hence there is no impact on their performance and no improvement in their skills too.

Another reason why homework is not viewed kindly is that students like to study on their own at times, and the overwhelming amount of workload on the LMS portals makes it impossible for them to focus on personal development through personal study sessions. They have less time to sleep and participate in extracurricular activities in school and at home. Ultimately, an overwhelming amount of assignments again impact students negatively and damage their progress.

At the end of the day, it is the job of a teacher to ensure that they assign homework promptly and keep their student’s interests in mind while doing so. Here are some other tips to help out teachers assign less stressful homework with the objective of increased productivity;

Table of Contents

Demonstration

Another word for demonstration is giving example. The main reason why homework is distressing to students is that they don’t find any extra help to complete them, and are overwhelmed by the deadline. Sometimes asking a parent might be too much because parents are also busy, and asking a classmate could be embarrassing for them. With improperly managed LMS portals, it is close to impossible to have an early response from teachers who can help students out.

The best way to avoid all the above-mentioned problems is to demonstrate or give an example of how the work could be completed in the class itself while assigning the homework. For example, if a few mathematical sums on differentiation are given for homework, the teacher could solve the sums of a similar pattern in the class itself so that students can use it as a reference or guide back at home. The best part is that teachers can now upload reference guidebooks and extra notes on portals for students to refer to when they doubt the homework.

Rationale

It is not the homework itself but the reason behind the assignment. Teachers should never give students work only for the sake of keeping them busy or occupied during the weekends. It should have valid reasoning, for example, mathematical sums could be assigned so that they practice at home and don’t lose touch with the subject. When studying a difficult subject, teachers usually give assignments so that students can revise the work at home and come up with doubts immediately the next day.

The consequence of having the wrong rationale behind an assignment is bad and disloyal behavior by the students and indifference towards educational activities.

Proper assessing

Professional teachers assess the homework before assigning it and after assigning it. Before assigning check whether topics assigned to complete at home are important as per the syllabus and exam point of view or not. Some students don’t grade homework sheets and only point out lacking portions in a classroom, sometimes not referencing any individual worksheet but the common problems almost all the students faced.

When students don’t have personalized feedback from their teacher, they feel discouraged from completing their work because they don’t find any reason to do so since the teacher will not assess it individually. The completed work of students should be equally important for the teacher to check as it is for a student to complete.

Give them the option

Give students the option of not completing some assignments and let them know that they are not bound by compulsion in case there are other tasks at the top of the priority list. At times, students prefer self-studying rather than completing assignments for revision purposes. This is because they have their own pace and methodologies which are well suited to their study style.

Teachers love to give tasks before examinations because they feel like these tasks will help students. The same compulsion that helps a few might not help others because they have a unique study style. Giving them the option to not complete assignments and turn in any practice work they have done at home makes students realize that it is the objective behind the homework that matters.