Online Homework
Ann Stephenson
Many schools in the past couple of years have undoubtedly been conserving resources in order to save money, as well as to “go green.” One aspect is that there are now few consumable workbooks for students to fulfill their obligatory homework to correspond with the lesson of the day.
One option would be to have the page copied, but that would defeat the purpose since the ink and paper each day would ultimately cost more than the workbook, not to mention that it may be against the copyright laws of the publisher.
Since a majority of students own or have access to a computer and the Internet, many homework assignments can be found online. For those students who may not have use of a compute with internet access at home, a few of the assignments should be printed or the boys and girls may use the public library.
Some examples of online homework assignments are:
- Find an online newspaper from another part of the world and compare and contrast a social issue or the weather. Then write an opinion essay of what life would be like living there.
- Download menus and write a “restaurant review” of the food
- Type their own menu using adjectives other than the menu that was downloaded
- Look for the rate of exchange from a country whose money is different from the local area
- Find a recipe online and double, triple or change if for a large crowd. If the recipe indicates that it will feed four then have the students enlarge it to feed twenty-seven, for example.
- Get paper menus from local restaurants (they are glad to offer them when they know they will go home to families). Have students look up an equivalent type of restaurant online and compare the value.
- Research online regarding a current event, such as a planet that was discovered, a promising cure for a disease, or a historical figure, etc., and paraphrase it into an essay.
- After reading and finding information on The Great Depression, make a table and compare and contrast the differences between the economy of the 1930s and that of today.
- Create a Scavenger Hunt (http://faculty.usiouxfalls.edu/arpeterson/scavenger-hunts.htm) using such topics as “how to raise money for a school event” or “how to go green in the classroom or school.”
- Look for a classic poet online and “translate” one of his/her poems into modern day language.
- E-mail a chamber of commerce asking questions about their city.
- The possibilities are endless and to add to the list, ask students to write or find ten online homework assignments.
Do you have a question or comment about this article? E-mail me.
|