Elementary School Homework to Support All Learners

As a special education teacher, I often have conversations with parents about homework. Parents want to know: Is homework truly beneficial? Should their child be spending time on assignments after school, or would they be better off focusing on other activities? The answer depends. The appropriateness of homework depends on the individual student, their learning needs, and the way the assignments are structured.

The Case for Homework

Homework, when assigned thoughtfully, should review previously taught classroom material and build important life skills. Here are some of the benefits:

Enhances Academic Achievement – Research suggests that students who complete homework tend to perform better on standardized tests and classroom assessments. While too much homework may not be beneficial, small amounts of meaningful assignments can help solidify learning.
Promotes Time Management and Responsibility – Homework teaches students how to manage their time, complete tasks independently, and develop study habits that will serve them well in later grades.
Facilitates Parental Involvement – Assignments give parents insight into what their child is learning and provide opportunities to engage in their education in a supportive way.
Reinforces Classroom Learning – Repetition and practice can help young learners build independence of new concepts, like math and reading, where skills build upon one another.

The Challenges of Homework

Despite its benefits, homework is not always appropriate for every student. Here are some common concerns:

Increases Stress and Burnout – For many young children, particularly those with learning disabilities, homework can be frustrating and overwhelming. Studies have shown that too much homework can lead to stress, anxiety, and a negative attitude toward learning.
Takes Time Away from Family and Extracurricular Activities – After a full day of learning, children need time to relax, play, and spend quality time with their families.
Does Not Always Improve Academic Success – Research indicates that for elementary-aged students, the impact of homework on academic achievement is minimal. The key is ensuring that assignments are meaningful rather than just busy work.
Creates Inequities – Not all students have access to the same resources at home. Some may lack a quiet space to work, parental support, or access to technology, making homework completion more challenging.

Supporting Your Child with Homework

If your child is struggling with homework, there are several ways you can support them and make the process more manageable:

Create a Homework Routine – Set a regular time and place for homework that minimizes distractions. Being consistent reduces stress.
Break It Into Chunks – If assignments feel too long, break them into smaller, manageable parts with short breaks in between.
Encourage Effort, Not Perfection – Praise your child for their hard work and persistence rather than focusing on getting every answer right.
Communicate with Teachers – If your child is struggling, talk to their teacher. Many teachers are willing to adjust assignments, provide extra support, or suggest alternative ways to reinforce learning at home.

Advocating for Children with Disabilities

For parents of children with learning disabilities or other challenges, homework can be particularly difficult. Here’s how you can advocate for your child:

Request Accommodations – If your child has an IEP or 504 Plan, discuss whether homework accommodations are needed. This might include extended time, modified assignments, or alternative ways to demonstrate learning.
Use Assistive Technology – Tools like speech-to-text software, audiobooks, or graphic organizers can make homework more accessible.
Help Develop Organizational Strategies – Work with your child on using planners, checklists, or timers to help them stay on track.
Encourage Self-Advocacy – Teach your child to communicate their needs and ask for help when needed.

Policies

My elementary school has a written policy for homework. It serves as a guide for parents but also teachers. Ask your child’s teacher about the school or district homework policy.

As a learning community, my school believes homework is important because it provides students with independent practice and supplemental learning opportunities. It also provides opportunities for parent-school partnerships.

As a split campus (primary and secondary), teachers either assess work weekly or daily. The important thing is that homework can look like different things from unfinished work. In addition to specific assignments, pieces of a project, or something that extends learning from a unit, homework must provide clear and specific directions as to what students need to do.

Everyone has nightly reading homework. Assignments include a good chunk of reading that students must complete nightly. We encourage parents to keep an eye on how much time their child is spending on homework. If their child is struggling too much, parents should reach out to their child’s classroom teacher.

Finding a Balance

Ultimately, homework should support learning without causing too much stress or frustration. Teachers and parents should work together to ensure that assignments are meaningful, accessible, and tailored to individual student needs. If homework becomes a nightly battle, it may be time to rethink the approach. Homework should always mirror what is being taught in the classroom and not waste students’ time.

Homework in elementary school is most effective when it strikes the right balance—reinforcing classroom learning while respecting a child’s need for rest, play, and family time. When assigned, it can build independence, responsibility, and academic skills. Too much or inappropriate homework can lead to frustration and disengagement. The goal should be to create a homework experience that is purposeful, manageable, and supportive of all learners, particularly those with diverse needs.

Writing Standards with Fun Activities (Part 4)

Each year I am challenged in how I can adequately increase the writing competencies of my students in project-based learning activities. When I partnered with another teacher, we created a checklist of what we had to complete by the end of the school year to meet all writing competencies. These activities included:

Writing teachers must understand the rules for grade level writing standards.
The teachers must consider various activities that will fully engage and inspire diverse learners.
Writing activities must be fun while meeting a wide range of reading and writing abilities within a class. This ensures differentiated instruction that is equitable and successful for all students.
Writing teachers must research and collect resources that will support an engaging writing activity in the classroom.

What I Must Teach

I also reviewed and summarized the California writing standards for my second-grade class that included:

Write opinion pieces with an introduction and reasons for supporting an opinion.
Write an informational/expository text with an introduction, supporting facts, and a concluding statement.
Write narratives about a sequence of events with details, thoughts, and feelings in an organized order of explanations.
Produce writing that is organized according to task and purpose.
Learn to revise and edit with support from the teacher and peers.
Learn to use digital tools to publish writing products in collaboration with peers.

What Students Have Learned

When reviewing this list, my class has already created an informational text on learning more about rattlesnakes and how antivenom can neutralize a venomous rattlesnake bite. Next, my class completed a reflective narrative about how they researched and created the snake story with our writing teacher, Mrs. Burke. Most students were impressed with how Mrs. Burke shared her story about being a rattlesnake survivor after being bitten and medicated with antivenom from a horse. Many expressed relief that they would not die from a rattlesnake bite and that there are medications that will save them from a bite. Finally, students wrote an opinion story about how they plan to protect themselves from rattlesnake bites when working in their garden or hiking with their family. Most do not want to ever encounter a rattlesnake. Many also feel confident they now know how to protect themselves from a bite.

What We Must Still Learn

As I initiate second semester writing assignments, students will now focus on more collaborative writing and editing assignments while working on their Chromebooks. Their activities will include writing a fantasy story in the winter months and completing a career path research writing project in the spring time.

Much success as you engage your students with differentiated collaborative writing projects.

How to Make Writing Fun

How to Make Writing Fun (Part 2)

Most students feel challenged to complete their writing assignments. As an intervention elementary school teacher, I love to empower students with imaginative and engaging writing assignments. For example, my second-grade students wanted to learn more about rattlesnakes after hearing my personal story about being bitten by a rattlesnake. Here is an outline of questions they asked for our writing activity:

How did I get bitten by the rattlesnake?
Why do snakes bite people?
Where was I when it happened?
What did the bite feel like?
Did I catch the snake or did it get away?
What did I do after the bite?
Did I phone 911?
Did an ambulance transport me to the hospital?
What did I do while waiting for the ambulance?
What happened when I arrived at the hospital?
What type of medication did the doctors use to fight a venomous snake bite?
What does venomous, antivenom, and antidotes mean?
How is antivenom created?
What types of animals help create antivenom antidotes?
How long did it take to get better?
Do I still have problems with the bite?
What can a person do so they do not get a snake bite?

How To Help Kids Research Information

I was overwhelmed with the wide range of questions the students asked about my snake bite adventure. I also could not answer all of their questions. So, I talked with our school librarian and together we identified 14 library books that I could use with the students. I also researched scientific articles about how to make antivenom and a human body’s response to venomous snake bites. Then I printed copies of the online articles for the students. Once I compiled my source documents, I reviewed each book and article and bookmarked specific pages that might answer the students’ questions.

The next day I handed each student a book or scientific article as I summarized the content of each item. Some students chose to challenge themselves and read the college-level scientific articles. Others preferred picture books with lots of photos. Some wanted to read basic snake books. I wrote all of the students’ questions on a large sheet of paper and posted it to guide them in their research. Then I gave the students lots of time to research, write, and illustrate their stories. The energy in the classroom was incredibly exciting for all.

What Students Learned

Most students wrote a well written report about the various characteristics of rattlesnakes and their ability to bite. Many graphically illustrated how a snake would bite its victim. Several highlighted the main ideas of how to create antivenom in their research articles and asked me the definitions of numerous medical terms as they summarized the content of these articles in their reports. Thankfully, I have researched the topic extensively due to periodic foot pain resulting from the snake bite. I also live in a large city that only reports two rattlesnake bite victims each year so local doctors are interested in helping me with any health challenges.

After the class finished the project, each student stood up in front of their classmates and reported one new fact that they learned from writing their report. None of these students had ever presented research to their peers before. All participated and were proud of their work. Some of the students needed to read one or two sentences to explain their idea but they were pleased with the results of their project.

What I Learned

As an educator, I learned that students truly can direct their style of learning to achieve academic successes as described in Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke. I also recognized that this activity would build on other required writing competencies for second graders that that will be described in my March 28^th blog.

Let’s Talk Math Strategies

My second-grade students are asked to fluently add and subtract within 100 when using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction per CCSS 2 NBT.5. Was that a mouthful? It’s a lot of words to explain how one can use different place value strategies when adding and subtracting two-and-three-digit numbers. This approach is a big departure from the kind of math I was taught when I was my students’ age.

Relaxation Strategies for Learning

I’d like to introduce you to some of the different elements that go into educating the minds of these young seven-year-olds. In distance learning, it is paramount that the students are able to tell me what their readiness is to learn. We accomplish this through an emotional check-in. After a quick temperature check of the anxiety level the class has moving into the lesson, we center by taking a predetermined and preferred brain break. Some students may snap their finger 50 times while counting to 50. Others take three breaths or say a personal mantra. These strategies are intended to release discomfort and refocus students’ minds to tackle some math concepts that may cause stress due to the nature of trying something that is new. We acknowledge our present emotional state, regulate by using a practiced coping strategy, and then turn our centered attention toward receiving the lesson.

Math Teaching Strategies

If you’re ready now, take some breaths and I will introduce you to some of the strategies that a young seven-year-old wrestles with daily in second grade.

The first one is the number bond strategy. This is formally known as a fact family. Students take the knowledge learned in first grade and really put it to work when adding and subtracting two-and-three-digit numbers as seen in the photo of circled number groupings.
The next strategy is a ten frame. This common tool was first introduced in kindergarten to train students to readily see a number when it is organized in a consistent predictable pattern. In second grade, students use the ten-frame to help them organize their place value discs when using the hundreds, tens, and ones’ chart per the HTO (Hundreds, Tens, Ones Place Value) photo.
The last most widely used strategy is the number line as shown in the photo. Specifically, we use an open or empty number line.

Student Solving Options

The purpose of using multiple problem-solving strategies is to give each student a choice. This option empowers the student to take control of whatever strategy they feel they will be efficient using. We define efficiency in math as being quick, easy to use, and that gets us to the right answer most of the time. Students prefer using the number line because it is easy to use and has a high success rate. Secretly, I think they love it because they don’t have to do the standard addition or subtraction algorithm.

There you have it. Three different strategies second graders are using to conquer the common core state standard of adding and subtracting numbers to 100 using strategies based on place value.

Much success exploring math solutions with your children!

Danielle

Let’s Talk Book Shopping for Children!

Whether you are at your local bookshop or your bookshelves at home, the question remains the same; how do I know if my child has chosen a book appropriate for their reading level? My approach to helping children make their own book choices is anchored in the philosophy held by two educators, Gail Bushey and Joan Moser, who co-authored The Daily CAFÉ.

The main goal for allowing children to make their own book choice is to put their interests at the forefront of their reading. This actually allows a flow of intrinsic motivation to help push readers through their natural/developmental reading struggles. For example, train your children to seamlessly learn content-specific vocabulary such as caboose, coal, and locomotive, while reading about their favorite form of transportation.

Consider Your Child’s Reading Ability

While a child’s interests and empowering choice is paramount for book selection, some equally important guiding questions help to aim at making sure your reader is on the right track. It is important that your child can read the words on the page and understands what she is reading. Keep in mind that the purpose for reading is to become a better reader.

Ask Your Child These Questions

Can you read the words on the page?
Do you understand what you are reading?
Is this book helping you to become a better reader?

Consider the Five-Finger Rule

Another simple assessment for book choice is the five-finger rule. How does it work? A child opens her book of choice to any page and starts reading out loud. If she makes one or two errors on the page, the book is good for her level. If she makes three errors, move to comprehension questions to confirm that she still understands what she is reading.

I generally tell my students that they are not ready for the book yet if they are making four or more errors on a page. I also follow up with a question; will this book help you to become a better reader right now? It is always best if students reach their own self-actualization that they need to make a better book choice, rather than the adult/teacher telling them to choose another book.

If you want to learn more about the Lexile levels of the books your child is reading, here are some links that can help:

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/?search=1&prefilter=books&filters=&text=nate%20the%20great

https://fab.lexile.com

https://www.readinga-z.com/learninga-z-levels/level-correlation-chart

Happy reading time with your child!

Danielle