Homework students can do independently: teacher’s guide

You worked through a topic together. The student answered questions, completed exercises and seemed to follow the explanation. At the next lesson, they arrive with an empty notebook or say, “I didn’t understand it at home.”

Before assigning more work, find out where the difficulty arose. Did the student never start? Misunderstand the instructions? Get stuck halfway through? Finish the task but struggle to check their answer?

Here are six checks for tutors and teachers at private supplementary schools, examples across subjects, and an instruction template. Choose the check that matches a particular student’s difficulty and try it with their next assignment.

In this article:

• A clear purpose
• An independent first step
• Workload and stopping points
• A plan for getting stuck
• Reviewing unfinished homework
• An action after feedback
• A template and worked example
• What to try next lesson

1. Is the purpose of these exercises clear?

“Learn the topic” is a broad instruction. Name the specific action the student will practise:

• Maths: adding fractions with different denominators.
• English: choosing between the past simple and present perfect in context.
• Physics: identifying the forces acting on an object.
• Exam preparation: finding evidence in a text to support an answer.

Then review the exercises: does each one serve that purpose? If a task combines new terms, an unfamiliar method and a long passage, decide what support the student will need.

The Education Endowment Foundation’s homework review highlights task quality and the connection to classroom learning. Increasing the number of exercises alone does not guarantee better results.

2. Can the student start without your prompt?

During shared practice, a teacher can quietly do part of the thinking: suggesting a formula, pointing to a useful word or prompting the next step.

Before the lesson ends, ask the student to start a similar task independently. Try these questions:

What do you need to find? What do you already know? What will your first step be? Why are you choosing it?

If starting is difficult, demonstrate your thinking. For example, in physics:

First, I identify the object I am considering. Then I work out what it interacts with. After that, I mark the corresponding forces.

Let the student try that sequence with another problem. For homework, leave a worked example or a short sequence of steps as support. Reduce that support as the student begins to use the method independently.

Teaching students to plan and monitor their actions is described in the EEF’s guidance on metacognition and self-regulated learning. Here, it takes a concrete form: learning to choose the next action in a task from their subject.

3. Is there a clear stopping point?

Identify the required work, optional practice and what counts as finished. For example:

Complete four sentences. In each one, choose a tense and briefly explain your choice. There are two more sentences for optional practice.

Base any time estimate on the student’s age, preparation and the task itself. If you suggest around 15 minutes, explain what to do if much more time has passed and they are still on the first item:

If you cannot make progress for a while, mark the difficult part and keep your attempt. We will start the next lesson with that step.

This is an example of an agreement, not a universal time limit. After a few assignments, ask how long the work actually takes and adjust the amount or support if needed.

4. Does the student know what to do when stuck?

“Message me if you don’t understand” leaves a question open: what should the message say? Offer a simple request template:

I am working on… I have already tried… I do not understand this step…

For example:

I am solving the second equation. I expanded the brackets, but I am unsure whether I changed the signs correctly. Here is my attempt.

A message like this gives you a clearer place to begin your explanation. Agree on where and when students can ask questions: through your usual messaging channel, before a lesson or during the homework review. Choose a routine you can sustain.

Check the practical conditions too: can the student open the file, access the materials and use a suitable device and workspace? The EEF recommends considering barriers to homework completion, including access to resources and a place to study.

5. If the work is unfinished, find out what happened

Start with: “Show me how far you got.” Then choose an action that fits the situation.

They never started. Check whether they found the assignment, understood the instructions and had an opportunity to work. Ask them to read the task and name the first step.

They got stuck halfway through. Look at the last action they completed confidently and the next one where the question arose. Ask them to explain the transition between the two.

They repeated the same mistake. Choose one example, listen to their reasoning and identify the rule or action that needs clarification. After explaining it, let them try a similar task.

The answers are correct, but explaining them is difficult. Offer a task with a small change and ask for a commentary on the solution. One such situation is not enough to conclude that a student copied their work.

These are possible teaching responses to discuss with the student. If difficulties keep recurring, also talk about workload, wellbeing and other circumstances.

6. What will the student do after your review?

Plan a small action that requires the student to use your comment. For example:

In the second line, check the sign before the brackets. Correct that step and continue solving the equation.

Or, for a written response:

Your answer makes a claim. Add one example from the text that supports it.

After the correction, offer a similar task to see how the student applies the explanation. Leave time for this in your lesson plan.

The EEF’s feedback guidance specifically recommends planning how students will use the comments they receive. Make “revise the rule” more precise: which rule, where it applies and what to do after reviewing it.

A homework instruction template

Copy the lines you need and complete them for your lesson:

Today we are practising: …

Complete: …

Start with: …

Example or support: …

Approximate time: …

If you get stuck: …

Before submitting, check: …

Next lesson, we will: …

A short task will not always need all eight lines. Use the ones that will help the particular student.

An example for a language lesson:

We are practising the choice between the past simple and present perfect. Complete four sentences and briefly explain each tense choice. Before starting, review the two examples from the lesson. If you are unsure, write your proposed answer and the question you have about it. In our next lesson, we will work through the difficult parts and create examples of our own.

All dialogue and assignments in this article are original examples of wording. Adapt the amount of work, time and support to your students.

What to try in your next lesson

Take one planned homework assignment. Add a clear purpose, support for the first step and an agreement about what to do when stuck. At the end of the work, ask the student:

What could you do independently today, and where do you still need help?

In the next lesson, check whether they could start without a prompt, where they stopped and whether the support helped. Use those observations to make the next adjustment to the assignment.

If you work with a team, discuss one example with colleagues: could a student follow the instructions without an extra explanation? Agree on a small set of essentials that teachers can adapt to their subjects.

To organise assigning, submitting and reviewing work in Mimiao, explore the homework features.

Sources and scope

This article adapts guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation:

• Homework — purpose, connection to lessons, task quality and conditions for completion.
• Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning — teaching students to plan, monitor and evaluate their actions.
• Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning — specific feedback and opportunities to apply it.

The sources address school education; the examples here are adapted for supplementary lessons. The EEF rates the evidence base for homework specifically as limited. Use these checks as a practical starting point in your setting, not as a guarantee that every assignment will be completed or that attainment will rise by a particular amount.