Ideas for Assigning Homework in a Chinese ESL Classroom

An interesting aspect of Chinese culture is rooted in homework. Generally speaking, most Chinese parents prefer to see their children doing some level of homework every evening. However, as professional educators, ESL teachers are often aware when homework is useful, excellent for reinforcement, burdensome, or outright ineffective.

When Is Homework Useful and Burdensome

There has been substantial research on the value and effectiveness of homework from institutions around the world.

Firstly, it’s important to note that homework, when properly assigned, can offer several benefits to learners at every level. This can include reinforcement of learned material, practice in developing time management skills, encouraging independent problem-solving methods, and building confidence prior to solo assessments.

Realistically, however, other research has shown an increased level of stress and burnout, increased issues to sleep deprivation, more sedentary behavior, and diminished returns if work is seen as heavily boredom-inducing or pointless. Several studies indicate that at a high school level, benefits for homework plateau after 2 hours of studying.

There is also an odd relationship between affluence in a community and homework. Generally, if a student from a poorer household does homework, they benefit more from it, as it allows for deeper reinforcement than school can provide. However, students who find themselves in impoverished situations may also lack the proper setting to study, such as a quiet space, parental support, or technological resources. In these cases, homework can be a source of potential educational disparity.

Teacher Responsibilities

To ensure homework is effective, teachers must do their due diligence as well. It’s important to remember that homework is an effective method for connecting students with their parents and parents with educational expectations. Even if a parent is involved in only one assignment per week, this can drastically improve the communication and expectations for a student’s education.

Ironically, teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. Generally, teachers use the same techniques and methods they were exposed to during their education, regardless of improvements in the field.

Homework needs to be designed for an 80% review and 20% expansion of knowledge. This allows students to reinforce what they’ve already learned and promote self-learning habits without struggling to jump into new material without guidance. Additionally, homework should have a certain level of dynamic function, allowing students to apply concepts to new contexts.

For instance, if a student learns about the Chinese Xia dynasty in class, they should be sent home with homework that allows them to review the major vital information. For instance, they might have a worksheet regarding the mythical dynasty’s association with Yu the Great, the famed flood, the influence of the legendary Five Emperors, and the major stories around the mythos. At this point, after finishing the review material, the student should be assigned to find the next logical step of information independently, either through reading or other resources. For instance, they might be asked at the bottom of the worksheet who overthrew the Xia dynasty and founded the Shang dynasty. (Supposedly, this is Cheng Tang.)

Additionally, the advantage of homework is teaching the brain that information is vital and must be remembered. A student who does homework in class is talented at finishing work quickly, but lacks the chance to train their mind to recall specific, test-oriented information in the future.

Finally, a teacher must ensure homework is dynamic. Use multiple mediums, such as worksheets, short essays, video lessons, interviews, parent conversations, drawings and more. Ensure there’s a method for informing parents about what homework is involved so there can be learning encouragement and enforcement at home.

Developing Interactive Homework

Homework needs a variety of settings and contexts to be interactive, allowing it to reinforce learning in a student’s mind. This can involve doing art, designing video lessons, writing slogans for ads or interacting with parents, siblings or grandparents. Vitally, parents and other family members should never be asked to “teach” students independently. Putting the burden of homework education and learning on parents is an ineffective use of family time.

Rather, teachers should set up homework assignments so students are in charge and capable of instigating conversations in a manner they like. This can allow for at-home collaboration, which ensures parents can keep up with the curriculum. For instance, making learning videos on WeChat through parent-teacher communication homework groups is a good way to stay appraised.

Family engagement is extremely vital, as it gives a social foundation for the success of homework and allows all parties of the child’s education to be engaged in learning.

Assigning At-Level Homework

When assigning homework, a baseline level is needed. Remember, studies show that students who do more homework is generally linked to higher student achievement, but also faster burnout. If students are spending too long on assignments or not doing them at all, the benefits vanish and learners can fall behind.

Thus, a good rule of thumb is to assign homework that the fifth-weakest student in a subject can finish in a half-hour time frame, assuming that student has other classes and teachers. More advanced students will complete this with ease while weaker students will be able to keep up. The time commitment isn’t overwhelmingly large and Chinese parents are generally pleased to see their children working hard at home.

Remember to factor in intrinsic motivation. 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.

Homework Types and Recommendations

There are countless types of homework to assign using these metrics. Each one can be tailored to a specific assignment. For this article, we’ll consider ESL-centric homework.

• Interviewing family members and writing English summaries
• Playing games such as I-Spy in English on an audio recording
• Reading at-level articles on websites like Engoo.com daily news.
• Handling review-based worksheets
• Playing a family-centric game and recording the outcome
• Doing a saved video “cue, action, response” learning
• Listening to an English song and commenting on the lyrics or style
• Transcribing a family story for class
• Playing an approved video game for learners
• Drawing a picture after drawing a random English description in class
• Playing other small games
• Completing an at-level assigned reading
• Interreacting with AI or other new technology

Remember, it’s not enough to simply assign homework to students. A teacher must also check and appraise it to determine if the homework is helping a student reach the targeted lesson goals.

Conclusion

Overall, homework is still a vital part of teaching and Chinese culture. Taking time to consider it directly and how it can best benefit Chinese learners is an important part of being an ESL instructor.