Success With Homework: Five Steps to Helping Your Child With Homework It is important to think of yourself as a team member with the teacher. The teacher works with your child at school, and you work with your child at home. Homework does two things for a student: It helps her learn, and it teaches responsibility. There are five steps you can take at home to help your child learn better and faster and have greater retention. By using these techniques, you are not only helping your child learn, but you are teaching her how to learn as well. 1. Set clear learning goals. It is important that your child understand what she is supposed to get out of the lesson. Go beyond simple goals such as, "Read three pages." Instead, help her list things she will learn in those three pages using the chapter summaries, subheadings, and questions usually provided at the end of each section of the textbook. If the science topic is "The Cell," have her write down a few questions such as, "What is a cell?" "What is in a cell?" "What do cells do?" This will help her read for meaning. She will be searching for answers, not just covering pages. If the teacher assigned a worksheet of questions to be answered from the reading, she should read those questions before reading her textbook. Even then, it would be a good idea to have her write a summary statement clarifying what she will be learning from the worksheet; "In this assignment I will learn about cells and what they do." Strategy Tip: Have your child write or say a one-sentence summary to clarify why she is doing a lesson. 2. Help her break the homework into logical sequences of learning. What does she need to know first? What basic skill does she need to learn first to complete each task successfully? For instance, if she is learning about fractions, how are her skills at division? Learning is progressive. One concept builds on another. One skill is learned after another. If there is a weak link in your child's learning, it can hinder her progress every time that missing skill or incomplete knowledge is needed. Mastery of each step is important for overall success. Strategy Tip: Ask your child to jot down or tell you the steps she will go through to complete the homework. You may need to help your child identify each step. 3. Give her concrete examples that illustrate the lesson. Most of us learn better when we have concrete examples to illustrate what we are learning. Students learn better when they can picture the point they are learning. With a little creativity you can help this happen. For example, when learning about the executive branch of government, show your child a picture of the White House. For a lesson on fractions, use slices of freshly baked pie. When studying about the atmosphere, watch the television weather report at night and point out various cloud formations during the day. Strategy Tip: Help your child see how the lesson applies to the real world. 4. Ask questions that force her to answer in her own words. Instead of asking, "Do you understand?" to which she can simply answer yes or no, ask questions that require longer answers. When your child has to explain her answer, it requires that she process what she has learned. If she cannot explain it in her own words, she has not truly learned it. If, for example, your child is learning a new math procedure, ask her to teach you the procedure. Putting her in the role of the teacher will mean she must understand the new learning in order to explain it. Strategy Tip: Ask your child what she is learning and have her explain it to you. 5. Give her frequent opportunities to practice what she has just learned. Your child may forget what she has just learned without frequent practice. You can use a variety of creative activities to have her practice her learning. For instance, use news events to have her review her geography lesson or, have her write a letter to a relative and practice her new vocabulary words. Strategy Tip: Think about the topics she is learning and try to find common applications so she can practice what she learns. © 1998, Eric Buehrer