How to Get Students to Do Homework

Do you have students that don't do their homework? 

Do you have students who forget to turn in their math homework?

Do you have students that need a reminder to complete their math work?

Grades were turned in for the second quarter last week. Do your students turn in all their assignments? Getting students to complete all of their assignments before grades are due is a challenge.

How to get students to do homework

To encourage students to turn in math assignments I send home a parent letter. This is a great motivation for 100% assignment completion. Involving parents in the process works well. They are eager to help and have their student complete the work.

The parent letter is an excellent reminder for students. We all need a reminder about important events. Reminders help us remember what we need to accomplish. Reminders keep us on the path to success. As teachers, we don’t always have to be the reminder. A reminder can be a sticker, a bracelet, a text message, an email or a piece of paper.

There are other incentives to turning in math homework on time. Students who turn it in on time receive an award certificate of all completed assignments, the feeling of achievement, the relief of being "done" with homework for the quarter, and they don't have to serve a lunch detention to complete the missing assignments. 

Do you have students that haven't completed assignments and know they will not do them? The best solution to getting students to finish missing work that matters is to have them complete a missing work lunch detention. Before you assign the lunch detention make it clear that this is for academic purposes. Students must complete the missing assignment to be released from the lunch detention and they must attend the lunch detention until they have finished the missing assignment(s). Some schools call this "lunch buddy" program. Having students finish important assignments for academic value and a grade can improve their mindset that getting assignments completed will help them in the future. 

Do you still have students that will not complete the assignments? Let's look at what you've assigned over the quarter. Read this blog post about grading assignments and review the quarterly assigned assignments. You have the power as a teacher to give and take away assignments to help a student achieve success. You can help them become a better student that turns in their assignments.

I’m sharing this grading reminder with you. It’s helped students make a connection between work effort and grades. Students develop a growth mindset with this process. They learn that turning in all of their assignments improves their grades. Yes! This progression helps illustrate that they should always use their best effort first rather than wait until grades are due.

​I've included an award certificate for you too! You've made it through the first quarter and deserve recognition for your efforts. 👏👏👏 Click HERE to download it today!

Happy Teaching!

Why I Don't Assign Homework

Do your students struggle to complete and turn in all their homework assignments?

Do you want to keep them accountable for missing assignments?

Do you want your students to turn in 100% of their homework?

I struggled for many years to find a solution that worked best for my students and I. How do I get students to do their work? How do you get students to turn in their assignments? How much is the right amount of homework?

After reflecting upon my teaching practices and how students would respond to certain homework policies and situations I found solutions that worked. First, I stopped "giving homework". Instead I would set out 10-15 minutes of class time to let the students work on what I would assign as "homework" and call it "classwork" to students. This "classwork" time is mandatory and students are required complete the assignment or finish it for homework. Most students would finish it in class and have no homework! Students that didn't finish would be required to finish at home.

Did all the students finish in class? No. So I had to come up with some other solutions to get to 100% homework turn in rate. These are solutions to the homework problem. Try one or all of them to meet the needs of your students.

More Solutions 

1. Homework Excuse Slips. Have you tried homework excuse slips? I've tried them and determined they did not work for me. After two quarters I found that I was wasting printing paper for students to tell me "I forgot" or "I just didn't do it". It wasn't a solution, it just gave the students the feeling that they were justified in their excuse. My goal of the excuse slips was to get students to see what they weren't doing and to fix the behavior. This was not attained, but I abandoned this solution.

2. Makeup Slips for Absent Students. Absentees can become a problem depending on the school you teach it. I've work at 85% attendance rate schools and 98% attendance rate schools. The system that worked best after years of perfecting was the "While your Were Out" slips. I print multiple sheets of absent work forms, assign other students to fill them out at the beginning of class for absent students, and then those students place the slips in the absent box. Minimal work required for the teacher, just print and go! You can make your own slips or Click HERE to download these.

3. Progress Report Printouts. This has been the best solution for my students. Students are able to see what they are missing (I highlight the zeros and missing assignments that they can turn in before the end of the quarter). Parents are required to sign the progress report printout for homework or extra credit (depending on how I want to assign the grade for being responsible and completing all the work). Parents appreciate the support and reminder of how their student is doing. This also helps keep students accountable and on track for success.

4. Assign Less Homework. After assigning too many homework assignments one year, I made a homework calendar and a plan to only assign 1 homework assignment a week. You can CLICK HERE to read about why I don't grade homework after school and how you can too.  I write down the dates when I will collect and grade any homework (less than 9 a quarter) in my planner. It makes it simple to keep track of all the assignments. If you need a planner I highly recommend Occolo planners. This is the exact planner I use. Keeping track of assignments and tests grading helps keep grading simple and planned. If I haven't planned to grade it, I always ask "does this have academic value?" If it does and needs to be graded then I add it to the list. Assigning less will help you grade less, and in return you will not have to look for as many missing assignments.

5. Assign Less Problems. Along with assigning less homework, I took the 10 problem challenge. Only assigning 10 math problems which was the equivalent of 20-30 minutes of work for students. This greatly improved the percentage of students who completed the assignment. It was more manageable for them to complete and achieve success on an assignment.


I hope these homework solutions are making you reflect on your teaching practices. What could you do to improve the rate of homework return? How could your students have a better attitude about homework? What would be easiest for you to maintain and keep up with grading? Homework doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming. Make it relatable and effective for students.

Happy Teaching!