HW Ideas – English

This is a list of things you may choose to do to help build your students reading and writing skills. They are designed to make reading and writing part of ordinary life.

  • Do the code cracker or target from the daily the paper
  • Talk about what you are reading and encourage students to do the same
  • Get your son or daughter to write the shopping list
  • Get your children to write the ingredients and instructions from a television cooking show that you watch together. Then this to try and make the food.
  • Start work on a family history and ask your son and daughter to interview an older family member about their life.
  • Write menus and party invitations for family occasions.
  • Get your students to show you what TEXAS paragraphs are.
  • Read the newspaper together and discuss  your opinions with your son or daughter. Encourage  them to articulate opinions with evidence
  • Write letters of complaint or praise to restaurants or leisure places you have visited as a family.
  • Encourage your students to keep diaries especially when on holiday or travelling.
  • Encourage your students to organise the family photo albums and include captions. These could be digital or hardcopy albums.
  • Take turns reading a chapter from a novel as a family. Harry Potter is great for this.
  • Watch films together and discuss them.
  • Wherever you can explore how various people might feel about it.
  • Play games: Scrabble, Bananagram, Pictionary, Boggle, Balderdash, Taboo, Dingbats, charades
  • Tell jokes to each other.
  • Have a competition to see which family member can learn a poem or some song lyrics off by heart first.
  • Have a competition to come up with the most interesting new word of the day
  • Join the local library and make regular visits as a family.
  • Enrol in a night class and learn a new language as a family.