Establishing High Standards for Homework
Helping Your Children Establish High Standards for Their Schoolwork
There's lots of research evidence showing that students who know the standards for good work themselves are best able to produce good work. Asking questions like the following can help a child begin to learn these standards. When your children begin working on their own tasks, they may ask themselves the same kind of questions.
Explain how you figured that problem out.
How do you know that's correct?
Why do you think that? Write your thinking down.
Can both of these things be true?
Can you find a better way to convince the reader of
your answer?
Can you make a drawing that shows what you mean?
Have you labeled your drawing?
Did you describe the units correctly? (inches, milliliters, meters, teaspoons, etc.)
How is this similar to what you did in class?
What part is hard for you? How could we make that part
easier?
If a child has an incorrect solution, suggest two or three
other solutions and ask her to compare them.
Does one look more correct than the others?
What is something you've learned that relates to this? How
does it relate?
When do you think you might use this in life?
What is the key language of this discipline?
What are the key details?
What patterns or trends do you see?
What are the rules of this discipline?
adapted from Susan Acosta