homework is spelling

 Spelling Homework Ideas

Need some ideas for spelling homework? Check out the gigantic list below of great ideas! You'll find the first 20 ideas here, and the remaining ones here . Each idea can be used with any list of weekly spelling words. Choose the ones that work best for your grade level. Vary the activities frequently.

Note: You might also want to consider our new  AnyWord Spelling Practice eBooks . They are full of ideas for lots of spelling practice with any spelling words. The 3 eBooks provide practice with creative writing, word play, and partner games.  Check them out !

Printable List of Spelling Homework Ideas

1. Write each word 5 times, using a different color each time.

2. Type your spelling words 10 times, using a different font each time.

3. Create a comic strip. Add captions that use 5 of your words.

4. Write the words in ABC order.

5. Write the words in reverse ABC order.

6. Write a TV ad for a product that uses 5 of your spelling words.

7. Find each word in the dictionary. Copy a definition for each one.

8.  Cut each spelling word out of a newspaper or magazine. Glue all the words on a piece of paper.

9. Write a sentence for each spelling word, but leave out the spelling words. List all the words on the page. Ask a family member to add the correct spelling word to each sentence.

Remember: Spelling homework not only prompts students to practice their spelling words. It can also help engage family members in the learning process.

10. Find each word in the dictionary. Write the page number on which it appears and the guide words at the top of the page.

11.  Write each word in a sentence. Make pictures for 3 sentences.

12. Write your spelling words. Add a rhyming word next to each one.

13. Write a story that uses 10 spelling words. Remember: Spelling homework not only prompts students to practice their spelling words. It can also help get family members involved in the learning process.

14. Scramble each spelling word. Have a family member unscramble the words and sign your paper.

15. Spell your words with alphabet pasta. Glue them onto paper.

16. Cut out paper letters for half of the words and glue onto paper.

17. Make a word search puzzle in which you hide all of your spelling words. Give it to a family member to solve and sign.

18. For a different type of word search, draw a Boggle-type game board. Make sure it contains at least 5 of your spelling words. See if a family member can find the spelling words.

19.  Make two copies of your spelling words on index cards. Use the cards to play a memory or "Concentration" game with a family member.

20. Write each word forwards and backwards.

Find our next 20 ideas here .

Ideas for using our list:

At the beginning of the week , give students a written list of 5 of these  ideas. Ask them to complete them in any order throughout the week.

Or, make a monthly spelling calendar. Write a different idea on the calendar for each school day in the month.

For more spelling homework ideas:

Need more ideas? See this list of 20 more homework ideas and/or our AnyWord Spelling Practice eBooks . 

Fun spelling practice ideas - Great ways for kids to help each other practice writing almost any spelling words. Time saver for you!

For additional spelling practice, try our spelling worksheets and spelling word games . 

• Spelling Words Well
• Spelling Lessons
• Spelling Homework
• What's New?

Spelling Bees!

• Spelling Bee Resources
• Spelling Bee Words

Grade Level Resources

• Preschool-K
• 1st Grade Spelling
• 2nd Grade Spelling
• 3rd Grade Spelling
• 4th Grade Spelling
• 5th Grade Spelling
• 6th Grade Spelling
• 7th-12th Grade Spelling

Spelling Worksheets

• Kindergarten
• Grades 1 - 2
• Grades 3 - 5
• Grade 6 - 9

Classroom Helps

• Bulletin Boards
• Correct Spelling Tips
• Difficult English Words
• Word Lists:Grades 1-12
• Vocabulary Words
• Writing Prompts

Spelling Games & Puzzles

• Word Search Puzzles - NEW
• Brain Teasers-Level 1
• Brain Teasers-Level 2
• Easy Crosswords
• Harder Crosswords
• Spelling Word Games
• Word Scrambles

Sight Words & Phonics

• Phonics Activities
• Phonics Worksheets
• Sight Word Games
• Sight Word Lists

Site Sections

• Privacy Policy

Subscribe or Read the Latest Updates Here

Phonics Activities, Phonics Games & More

300 Sixth Grade Spelling Words Your Students Should Master

Think-A-Spell! A fun collection of brain teasers and spelling challenges. Best for ages 10 to adult. 

AnyWord Spelling Practice Series Worksheets, Games and Prompts that work with almost ANY spelling words!

Fun Spelling Worksheets for Grades 1 and 2      50 All-new reproducible pages for early learners!

Gigantic Spelling Bee Word Lists with definitions, sentences and languages

Spelling Bee Toolboxes for Grades 3/5 and 6/8     All the resources you n eed for a successful bee!  

Monumental Spelling Bee Word Lists  for grades 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 with definitions, sentences and languages

Mammoth Spelling Bee Word Lists   for grades 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8   with sentences, definitions, and languages

Young Spellers Spelling Bee Word List for Grades 1 & 2 only 

100 Difficult Spelling Bee Words with Definitions, Sentences and Pronunciations, Volumes 1 and 2

600 Spelling Bee Words & Sentences for Gr 3/5 & 6/8 Extra words & sentences at two levels

101 Word Play Puzzlers    Discover the FUN of letters & words as you solve each unique puzzle. Great vocabulary & spelling practice!

© 2010-2024 Ann Richmond Fisher.   All Rights Reserved.

Commercial use of all content on Spelling-Words-Well.com is strictly prohibited.

Disclaimer & Copyright Info               

Affiliate Info                 Updated Privacy Policy

Does homework really work?

by: Leslie Crawford | Updated: December 12, 2023

Print article

You know the drill. It’s 10:15 p.m., and the cardboard-and-toothpick Golden Gate Bridge is collapsing. The pages of polynomials have been abandoned. The paper on the Battle of Waterloo seems to have frozen in time with Napoleon lingering eternally over his breakfast at Le Caillou. Then come the tears and tantrums — while we parents wonder, Does the gain merit all this pain? Is this just too much homework?

However the drama unfolds night after night, year after year, most parents hold on to the hope that homework (after soccer games, dinner, flute practice, and, oh yes, that childhood pastime of yore known as playing) advances their children academically.

But what does homework really do for kids? Is the forest’s worth of book reports and math and spelling sheets the average American student completes in their 12 years of primary schooling making a difference? Or is it just busywork?

Homework haterz

Whether or not homework helps, or even hurts, depends on who you ask. If you ask my 12-year-old son, Sam, he’ll say, “Homework doesn’t help anything. It makes kids stressed-out and tired and makes them hate school more.”

Nothing more than common kid bellyaching?

Maybe, but in the fractious field of homework studies, it’s worth noting that Sam’s sentiments nicely synopsize one side of the ivory tower debate. Books like The End of Homework , The Homework Myth , and The Case Against Homework the film Race to Nowhere , and the anguished parent essay “ My Daughter’s Homework is Killing Me ” make the case that homework, by taking away precious family time and putting kids under unneeded pressure, is an ineffective way to help children become better learners and thinkers.

One Canadian couple took their homework apostasy all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. After arguing that there was no evidence that it improved academic performance, they won a ruling that exempted their two children from all homework.

So what’s the real relationship between homework and academic achievement?

How much is too much?

To answer this question, researchers have been doing their homework on homework, conducting and examining hundreds of studies. Chris Drew Ph.D., founder and editor at The Helpful Professor recently compiled multiple statistics revealing the folly of today’s after-school busy work. Does any of the data he listed below ring true for you?

• 45 percent of parents think homework is too easy for their child, primarily because it is geared to the lowest standard under the Common Core State Standards .

• 74 percent of students say homework is a source of stress , defined as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems.

• Students in high-performing high schools spend an average of 3.1 hours a night on homework , even though 1 to 2 hours is the optimal duration, according to a peer-reviewed study .

Not included in the list above is the fact many kids have to abandon activities they love — like sports and clubs — because homework deprives them of the needed time to enjoy themselves with other pursuits.

Conversely, The Helpful Professor does list a few pros of homework, noting it teaches discipline and time management, and helps parents know what’s being taught in the class.

The oft-bandied rule on homework quantity — 10 minutes a night per grade (starting from between 10 to 20 minutes in first grade) — is listed on the National Education Association’s website and the National Parent Teacher Association’s website , but few schools follow this rule.

Do you think your child is doing excessive homework? Harris Cooper Ph.D., author of a meta-study on homework , recommends talking with the teacher. “Often there is a miscommunication about the goals of homework assignments,” he says. “What appears to be problematic for kids, why they are doing an assignment, can be cleared up with a conversation.” Also, Cooper suggests taking a careful look at how your child is doing the assignments. It may seem like they’re taking two hours, but maybe your child is wandering off frequently to get a snack or getting distracted.

Less is often more

If your child is dutifully doing their work but still burning the midnight oil, it’s worth intervening to make sure your child gets enough sleep. A 2012 study of 535 high school students found that proper sleep may be far more essential to brain and body development.

For elementary school-age children, Cooper’s research at Duke University shows there is no measurable academic advantage to homework. For middle-schoolers, Cooper found there is a direct correlation between homework and achievement if assignments last between one to two hours per night. After two hours, however, achievement doesn’t improve. For high schoolers, Cooper’s research suggests that two hours per night is optimal. If teens have more than two hours of homework a night, their academic success flatlines. But less is not better. The average high school student doing homework outperformed 69 percent of the students in a class with no homework.

Many schools are starting to act on this research. A Florida superintendent abolished homework in her 42,000 student district, replacing it with 20 minutes of nightly reading. She attributed her decision to “ solid research about what works best in improving academic achievement in students .”

More family time

A 2020 survey by Crayola Experience reports 82 percent of children complain they don’t have enough quality time with their parents. Homework deserves much of the blame. “Kids should have a chance to just be kids and do things they enjoy, particularly after spending six hours a day in school,” says Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth . “It’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.”

By far, the best replacement for homework — for both parents and children — is bonding, relaxing time together.

Homes Nearby

Homes for rent and sale near schools

How families of color can fight for fair discipline in school

Dealing with teacher bias

The most important school data families of color need to consider

Yes! Sign me up for updates relevant to my child's grade.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up!

Server Issue: Please try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience

• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Definition of homework

Examples of homework in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'homework.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1662, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Dictionary Entries Near homework

Cite this entry.

“Homework.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homework. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of homework, more from merriam-webster on homework.

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for homework

Nglish: Translation of homework for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of homework for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about homework

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

More commonly misspelled words, commonly misspelled words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), absent letters that are heard anyway, how to use accents and diacritical marks, popular in wordplay, the words of the week - apr. 19, 10 words from taylor swift songs (merriam's version), 9 superb owl words, 10 words for lesser-known games and sports, your favorite band is in the dictionary, games & quizzes.

Reading & Math for K-5

• Kindergarten
• Learning numbers
• Comparing numbers
• Place Value
• Roman numerals
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Order of operations
• Drills & practice
• Measurement
• Factoring & prime factors
• Proportions
• Shape & geometry
• Data & graphing
• Word problems
• Children's stories
• Leveled Stories
• Context clues
• Cause & effect
• Compare & contrast
• Fact vs. fiction
• Fact vs. opinion
• Main idea & details
• Story elements
• Conclusions & inferences
• Sounds & phonics
• Words & vocabulary
• Reading comprehension
• Early writing
• Numbers & counting
• Simple math
• Social skills
• Other activities
• Dolch sight words
• Fry sight words
• Multiple meaning words
• Prefixes & suffixes
• Vocabulary cards
• Other parts of speech
• Punctuation
• Capitalization
• Narrative writing
• Opinion writing
• Informative writing
• Cursive alphabet
• Cursive letters
• Cursive letter joins
• Cursive words
• Cursive sentences
• Cursive passages
• Grammar & Writing

Breadcrumbs

Download & Print Only $3.99

Spelling Worksheets

Spelling worksheets for k - 5.

Use these free, printable spelling worksheets to practice and improve spelling. Spelling skills are closely related to reading skills and writing skills; all rely on the visual representation of words. 

Our spelling worksheets include spelling lists and spelling exercises for each grade .

Spelling worksheets by grade:

What is K5?

K5 Learning offers free worksheets , flashcards  and inexpensive  workbooks  for kids in kindergarten to grade 5. Become a member  to access additional content and skip ads.

Our members helped us give away millions of worksheets last year.

We provide free educational materials to parents and teachers in over 100 countries. If you can, please consider purchasing a membership ($24/year) to support our efforts.

Members skip ads and access exclusive features.

Learn about member benefits

This content is available to members only.

Join K5 to save time, skip ads and access more content. Learn More

• Forgot Password?

English spelling is not always easy, but practice makes perfect—and these spelling worksheets, games, puzzles and activities make practice fun! Here are resources for rules and rule-breakers, basic phonics and complicated configurations, compounds, sight words, word families, affixes, and Greek & Latin roots.

TRY US RISK-FREE FOR 30 DAYS!

ADD TO YOUR FILE CABINET

THIS RESOURCE IS IN PDF FORMAT

Printable Details

• Number of pages:
• Guided Reading Level:
• Common Core:

• Printables Library
• Log Into ETTC
• Log Into Premium
• Classroom Management
• Grammar & Writing
• Science/STEM
• Social Studies

30 Spelling Activities for ANY List of Words

• March 6, 2020

We work hard to teach our students the correct way to spell words.  We spend countless hours creating spelling practice activities that are fun and not just writing the word multiple times.  Are you ready to get some of those hours back?!  Take a look at these fabulous EDITABLE Spelling Activities we have created for your students to practice their word lists.

Our Spelling Activities are super simple to use!!!

• Enter your spelling list into the first page of the packet.
• Choose the activities you want to use that week.  (We have 150+ different pages  to choose from!)
• Print those activities.

These spelling activities can be sent home as homework, used in a word work center, or as independent practice. You can find all of our editable spelling activities, (general, seasonal, and holiday-themed) on Education to the Core Premium. Join today as a monthly or annual member for instant access to this resource and thousands more.

* Spelling Activity Line-Up *

1. spelling list.

This is the page where you will type in your spelling words (up to 15 words).  It can be sent home for students to study during the week, as well as for parents to cut apart and use as flashcards.

2. MAGIC WORDS

Write each spelling word in white crayon, then color over with a marker to watch them “magically” appear.

3. ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Write each spelling word in ABC order.

4. RAINBOW SPELLING

5. WRITE A SENTENCE

6. SECRET CODE

7. ROLL A SPELLING WORD

Roll the dice to see which way you are going to practice your spelling words.  Which number did you roll the most?

8. WORD ILLUSTRATIONS

Students choose 4 different spelling words to illustrate. As an extension, can they write a sentence to go with the picture?

9. TRACE WORDS

Practice each word as you trace it with different writing tools.

10. EMOJI SPELLING

11. PATTERN BLOCK SPELLING

12. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

13. SCRABBLE SPELLING

14. SPIN IT — SPELL IT

15. SPELLING MAZE

16. SPELLING SPIRAL

17. SPELLING WORD SYLLABLES

Students practice separating their spelling words into syllables. Count on fingers, clap your hands, or stomp your feet to see how many syllables are in each word. Then circle the corresponding number.

18. SILLY WRITING

19. PYRAMID SPELLING

20. SPELLING RHYMES

21. SPELLING COLORS

22. WORD SEARCH

For your higher-level kiddos, this word search is great! They write their words either across, down, or as a challenge, diagonal on the grid. Then place random letters among the words. Share with a partner to see if they can find all of your “hidden” words!

23. WORD ART

24. CREATE A STORY

How many spelling words can your students include in a story? Write a short story that makes sense and illustrate it.

25. KEYBOARD WORDS

26. STAMPING SPELLING WORDS

Everybody loves dot markers! Grab a few different colors and stamp your spelling words as you read them.

27. SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS

For a more challenging activity, connect spelling practice with vocabulary work by finding a synonym and antonym for each spelling word.

28. SIGN LANGUAGE SPELLING

29. How Many Sounds

30. Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling

Perfect for partner spelling activities. Your students can each take a color and play tic-tac-toe with their spelling words.

At  Education to the Core , we exist to help our teachers build a stronger classroom as they connect with our community to find trusted, state-of-the-art resources designed by teachers for teachers. We aspire to be the world’s leading & most trusted community for educational resources for teachers. We improve the lives of every teacher and learner with the most comprehensive, reliable, and inclusive educational resources.

If you enjoyed what we have to offer at ETTC, be sure to join our  email list , so you won’t miss a beat. We are here to help with all your resource needs. Become a  Premium Member of Education to the Core  and receive immediate access to thousands of printable activities. For one small monthly or annual fee, everything ETTC can be at your fingertips all of the time.

Written By: Janessa Fletcher & Emily Garcia

Welcome! I’m Emily, Founder of Education to the Core. We are all about helping K-2 teachers by providing unlimited access to affordable printables for every subject area.   

Insert/edit link

Enter the destination URL

Or link to existing content

What’s the point of homework?

Deputy Dean, School of Education, Western Sydney University

Disclosure statement

Katina Zammit does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Western Sydney University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

Homework hasn’t changed much in the past few decades. Most children are still sent home with about an hour’s worth of homework each day, mostly practising what they were taught in class.

If we look internationally, homework is assigned in every country that participated in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012.

Across the participating countries, 15-year-old students reported spending almost five hours per week doing homework in 2012. Australian students spent six hours per week on average on homework. Students in Singapore spent seven hours on homework, and in Shanghai, China they did homework for about 14 hours per week on average.

Read more: Aussie students are a year behind students 10 years ago in science, maths and reading

Shanghai and Singapore routinely score higher than Australia in the PISA maths, science and reading tests. But homework could just be one of the factors leading to higher results. In Finland, which also scores higher than Australia, students spent less than three hours on homework per week.

So, what’s the purpose of homework and what does the evidence say about whether it fulfils its purpose?

Why do teachers set homework?

Each school in Australia has its own homework policy developed in consultation with teachers and parents or caregivers, under the guiding principles of state or regional education departments.

For instance, according to the New South Wales homework policy “… tasks should be assigned by teachers with a specific, explicit learning purpose”.

Homework in NSW should also be “purposeful and designed to meet specific learning goals”, and “built on knowledge, skills and understanding developed in class”. But there is limited, if any, guidance on how often homework should be set.

Research based on teacher interviews shows they set homework for a range of reasons. These include to:

establish and improve communication between parents and children about learning

help children be more responsible, confident and disciplined

practise or review material from class

determine children’s understanding of the lesson and/or skills

introduce new material to be presented in class

provide students with opportunities to apply and integrate skills to new situations or interest areas

get students to use their own skills to create work.

So, does homework achieve what teachers intend it to?

Do we know if it ‘works’?

Studies on homework are frequently quite general, and don’t consider specific types of homework tasks. So it isn’t easy to measure how effective homework could be, or to compare studies.

But there are several things we can say.

First, it’s better if every student gets the kind of homework task that benefits them personally, such as one that helps them answer questions they had, or understand a problem they couldn’t quite grasp in class. This promotes students’ confidence and control of their own learning.

Read more: Learning from home is testing students' online search skills. Here are 3 ways to improve them

Giving students repetitive tasks may not have much value . For instance, calculating the answer to 120 similar algorithms, such as adding two different numbers 120 times may make the student think maths is irrelevant and boring. In this case, children are not being encouraged to find solutions but simply applying a formula they learnt in school.

In primary schools, homework that aims to improve children’s confidence and learning discipline can be beneficial. For example, children can be asked to practise giving a presentation on a topic of their interest. This could help build their competence in speaking in front of a class.

Homework can also highlight equity issues. It can be particularly burdensome for socioeconomically disadvantaged students who may not have a space, the resources or as much time due to family and work commitments. Their parents may also not feel capable of supporting them or have their own work commitments.

According to the PISA studies mentioned earlier, socioeconomically disadvantaged 15 year olds spend nearly three hours less on homework each week than their advantaged peers.

Read more: 'I was astonished at how quickly they made gains': online tutoring helps struggling students catch up

What kind of homework is best?

Homework can be engaging and contribute to learning if it is more than just a sheet of maths or list of spelling words not linked to class learning. From summarising various studies’ findings, “good” homework should be:

personalised to each child rather than the same for all students in the class. This is more likely to make a difference to a child’s learning and performance

achievable, so the child can complete it independently, building skills in managing their time and behaviour

aligned to the learning in the classroom.

If you aren’t happy with the homework your child is given then approach the school. If your child is having difficulty with doing the homework, the teacher needs to know. It shouldn’t be burdensome for you or your children.

• Disadvantaged students

Project Offier - Diversity & Inclusion

Senior Lecturer - Earth System Science

Sydney Horizon Educators (Identified)

Deputy Social Media Producer

Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy

• About the Hub
• Announcements
• Faculty Experts Guide
• Subscribe to the newsletter

Explore by Topic

• Arts+Culture
• Politics+Society
• Science+Technology
• Student Life
• University News
• Voices+Opinion
• About Hub at Work
• Gazette Archive
• Benefits+Perks
• Health+Well-Being
• Current Issue
• About the Magazine
• Past Issues
• Support Johns Hopkins Magazine
• Subscribe to the Magazine

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Credit: August de Richelieu

Does homework still have value? A Johns Hopkins education expert weighs in

Joyce epstein, co-director of the center on school, family, and community partnerships, discusses why homework is essential, how to maximize its benefit to learners, and what the 'no-homework' approach gets wrong.

By Vicky Hallett

The necessity of homework has been a subject of debate since at least as far back as the 1890s, according to Joyce L. Epstein , co-director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. "It's always been the case that parents, kids—and sometimes teachers, too—wonder if this is just busy work," Epstein says.

But after decades of researching how to improve schools, the professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education remains certain that homework is essential—as long as the teachers have done their homework, too. The National Network of Partnership Schools , which she founded in 1995 to advise schools and districts on ways to improve comprehensive programs of family engagement, has developed hundreds of improved homework ideas through its Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program. For an English class, a student might interview a parent on popular hairstyles from their youth and write about the differences between then and now. Or for science class, a family could identify forms of matter over the dinner table, labeling foods as liquids or solids. These innovative and interactive assignments not only reinforce concepts from the classroom but also foster creativity, spark discussions, and boost student motivation.

"We're not trying to eliminate homework procedures, but expand and enrich them," says Epstein, who is packing this research into a forthcoming book on the purposes and designs of homework. In the meantime, the Hub couldn't wait to ask her some questions:

What kind of homework training do teachers typically get?

Future teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. This means that most just repeat what their teachers did, or they follow textbook suggestions at the end of units. For example, future teachers are well prepared to teach reading and literacy skills at each grade level, and they continue to learn to improve their teaching of reading in ongoing in-service education. By contrast, most receive little or no training on the purposes and designs of homework in reading or other subjects. It is really important for future teachers to receive systematic training to understand that they have the power, opportunity, and obligation to design homework with a purpose.

Why do students need more interactive homework?

If homework assignments are always the same—10 math problems, six sentences with spelling words—homework can get boring and some kids just stop doing their assignments, especially in the middle and high school years. When we've asked teachers what's the best homework you've ever had or designed, invariably we hear examples of talking with a parent or grandparent or peer to share ideas. To be clear, parents should never be asked to "teach" seventh grade science or any other subject. Rather, teachers set up the homework assignments so that the student is in charge. It's always the student's homework. But a good activity can engage parents in a fun, collaborative way. Our data show that with "good" assignments, more kids finish their work, more kids interact with a family partner, and more parents say, "I learned what's happening in the curriculum." It all works around what the youngsters are learning.

Is family engagement really that important?

At Hopkins, I am part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools , a research center that studies how to improve many aspects of education to help all students do their best in school. One thing my colleagues and I realized was that we needed to look deeply into family and community engagement. There were so few references to this topic when we started that we had to build the field of study. When children go to school, their families "attend" with them whether a teacher can "see" the parents or not. So, family engagement is ever-present in the life of a school.

My daughter's elementary school doesn't assign homework until third grade. What's your take on "no homework" policies?

There are some parents, writers, and commentators who have argued against homework, especially for very young children. They suggest that children should have time to play after school. This, of course is true, but many kindergarten kids are excited to have homework like their older siblings. If they give homework, most teachers of young children make assignments very short—often following an informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level. "No homework" does not guarantee that all students will spend their free time in productive and imaginative play.

Some researchers and critics have consistently misinterpreted research findings. They have argued that homework should be assigned only at the high school level where data point to a strong connection of doing assignments with higher student achievement . However, as we discussed, some students stop doing homework. This leads, statistically, to results showing that doing homework or spending more minutes on homework is linked to higher student achievement. If slow or struggling students are not doing their assignments, they contribute to—or cause—this "result."

Teachers need to design homework that even struggling students want to do because it is interesting. Just about all students at any age level react positively to good assignments and will tell you so.

Did COVID change how schools and parents view homework?

Within 24 hours of the day school doors closed in March 2020, just about every school and district in the country figured out that teachers had to talk to and work with students' parents. This was not the same as homeschooling—teachers were still working hard to provide daily lessons. But if a child was learning at home in the living room, parents were more aware of what they were doing in school. One of the silver linings of COVID was that teachers reported that they gained a better understanding of their students' families. We collected wonderfully creative examples of activities from members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. I'm thinking of one art activity where every child talked with a parent about something that made their family unique. Then they drew their finding on a snowflake and returned it to share in class. In math, students talked with a parent about something the family liked so much that they could represent it 100 times. Conversations about schoolwork at home was the point.

How did you create so many homework activities via the Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program?

We had several projects with educators to help them design interactive assignments, not just "do the next three examples on page 38." Teachers worked in teams to create TIPS activities, and then we turned their work into a standard TIPS format in math, reading/language arts, and science for grades K-8. Any teacher can use or adapt our prototypes to match their curricula.

Overall, we know that if future teachers and practicing educators were prepared to design homework assignments to meet specific purposes—including but not limited to interactive activities—more students would benefit from the important experience of doing their homework. And more parents would, indeed, be partners in education.

Posted in Voices+Opinion

You might also like

News network.

• Johns Hopkins Magazine
• Get Email Updates
• Submit an Announcement
• Submit an Event
• Privacy Statement
• Accessibility

Discover JHU

• About the University
• Schools & Divisions
• Academic Programs
• Plan a Visit
• my.JohnsHopkins.edu
• © 2024 Johns Hopkins University . All rights reserved.
• University Communications
• 3910 Keswick Rd., Suite N2600, Baltimore, MD
• X Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Instagram

Five Hallmarks of Good Homework

The Fundamental Five

Hallmark 1: purpose, hallmark 2: efficiency, hallmark 3: ownership, hallmark 4: competence, hallmark 5: aesthetic appeal, free to learn.

Premium Resource

Write the 10 spelling words 3 times each. Write definitions of the 15 science vocabulary words. Do the math problems on page 27, problems 1–20 on dividing fractions.

Create your own method to practice spelling words or choose one of the following: Write or type the words three times, spell them out loud, use Scrabble tiles to spell them, trace them with your finger, or create a puzzle using the words.

Show that you know the meaning of the science vocabulary words by using them in sentences or in a story. For each vocabulary word, read the three sentences below it. Choose the sentence that uses the word correctly.

Our children are now expected to read 20 minutes a night and record such on their homework sheet. What parents are discovering (surprise) is that those kids who used to sit down and read for pleasure … are now setting the timer, choosing the easiest books, and stopping when the timer dings. … Reading has become a chore, like brushing your teeth. (Kohn, 2006, pp. 176–177)

Try to read an average of 30 minutes each night. Once a week, estimate how much time you've spent reading. Write a short paragraph about what you've been reading.

List the four most important ideas in Chapter 4. Keep a journal. After each chapter section, write a reaction to what you read. During your reading, place sticky notes on the parts you have questions about. During your reading, place sticky notes on the parts you found most interesting to discuss in class.

Which characters best typify the following virtues: honor, integrity, strength? What did they do that shows that virtue? Which characters best typify the following vices: greed, jealousy, arrogance? What did they do that shows that vice? With which character do you most identify and why? How does the story relate to life today? (Vatterott, 2007)

Bennett, S., & Kalish, N. (2006). The case against homework: How homework is hurting our children and what we can do about it . New York: Crown.

Darling-Hammond, L., & Ifill-Lynch, O. (2006). If they'd only do their work! Educational Leadership, 63 (5), 8–13.

Goldberg, K. (2007, April). The homework trap . Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.

Kohn, A. (2006). The homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing . Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement . Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Stiggins, R. (2007). Assessment through the student's eyes. Educational Leadership, 64 (8), 22–26.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2008). The goals of differentiation. Educational Leadership, 66 (3), 26–31.

Vatterott, C. (2007). Becoming a middle level teacher: Student focused teaching of early adolescents . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Vatterott, C. (2009). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs . Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Cathy Vatterott is professor emeritus of education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Referred to as the "homework lady," Vatterott has been researching, writing, and speaking about K–12 homework for more than 20 years.

She frequently presents at a variety of state and national educational conferences and also serves as a consultant and workshop presenter for K–12 schools on a variety of topics.

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

Let us help you put your vision into action., related articles.

The Hidden Rigors of Data Science

Transforming STEM by Focusing on Justice

STEM Doesn’t Have to Be Rocket Science

For STEM Education, the Time Is Now

How to Signal “STEM Is For You”?

From our issue.

To process a transaction with a Purchase Order please send to [email protected]

The Science of Spelling!

The proven spelling scheme with free spelling games enjoyed by millions of learners worldwide!

Already have an account? Login now

The big change I noticed as a class teacher was the enthusiasm for learning spellings and the weekly hive game was anticipated with excitement from the children. Case Study Poverest Primary School

Spelling Shed's approach to spelling involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols as well as using morphology to help spell through meaning.

The carefully selected word lists and engaging activities provide opportunities to incorporate phonics and meaning to strengthen spelling skills and build vocabulary acquisition.

The Spelling Shed Scheme

Our spelling teaching scheme is the most up-to-date scheme available based on cutting edge research into the teaching of spelling..

With 216 lessons spread over six stages each lesson includes features to enhance the teaching and learning in your setting and is designed to be flexible to fit within the variable timetables that schools have. Based on phonics, morphology and etymology, it includes main teaching inputs, which can then be followed up with additional activities that can be carried out immediately after the input during an extended session or revisited throughout the week in order to consolidate the learning further.

Mastery Zone

Ai powered spelling.

Mastery Zone is the EdShed tool that ensures each pupil's learning is focused on the words and spelling patterns they need to master in order to progress. Powered by our own Nano Bees, Mastery Zone acts as a tireless learning companion, continuously tracking each pupil's spelling and vocabulary gaps and automatically providing targeted practice until mastery is achieved, freeing teachers for richer classroom experiences.

Fun, engaging games used by millions of pupils worldwide

Spelling Bee

Penalty Spell-out

Hungry Horses

Missing Word

Definitions

Our system gives access to over a million word lists, including our official lists and custom made lists.

Custom Word Lists

Spelling, punctuation & grammar (spag).

Our grammar curriculum covers all of the English National Curriculum expectations for spelling, punctuation and grammar. Each year group has small step learning episodes covering all key areas of the grammar, punctuation and spelling curriculum: Word, Text, Sentence and Punctuation. Each small step is linked to a National Curriculum statement.

Spelling Shed is made by teachers, for teachers and was developed in the founder's classroom. We have built a suite of tools to enable teachers and schools to manage pupils' data, including reporting on assessments. Spelling Shed tracks student game plays along with their responses. Teachers can monitor weekly activity in order to advance or remediate as needed.

Our platform enables learning to happen anywhere and everywhere giving educators the peace of mind that pupils can learn and get practice unhindered.

Our administration tools also allow groups of schools to manage school data centrally.

Feature Comparison

Free resources.

Interactive Letter Tiles

Drag and drop letters, graphemes and other useful tiles with our free letter tile tool.

Guides & Resources

Download a variety of guides, display resources and certificates for use with Spelling Shed.

• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder

Word of the Day

• Synonym of the Day
• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Grammar Coach ™
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips
• Pop culture
• Writing tips

Advertisement

[ hohm -wurk ]

• schoolwork assigned to be done outside the classroom ( distinguished from classwork ).
• a single assignment of such schoolwork: Homeworks are due at the beginning of class.
• paid work done at home , as piecework.

to do one's homework for the next committee meeting.

/ ˈhəʊmˌwɜːk /

• school work done out of lessons, esp at home
• any preparatory study
• work done at home for pay

Discover More

Word history and origins.

Origin of homework 1

Idioms and Phrases

Example sentences.

Now, they log on to Zoom from their bedrooms, surrounded by unfinished homework assignments and tattered stuffed animals, waiting to be assigned calls, texts and emails by the trained therapists who oversee the program.

Yow started her homework and saw Frese had gone 35-22 with two winning seasons at Ball State, which hadn’t had a winning record in its previous nine seasons.

Do some homework before investing in a diamond, and that lifelong commitment.

Another poster included an image of their losses over what appeared to be online math homework.

As we countdown to Inauguration Day, I've been doing my homework—and looking to the past for inspiration.

“I can help my children with their homework and sometimes we text in English at my job,” Santos says.

Scheunemann, meanwhile, had no idea who Spencer was, and did some homework.

She jumped at the chance to watch RT, or jumped at the chance to skip calculus homework.

And we encourage parent-student “contracts,” for class attendance, homework submission and even extra-curriculum activities.

Adicéam did his homework, spending 50 days collecting pieces, many with unexpected stories behind them.

Much of this homework is done by a very bad light and the boy's eyes suffer much.

For homework we have prepared alphabets where the letters are printed in type-writing order.

His parents were always getting angry with him for losing his clothes, or his toys, or his homework.

Only at the time when he was going to Beauregard School, with his homework.

And once a week or twice a week she was sending her homework or something to him.

Related Words

• arrangement
• construction
• establishment
• preparedness
• qualification

[ pet -ri-kawr ]

Start each day with the Word of the Day in your inbox!

By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Get free SOR reading tips!

Sarah's Teaching Snippets

K-2 Science of Reading Educational Resources

Effective Spelling Instruction

Effective spelling instruction emphasizes the structure of the English language.

I’d like to start this post by throwing my past teacher self under the bus. That’s right, I can honestly tell you that I made a lot of mistakes for years. Was I dedicated? Heck yeah! Did I have the right intentions? For sure! Did I think I was doing the right thing? You betcha!

For many years,  I treated spelling as an afterthought at best. Sure, I had spelling tests and did a little phonics instruction here and there, but I wasn’t teaching it well and I wasn’t assessing it properly either. Most importantly, I wasn’t understanding the role that spelling has on students’ success with learning to read.

I was all about Balanced Literacy and did not see the value in a more explicit approach to word study. In this post, you will (hopefully) see why I’ve changed my mind. I can’t count the amount of times (in the past) I said that English doesn’t make sense and phonics only sometimes works because of all of the “rule breakers”. 

For years I taught “sight words” as words we just memorize from looking at them a lot and seeing them hung around the room or simply pointing them out in books or during shared reading. But then I started digging. I was thirsty for answers about why some students struggled so much. Why couldn’t they remember the words after seeing them so many times? Why did kids ace a spelling test then turn around and spell the same word wrong in their writer’s notebooks? I thought at the time it was our darn English language that makes no sense. Actually, it was my lack of understanding and education with the structure of our language. 

Enough about me! Let’s get to it.

Does English Make Sense?

I feel like these two quotes say it all so well, so I’m going to let them do the heavy lifting. I will explain these two claims throughout this post.

Part 1: What is English Orthography?

Those tools that can unlock the mystery of our language should not be kept secret and locked up in a box, but doesn’t it sort of feel like they are? I started to unlock that secret box when I dug deeper into phonics, but then I realized  it’s more than just phonics. It’s actually about having a broader understanding of English orthography .

A very simplified way to look at orthography is spelling, but it is bigger than that. Orthography is how we represent speech in writing and all the rules (or generalizations) that go along with the spelling of words.

Phonics and spelling together help develop readers. Our students move from sounding out words to instant recognition of words from memory. (To read about how this happens, click here for my post about orthographic mapping.)

According to Louisa Moats,  to understand a word’s spelling,  we need to look at:

•  Sound-symbol (phoneme-grapheme) relationships 
•  The patterns of letters (position of letters in words) and syllable patterns
•  Morphology
•  The history of a word (etymology)

Linguistic Units that Spelling Represents:

• Students learn that familiar phonemes (sounds) are linked to these graphemes (symbols).
• An example of a letter pattern is where the grapheme ck is used in a word. (The grapheme ck is only used at the end of words, following a short vowel.)  In other words, the spelling of a sound can change according to its position in the word.
• More about syllable patterns below.

But it doesn’t stop there!  In addition to understanding phonology , we must also understand morphology .

• With morphology, we are looking at the structure of words (think roots, bases, suffixes, and prefixes). 
• English is morpho-phonemic , which means the meaning of words (morphology) is balanced with the phonology of a word. English spelling represent sounds, syllables, and morphemes.
• For example, when we see the word “jumped”, we understand it as base word jump plus suffix -ed to make it past tense. We do not see it as “jump-ed” with an emphasis on the short e.
• An example we see early on is child and children . The base, child , maintains its spelling but the pronunciation changes. 
• The example I’ve heard often is sign  and signal . That silent g really DOES make sense. It is there to mark a meaningful relationship to signal . Interesting, right?! 

Because morphology plays an equally important role in spelling, many graphemes make multiple sounds. Helping our kids understand the structure of our language will help with their reading and spelling.

Etymology: The History of Words

Orthography also involves the history of a word, or its etymology .  I think this quote from The American Way of Spelling by Richard Venezky is really interesting: “Words, unlike people, have been forever welcomed, regardless of their origins.” The spellings of words from other languages have been retained while “coexisting with native ones”. 

We can learn a lot about morphology through etymology. English is influenced by many other languages, including Latin, French, German, Greek, and Celtic. I have only dug into etymology a little, but I definitely find it fascinating. It puts you down a rabbit hole, that’s for sure! If you’re interested in the history of a word, type it into etymonline.com.

Conventions of Print

Finally, English orthography also includes rules like capital letters signifying a proper noun or beginning of a sentence. It includes symbols like apostrophes that show possession or contraction.

It’s no surprise then, that English is considered one of the most complex languages. Yet, in school we don’t spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of our language anymore. I didn’t even learn these rules when trying to become a teacher. In fact, I’m still learning them.

Turns out, English is not as crazy as it seems, once we understand it. Here are some stats I’ve gathered from different books or articles. Note that they may be off by a few percentages, but overall it’s pretty darn close!

• According to A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins, 84-87% of words follow sound-symbol spelling patterns (this is from research done by Hanna et.al 1966).  This includes many of the “sight words” that we may consider “irregular”.  
• According to Denise Eide (Uncovering the Logic of English), 98% of words can be decoded just by knowing all of the grapheme-phoneme relationship and the rules of our language.  
• To be more specific, researchers have said that about 50% of words are predictable based on sound-symbol correspondences, while another 34% of words are just off by one sound. However, once word origin and word meaning are considered, only 4% of English words are truly irregular. (Joshi, Treiman, Carreker, and Moats: How Words Cast Their Spell) 

I’m less concerned with the example percentage and more focused on the overall message here that we do have the tools to unlock that mysterious code. 

The more I learn about the English language, the more I realize there really are fewer “exceptions” than I previously imagined. Kids are interested in understanding words, too! They are naturally inquisitive and want to know why some words are spelled the way they are. (Is it going too far to say spelling instruction can be fun?)

Part 2:  Linguistic Units in Detail

Before we can dive into spelling instruction, it is helpful to get a little background. I’m going to go through each linguistic unit a little more in depth. 

Phonology: Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences

Phonology  is the study of sound patterns in human language.  Spoken words are made up of  phonemes  (sounds). When we write, we are translating those speech sounds into recognizable symbols ( graphemes – also called  phonograms ).  Phonology looks at how we connect our sound system to written words.

• 26 graphemes are single graphemes (letters of the alphabet)
• 49 are multi-letter (sh, igh, ea)
• NOTE: This says 75 basic graphemes.  There are also more advanced graphemes as well, but those only appear in a small handful of words (in some cases just a couple). Those are usually taught later (3rd-5th grade).
• Click  HERE  for an article from the Journal of Literacy Research that summarizes a phoneme-grapheme frequency count done by Hanna et al. (1966). Paul Hanna developed tables that described the relative frequency of the letters (graphemes) used to represent the major English sounds (phonemes). 
• In kinder, I do teach the alphabet, but I focus A LOT on the sound end of things.
• When teaching a new letter, I now introduce it sound first. For example, I might say, “Today we are going to learn how to read and write this sound: /b/. This sound we hear in so many words like ball, bear, and bat. One way to read and write this sound is with the letter b. When we see this (point to Bb), we will practice saying /b/.”
• Then I go into all of the activities to help learn that sound. I do a lot of o rthographic mapping activities , which focus on sound first. Like I always say, I’m still learning so I’m constantly evolving and tweaking how I do things. This is one way that I’m using the research I’ve found.
• For example, when I teach ai and ay together, I connect back to the long a using the silent e (a_e), showing them all together to remind students that they all make the same sound.
• I will keep you posted on my progress. So far, this system seems to be working well!  To read about  how our brain maps letter sequences  for permanent storage, click  here .   

Spelling Patterns and Rules :

Like I mentioned above, our alphabetic system doesn’t have a straight up 1:1 correspondence between symbols and sounds. Our language is morpho-phonemic, not alphabetic (but we do need to learn the alphabet to apply all of this of course). See the image below to see what I mean:

I used the word  house  because it illustrates two things. See how the sounds and symbols don’t match up with 1:1 correspondence? There are 5 letters but only three sounds. 

• First, students must know the  sound  that the  grapheme  ou makes.
• Second, they need to know that according to the p osition of that phoneme,  we likely will use the letter <ou> instead of <ow>. Position of phoneme can be a huge predictor of spelling. When you hear the phoneme /ou/, use the letters <ou> if that sound is heard in the beginning or middle, but never at the end. Use the letters <ow> when you hear that sound at the end OR if it is is in the middle before an <n> or <l>. 
• Third, students need to know one of the  rules of our language , which is one of the many jobs of the famous silent e. This silent e is a marker put there to show that this word is not plural (because we use the letter <s> to signify plural). Learning all of the graphemes/phonograms and the rules that go along with them can solve much of this confusion. 

To figure out which grapheme to use, we look at the position of the sound in the word (like with ou) and we also think about the rules of letter sequences (like with the e after the letter s). Understanding this information helps our students to be more successful with spelling (and it helped me with my spelling instruction!)

Side note: I learned most of the rules I know now slowly over time haphazardly. In some cases, I learned them through webinars or presentations, and in other cases through articles, random research, and google searches! Then I did some orton-gillingham training and learned more rules in a more systematic way. Over the years, I slowly collected more and more resources that have these rules explained more thoroughly. Now I have a lovely collection and I feel like I actually  do  know many of the rules. At the end of this post, I will post recommendations for books that you should definitely invest in so you have the full explanation. 

Join my mailing list to get this free  quick reference guide to spelling rules .  Click HERE. (If for some reason this doesn’t work, please email me. I’m not the most tech-savvy and it shows sometimes!)

Syllable Patterns:

I have two blog posts that go into syllable types and syllable division.  

Click here to read about syllable types.

Click here to read about Syllable Division Rules

In addition to sound-symbol correspondence, spelling patterns, and syllable structure, we must also slowly introduce morphological concepts to build their knowledge of the structure of our language. (Remember my example of  jumpe  above?)

First, I’ll over a few terms:

• A  morpheme  is the smallest  meaningful  unit in a word. Don’t confuse this with a phoneme, which is the smallest  unit of  sound  in a word.
• A morpheme may be one or more syllables.
• Words may be one of more morphemes.
• For example, the word  instruction  has three morphemes:  in  (prefix),  struct  (base), and  ion  (suffix). All of these are bound morphemes.
• In the word uncovered, there are three morphemes:  un  (prefix),  cover  (base), and  ed  (suffix).  Cover  is a free morpheme because it can be a stand-alone morpheme, but it can also have added affixes.  

I incorporate morphology into my spelling instruction as early as kindergarten when I introduce the suffix -s. As I mentioned above, we spell by phoneme-grapheme relationships, but we also spell by meaning.

In the early years, students will see this with words that have suffixes and prefixes. When they are reading, they may cover the familiar suffix -ed and then use sound-symbol knowledge to decode the base word first. They can then use their knowledge of morphology to read and understand the whole word with the -ed. This is perhaps even more helpful with spelling! As students get older and words get bigger, being able to identify affixes and familiar bases is incredibly helpful. 

The picture above shows a lesson that I do with kindergarten or first grade students.

There are 9 prefixes that make up 75% of words. (White, Sowell, and Yangihara, 1989) You can cover a lot of ground with 9 prefixes! Ten suffixes make up 85% of words. It is also helpful to know common Latin and Greek roots for older kids. I can’t say a lot of about that {yet} because I have not studied it enough and have not had enough experience teaching it. Notice the word  yet ! That is my next venture as my son is at the perfect age for this!

We can learn a lot by studying morphemes, beyond just helpful decoding and encoding. Morphemes carry meaning , so understanding the meaning of each morpheme helps us understand the meaning of words. In most words, the meaningful parts (morphemes) are often spelled consistently, but it’s the  pronunciation  that changes from one word to another. That causes us to think English doesn’t make sense, because we are purely looking at from the sound-symbol perspective. Once we are trained to look at our language as both phonological and morphological equally, with an understanding of the history, words start to make a lot more sense!

I used some examples in the slide above with sign/signal, heal/health, child/children. Notice how the spelling stays the same, but the pronunciation changes (the g is silent in one, the ea pattern changes in another, and the i sound changes in the last example). A lot of silent letters are explained by this (and many other silent letters are explained through the history).  We could go all day talking about morphology, but I’m saving that for another post!  

One more fun example that combines both phonology and morphology is the related pair  electric  and  electricity .

• Notice the base spelling remains in tact.
• If a <c> is followed by an <i>, <e>, or <y>, it is soft.
• So, in electricity, that second <c> becomes soft because of the vowel suffix beginning with an <i> is after it. 
• You can also explore other related words like  electrical, electrician, hydroelectric,  looking at which suffixes and prefixes are added to the base and how it changes the word (both pronunciation and meaning).       

I’ve been saying this for a while, but I need to sit down and write a morphology post. In the meantime, check out  Structured Word Inquiry here . It’s pretty awesome!!

Before I finish, I’ll leave you with this visual that explains a lot of the linguistic terms using one word:

I love this example because I think it really illustrates what goes into decoding this word and also the best method for decoding.

• The quickest and easiest way is to peel off those familiar affixes (-un and -able).
• Once students have learned those affixes, they will immediately see those and be able to focus in on the base,  reach. 
• After using morphology to strip this word down to its base, students now use grapheme/phoneme relationships to decode the word  reach. 
• They can also figure out that it means “not able to reach” through knowledge of prefix and suffix meaning.

Other words may not have morphemes, so you may need to use syllable division if it is a multi-syllable word. Some words may just rely on phoneme/grapheme relationships and knowledge of the rules. Having all of these tools sure is helpful though! 

I think this quote really ties it all together well:

Part 3: Application to the Classroom (What is Effective Spelling Instruction?)

It feels like spelling instruction has really gotten a bad rap. I think the reason why many of us cringe at the idea of a spelling test is because we think of a list of random words that we were sent home to memorize. My husband has very font memories of spelling tests because he didn’t have to study for one second. He literally just remembered them after seeing them once. There are those spellers out there. But of course, did those spelling tests benefit them? Nope! Yet they likely get rewarded by teachers and parents alike.

On the other hand, you’ll have students that studied all week to memorize those seemingly random strings of letters, only to either fail the test OR to pass it but forget it all five minutes later. Did they benefit from the spelling tests? Nope! Did they have anxiety every week? Probably. Did they carry shame for all their failure? Likely. I think that’s why the idea of incorporating spelling into our day makes many of us twitch.

However, when I say “spelling instruction”, I’m not talking about spelling tests like that. I’m talking about teaching the structure of our language, including all of the elements I listed above. When we teach spelling like this, the finale spelling test is not the focus.  The week of word study is the focus.  The goal is to help our students understand why words are spelled they way they are  and  at the same time, improve their reading because they are mapping these words into their long-term memories. So then, what would that look like?

If you haven’t already, you’ll want to read my post about  orthographic mapping.  There will be a lot of overlap here.

Just like with our reading instruction, we want to keep our spelling instruction  systematic  and  explicit .  Unlike decoding, you will begin with auditory information.  

• Phonics involves decoding- beginning with visual information, seeing the graphemes and translating them to sounds, then blending those sounds together. Part to whole.
• Spelling involves the opposite, encoding- beginning with auditory information, breaking apart the whole word into individual sounds, then matching those sounds to the correct graphemes. Whole to part.
• Both require knowledge of phoneme-grapheme association and understanding of letter & syllable patterns, and morphological elements.
• They are two sides of the same coin, but often one side is ignored when it should be getting equal attention.)

The following steps can be used during spelling instruction:

• Repeat, if necessary.
• Use the words in other decoding and encoding activities throughout the week.

I posted something very similar to this in my last post, but I made it printable here:

C lick here to download these Spelling Steps FREE!

Choosing Words for Spelling Instruction:

Choose words that have similar phonetic elements, both regular and some irregular. For example, when you are focusing on CVC words, you may want to add in words like  put.  You would teach the students the parts that make these words irregular. For example, the word  put  is predictable, except for the middle sound /oo/ uses the letter u. Make sure you add in suffixes too. For example, I usually teach CVC words, then the suffix -s. I will have a spelling assessment with just cvc words, but then another with cvc words that do and do not have the suffix s. After I have spend time on suffix -s, that means I can throw it in any future spelling activities because I want them to keep applying it in a guided setting until it is something that is used correctly consistently in writing. (See resources below for systematic phonics lessons that can support your spelling instruction.)

Spelling Tests: 

Students should not have a set list to memorize for a test. Following the same format as above gives you a great assessment of a students development with spelling. If you need an assessment, choose words (both regular and irregular) that fit with the words you are studying. You will get a true assessment of where that student is at developmentally with spelling when you see how they are segmenting the word’s sounds and then how they are connecting to the correct phonemes. If you’re teaching a specific rule (like where ck is used), you will get a good idea of how well that student can apply that concept.

The most important thing to remember with spelling assessments is to make sure you look at any errors that were made and use that to guide your future instruction.  “The assessment should be an opportunity to evaluate students’ understanding of sounds and conventional spelling patterns. The kinds of words that students miss and the types of errors they make are important in evaluation their spelling achievement and their understanding of language structures.”  (How Words Cast Their Spell: Joshi, Treiman, Carreker, Moats)

What about spelling homework?  

What about parents who want a list to study? This is up to your personal preference and I have no data to back me up on this, but it’s my opinion based on my experience (meaning I could be wrong of course!) I think if you work in a school community where parents are asking for how to help at home, then absolutely give them that opportunity. Explain your system though. Make sure they understand that we are not going for memorization. You can use the printables above to communicate how they can work with their child at home.

When it comes to homework, I believe it needs to be meaningful, not busy work. I believe the purpose of homework is to provide extra practice with a skill or concept when needed. If it’s not needed, it becomes busy work. I also think it can be a good tool to communicate with parents what their child is learning in school. I also believe our struggling readers need as many repetitions as possible, so for them, meaningful homework can be very helpful. Again, just my opinion and I know there are so many sides to the great homework debate that all make sense to me.

Spelling Stages:

Below are slides that summarize Richard Gentry’s stages. I think this is SO helpful when thinking about spelling instruction.  Originally, he called these stages. He has recently updated them in his book  Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching ( Gentry & Ouellette).  I HIGHLY recommend getting this book.  There is so much information in this book and it goes into these stages much more in depth, along with examples of each stage (now called phases). I actually bought this book after I wrote this post originally. I tend to wait a while before posting so I can reread and make sure I’m happy with my content. I stumbled upon this book and then had to read it before publishing this post. I’m glad I did because it not only backed up the content I had written, but it also gave me some new information to share! Three months later I may actually hit the publish button. LOL!

What about students with dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. It is neuro-biological in origin, genetic, and common (1 in 5).  Students with dyslexia struggle with decoding (sounding out words), encoding (spelling), word recognition, and reading fluency. Students with dyslexia learn to read in a way that differs from the typical reading brain.  It is important to note that students with dyslexia have average to above average intelligence and often have gifts, including creativity, “big picture thinking”, spacial awareness to name just a few. However, reading and spelling are a struggle! See my post here to learn more about what happens in the dyslexic brain when reading . 

You can often see early signs of dyslexia in a student’s spelling. Actually you can potentially see it in kindergarten before you are even using letters.

Students with dyslexia have phonological processing deficits, which can be observed through phoneme blending and segmenting activities. This is more evident when you move into spelling, when students are in the stage of inventive spelling.

Students with dyslexia often have very unusual inventive spelling, due to the fact that they struggle to process the sounds. This turns into difficulties with mapping sounds onto letters and learning syllable patterns. Early detection is key! If you see a student who struggling with phoneme blending or segmenting, has unusual inventive spelling, or struggles with word recognition (even after seeing it several times), that student may have dyslexia. Intervention is incredibly effective! Studies show that we can change and strengthen the circuitry in our brains to improve reading and spelling, through the right instruction. ( One article here)

Because students with dyslexia struggle with phonemic blending, segmenting, and automatic word recognition (recognizing a word “on sight”), spelling instruction is even more important for them! Traditional spelling tests with the memorize-these-words-for-a-test focus are very challenging for them and not at all beneficial. They need to understand the structure of our language more than anyone, as an additional tool in their reading tool belts.

In addition, a mixture of explicit, systematic reading and spelling instruction (decoding practice and orthographic mapping) may activate rewiring of their reading circuitry that can lead to improved reading and spelling. With that said, accommodations are also key! (Click here ,  here and here for ideas.) A student with dyslexia may struggle with spelling for a very long time. Usually reading improves first, then spelling. 

I hope this post has been helpful! If you are interested in not missing a post, consider joining my mailing list (found at the top of the page).

Related Blog Posts

To find more blog posts about how to teach reading and spelling, click here.

Related Resources:

Click here for  Systematic Phonics Resources.

Click here for  Morphology Resources

Click here for  Phonemic Resources  

Click here for  Phonics Resources

The Systematic Phonics  lessons on the top slide provide more detail for the teacher, along with a sequence to follow. (More are coming) The resources on the bottom slide (labeled P honics Resources ) are all great supplements. I have activities at the word level, sentence level, and decodable stories. The bottom row shows  printable phonics activities . These do not have lesson plans but the activities provide tons of practice for your students working on these phonics skills.  The  sound boxes  and  phonics cards  are both good resources for improving spelling and decoding. 

References:

I highly recommend looking into these books to learn more!  If you want to learn more about the rules of English, Uncovering the Logic of English is a great resource.  

Latest on Instagram

Latest on Pinterest

Latest on Facebook

1 years ago

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

2 years ago

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of homework noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• I always do my homework on the bus.
• physics/geography/French, etc. homework
• I still haven't done my geography homework.
• How much homework do you get?
• for homework I have to write up the notes for homework.
• (especially North American English) I have to finish this homework assignment .
• acquire/​get/​lack (an) education/​training/ (British English) (some) qualifications
• receive/​provide somebody with training/​tuition
• develop/​design/​plan a curriculum/ (especially British English) course/ (North American English) program/​syllabus
• give/​go to/​attend a class/​lesson/​lecture/​seminar
• hold/​run/​conduct a class/​seminar/​workshop
• sign up for/​take a course/​classes/​lessons
• go to/​start preschool/​kindergarten/​nursery school
• be in (North American English) the first, second, etc. grade/ (British English) year 1, 2. etc. (at school)
• study/​take/​drop history/​chemistry/​German, etc.
• (British English) leave/​finish/​drop out of/ (North American English) quit school
• (North American English) graduate high school/​college
• be the victim/​target of bullying
• (British English) play truant from/ (both British English, informal) bunk off/​skive off school (= not go to school when you should)
• (both especially North American English) skip/​cut class/​school
• (British English) cheat in/ (North American English) cheat on an exam/​a test
• get/​be given a detention (for doing something)
• be expelled from/​be suspended from school
• do your homework/ (British English) revision/​a project on something
• work on/​write/​do/​submit an essay/​a dissertation/​a thesis/​an assignment/ (North American English) a paper
• finish/​complete your dissertation/​thesis/​studies/​coursework
• hand in/ (North American English) turn in your homework/​essay/​assignment/​paper
• study/​prepare/ (British English) revise/ (North American English) review/ (North American English, informal) cram for a test/​an exam
• take/ (both British English) do/​sit a test/​an exam
• (especially British English) mark/ (especially North American English) grade homework/​a test
• (British English) do well in/ (North American English) do well on/ (especially North American English, informal) ace a test/​an exam
• pass/​fail/ (especially North American English, informal) flunk a test/​an exam/​a class/​a course/​a subject
• apply to/​get into/​go to/​start college/ (British English) university
• leave/​graduate from law school/​college/ (British English) university (with a degree in computer science)
• study for/​take/ (British English) do/​complete a law degree/​a degree in physics
• (both North American English) major/​minor in biology/​philosophy
• earn/​receive/​be awarded/​get/​have/​hold a master’s degree/​a bachelor’s degree/​a PhD in economics
• Have you finished your homework?
• Have you done your physics homework yet?
• I was helping my sister with her maths homework.
• The homework assignments are worth 10% of the final grade.
• I have some homework to do on the Civil War.
• I want you to hand in this homework on Friday.
• The science teacher always gives a lot of homework.
• They get a lot of homework in English.
• They get masses of homework at secondary school.
• We had to write out one of the exercises for homework.
• for homework
• homework  on

Take your English to the next level

The Oxford Learner’s Thesaurus explains the difference between groups of similar words. Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of homework in English

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

• The kids are busy with their homework.
• My science teacher always sets a lot of homework.
• "Have you got any homework tonight ?" "No."
• I got A minus for my English homework.
• For homework I want you to write an essay on endangered species .
• academic year
• access course
• Advanced Placement
• asynchronous
• foundation course
• immersion course
• interdisciplinarity
• on a course
• open admissions
• open classroom
• work placement

homework | American Dictionary

Homework | business english, examples of homework, translations of homework.

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

the fact that people or animals do what they are told to do

Dead ringers and peas in pods (Talking about similarities, Part 2)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• English    Noun
• American    Noun
• do your homework
• Translations
• All translations

Add homework to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

• Trying to Conceive
• Signs & Symptoms
• Pregnancy Tests
• Fertility Testing
• Fertility Treatment
• Weeks & Trimesters
• Staying Healthy
• Preparing for Baby
• Complications & Concerns
• Pregnancy Loss
• Breastfeeding
• School-Aged Kids
• Raising Kids
• Personal Stories
• Everyday Wellness
• Safety & First Aid
• Immunizations
• Food & Nutrition
• Active Play
• Pregnancy Products
• Nursery & Sleep Products
• Nursing & Feeding Products
• Clothing & Accessories
• Toys & Gifts
• Ovulation Calculator
• Pregnancy Due Date Calculator
• How to Talk About Postpartum Depression
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board

Is Your Child Being Sent Home With Busywork?

Many parents think the quality of their child’s homework is not up to par. It’s not the children's efforts parents are complaining about—it’s the homework being assigned. Parents wonder whether it's just busywork rather than assignments that are of value to their child's education.

If it's just busywork it might be taking up time better spent by your child in healthy physical activity and valuable free play, both of which are essential for physical and mental development.   Families have only a limited time together in the afternoon and evening. If the child is doing busy work, they have less opportunity to participate in family life that is crucial for their emotional and social development.   Children and teens also require a good night's sleep, and busy work might mean delaying bedtime to ensure that it gets done.

What Is Busywork?

Busywork is an assignment that may take a lot of time but doesn’t impart anything of educational value to a student. In other words, your child may look really busy, but they're actually just doing work to stay occupied and aren't really learning anything from it.

Busywork keeps the students occupied often by practicing skills they’ve already learned and not necessarily teaching anything new.

In the classroom, busywork sometimes has its merits. Lesson plans for substitute teachers often contain busywork, especially when a teacher had planned on introducing new concepts to the class and would rather wait until they return to do so.

What Is Homework?

Homework, on the other hand, serves a different purpose than busywork. Effective homework assignments supplement learning and practice and integrate newly learned skills. Homework gives students the chance to develop study habits and discern between the concepts they are having trouble with versus those which they have mastered.

Some skills are best learned by repetition. Twenty-five math problems using the same process can seem like busywork, but by the 20th problem, most students will find that knowing how to solve the problem has become automatic. Spelling homework can also be boring and repetitive, although there are some unique ways to practice spelling  that can make it a little more exciting.

Sometimes homework can look like busywork, particularly in vocabulary and math.

Is It Busywork or Homework?

The question on many parents' minds is how to tell whether homework is really homework or whether it’s busywork. Sometimes the answer is obvious. Unless your child needs to improve their fine motor skills , homework asking them to cut, color, and glue doesn’t have a whole lot of educational value. An exception to this is when a project is assigned to be completed as a family. Family projects teach the value of teamwork and help kids understand that parents are an important part of their education.  

Sometimes the answer depends on your child. When it comes to skill practice, what holds educational value for one child may be busy work for another. Some children need repetition to help them learn, while others are able to “get it” and move on.

What Can Parents Do?

If your child seems to be zipping through their homework without any challenges, it’s probably busywork. In that case, it’s a good time to talk to their teacher about how this can be handled.

Some teachers hold fast to the idea that every student needs to complete the same homework, while others are more willing to provide individualized homework. Advocating for no homework may not be a good approach, but speaking with the teacher about the difference between being “fair” and providing “equal” learning experiences is a good tactic.

Bento G, Dias G. The importance of outdoor play for young children's healthy development . Porto Biomed J . 2017;2(5):157-160. doi:10.1016/j.pbj.2017.03.003

Bzostek SH, Berger LM. Family Structure Experiences and Child Socioemotional Development During the First Nine Years of Life: Examining Heterogeneity by Family Structure at Birth . Demography . 2017;54(2):513-540. doi:10.1007/s13524-017-0563-5

Taylor J. District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Supporting Your Children in School – A Teamwork Approach .

All Formats

Resource types, all resource types.

• Rating Count
• Price (Ascending)
• Price (Descending)
• Most Recent

Free spelling homework

Types of Poetry Writing Paper Templates, Graphic Organizers, Poetry Writing Unit

2nd Grade Reading + Phonics Bingo Game! 90 Unique Boards - Level 2 Words!

Reading Comprehension Strategies MEGA Bundle | Social Emotional Learning | ELA

Step up to Writing Inspired Narrative Writing Bundle

Spelling and Sight Word Practice Menu

Free Morning Work for First Grade No Prep Spiral Math Differentiated AUGUST

• Easel Activity

Short Vowel Phonics Worksheets - CVC - Blends - Digraphs - Color by Code - FREE

Spelling Practice - Great for Homework or Seat Work (Grades 1-2)

Name Activities EDITABLE

Free Spring Editable Spelling Practice Activities for Any Word List

at Word Family Worksheets CVC Freebie!

Consonant Digraph Worksheets WH FREEBIE

Sight Words Free | High Frequency Homework | Morning Work | Dolch Words

Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling Homework (freebie)

Sight Word Activities for Special Education Sight Word Spelling Practice Freebie

Sight Word Sentence Freebie

Free Spelling Homework Grids | Spelling Menus | Spelling Choice Boards

Take Home Sight Word Book

Spelling Words Handwriting Practice

Magic e Worksheet

• Portable Network Graphics

FREEBIE- Short E Practice- CVC Short Vowel Cut and Paste PREVIEW!

Interactive Short a CVC Booklet Freebie (Sampler)

FREEBIE: Phonics & Spelling Foundational Skills Word Work Sample

FREE Spelling Homework Ideas

Phonics Printables- Long Vowel a_e Freebie!

Floss Rule Worksheets

First Grade Word Work | Science of Reading | Digital Option - Free Sample

INSTANT ABC Board | A FREE DOWNLOAD |

• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think