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10 entertaining homework ideas for online English Language Learners

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Did hearing the words, “do your homework,” when you were a child excite you? 

For most of us, the word homework doesn’t conjure up exciting or fun memories. 

Homework was likely one of the last things you wanted to do as a student!

However, what if you could make homework fun for students? What if homework was entertaining? 

In this article, we share some entertaining homework ideas for English language learners to help them improve their English while having fun!

You might be familiar with lots of ESL games and activities for your students , but assigning the right homework can feel overwhelming. 

This is particularly true if you don’t want to burden your students with a tremendous amount of information. 

Have you ever thought about combining games with homework? 

There are many alternative ways to create memorable lessons, such as incorporating karaoke songs to learn English. 

Here are 10 fun and entertaining homework ideas for your ESL students:

  • Cafe hopper
  • Tiktok star
  • Let’s go to the movies
  • Hello Mr. Teacher
  • Interview a stranger
  • Shine like a Karaoke star
  • Expert on the loose
  • 24 hour challenge
  • It’s a wrap!
  • Masterchef in the making

1. Cafe hopper

Most people love checking out cafes and this is an easy homework task to assign to your students.  

Have your students visit a variety of cafes as part of their homework. 

Then, consider what they could do for homework in a cafe of their choice.

Here are some fun ideas for turning cafe-hopping into homework:

  • Practice ordering in English off of the menu.
  • Take a photo of the cafe’s and share the differences and similarities with you in class.
  • Speak to a stranger in each cafe in English and ask them some interesting questions about their life.
  • Interview the barista about their favorite kind of coffee or beverage.

This is a stress-free homework idea that your students will love, especially if they are coffee or tea lovers!

2. TikTok star

Tiktok is a fun social media application where you can watch videos and songs from creators. You can also watch creators lip-synching to catchy tunes.

Show some fun examples in your class of some famous TikTok songs being lip-synched to by others and practice doing one together.

  • For homework, have them choose their favorite song on TikTok.
  • They can lip-synch to the song and download the song to their camera album without having to actually post it to TikTok.
  • Have them share their creation with you in the next class!

Depending on the age and location of your student, TikTok might not be an option for them. If you are teaching older students or adults , then it might be easier for them to use social media for this homework assignment rather than young children.

If they are too young to use the app, have them find an online video of their favorite song and ask a parent to record them singing!

3. Let’s go to the movies

Going to the movies doesn’t sound like homework, does it? Well, as you might already be discovering, homework doesn’t have to be conventional!

Find some interesting movies that are playing in your students’ area or ask them to watch a movie of their choice in English. 

Tell them that their homework is going to be based on the movie they watch.

Here are some ideas for making going to the movies part of their homework:

  • Have them write a summary of the movie or their favorite part.
  • Tell them that they have to give you a movie review in your next class.
  • Have them act out their favorite part of the movie with a sibling or family member and record it (in English of course!).
  • Ask them to make a poster advertising the movie with captions, titles and text to accompany any drawings.

If you are struggling to find movies they can go and watch in the cinema, you can always use these ESL movies and TV shows as a resource. 

Students can also watch movies from the comforts of their homes. 

4. Hello Mr. Teacher!

Students love playing the role of the teacher! 

This can work for in-person or online ESL classes.  

Tell them that as part of the next classroom activity, the first 5 – 10 minutes will be their time to shine as the teacher!

For homework, ask them to:

  • Think of one topic that they know a lot about (This could be a sport, musical instrument, game, topic, etc…).
  • Have them prepare 5 important things that someone needs to know about their topic.
  • Tell them that in their next class they will be the teacher and share their knowledge! (They can even give you homework!).

Have fun with this homework idea and role-play the student where you ask them questions after they finish. 

Your students will love this one!

5. Interview a stranger

This one might need some parent support and guidance if you are teaching children, but having them interview someone is an entertaining homework idea for English language learners.

  • It encourages their own voice as they come up with ideas.
  • It helps with writing skills as they write out their questions.
  • Interviewing encourages conversation and role playing which is a fun way to learn English.

You could have your younger students interview a family member and ask questions related to that family member’s childhood. 

Here are some sample questions you could help your students form:

  • What kind of things did you like to do when you were my age?
  • What was your favorite thing about school?
  • What types of sports did you play when you were young?
  • Tell me about what life was like when you were a child.

Have them choose and write out 5-10 questions and come back to class to report on their findings!

6. Shine like a Karaoke star

Who doesn’t like a bit of karaoke? Imagine….singing your heart out to “I love rock n roll” in the privacy of your own home!

You don’t need to go to a karaoke place to actually sing karaoke songs. There are lots of great karaoke songs available online to learn English with your students.

YouTube is a great place to start, just by searching for your favorite song + “karaoke lyrics” in the search bar.

In class, help your student(s) choose a song and task them with finding the online karaoke lyrics to sing along.

Have them sing this for homework! You could even ask a parent to help them record it if they are comfortable with that.

Here are some fun and popular karaoke songs online to learn English:

  • “I Will Survive” with Gloria Gaynor
  • “Livin’ on a Prayer” with Bon Jovi
  • “Summer Nights” with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John
  • “Don’t Stop Believin’” with Journey

7. Expert on the loose

There is an expert in all of us, including your students!

In this fun and entertaining homework idea, have your student share their expertise on something!

To add a different dimension to the homework idea, “Hello Mr. Teacher,” task your students to dress up as the expert and make a short speech on their topic of choice.

Here are some examples:

  • Harry Potter
  • Michael Jordan (to talk about basketball)
  • Favorite sports athlete
  • Insect scientist
  • Astronaut (if your student knows a lot about space)
  • Presidential candidate
  • Pilot (for students who know a lot about countries)

Even if they are not an expert on the topic, part of the homework assignment could be to do some research and learn more about their chosen field.

You could even ask them to dress up and come to class in the role, ready to share their knowledge with you! 

8. 24 hour English challenge

This one is self-explanatory and incredibly fun!

Set a challenge for your student to only speak in English for 24 hours. 

This means that you might need to get parents involved with the homework assignment, so that they can help out.

The idea is that they have to speak only in English (as much as is possible given their situation) when interacting with family, friends and at school.

Your students might already be immersed in English environments, but, oftentimes, they are speaking their native language at home with family and friends.

Having your students force themselves to only speak in English is challenging and a great way to encourage English outside the classroom.

9. It’s a wrap!

Lots of students love to rap! Rap music is poetic and encourages a lot of ESL language skills that we want to build in our students.

This is an activity that you can model with your students in class and assign it for homework for them to create their own rap.

Again, they can come back to class and rap their new song to you! It might, however, work better with older students who have a good base level of English, to begin with.

Here are some fun homework assignments incorporating rap:

  • Create their own rap if they are the creative type
  • Find a well known rap online and practice it to present in class
  • Assign your students to find a rap online that they sing and record with their friends

10. Masterchef extraordinaire

For the food lovers, creating a homework assignment that includes cooking can be really fun.

Most kids love the idea of cooking, especially if it centers around cooking their favorite food!

When considering this as a homework idea, consider these possible assignments:

  • Create and write out a recipe for a unique culinary dish.
  • Make a video about the cooking experience.
  • Record a tutorial of how to cook something.
  • Turn it into a competition if you have multiple students.

Plus, this works with physical and online classrooms. 

Of course, if you have a physical classroom with multiple students, this could be a really fun in-class experience with some homework assignments to accompany it.

Who doesn’t love a food-related assignment? 

If you choose Masterchef extraordinaire, allow your students to share the food they make with the class and encourage lots of conversations in English.

Homework doesn’t have to be boring!

As you can see, homework doesn’t have to be boring! 

Most of your ESL students have a lot to do even outside class, and that’s why assigning homework that doesn’t feel like homework is ideal!

This is an opportunity to get creative, creating excitement for your students to learn English.

If you use some of the homework ideas mentioned here, make sure you document the experience and continue to discover new activities that bring laughter and joy to the classroom. 

And when you are applying to online teaching jobs , be sure to share how you plan to creatively incorporate class assignments and homework for your students!

Enjoy the process and make learning an enjoyable experience for everyone. 

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Wonderful World English

Homework for ESL Students – 10 Ideas for Teachers

David De' Ath

Meet  David De’ Ath , founder, editor, and writer at Wonderful World English. With his extensive background as an English teacher, David provides valuable insights and practical tips on ESL for students and teachers alike.

Learning English as a Second Language (ESL) is an enriching venture and offers students the ability to access global opportunities.

Homework in ESL is crucial, serving as a bridge between classroom theory and practical language use.

It’s essential for reinforcing learned concepts and enhancing general language proficiency.

To make this learning journey both effective and enjoyable, it’s important to craft homework tasks that are engaging and tailored to diverse learning styles.

This approach helps to maintain students’ interest and motivation, which are key to successful language acquisition.

These ESL homework ideas are designed to enhance language learning and engage students both in and out of the classroom: Daily journaling, vocabulary flashcards, reading comprehension, listening to podcasts/songs, video diaries, role-play scenarios, grammar worksheets, online games, book club discussions, and a pen pal program.

I am an experienced ESL teacher, and I can attest first-hand to the importance of self-study, homework, and review.

Our carefully selected ten homework ideas aim to transform routine learning into an exciting adventure.

These activities are more than just assignments; they’re interactive experiences designed to deepen students’ understanding of English.

From creative writing to practical exercises, these tasks are intended to make learning English a dynamic and enjoyable process, paving the way for a richer, more confident use of the language.

homework ideas for english students

Homework Ideas for ESL Students

ESL students need more than just traditional classroom lessons.

Homework is a vital part of their language development and serves as a bridge between acquired knowledge and practical application.

The following homework ideas are designed to captivate students’ interest, deepen their understanding, and enhance their fluency in English in the classroom and real-life situations.

Let’s dive into these creative and effective homework strategies that promise a richer, more interactive language learning experience:

1. Daily Journaling

This is a great idea to engage students by embracing the habit of maintaining a daily journal.

Writing about their daily experiences, emotions, thoughts, or selected topics can sharpen their writing skills while learning to articulate their feelings and ideas in English.

This journaling process serves a dual purpose: it strengthens their grasp of the language and provides a personal space for self-expression.

As they regularly engage with this practice, English becomes an integral part of their daily routine and will facilitate a more natural and fluent use of the language in their everyday lives.

This activity bolsters their linguistic abilities and fosters a deeper connection with English as a medium of personal reflection and expression.

Writing is a huge aspect of mastering a language.

For a guide on how to improve writing skills for yourself or your students, click the link below!

Related Article: How to Sharpen Writing Skills – Full Guide

2. Making Flashcards

Students can develop their vocabulary skills through the classic and effective method of creating flashcards.

This exercise involves students writing down new words and their meanings on individual cards.

They can add illustrations or use words in sentences to make the learning process more engaging and impactful.

This visual and contextual approach helps better retain and understand new vocabulary.

By regularly reviewing these flashcards, students can gradually build a robust vocabulary base, which is essential for fluency in English.

This method will reinforce their word knowledge and encourage active engagement with the language, making vocabulary learning a more interactive and enjoyable experience.

Flashcards are suitable for students of all ages and can be fun.

For some great insights on effectively teaching ESL students vocabulary, the guide below is for you!

Related Article: How to Teach Vocabulary to ESL Students – The Guide

homework ideas for english students

3. Reading Comprehension Exercises

Immerse more advanced students in the world of English reading by assigning short stories or articles complemented by comprehension questions.

This exercise is pivotal in enhancing their reading skills and deepening their understanding of various contexts in English.

Students encounter different writing styles, vocabularies, and themes by engaging with diverse texts, enriching their language experience.

The follow-up questions serve to test their understanding and encourage critical thinking about the content.

This approach bolsters their ability to comprehend English texts and stimulates their analytical skills, making them more adept at interpreting and engaging with the language in its written form.

Such reading exercises are fundamental in helping students gain confidence and proficiency in navigating English literature and media.

4. Podcasts and Songs

Teachers can offer listening exercises in their curriculums by using English podcasts and songs.

This method exposes students to a variety of accents, speaking speeds, and vocabulary in a natural context.

After listening, students can engage in activities like writing summaries or answering questions about what they heard.

These post-listening tasks are crucial for enhancing their comprehension and retention.

This approach is great at improving listening skills while making the learning process more enjoyable and relatable.

By regularly interacting with authentic English content, students develop a better ear for the language and learn to appreciate its rhythm and nuances in different forms of media.

This not only aids in language acquisition but also connects them culturally to the English-speaking world.

Check out the guide below for a list of the BEST English podcasts!

Related Article: Best Podcasts to Learn the English Language in 2024 (Top 10)

homework ideas for english students

5. Video Diaries

This one encourages students to create short video diaries as a regular assignment.

This task provides them with a platform to practice speaking about a variety of topics in English.

Whether they choose to talk about their daily life, share opinions on current events, or discuss their hobbies, these video diaries offer a unique opportunity for students to engage actively with the language.

This activity not only improves their spoken English skills but also significantly boosts their confidence in using the language.

It helps them to overcome any hesitation or fear of speaking by providing a safe, personal space to express themselves.

The process of recording and watching their own videos can also be a powerful tool for self-evaluation and progress tracking.

This innovative approach to language learning empowers students to become more fluent and self-assured English speakers.

6. Role-play in Real-world Scenarios

Ask your students to prepare role-plays that mimic real-world scenarios, such as shopping, ordering food, or making appointments.

This practical approach to learning takes them beyond the confines of traditional classroom exercises and immerses them in everyday situations. T

Through role-playing, students get to practice conversational English in a structured yet dynamic context.

It allows them to apply their language skills in practical situations, enhancing their ability to communicate effectively in real-life settings.

This method is particularly effective in familiarizing them with common phrases and vocabulary used in daily interactions.

Additionally, role-playing can be a fun and interactive way to learn, helping to reduce the anxiety often associated with speaking a new language.

By engaging in these simulated experiences, students gain confidence and fluency, which are crucial for their overall language development.

homework ideas for english students

7. Grammar Worksheets

This is a classic form of homework for ESL students, to offer them worksheets that concentrate on specific grammar points, such as verb tenses, sentence structure, or prepositions.

Regular practice with these worksheets is instrumental in solidifying their understanding of English grammar.

This methodical approach allows students to focus on one aspect of grammar at a time, ensuring a thorough grasp of each concept.

Such targeted exercises help correct common mistakes and deepen their comprehension of the language’s structure.

By consistently working through these grammar worksheets, students build a strong grammatical foundation, which is vital for effective English communication.

This foundational knowledge enhances their writing and speaking skills and boosts their confidence in correctly using the language in various contexts.

For some tips on how to teach grammar to ESL students, we’ve put together a guide to help teachers everywhere!

Related Article: How to Teach Grammar to ESL Students – Teacher’s Guide

8. Online Games

Motivate your students to engage with educational language games available online.

These games offer a fun, interactive way to learn and practice English.

Students can improve various language skills through game-based learning, including vocabulary, grammar, reading, and even listening comprehension.

The interactive nature of these games makes the learning process more enjoyable and less intimidating, especially for younger learners or beginners.

As students play, they receive immediate feedback on their performance, which helps reinforce correct usage and understanding.

This approach enhances their language skills and keeps them motivated and engaged in their learning.

Online language games provide a dynamic and enjoyable way to supplement traditional learning methods, making language practice an activity that students can look forward to.

For some ideas of classroom games, both traditional and digital, check out the guide below!

Related Article: Fun Classroom Games to Play – Teacher’s Guide

homework ideas for english students

9. Book Club

Another great idea is to start a book club in your class, where students can read and discuss a common book.

This collaborative activity enhances their reading skills and promotes critical thinking and group discussion skills in English.

Choosing books that are appropriate for their language level, the book club encourages students to dive into stories and themes, expanding their vocabulary and comprehension.

Discussing the book with their peers allows them to share perspectives, articulate their thoughts, and engage in meaningful conversations in English.

This interactive and social approach to learning also builds a sense of community among the students, making English learning a shared and enjoyable experience.

The book club thus becomes a platform for growth, not just in language proficiency but also in cognitive and social skills.

10. Pen Pal Program

The tenth great homework idea for ESL students is to start a pen pal program with English-speaking individuals from different parts of the world.

This initiative provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in regular written communication with native English speakers.

Through exchanging letters or emails, students practice their writing skills in a real-world context, learning to express their thoughts and ideas clearly in English.

This regular interaction not only improves their language proficiency but also offers valuable insights into different cultures and lifestyles, enhancing their cultural understanding and global awareness.

The pen pal program is more than just a language exercise; it’s a bridge that connects students across cultures, promoting international friendships and broadening their perspectives.

This kind of cultural exchange can be a highly rewarding and motivating experience, encouraging students to apply their language skills in meaningful and authentic interactions.

You can reach out to other teachers on platforms like LinkedIn and see if they would be willing to start a pen pal initiative for both them and your students.

homework ideas for english students

The homework ideas presented for ESL students transcend the traditional concept of assignments.

They are designed as interactive learning experiences that not only build language skills but do so in a way that is practical, enjoyable, and highly effective.

Integrating these varied activities into the ESL curriculum allows teachers to cultivate a dynamic and nurturing learning environment.

Such an approach encourages students to actively engage with the English language, not just within the confines of the classroom but in their everyday lives as well.

Promoting this kind of immersive learning experience makes students more likely to develop a lasting proficiency and a genuine appreciation for the language.

These activities, therefore, play a crucial role in shaping confident, competent English speakers who are prepared to navigate the global landscape.

We hope you find value in this article; let us know if you require any assistance.

Have a wonderful day!

Image Attribution: All images licensed via canva.com

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StoryLearning

StoryLearning

Learn A Language Through Stories

ESL homework ideas

11 ESL Homework Ideas To Engage Your Learners & Simplify Lesson Planning 

Olly Richards Headshot

Are you looking for ESL homework ideas for your classes? If you’re thinking about setting homework you’re onto a good thing. Learning a language requires a lot of exposure and practice. And much of that happens outside of class. 

The more students make contact with English outside the classroom, the faster they’ll progress. And if you can connect their homework assignments to what you’re teaching in class, you’ll make lesson planning a lot easier for yourself. 

So, without further ado, here are 11 ESL homework ideas for adults that you can use with groups, individuals, in-person or online.

If you want to become a qualified online language teacher and earn a living from home, I recommend checking out CeOLT (Certificate of Online Language Teaching).

Click here to find out more .

How To Make Homework Work For You &Your Students 

homework ideas for english students

Many ESL teachers are wary of setting homework because students often don’t do it! You may remember being set useless homework in language classes that you weren't motivated to do, such as learning lists of words for a test. 

The problem is, if ESL learners rely too much on you or on coming to lessons, they will make slow progress because so much language learning takes place outside of the classroom. 

The trick then is to integrate homework assignments into what happens in class so that it becomes non-negotiable. In the list of ESL homework ideas below, you’ll find tasks that are fun and motivating to do as well as ways to fit them into your class time. 

1.Read A Short Story Or Short Book Chapter 

short stories in english intermediate

Reading is the foundation of the StoryLearning method and makes for the perfect ESL homework idea.

Instead of spending time reading in class, get the students to do it between classes. 

They can find a quiet time to read the story or chapter as many times as they like.

In my short story books , they’ll find tools to help them understand the material such as glossaries and comprehension questions. 

In class, students can then discuss the chapter or story together. If you’re teaching 1:1, you can ask them to present a summary and show you new words they learned from the chapter. You can then discuss it together.  

For more ideas on how to use my short story books for teaching check out my Short Stories teacher’s Guide .

2. Listen To A Short Podcast Episode 

homework ideas for english students

Many ESL students struggle with English listening skills so they need as much practice as possible. 

If you teach conversation classes then this activity will also mean fewer lesson planning headaches. And you won’t waste any class time on listening. 

Tell your student to listen to a short ESL podcast such as the BBC’s 6-Minute English podcast. Ask them to prepare a summary of it to present to you in class. If the episode includes show notes, they can compare their summary with those notes. 

You can also adapt this homework activity for groups and ask them to discuss the podcast in pairs in class. This is also a great opportunity to use class time to clarify and new words, or structures that came up in the episode. 

If you’re feeling ambitious or your students have a high level, you could plan a whole series of lessons or a semester around a particular podcast such as a true crime or other investigative journalism show. 

3. Presentation About A Passion 

homework ideas for english students

Not everyone is passionate about learning English and many ESL students come to class because they have to. But even if they’re not interested in English, they must be interested in something, right? 

You can harness their hobbies and passions and generate some excitement for the English language by asking them to present a special object to the rest of the class. 

This can also work well in a 1:1 online lesson. You can ask your student to prepare a short talk about an object that they hold up to the webcam to show you. 

You can use time in class to work on presentation and storytelling skills. You can model this type of presentation by telling them about your own significant object so they know what to aim for.

4. Write A Review 

homework ideas for english students

Who doesn’t love sharing their opinion whether it’s about the latest movie they’ve seen or the hot new restaurant they had dinner at? 

You can harness this desire and get your student to practice useful language by getting them to write reviews as homework. These could be movie reviews, product reviews, restaurant reviews etc. 

In class, you can take a look at the structure of reviews in English plus the language used such as colourful adjectives or phrases for giving opinions. 

That way, your students will have a model they can use to write their own reviews at home. Back in class, students can share their reviews with each other and discuss them – would they see this movie, buy this product etc or not based on the review. 

You can also give feedback both about the content of the reviews as well as any language points to improve. 

5. Get Creative 

homework ideas for english students

Creativity requires constraints and there’s no greater one than writing a story in your second, third or fourth language. 

You can challenge students to write a short story based on words they’ve learned recently in class or on a particular topic you’ve been discussing. Give them a word count to respect as well. 

Again, you can use class time to read stories together and analyse their structure so that they know what to aim for. 

After they’ve written a short story at home, they can come back to class to read and discuss each others’ stories. 

6. Share Amazing Anecdotes 

homework ideas for english students

Telling an interesting anecdote is a real skill in any language, especially in a new one that you're learning. But it's a great way to work on your speaking skills. 

You can use your class time to read or listen to anecdotes in English. You could even tell your learners a funny or sad story about yourself. Once they’ve understood what makes a great anecdote, it’s time to create their own one for homework. 

At home, learners can write their anecdotes, or even better, can prepare and rehearse them orally, so they’re ready to tell them in class. 

During the lesson, you and the other students can react to the anecdotes and ask follow-up questions. 

7. Blogs And Blogging 

homework ideas for english students

Did you know that blogs are an incredibly rich resource for language learning and teaching? You can use blogs in many ways both inside and outside of the classroom. 

As a homework activity you could ask students to read a blog post of their choice and leave a comment for the writer. 

If your students prefer watching YouTube videos, they can watch videos and leave comments underneath them. 

In both cases, in class time, students can report back on the blog they read, why they chose it and what comment they left and why. 

If you and your students are feeling really ambitious, you could start a class blog or they could start writing their own individual blogs about their English learning journeys. 

For even more inspiration for your teaching, check out these best ESL bloggers .

8. Start A Podcast 

homework ideas for english students

This one is a bit more ambitious, but as well as listening to podcasts, learners can also consider starting their own! 

In fact, English learner Daniel Goodson from Switzerland started his podcast, My Fluent Podcast , to develop his speaking skills and gain confidence. He interviews other learners who have similar projects. 

Of course, your students don’t have to make the podcast public. It can simply be a project between you and the members of the class. They could interview each other or otherwise upload short episodes on a topic of their choice. 

Again, if they do this outside of class as homework you can use time in class to give them feedback on their work. Their episodes can also be a springboard for further discussion as well as a listening comprehension activity for the other students. 

9. Class WhatsApp Group 

WhatsApp logo

Another way for students to use English outside the classroom thanks to digital tools is to create a class WhatsApp group.

Other chat apps like Telegram or Voxer would work just as well. 

In this group, you can ask your students questions or share material for them to discuss.

Their homework in this case could be as simple as sending at least one message per week in the group. For more ideas about using apps check out this post about English teaching apps.

10. Write A Letter 

homework ideas for english students

Do you remember writing letters to a pen friend when you were learning languages at school? 

Instead of writing letters to someone else, your students can try some creative writing activities that involve writing letters to themselves. 

That’s right, you can ask them to write a letter to their younger self with advice or to their future self about goals and dreams. There’s even a website where you can write and schedule a letter to your future self called FutureMe . 

This activity is quite a personal one so you’d need to be willing to get vulnerable yourself and share your letter before encouraging your students to talk to each other about the content of their letters. 

11. The Student Becomes The Teacher 

homework ideas for english students

Here’s an interesting reversal of classroom roles that works well with groups. For homework, you can ask your students to teach the rest of the class some new vocabulary or a spelling or grammar rule. 

You won’t expect them to give a whole class on the topic. But they could do a short presentation of the topic in the format they prefer – through song or story or in a more traditional way.

As long as you keep expectations clear, they’ll benefit from peer teaching this way. After all, you can only teach what you’ve understood well yourself. 

11 ESL Homework Ideas 

So there you have it – 11 engaging ESL homework ideas that your students will actually want to do outside of class! 

As you can see, these ESL homework ideas are a million miles away from the types of boring worksheets that you had to fill in for language classes at school. 

Thanks to these engaging ideas, you’ll make your lesson planning easier and your students will be excited to do their homework. And they’ll start to become more independent learners who make faster progress. 

homework ideas for english students

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13 Exciting Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets!

Who likes homework? Nobody, right? Especially not if it’s the same dreary worksheets and textbook exercises every time.

Well, some students actually do like homework! That’s because their teachers give them engaging, interesting and unique activities to do.

I used to find setting homework a challenge in EFL/ESL classes. What can you do to give them good practice and develop confidence without boring them to tears?

Simple – do one of the activities on this list!

  • Narrative Telephone
  • What Do You See?
  • Write a blog
  • Record a vlog
  • Scavenger photos
  • Watch films & series
  • Write a journal
  • Listen to podcasts
  • Write to a pen pal
  • Prepare a mini-presentation
  • Read the news
  • Enjoy some English music

The first six entries are creative and unique, suitable for classes where you really want to get students active and involved. The following seven are just as engaging, but a little more focused and “normal”.

1. Word Hunts

A Word Hunt is a vocab acquisition activity (a technique I describe in my article How to Elicit Vocabulary ).

You can do it in class, with students searching for things they don’t know the word for in English. They take a photo and add it to a list of vocabulary to learn.

homework ideas for english students

The home version is similar. Students go around their house and photograph things they’d like to learn the name for in English. They bring the pictures to class and start learning the words.

It doesn’t have to be restricted to things in their home, either. If they go shopping, to the park, on holiday, etc. they can take photos of things they see and share them with their classmates.

Any student who has their own phone can do this activity. For younger kids, you’ll need the support of the parents.

For more on vocab learning techniques, check out my article Ultimate ESL Vocab Teaching Guide: Revolutionary system .

2. Narrative Telephone

This game features in my 9 EFL/ESL Games and Activities for Advanced Learners article, so it’s an advanced activity. You can adapt it for intermediate students, but it won’t work well with beginners. It requires everyone to have email or a messenger app on their phone. So not ideal for young kids.

You can play it in the classroom, but the homework version is just as fun, if not more so. It’s like the Telephone/Whispers game, but with stories instead of words.

homework ideas for english students

The way it works is the teacher records themself reading a short story and sends it to one of their students. That student listens ONCE. Then they record themself re-telling the story and send it on to the next student who does the same.

This continues until the last student, who records themself re-telling it. They can send the final audio to everyone, or keep it until the next class to share the hilarity.

Here’s a video I made on my YouTube channel that explains how it works:

With a large class, you can set off multiple telephone chains. If you have 30 students, instead of having the chain go all the way around the 30, have three chains which go through 10. Then see which chain transmitted the story the best.

When choosing a story, keep it relatively short (a couple of paragraphs at most) and use it to introduce or consolidate new vocab and grammar.

3. What Do You See?

What Do You See? is another great activity for expanding students’ breadth of language.

They should go somewhere: to the street, the park, into the countryside, etc. You can tell them where to go if you want to direct their learning, for example if you’re learning about transport, they should go near a busy road.

With a pencil and paper, they find a comfortable place and write what they see.

homework ideas for english students

For beginners, this can just be individual words. For intermediates it could be sentences like “I see a woman jogging with her dog.” And for advanced students, challenge them to create a full description of the place, taking into account all the senses.

While they are doing it, they are allowed to look up individual words. In this way they learn language that is immediately relevant. However, they shouldn’t translate sentences. By writing what they see, they develop sentence formation skills.

If you want to avoid making them writing, or want to repeat the activity in a different way, get students to record themselves talking about what they see.

4. Write a Blog

Blogs are a fun way of getting students to explore their interests while using English.

This one isn’t great for young kids who aren’t used to using tech yet, although if their parents are on board, they can help get things set up.

It’s super easy to set up a blog nowadays, and students can post articles from home or from their phone while travelling.

The way you set up the homework really depends on your class. With an individual student, you could get them to write one short article a week, then you can take a look at it in the next class.

homework ideas for english students

With a small group, you might want to alternate who posts an article each week. And with a large class, you may want to choose a few students each week to post their article, or get everyone to write something short every week.

The content of the articles is up to you, or up to your students!

You could make it an account of what they did that week, an explanation of something they know a lot about, or a review of a film or series they recently watched.

5. Record a vlog

Recording a vlog is just like writing a blog, but challenges students speaking skills while on camera.

Yes, it requires students to have access to video recording technology, but let’s be honest, even 10-year-olds nowadays have powerful cameras on their phones.

If you really want to push your students, challenge them to record a short post every day for a full week. Maybe when they’re on the way to school/work or in their free time afterwards.

homework ideas for english students

Again, the content can be whatever you or your students decide.

A word on privacy and safety. If you’re going to do this with students under 18, DEFINITELY get their parents’ permission. Most will be perfectly fine with this.

And if you’re worried about privacy concerns, you can keep the videos private – only for those in the class to watch. Most video content platforms like YouTube and TikTok have this option now.

6. Scavenger photos

A fun challenge for kids and adults alike, scavenger hunts with photos are great fun. Give students a list of things and over the week they have to take a photo of one.

With beginners, this can be household items, food, common things in the city, etc. It’s a great way to introduce new vocabulary.

Challenge students with more abstract things, like “something that is squishy” or “something that you can’t break”.

And go a step further: “something you couldn’t live without” or “something which terrifies you”, or “something worth over a million dollars”.

In the next class, students can share the things they photographed and, with the more abstract ones, talk about why they chose that thing.

7. Watch films & series

Everyone loves watching films and series. Since most of the famous ones are in English, they’re a great resource for fun homework.

You can make things as structured as you like – focus on specific words and grammar that appear in dialogue, or just have a chat about what happened in the film/episode in the next class.

I like to let students recount the events. Older students can even make predictions about what will happen in the next episode.

A word on subtitles: Advanced students should try to watch the English version without subtitles. For most, though, this is too difficult. Just make sure subtitles are in English, not their native language, otherwise you lose all benefits of the activity.

8. Write a journal

Either at the start of the day or before they go to bed, writing a short English entry into a journal is a powerful way of embedding English in students’ day-to-day lives. This activity is for most ages, except the youngest kids.

homework ideas for english students

As a journal is a private endeavour, I would never expect to see it. Just encourage them to write a few sentences, not worrying too much about accuracy.

When they’re writing, they’ll come across words they don’t know. They’ll be motivated to learn this vocabulary, as it’s immediately relevant to their lives. It’s valuable .

This is an example of organic acquisition, something you can learn about in my article What Vocab Should You Teach in EFL/ESL .

9. Listen to podcasts

Podcasts get more and more popular with every year. You can find them on pretty much any topic, and they provide excellent listening practice.

Advanced students can attempt to listen to natural English podcasts in their original form.

homework ideas for english students

For beginners/intermediates, there are some podcasts designed for EFL/ESL learners, podcastsinenglish.com being one example, with British English, and Effortless English for those wanting to learn the American way of speaking.

10. Write to a pen pal

Writing homework is always a tough sell. Pen pals can provide the kind of motivation which is impossible to get from the usual writing assignments.

The challenge is finding pen pals who will write back consistently. PenPal World is a good option to connect with people online, although there are plenty of other sites which do the same.

Alternatively, write the responses yourself. Have an ongoing back and forth of letters between you and your students, where you can get to know each other (and give some helpful corrections!)

11. Prepare a mini-presentation

Mini-presentations are a great peer-teaching activity. Give students a topic (can be anything: grammar, a famous person, a favourite hobby, etc.) and have them do a 1-minute presentation on it in the next class.

homework ideas for english students

Scripts are optional. Personally, I prefer my students to speak without a script, but for those who aren’t as confident, encourage them to make brief notes.

12. Read the news

Reading the news is a more advanced activity. Most newspapers and websites require a fairly high level of English to understand, and the content isn’t interesting for most children.

However, there are websites designed for EFL/ESL students, such as News in Levels and Simple English News . Also, try CBBC Newsround . It’s not specifically for EFL/ESL students, but it is perfect for kids.

For more advanced learners, any news network is great. I prefer BBC News for the quality and clarity of writing.

News-based homework can be formal, with a conversation and questions about specific articles in the next class, or you can allow your students to pick what they read and share their findings.

13. Enjoy some English Music

This one applies to learners of all ages and levels. Many students will already listen to music in English, as it’s popular around the world.

You can make this a structured homework, assigning specific songs, with the aim of recognising certain words or grammar structures. Supplement this by studying the lyrics in class.

Or keep it relaxed. Introduce your students to some new artists, and encourage them to share songs they’ve enjoyed over the week. Ask them why they like the music, how it makes them feel, etc.

homework ideas for english students

With younger kids, just having them listen to English songs is enough. Give parents a playlist to put on in the car or when they wake up in the morning.

Homework can be fun. In fact, I’d argue it should be fun to get the best results.

The important thing is to know your students and keep things varied – that way you won’t have to chase your students up every week.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you use these ideas for wonderful teaching. If you’re looking for ideas of what to do in the classroom, check out my article on Why All EFL/ESL Teachers Should Use Role Play Activities

If you’re looking for more games and activities, check out my other lists: 9 EFL/ESL Speaking Games & Activities Perfect for Beginners 9 EFL/ESL Games & Activities for Intermediate Learners 9 EFL/ESL Games and Activities for Advanced Learners 9 High Energy EFL/ESL Games for Boosting Vocabulary 9 Engaging Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets! 9 Exciting EFL/ESL Activities for Writing & Spelling 9 Fun EFL/ESL Games & Ideas With Standard Playing Cards 9 EFL/ESL Games With No Materials or Preparation Needed 9 EFL/ESL 5 Minute Games Every Teacher Needs to Know 9 Superb EFL/ESL Games & Activities Using Just Pen & Paper 9 Classy EFL/ESL Games & Activities for Adults (+ tips) 9 Confidence-Boosting EFL/ESL Speaking Games for All Levels 9 Exciting Flashcard Games for EFL/ESL Classes

homework ideas for english students

I’m Will, a teacher, blogger, and fantasy author. I grew up in England, but now I live in Spain where I teach private English classes to dozens of wonderful students.

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Great homework ideas for ESL students

Great homework ideas for ESL students

Discover great homework ideas for ESL students in your classes

While most people don't want to do extra outside of class, there is no denying that having some English input between lessons is a great way for our students to take ownership of their learning and see faster English improvement. 

So here are five great homework ideas for ESL students:

1. Truth or lie?

Students prepare three short stories about themselves for homework. One is true, the others are false. In the next lesson they tell their partner their stories while their partner asks questions to decide which story is true. Then reverse roles.

A game element is really motivating and this works with many different language levels.

2. Prepare for a quiz

Do you want them to remember new verbs, tense structures or vocabulary? Are you doing a general revision lesson next? Ask your students to revise at home, telling them you’ll put them into teams next week to answer questions. Have each team make up a distinct buzzer sound if you like so they can ‘buzz in’ with the right answer. Winning team gets a prize.

Works best with teens and kids; a neat reason to revise at home and much more fun than an individual test.

3. Set up a FB group for the class

Ask a question a week, invite responses and encourage respectful conversation and debate. Be careful; not everyone likes social media and you may choose a more appropriate platform for sharing ideas outside of class.

Collaboration in English outside of class can be stimulating, build relationships and practice real-world English.

4. Riddles/puzzles/tongue twisters

A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and rode out again on Friday. How did he do that? (*answer at bottom of the page)

Lateral thinking questions like the above can be fun and all the while, students are reading English. Alternatively, have students practice tongue twisters at home and either translate one from their own language or make one up. Have them share with the class next time.

It is a lot of fun hearing tongue twisters translated from other languages.

5. Watch YouTube video stories and report back

There are plenty of great story videos ESL students can watch at home and which are graded for level.

In the example video at the bottom of this blog, you'll see a short past tense story, suitable for low level learners. After watching it for homework, here are two ways you can work on it in your next class: 1. Ask general comprehension questions on the video.   2. Re-create the story as a class, eliciting it from students piece by piece with the help of key words from the story as prompts on the board.

Alternatively divide the class into A and B.

For homework, A's watch one video and B's another. Pair an A and a B up in class afterwards to summarise the stories to each other.

Video is so engaging and it is much easier to get students to watch something than write something.

As teachers, we can help our students by giving homework tasks that are meaningful, relevant and engaging. Also students are more likely to do the work if it will be checked or used in some way in the following lesson. 

We hope we have inspired you to choose fun, task-based homework activities that have a solid focus and outcome. Notice, too, how there is always a meaningful follow-up to the homework task in class.

When planning homework tasks, you can also take your inspiration from the real-world and ask students to do things like text each other or listen to English music.

The possibilities for productive homework tasks are endless. 

*Answer to lateral thinking question: Friday is a horse .

The Global English  120 hour TESOL Premier course . contains great content on crafting lesson plans and a section on how to give homework effectively.

Check out our ready-to-print and use TEFL lessons   here.

Ask any questions about TESOL training and ESL classes directly  here  or join the chat in our friendly  Facebook group .

  • Author: William
  • Date: 06/11/2018

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The best ESL / EFL homework ideas that require no marking 2021

April 9th, 2018 / Materials

ESL EFL homework ideas

Homework is an important part of study, but it can be overwhelming for a TEFL teacher with a mountain of exercise books to mark.

To avoid this, smart ESL teachers should set some (if not, the bulk) of their ESL homework assignments as independent study which the teacher does not have to correct.

Why set no-marking ESL homework?

First of all, you are not short-changing your students by asking them to go out and learn some English themselves.

Languages are an enormous subject ; there is no way that you could teach your students everything they need to know in the few hours a week they have with you.

In reality, if your students want to get good at English, they must listen, read, watch and practice the language in their own time.

No-marking assignments have benefits for class time also. Students can recap on the last class or prepare for the next one by watching grammar videos.

Teachers can use material from a podcast or video as the basis of a speaking activity.

This is why, I believe, that TEFL teachers set a no-marking study assignment at least once a week. It’s better for your students, your classes and your own sanity.

The following assignments have been divided into: Listening, Reading, Writing Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation . First up, listening

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homework ideas for english students

Listening assignments

Podcasts are a great way to practice comprehension. In additional, the material can be used for speaking practice the following lesson as students share with each other what they have learnt from the episode.  

Mistakes to avoid when choosing a podcast

  Do not choose a podcast that is too long. Four to 10 minutes is the sweet spot – anything longer your students will get confused and the task will become a chore.

  Do not choose a podcast which speaks unnaturally slowly or with a childish topic. Students need to get used to the normal pace of speaking and how native speakers actually use the language. OK, so granted, ESL podcasts do have to be simpler but anything that is overly contrived is a waste of your students’ time.

  Do not use a website that requires flash player to play an MP3. Access to any homework material should be really, really easy or you’ll find that half your students won’t complete the assignment.

The best ESL Podcasts

BBC 6 Minute English

 Lower-intermediate to upper-intermediate  British

This is without doubt the best EFL podcast on the list and the one that I use time and time again. Updated weekly, Six minute English provides fun and interesting ESL podcasts on topics such as culture, technology, travel, business and more. They’ll always include at least three new phrases to learn and after listening, students can check their understanding with the transcript.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english

Podcasts in English

Elementary to Intermediate British

The first homework is www.podcastsinenglish .com. This site provides free three to five minute podcasts for English learners for beginner, intermediate and upper-intermediate level. To practice comprehension and expand vocabulary, tell your students to listen to two podcasts a week and write a summary of what they hear. To do this effectively, they’ll have to listen a few times.

Negative: The podcasts are free but to read the transcript students must pay for the premium version.

https://www.podcastsinenglish.com

 Upper-intermediate-advanced  American

CNN 10 is not an TEFL podcast, it is a real news show which condenses world news for that day down to 10 minutes. Despite this, it provides a great way for higher-level students to practice their listening skills while keeping abreast or world news. The video can be accessed in the CNN app and students can read the full transcript afterwards to check their understanding.

Negative: Not made for ESL and so speech can be fast.

https://edition.cnn.com/cnn10

Elementary to Intermediate Variable

Elllo provides thousands of free English video lessons and ESL podcasts on everyday English conversation. The podcasts consist of a dialogue between two people about an everyday topic. They are short and sweet but there are thousands of them and so you could ask your students to do one a day without much time commitment from them.

The best thing about ELLLO podcasts is that students can check their understanding with the transcript AND a quiz.

Negative: Podcasts are under three minutes.

http://www.elllo.org

 Upper intermediate-advanced  Variable

TED provides thousands of videos about technology, education, politics, science and culture.

In my experience setting a TED talk for homework can be hit and miss. Sometimes I’d set a TED video and everyone would love it and other times they’d complain that it was too long, too fast or too confusing to understand.

TED is still a great resource but when choosing a talk for homework this is my advice:

Choose a video which is no more than 10 minutes long. You can separate talks by duration, topic and language in the talk tab.

Check that the speaker isn’t speaking too fast and the accent isn’t too thick (native speakers are best).

Another way to do this is to choose a theme such as ‘business’ ‘finance’ ‘or ‘crime’ and ask your students to select and watch a TED video on the subject. Centre your following class around this theme and give your students 10 to 15 minutes to recount their video to their partners. This is a great way to reinforce the lesson vocabulary and engage your students with the topic.

https://www.ted.com

TED ED: A much better choice!

A much better choice of listening is TED ED. TED Ed is full of short educational videos about science, culture and history. You’re students will be able to follow the listening much better because along with the speaker’s voice there are animations to help tell the story.

Best of all the videos are only five minutes long and so it’s a homework activity that everyone has time to do.

https://ed.ted.com/

ESL Lounge provides short readings and gap fill exercises divided into elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced. Students can check their understanding with a quiz at the end.

http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/reading.php

Five Minute English

Five minute English also provides short reading exercises. All activities come with a glossary of new words and a quiz at the end so your students can check their understanding. The only drawback is that the readings are not defined by level.

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/reading.htm

Grammar review

Viewing video lessons to either recap on the last grammar class or prepare for the next one is another highly productive no-marking homework activity.

Here are the best grammar video resources.

ENGVID Provides bite-sized video lessons on most aspects of English grammar and lots of vocabulary points. Students can also read a transcript of the lesson and check their understanding with a quiz on their website.

https://www.engvid.com

Let’s Talk: Youtube

You need it, you’ll find it here. This Youtube channel has hundreds of videos on every aspect of the English language.

Grammar and vocabulary quizzes

If you’ve just finished a grammar topic, setting your students a few grammar quizzes is a good way to review the lesson. There are dozens of grammar quiz sites out there, but proceed with caution: many of these sites are spammy with annoying adverts and pop ups all over the page. They are difficult to navigate for a native speaker never mind a student.

The BBC also offers a comprehensive library of grammar resources and quizzes for English learners. However, I haven’t included them in the list because you need a flash player to use them.

The websites I have selected also have adverts but they are not invasive. They have also established sites within the TEFL community.

Dave’s ESL Café (grammar)

This site provides a meeting point for TEFL teachers to ask and answer questions and share resources. A little known fact is that Dave’s ESL Café also boasts hundreds of quizzes on various grammar and vocabulary points, written by teachers.

http://www.eslcafe.com/quiz

ESL-lounge (grammar)

ESL-lounge is another well-known site for TEFL resources, it also has a library of grammar quizzes for students.

http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/

British Council Teens (vocabulary)

The best vocabulary quiz I have found comes from The British Council Teens site. Here users must match pictures and words together to learn vocabulary. All words come with an audio so students can check their pronunciation.

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/vocabulary-exercises

Writing is an essential skill and, as a TEFL teacher, you must set and mark writing assignments.

But what if there were a way for students to practice writing independently as well?

Well, there is.

Do you remember when you were learning French or Spanish at school and your teachers encouraged you to start a correspondence with a foreign pen pal to improve your language skills?

Well, the concept still exists. If a few of the class take it up, it can also become an interesting weekly speaking practice as you catch up on the news from their pen friends, and as a group, correct the grammar and spelling on their next correspondence.

Popular Pen Pal sites

http://www.penpalworld.com

https://www.globalpenfriends.com

https://www.penpalsnow.com/index.html

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is often the blight of an ESL class. Bad pronunciation should be corrected , but if you have a large class it is often difficult to give that one-on-one attention to a student who is really struggling to improve.

This is why asking your students to watch pronunciation videos and practice in their own time is a worthwhile homework exercise. Here are some of the best sites to learn.

Rachel’s English: Accent American

Rachel’s English undoubtedly provides one of the most comprehensive pronunciation resources on the web. Rachel will walk your students through all of the sounds in the English language. In addition, she has videos on the rhythm of English, elision (when speakers drop vowel sounds as they link words together in a sentence) and common idioms.

http://rachelsenglish.com

Youglish: Accent International

Youglish uses YouTube to teach the pronunciation of any English word. Simply write the word into the search bar and Youglish will bring up a snippet of a video with someone using it. It is truly brilliant.

https://youglish.com

BBC Learning English Pronunciation Guide: Accent British

Teacher Jamie teaches students all the common sounds in the English language.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/pronunciation

For more on pronunciation, check out our pronunciation http://bilinguanation.com/english-pronunciation-activities-for-your-esl-class/ guide.

Cambridge PET, FCE, CAE Exam

If your students want to sit the Cambridge English exam then they can find everything they need to prepare with Flo-Joe.com.  Here students will find a rich archive of free listening, reading, speaking and writing papers from each exam level. Listening and reading exams come with their own answer keys for self-correction. The writing paper, however, will have to be corrected by the teacher and speaking practice done in class.

https://www.flo-joe.co.uk

If your students are taking the IELTS exam, here are three resource sites where students can practice with past papers, complete with an answer key. Again any writing practice will have to be corrected by the teacher and speaking practice done in class.

https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/british-council-online-resources

https://www.ieltsbuddy.com

https://ieltsforfree.com/

So these are my go-to sites for no-marking TEFL assignments. Have a I missed one? Do you know of an amazing podcast or ESL resource site that could benefit your fellow ESL teachers? Write it in the comments below and if it’s good I’ll include it in the list.

For more resource sites check out  Free TEFL resource sites for your ESL students.  Good luck and happy teaching!

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Outside-the-box ESL homework ideas 

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Are your students reluctant to do homework? Do they think that doing it is time-consuming and not worth the effort? If that is the case, it’s not because the idea of homework itself is boring or useless, but because students often spend too much time doing meaningless activities and at some point realize that they prefer to manage their free time differently. Let’s face it: they are probably right. But there are ways to make students like homework again. Why? Because the role of an English teacher is not only to teach English, but also to teach how to learn English , to equip students with the necessary tools to become independent English users. You can tell your students how to use grammar, or explain what words mean, but it’s up to them to actually ‘make language [their] own, … assert [themselves] through it’ , as the linguist Henry Widdowson puts it. 1 So instead of giving your students pages of exercises and getting irritated because they don’t do them, use some of the ESL homework ideas below. They will help your students make English their own. 

Students choose what they need

homework ideas for english students

Start with a question for your students: In what situations do you use English outside the classroom? Then ask them to choose two or three words covered in the lesson which they think will be of use to them. Give them a minute to think what words might come in handy in the everyday situations THEY often find themselves in. The words might be different for a student who uses English at work, or who has friends they chat with in English, or who lives in an English-speaking country, or who doesn’t speak or write in English outside the classroom, but watches American series or reads celebrities’ posts on Instagram. Once they have chosen the words, ask them to use each of them at least once before the next lesson. They can use them in a conversation, an email or a message. They should simply be on the lookout for situations where the words might be used, e.g. while watching a film, they might want to respond to what an actor says using the word ‘hilarious’.

In the following lesson, ask your students to report how the task went: Did they achieve it (partly or fully)? What situations did they use them in? 

Students use and listen for grammar in context

homework ideas for english students

The same goes for grammatical structures. For instance, after introducing and practising Present Perfect Continuous, ask your students to think of out-of-the-classroom situations in which they are likely to use it. Thinking about a new tense for a couple of days might prompt students to say (if only to themselves): ‘I have been cleaning for an hour’, or ‘I’ve been waiting here for too long’. 

If you think this might be too challenging to start with, make the structure more approachable first by asking your students to notice the new language while they hear people talk (at work, in films) or when they read something in English (a post, a blog entry, the news). When they’re back in the lesson, ask them to tell you what they were listening to or reading when they recognized the structure. They could take notes on it before the lesson, but they might also talk about it on the spot. As it doesn’t require much preparation, it is probably the easiest of the ESL homework ideas presented here, so you might choose to try it first. 

Students use functional language

homework ideas for english students

Lower-level students often struggle to start speaking English, first in the classroom, then outside of it. To help them open up and get accustomed to using the language in different situations , their homework could be going to a café and ordering something. They could also ask someone for directions, or have a chat with an English-speaking colleague. Back in the classroom, ask them to report how it went, what they ordered, etc. Give your students a couple of weeks to do the task – some may not get the immediate opportunity to do it, others might need time to pluck up the courage. 

This idea works especially well when students either live in an English-speaking country, or are going on holiday abroad. If the latter is the case, make the task more demanding, as they will probably be forced to speak English anyway. They could ask detailed questions about a menu in a restaurant or haggle over a price.

Students predict and plan 

The flipped classroom approach will give your students plenty of opportunities to ‘own’ English. Tell them what the topic of the next lesson will be (e.g. recycling) and give them the following homework: look up five words that they think will be useful to talk about recycling. They will then have to use them in the next lesson. This task will make students research the topic and plan what they might say, which is a great step on the way to becoming an independent learner.

homework ideas for english students

For this to work, students need to be honest with themselves and choose words that are actually new for them, not just come up with some they are already using. But if they truly want to learn, tasks like this one will provide strong motivation. 

Once the lesson has finished, ask your students what words they had prepared and whether they were able to use them all.

You can also use one of our Flipped Classroom lesson plans and ask students to use the tasks as a guide to get ready for the conversation you are going to have in the lesson. 

Students read, listen and watch to create their own ESL homework ideas

homework ideas for english students

If your students are not used to reading online articles in English or watching authentic videos, you should definitely encourage them to do so. A simple idea to start with would be to ask them to find an article, a video or a podcast (in English) on a topic they are interested in, and report to you what they found out about the topic. You and the rest of the group could then ask some follow-up questions, or it could be the student who prepares some talking points for the group. Nothing motivates a student more than talking about what they like, and not what the course book dictates. 

You could also choose one of our Critical Reading Club lesson plans . Ask your students to read an online article at home and have a discussion about it in the lesson. This will help them become independent readers and will maximise the student speaking time.  If you study a foreign language yourself, try to use some of the ideas first, in order to better understand what they are about and to pick those which your students would benefit from most. And don’t forget to let us know what you think about these outside-the-box ESL homework ideas in the comments below!

1 This idea is nicely exemplified by the author and teacher trainer Scott Thornbury in his blog entry about motivation in language learning .

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Thanks for the great tips!

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Thank you. I hope your students find them useful.

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Seven Homework Ideas to Interest and Engage

Homework from workbooks or grammar worksheets serve as good resources to review the contents of the day's lesson. Typically consisting of fill-in-the-blanks or matching exercises, these controlled, right-or-wrong exercises try to get students to remember the lesson and target language.

Unfortunately, this sort of homework has many drawbacks. A few negatives include:

  • The homework fails to engage and interest the students.
  • It doesn't push students to analyze, evaluate, or create new ideas.
  • If the teacher checks the answers in a lesson, valuable time gets wasted.
  • If the lesson begins with the workbook assigned, then this sort of homework doesn't engage students during warm up .
  • Many students choose not to complete the assignment and worry less about mistakes when the teacher provides the answers and/or elicits answers from students.

The best homework expands on the lesson, and even prepares students for the next lesson. More specifically:

  • Effective homework allows students to use real, relevant, and meaningful language.
  • It requires students to use the lesson content in a more flexible manner.
  • It lets everyone reuse previously studied language and skills, and thereby make new connections.
  • It gives students the chance to incorporate pre-existing knowledge, ideas, and interests.
  • This sort of homework challenges students creatively.
  • It is engaging and interesting.

What follows are seven ideas I regularly use in my lessons with students of all levels. These same ideas are also ones I encourage my teaching staff to use too.

1: Assign reading materials with discussion questions. The article should connect with and extend the contents of the lesson.

This sort of assignment allows students to work on material which may be above their level; contains a lot of specialized vocabulary; is longer and more detailed than what would normally be usable in a lesson; etc. In an intermediate class, content from Wikipedia or an article written for native speakers serve as only two examples which, although are excellent resources, may be impractical in a lesson with limited time.

...effective homework allows students to use real, relevant, and meaningful language

When students arrive to the next lesson, little to no time should be spent on the actual reading assignment. This means the teacher shouldn't clarify passages or words, check comprehension, and so on. The teacher instead begins with a warm up based on the article, and then segues into the theme or topic. In other words, the article expands on the previous lesson, perhaps showing real use of the target language; an alternative point of view on a topic, more detail on a topic, etc. It serves as the foundation on which to use the target language, discuss, or debate.

2: Assign reading materials for students to write a short summary, answer a critical thinking question, etc. Explicit guidelines should be provided, such as write one page or use three key vocabulary words from today's lesson. When students come to the next class, they exchange papers with a partner, correct any language previously studied, and/or provide one positive comment and one piece of advice.

Again, the teacher can easily incorporate material which extends the lesson topic. The content may be slightly too long and time consuming, contain too many new words to sufficiently teach and use in a regular lesson, and so on. This sort of activity with students providing peer feedback also creates a collaborative learning environment; students help students make progress. What's more, when students listen critically for mistakes, they are thinking, reviewing, and analyzing information, even if they don't catch some of the mistakes.

3: Students look up a person, place, or thing and prepare a short presentation. It doesn't matter much if students research in their L1 or L2 because they will need to write, practice, and present in English.

At the start of the next lesson, students exchange their notes with a partner for correction and feedback, and the teacher can restrict the feedback to information from the last lesson(s). As a next step, students practice reading aloud in front of the partner, who again provides feedback and encouragement. Finally, students give the presentation to the class, answering one or two additional questions from students.

This third idea allows students to use vocabulary and grammar which was studied in the previous lesson, as well as connect the target language to new ideas, words, phrases, etc. Students also practice fluency skills, structure, discourse markers, and so on.

4: Students prepare for a role play. Materials or tasks may be assigned to read and understand at home, which might be necessary with a less familiar topic. When students next meet for a lesson, each person provides a mini-presentation on their topic. Students then conduct the role play with language previously learned. For example:

In a travel-related unit, partner A wants to travel to Thailand and partner B wants to visit Spain. Partner A independently does some research at home about Spain (and partner B, vice versa). In class, students alternate between a travel agent recommending Spain and Thailand, and use the phrases from the board, book, or previously practiced.

5: Assign additional listening homework. This proves especially helpful for students or classes that need to focus on listening skills. The students should listen to an audio file from the textbook or website, answer questions, and come to the next class prepared to discuss, summarize, etc.

...providing peer feedback creates a collaborative learning environment

This activity works very well to prepare students on a topic. If students don't know much about the topic, as might be the case with a famous person, preparation allows everyone to more actively and deeply engage with the content in the next lesson.

Students might also shadow the contents, provided the audio is about one minute in length. Shadowing refers to reading the script while the audio plays to mimic intonation, focus on speaking fluency, etc.

6: Vocabulary exchange has students keep a vocabulary notebook each week, and then share two or three words at the start of a lesson. In short, student A teaches his/her words to student B, and vice versa. The vocabulary should include the word form (i.e, noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.), a definition, and a sample sentence.

7: Assign material from TED Talks, or have students find a topic of interest. With thousands of videos, students can find a topic to watch, take notes, write a summary, and discuss. Again, like some of the above suggestions, students can peer edit any writing, provide feedback to a mini-presentation, prepare discussion questions for debate and role plays in the following lesson, and so on. And similarly, new grammar, vocabulary, and communication skills and strategies can also be practiced.

The above ideas require students to prepare in advance of the lesson. Because the activities are interactive, engagement and interest tend to be higher. In addition, if students don't do the homework, they are unable to participate in activities, which thus also serves as a final motivator.

You might also be interested in:

  • A (Mostly) Complete Glossary for ESL EFL Teaching
  • Dictionaries: Harmful or Helpful?
  • How to Keep a Vocabulary Notebook

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11 vocabulary homework ideas and how to motivate students to do it, by: vocab gal.

Homework is such a valuable formative assessment for both teachers and students, and yet students are motivated* by many different factors when it comes to their desire to actually complete the work. In this article, I'm sharing how to motivate students to do their homework and 11 vocabulary homework ideas and worksheets that work in grades 1–12. Plus, preview and grab my 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework Kit .

Keep scrolling to find vocabulary homework ideas! 

How to motivate students to do their homework.

As a teacher, I try to concentrate students’ learning on activities done in class, because asking some students to complete work at home can be daunting. Many times in my career I have been discouraged when more than half the class does not return to class with their homework assignment complete.

Yet we only have so many minutes with our students, and we need them to practice the concepts and skills they are learning until the knowledge becomes ingrained. Most students have a homeroom, study hall, or other downtime during the day in which they could complete activities, they just have to be motivated to do it.

Many studies cite “student choice” as one of the most important factors in inspiring students to learn. When students have the opportunity to select what questions to answer, what activity to complete or what role to play, they tend to feel more comfortable and confident about performing.

Additionally, research shows that when students are dedicated to a task important to them, like improving their video game scores, or optimizing their success on a playing field, they will go to great lengths to improve. While probably not as meaningful as their video game level, students will be more excited to answer questions about themselves than a generic worksheet.

By providing students with both choice and a topic that is personally meaningful, homework can be a great learning exercise as well as an important formative assessment.

Steps to Ensure Students Complete Homework

There are a few other motivating factors that can help establish homework as a meaningful part of a student’s educational experience. Here are suggested steps a school, parish, department, or teacher might take to ensure successful homework completion.

Step One First, confirm that students have a strong rapport with their teacher(s). While it is difficult to cultivate a deep relationship with each student, teachers should strive to show students that they value their students and are committed to helping them learn and grow to their fullest potential. I would encourage teachers not to assign homework for the first few weeks of school until they develop a classroom community of respect and appreciation for learning.

Step Two Second, once the classroom community has been established, teachers should specifically explain the importance of homework as a way of deeply ingraining knowledge. Teachers should also make it clear that homework is a meaningful formative assessment where both they and their students can understand what students know and where there are knowledge gaps.

Step Three Third, some students may be quite unhappy when being mandated to do specific work. Therefore, teachers should stress the choices a student gets when completing their homework and that students get to complete the work that best reflects their own sense of self.

Step Four Finally, the teacher should praise students individually, as well as praise the class when homework is turned in on time. Many students thrive on positive reinforcement and also many may feel guilt if they let their classmates or teacher down. Additionally, as many teachers know, a word of encouragement or a small sticker can make the difference to many.

How to Respond When Homework is Not Completed

When at last it comes time for homework collection, there will be students who did not complete the assignment, no matter how well it was set up. Teachers can again encourage students who did not complete the homework in time to think about what may motivate them to complete it. If a student seems to dislike direct mandates, providing support such as, “I know that you value your learning and will find a way to demonstrate your abilities,” might be more effective than, “Turn in your paper by Thursday or it’s a zero!”

For others who seem driven by the need to please or help others, teachers might encourage students by stating, “I’m disappointed that you weren’t able to complete your work on time, and I know you will submit your work in order to show us both what you know and understand,” might work better than, “Don’t you want the credit for this assignment?”

Vocabulary Homework Ideas for Students

For this post, I have a few homework assignments that model these ideas. Both in my new It's All About Me vocabulary practice page, and my tried-and true,  7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle, students are motivated to continue their learning because they have both choice and a focus on themselves, a topic in which they are already invested.

My new It's All About Me Vocabulary Activity tasks students with answering a series of questions about themselves using vocabulary words in context. On the first page of this download students will list their vocabulary words and write their own brief definitions. On the second page student will answer eight prompts. Each response should include at least one of the vocabulary words from their list in context . In each of their answers students must underline the context clues that would help someone unfamiliar with the word understand what it means.

I find that students tend to be more engaged in an assignment if they are asked to answer questions about themsleves than a generic worksheet. My new It's All About Me Vocabulary Activity tasks students with answering a series of questions about themselves using vocabulary words in context.

With the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle, students can choose from a variety of fun and engaging activities for learning or reviewing vocabulary words. In addition to the homework selection sheet, the bundle includes worksheets for vocabulary homework ideas number five and six. The other vocabulary homework options can be completed on a plain piece of paper or in student workbooks.

Here are the vocabulary activities listed on the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework handout:

With the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle, students can choose from a variety of fun and engaging activities for learning or reviewing vocabulary words. In addition to the homework selection sheet, the bundle includes worksheets for vocabulary homework ideas number five and six. The other vocabulary homework options can be completed on a plain peice of paper or in student workbooks.

#1 Say Your Words

Do you love the sound of your own voice? Do you tend to learn information by teaching others? Then try saying each of the vocabulary words, out loud and in context, to friends, family, strangers, etc. Use either your flashcards or your list of words, and make sure to get initials from someone who heard you say your vocabulary sentence. If you can’t get a signature, just explain when and how you said the sentences and we will invoke the HONOR SYSTEM! Create two sentences per word.

Do you love to write? Do you copy your notes to help you remember information? Then try writing two sentences for each vocabulary word. These can either be two individual sentences for each word or you can put all of your words together in a story. (If you write a story, you only have to use each word once). Have fun and get creative – amuse me and impress me, but make sure you use your vocabulary words in context!

#3 Write Your Words in Other Classes

As an alternative to the above “Write your Words,” use your vocabulary in your assignments for other classes – social studies essays, science notes, art descriptions, etc. Write down the vocabulary you used for this assignment (For example: On my science test I said “Newton was meritorious,” etc.). You can abbreviate your explanations slightly, as long as I understand you know the word’s meaning; remember to use each word twice.

#4 Become Your Words

Do you gesture when you talk? Is it hard for you to sit still? Then consider creating motions to go along with your words. Cry for lament , raise your arms in praise for approbation , etc. See me during class to “perform” your motions, or write them down, making sure that the connection between word, meaning, and gesture makes sense.

#5 Draw Your Words

Are you an artist? Do you constantly doodle? Then create cartoons or drawings that illustrate each word’s meaning. Create one drawing or cartoon per word and make them neat, using clean white paper (consider using recycled paper that has printing on the other side). Paperclip all your drawings together for the end of the week.

Vocabulary Homework Ideas: Draw Your Words - Are you an artist? Do you constantly doodle? Then create cartoons or drawings that illustrate each word’s meaning. Create one drawing or cartoon per word and make them neat, using clean white paper (consider using recycled paper that has printing on the other side). Paperclip all your drawings together for the end of the week.

#6 Sing Your Words

Do you love to sing? Are you constantly creating your own raps? Try rewriting the lyrics to a song to incorporate each of your vocabulary words or write your own song, rap, etc. You can also write poetry; regardless of the form you choose, the words should be used in the correct context.

Vocabulary Homework Ideas: Sing Your Words - Do you love to sing? Are you constantly creating your own raps? Try rewriting the lyrics to a song to incorporate each of your vocabulary words or write your own song, rap, etc. You can also write poetry; regardless of the form you choose, the words should be used in the correct context.

#7 Test Your Words

Do you want to play teacher and write the test as well as take it? Now you can! Create a vocabulary test using all the words in a variety of different types of questions. Make sure to create the answer key to the test as well.

Download the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle and have students keep the selection sheet in their binders. Now they have seven weeks of vocabulary homework assignments!

Additional Vocabulary Homework Ideas

Ultimately, establishing a culture of community and trust in the classroom, explaining the reasoning behind and the benefits of homework, and providing choice and meaningful topics can make a significant difference in completion rates. Even if homework is not completed on time, teachers can still work to connect with each student to provide motivation to complete the assignments.

As educators, we all strive to make learning exciting and applicable to our students. By setting up clear expectations and providing interesting options, we can make any homework, including vocabulary homework, meaningful and valuable to students.

 *I have recently completed Gretchen Rubin’s audiobook The Four Tendencies about what motivates different groups of people. Many of the ideas about motivating students come loosely from her book as well as my own observations. I highly recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn how to better motivate themselves and others.

homework ideas for english students

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73 ESL Writing Activities to Spark Your Students’ Creativity and Imagination

From a student’s point of view, writing assignments are something to dread.

But from an ESL teacher’s point of view, they should be a challenge worth accepting.

The challenge for you is to motivate your students enough to actually be excited about writing.

Sounds impossible? It’s actually quite simple.

The key is a strong pre-writing activity that boosts their confidence and adds to their vocabulary at the same time.

So, how do you get your students’ writing off to a great start?

In this post, we’ll look at some different ESL writing activities that will transform your students from hesitant writers to confident wordsmiths in their own right.

Writing Assignments Based on Stories

Writing activities prompted by music, writing practice exercises based on images or pictures, writing assignments based on food, writing activities based on mysteries, exercises to practice writing emails, activities to practice writing advertisements, assignments to practice writing reports, creative writing activity: class newsletter/newspaper.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

People of all ages love a well-told story, and using stories to teach ESL is a sure winner.

A story for a pre-writing activity could be in the form of:

  • A  movie . It could be a biography, sci-fi film, thriller, action-packed adventure, fairy tale or even a cartoon.
  • A  story read aloud from a book. If you’re using this, read in a way that brings the characters’ voices to life (including the narrator’s), hold the book up to show any pictures within or scan them and project onto a screen as you read. You can also search YouTube videos of famous authors or celebrities reading a book aloud, and show these in class.
  • A  story from the news . It could be from the TV, radio, newspaper or an online news site .
  • A story read by your students. In this case, you could let them read a story silently or with a partner, and take as long as they like to think about the important parts.

No matter what you choose, it’ll be a great lead-in to the ESL writing exercises below.

1. Re-tell the story as is, or summarize it. (This works best for beginners, who are still getting their feet wet in the waters of English comprehension.)

2. After watching “Finding Nemo” : Tell the story from the point of view of the whale, the dentist’s daughter or Bruce the shark.

3. Explain to Marlin how he should take care of Nemo better.

4. Make up a story about a farm animal/zoo animal/jungle animal. What if a baby ___ was lost? What if a child was lost in the city? What if you found a lost child?

5. After the story of “Goldilocks” : Tell the story from the baby bear’s point of view.

6. What if the baby bear and Goldilocks became best buds? What would happen?

7. After discussing “The Gingerbread Man” : Tell the story from the fox’s or gingerbread man’s point of view.

8. What did the old woman do wrong that made the gingerbread man run away?

9. How do you make a gingerbread man? What other shapes could be made instead?

10. After “Little Red Riding Hood” : Write the story in the first person—from the point of view of either Red Riding Hood or the wolf.

11. What should Red Riding Hood have done when she met the wolf?

12. After watching a “Lord of the Rings” movie: What would you do if you had the One Ring? Write about a magical quest you and several friends would have if you could.

13. After watching a “Pirates of the Caribbean”  movie: What if you were a pirate? What adventures would you have if you were a pirate?

14. After watching “Titanic” : Write about what you discover when you dive onto the wreck. Or imagine you were on the ship when it sank, and talk about how you escaped.

15. Whose fault was it that so many people drowned on the Titanic? What should they have done?

16. After watching a “Star Wars”  movie: Imagine you’re a space explorer and write about what happens when you meet some characters from “Star Wars.”

17. After watching a “Terminator”  movie: Imagine your teacher is a robot that has come back from the future. Or imagine you have come back from the future—what would it be like?

18. After watching a “Harry Potter” movie: Make up some magic spells and explain how you’d use them.

Everybody loves music! Watch your students’ faces light up as soon as they realize that they’re about to be treated to some songs rather than chalk-and-talk. Music stirs the emotions, after all, and can get your students excited about writing.

Here are some ideas for music you can incorporate into ESL writing activities:

  • Classical music. There are some pieces of well-known classical music that specifically tell a story , and many of these are available on YouTube.
  • “Fantasia 2000,” particularly “Rhapsody in Blue.” This wonderful, wordless animated story can kick off so much great writing!
  • Movie music. The music that goes with a movie tells watchers how they should be feeling, and could be a good jumping-off point for some writing.
  • Popular songs and music. Self-explanatory. Check out the most popular or trending artists on YouTube or Spotify for ideas.
  • Kids’ songs . There’s something about singing a catchy little tune that makes the words stick in your mind more than just saying them. These can lead to some interesting writing, too.

19. After Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” : Tell the story from Peter’s point of view.

20. After Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals” : Imagine walking through the scenes with the animals and interacting with them. Write a story from the point of view of one of the animals.

21. Describe the animals in “The Carnival of the Animals.”

22. After Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” : Re-tell this classic Shakespeare story, adding a twist.

23. After watching and listening to “Rhapsody in Blue” : Tell all/part of the story.

24. If you were the main character in “Rhapsody in Blue,” what would you do?

25. Listen to a piece of classical/instrumental music and tell the story that it might be a background to. Imagine that it’s the background music for a movie.

26. Tell the story (real or made up) behind some popular songs like Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams.”

27. Describe meeting someone special like in the aforementioned Taylor Swift song.

28. What happens in your wildest dreams?

29. What if you were a famous pop star or musician? What would it be like? What would you do?

30. Give instructions on how to find your favorite song on the Internet, both music and lyrics.

31. If you play an instrument, or have a relative who plays one, write about some of the basics of how to play. (This could also work as a speaking and listening activity, and then the whole class could write about it.)

32. What is your favorite genre of music, and why? (Be sure to explain what “genre” means !)

33. Do you think young children should be allowed to freely watch music videos?

Some pictures you can use for ESL writing activities include:

  • Pictures from social media. If you use social media at all, you doubtless have a barrage of amazing photos and videos on your feed, all of which make for excellent writing prompts.
  • Pictures from Google Images . A quick Google search on any (classroom-safe) image will turn up plenty.
  • Cartoons . If you have young students, they’ll definitely enjoy this one.
  • Pictures selected by your students. Not sure what to choose? Have your students pick their own pictures to write about. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how vibrant their writing can be when they’re writing about subjects they actually care about.

Regardless of the picture you (or your students) choose, here are some writing prompts you can consider.

34. Tell a story—real or imagined—of what is happening in the picture.

35. Write about what happens next from the pictured moment.

36. Write about what was happening just before the pictured incident.

37. What if that was you in the picture?

38. What if you were the person who took the picture?

39. What if you knew the people in the picture? What would you say to them?

40. Describe all of the elements in the picture. This is great for vocabulary practice.

41. Describe how someone in the picture might be feeling.

42. Explain how to get into  a pictured predicament (for example, in the picture here , how did he get into the boat without the crocodile eating him?) as well as how to get out of it.

43. Express an opinion about the rights and wrongs of the pictured situation. For example, for the same picture above: Should crocodiles be hunted and killed? What should happen if a crocodile kills someone?

Many of your students likely enjoy thinking and talking about food. So why wouldn’t they be motivated to write about it?

How you integrate food into your ESL writing assignments depends on your classroom arrangements and the amount of time you’re willing to put into preparation.

In any case, here are some ideas:

  • Start with the preparation and sharing of food before writing about it.
  • Look at pictures of food, and talk about them before moving on to writing.
  • Have students research food-related topics on the internet.
  • Start with a story about food.

Here are the specific food writing prompts:

44. After the story of “The Gingerbread Man”: Think about food that develops a life of its own, and what would happen with it. (This can also open up a discussion about cultural foods.) For example, make up a similar story about another piece of food (e.g., spaghetti or rice that comes alive). What if you felt something moving in your mouth after you bit into your burger?

45. Write a story (real or imagined) about being very hungry and/or finding/buying/stealing food to meet a desperate need.

46. Write a story about trying a new, unfamiliar kind of food—maybe in a (relevant) cross-cultural setting.

47. Write a story about finding and eating a food that has magical properties. (Maybe read or watch some or all of “Alice in Wonderland”  first.)

48. Describe interesting/disgusting/unusual/delicious/colorful foods, especially after a class tasting lesson. (Prepare students first with suitable taste vocabulary .)

49. Describe a food that’s unfamiliar to most students in the class. (This is particularly helpful for classes where there are students belonging to minority groups who hesitate to speak up.)

50. Describe an imaginary magical food.

51. Give instructions for preparing a particular recipe.

52. After a class activity or demonstration involving food: Write down what you have learned.

53. Give instructions for producing food—growing vegetables, keeping animals, etc.

54. Give instructions for buying the best food—what to look for, looking at labels, checking prices and the like.

55. Write about your opinion on food and health in First World and Third World countries. (Explain what makes a country “First,” “Second” or “Third World” first.)

56. Write about your opinion on the cost of food.

57. Write about your opinion on GMOs or genetically engineered foods .

There’s nothing quite like a good “whodunnit,” and students will always enjoy a good puzzle. You can base various pre-writing activities around the two games below to get the class warmed up for ESL writing practice.

  • Conundrum. This is an example of a game that can be played as a speaking and listening activity, and can lead into some good writing. The game starts with a simple statement or description of a situation like the ones described in situation puzzles . Students ask questions and receive yes/no answers until they work out the explanation for the situation.

After Conundrum, here are some of the activities your students can do:

58. Write a story about the sequence of events involved in a situation brought up in the game.

59. Devise and describe your own situation puzzle.

  • Putting their hands inside a cloth bag (or just feeling the outside) to guess what an object is.
  • Smelling substances in opaque jars with perforated lids, and trying to guess what they are.
  • Tasting mystery foods on plastic spoons (with blindfolds).
  • Looking at pictures of mysterious objects from obscure angles.
  • Listening to and guessing the origins of sound effects. (You can record your own, or use some from the Internet .)

(Important: Make sure that whatever you’re using for your guessing game is safe for your students, especially if they involve having to touch, taste or smell the object.)

After a guessing game, your students can:

60. Write about a possible mystery object and a magical quality it could possess.

61. Describe what you thought you saw, heard, felt, tasted or smelled.

For both games, here are some writing prompts you can do:

62. Give instructions for playing one of the games.

63. Give instructions for the perfect crime.

64. Give your opinion about a recent crime and the punishment for it.

Emailing can often be a scary task for your students, especially if they’re using a new, strange language like English. You can utilize an email writing activity to help your students build confidence and get more comfortable writing in English.

Email can also teach your students things like proper language (formal or informal), structure and format. Email-related writing activities for ESL students can offer ample opportunities to teach all of these three aspects.

Since emails involve two parties (the sender and the receiver), you’ll need to pair your students up for this activity. Here’s how to prepare for it:

  • Create one set of worksheets explaining details relevant to the sender. For example, it could contain information about a sender’s upcoming birthday party that they want to invite the receiver to.
  • Create another set of worksheets with the receiver’s details. The worksheets could contain questions about food dishes or gifts, or it could say that the receiver can’t make it for one reason or other.

Once the above has been done, give one set of worksheets to the “senders” and the other to the “receivers.” Then, here’s what your students will do:

65. Based on the senders’ worksheets, write an email inviting the receiver and explaining the key aspects of the event featured in the worksheet.

66. Based on the receivers’ worksheets, write an email explaining why you can or cannot make it to the party, and/or what other information you need about the event.

Advertisements are everywhere, and you can bet that your students have a few favorite ads of their own. Advertisement-related writing activities work across age groups and can be adapted to most students and their needs.

This great ESL writing assignment can help your students put the adjectives they’ve learned into good use, as well as showcase their creative writing and persuasion skills.

You can find advertisements everywhere, including:

  • YouTube videos
  • Newspapers and magazines

You can also bring an object (or handful of objects) to class that your students can write ads about.

67. After your students carefully examine the object(s) you brought into class: Write all the adjectives you can think of about it.

68. For a more challenging writing exercise: Write an ad about the object. How would you persuade someone who knows nothing about the object whatsoever to buy it? (Your students may or may not use the adjectives they wrote down earlier. Encourage them to be creative!)

Your students have likely already done some kind of report during the course of their studies. Also, writing reports is a skill that’ll be useful to them once they enter college or the corporate world (if they aren’t in it already). If you feel that they need a little more practice in this area, use this ESL writing assignment.

First, discuss how research and structure matter to reports—and perhaps show them a few samples. Then, give them a few questions to base their reports on, like:

69. What can you say about (insert topic here) in terms of (insert specific angle here)? (For example, “What can you say about the government’s efforts to improve the local park in terms of its impact on the general public?” Of course, you should adapt this question to the level of your students.)

70. After talking about a YouTube video on bears eating salmon : What would happen to the bears if the salmon ran out? 

This ESL writing activity is a bit more intensive and will allow your students to employ many different aspects of their ESL knowledge. Crafting a class newsletter will build collaboration, communication, listening, speaking and, of course, writing skills. If they’re not sure how to build a newsletter or newspaper from scratch, they can always swipe from premade templates like this one .

The newsletter/newspaper can follow a specific theme, or the articles can consist of a hodgepodge of random topics based on questions like:

71. What is the most interesting thing that happened in school this year? It can be the funniest/scariest/most heartwarming incident. Write a feature article about it. (Make sure to explain what a “feature article” is .)

72. Write a report highlighting the key events in some recent local festivals or concerts.

73. Going off of the last exercise, write an ad inviting the reader to buy a product or attend an event.

Once all of the articles are done, you can start putting them together. Make sure to walk your students through these newspaper layout tips . And when the newsletter/newspaper is finally published and circulated out there for the world to see, remember to congratulate your students for a job well done!

No matter what writing assignments you choose, make sure to keep the excitement level high so that your students are enthusiastic for your next writing session.

Whether they write by hand or type on a computer, remember to encourage them as much as you can by focusing on the good points rather than just running all over their mistakes with a red pen.

Lastly, find ways for them to share their efforts—whether online, on the classroom wall, bound together in a book to be passed around, etc.

They can also read aloud to each other, share with their parents and siblings and even share with other classes!

For more ESL assignment ideas, check out this post: 

Great ESL homework ideas can be difficult to come up with. So check out these 13 great ideas for ESL homework assignments that your students will love. Not only are they…

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homework ideas for english students

Beginning ESL students working on a writing homework assignment

Homework for Beginning ESL Students: 8 Tips for Success

Homework can be a controversial subject . Some schools and teachers are strongly in favor of it, others are strongly against it, and many fall somewhere in the middle. But, when it comes to ESL students and other English learners , homework can offer ways to extend learning outside of the classroom and encourage independent English reading, speaking, writing, and listening at home. Here are our tips for making homework for beginning ESL students a positive and productive experience.

  • 1. Keep it Brief

One of the keys to ESL homework success is to keep it as short and simple as possible. The goal should not be for students to spend hours on an assignment that may confuse and frustrate them. Instead, the main goal should simply be to practice and reinforce classroom learning.

There is also no rule stating that you have to assign homework for English language learners every day. Consider homework on an ad hoc basis , and only assign it on days when you have truly meaningful assignments, rather than as a given every single day. You can also send home a folder of fun English activities for students to complete for extra credit at any point in the year. This encourages learning at home while offering flexible options for families.

Whatever you choose to assign for homework, make sure that you are providing adequate scaffolding so that your ELLs will succeed. For newcomers, you may want to modify the assignment by giving them extra visuals , adapting the text to their language level, or writing directions in bullet points rather than paragraphs. Consider using writing prompts or sentence frames to support and guide your students in their writing.

2. Get to Know Your Students’ Families

The more you know about your students’ lives at home, the easier assigning reasonable and relevant homework for English language learners will be. Some students may have access to a computer and English-speaking relatives, while others may have neither.

As much as possible, have homework directions and explanations translated into the native language of the ESL student. Keep in mind that parents of ELLs likely speak another language, so it may be difficult for them to help their child with a homework assignment in English.

Once you get to know your students’ families, you can often offer better advice to help parents and their students succeed with homework. Reinforce that:

  • Using their native language is important for their child’s second language development and should be encouraged.
  • They can help their child, but shouldn’t do the homework for them. There is no benefit to homework being completed unless the child is learning by doing it themselves.
  • Homework is an important part of learning and a responsibility of their child.
  • They should feel comfortable coming to you at any time if they are struggling to help their child with homework or have any concerns relating to their child’s assignments.

An ESL's parent helps him with a homework assignment on the computer.

  • 3. Offer Flexibility

As you’re getting to know your students and their families, creating flexible homework assignments is essential. Here are some simple tips for making homework success more accessible:

  • Provide several days (or the entire week) to complete an assignment.
  • Allow students to choose between several readings or assignments to cater to their interests and help them build confidence.
  • Send home bilingual books so children can read in English and parents can follow along or read in their native language.
  • Send home supplies like markers or glue sticks that students may need for their assignments.
  • Provide open-ended homework assignments, like listening to something on StorylineOnline.net .
  • 4. Assess for Completion, Not Accuracy

The goal in assigning homework for beginning ESL students should not be total comprehension or mastery. That means that for many classes, assessing or monitoring for accuracy isn’t the best use of your time and can be discouraging to new students who are trying their best to grasp a whole new language.

Assessing for completion is the best option for most newcomer ESL students. It allows you to keep track of how students are doing and gauge their progress and parental involvement at home. And you can always have students turn in assignments and take your own private notes on their accuracy, even while assessing for completion publicly.

  • 5. Make Homework Hard to Forget

Oftentimes, homework for English language learners may be incomplete because the student wasn’t clear on what exactly needed to be done. In addition to verbally assigning homework, write down any assignments and consider using a brightly colored stamp to denote homework assignments.

You can also opt to send home a “homework packet” full of ESL homework ideas every week that contains all of the assignments that need to be completed during the week. While it will take some additional preparation, this provides a flexible option that allows time for questions and may result in a higher completion rate when parents have time to help students with their assignments.

  • 6. Create Meaningful Assignments

Colorin Colorado shares that “Recent meta-analyses have shown that educational programs that systematically incorporate use of ELLs’ home language result in levels of academic success , including achievement in literacy and other academic subjects, that are as high as and often better than that of ELLs in English-only programs (Genesee & Lindholm-Leary, in press).” When assigning homework for beginning ESL students, make sure you support students in using their native language. Encourage parents to read aloud to their children in their home language— research shows that strong native language literacy supports second language development .

Another part of providing flexibility with homework for beginning ESL students is allowing them to discover the subjects and topics they enjoy. Especially in the early days of learning a new language, learning vocabulary and choosing reading and writing assignments related to your students’ personal interests can be a big motivator.

If you assign at-home reading for ESL students, allow students to choose from several high-interest books that are on their language level. Consider sharing audio books or other resources for students to listen to stories, if possible.

  • 7. Use Homework as Preparation for Class

Because of the individuality of language learning and the differences in parental involvement , homework for beginning ESL students typically isn’t a valuable tool for developing mastery. The best homework for ESL practice is typically an assignment that prepares students for in-class activities and maximizes your effectiveness in the classroom.

Try some of these ESL homework ideas to make the most of your time in the classroom:

  • Preview a text for the next day’s class.
  • Review a vocabulary sheet for a text for the next day’s class.
  • Practice pronunciation and reading aloud in preparation for oral reading fluency.
  • Review a rough draft and make edits in preparation for finalizing a writing piece in class.
  • Add unknown words identified in class to your vocabulary notebook .

An English learner review homework assignments with her father.

  • 8. Encourage a Homework Routine

Part of assigning homework for beginning ESL students is helping them build good homework habits as they progress and as homework may become more intensive or time-consuming.

Here are some tips to pass along to parents to help students find their focus at home :

  • Create a schedule and do homework at the same time every day. Attaching it to an existing habit can help create consistency (e.g. having a snack and then doing homework).
  • Provide a space for students to do their homework that has the supplies they’ll need. This can be anything from a desk in their room to a spot in the kitchen.
  • Put screens and distractions away—consider them a reward for when homework is finished.
  • Develop an order to create a routine. If the child needs motivation, start with their favorite subject. If they’re naturally driven to complete homework, start with the hardest assignment to get it over with.

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Language-centered ESL activities for students with limited English ability help develop vocabulary and life skills necessary to communicate effectively with others.

Thank you to Melissa Miller, an ESOL teacher in Howard County, Maryland for consulting on this blog post. This blog was originally published on October 1, 2021. It was updated on February 3, 2023.

  • 2. Get to Know Your Students' Families

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Free Printable English Worksheets For ESL Teachers

Browse our archive of completely free quality English worksheets and lessons (PDF and Word documents). Download, customize and print the resources, incorporate them in your lessons or assign them as homework to your students.

Our Massive Library of Free ESL Worksheets by Category

If you are looking for ESL worksheets for different learning areas, select the matching category. You’ll find assorted lists of worksheets and other materials there, for all levels from beginner to advanced, for all ages from kids to adults.

Free ESL reading comprehension worksheets

Reading Comprehension Worksheets

Free ESL writing worksheets for your lessons

Writing Worksheets

Free ESL grammar worksheets

Grammar Worksheets

ESL listening free exercises

Listening Comprehension Worksheets

ESL idioms free lists & worksheets for your lessons

Idioms Worksheets

ESL phrasal verbs: lesson plans & resources

Phrasal Verbs Worksheets

Free ESL noun worksheets for all ages and levels

Noun Worksheets

ESL Vocabulary & Conversation Worksheets

Vocabulary & Conversation Worksheets

homework ideas for english students

Lesson Plans (coming soon)

Below, you’ll find all our worksheets sorted by student level.

ESL Worksheets for Adults and Teens (Intermediate to Advanced Students)

These are our available worksheets on different topics for higher-level students, like adults and teens. You can download, edit and print them all for free. When you open the worksheets, there is an option to download PDF and Word files.

Intermediate Level (B1-B2)

Esl writing worksheet: opinion essay about video games (intermediate), esl lesson plan: nature & environment (intermediate), esl listening comprehension worksheet: in the kitchen (intermediate), esl listening comprehension worksheet: travel and transportation (intermediate), esl lesson plan: summer activities (intermediate), esl reading comprehension worksheet: studies (intermediate), esl reading comprehension worksheet: global warming (intermediate), esl reading comprehension worksheet: at the workplace (intermediate), esl reading comprehension worksheet: job interview (intermediate), esl reading comprehension worksheet: holiday (intermediate), esl listening comprehension worksheet: school lunch (intermediate), intermediate-advanced level (b2-c1), dialogue/debate worksheet: fast fashion – the true cost of clothes (intermediate-advanced), esl listening comprehension worksheet: technology and relationships (intermediate-advanced), esl vocabulary & conversation worksheet: job interview (intermediate-advanced), esl grammar worksheet, future tenses: traveling (intermediate-advanced), esl writing practice worksheet: newspaper articles (intermediate-advanced), esl writing practice worksheet: creating concise sentences (intermediate-advanced), esl writing exercise: creating complex sentences: las vegas (intermediate-advanced), esl everyday idioms vocabulary exercises (intermediate-advanced), esl vocabulary worksheet: food idioms (intermediate-advanced), esl vocabulary worksheet: idioms & slang (intermediate-advanced), esl reading comprehension worksheet: raising children (intermediate-advanced), esl reading comprehension worksheet: dreams (intermediate-advanced), esl reading comprehension worksheet: giving advice (intermediate-advanced), esl grammar worksheet: phrasal verbs: office & business (intermediate-advanced), esl grammar worksheet: phrasal verbs: dating (intermediate-advanced), esl grammar worksheet: phrasal verbs: sports (intermediate-advanced), illustrated esl lesson packages for kids.

Exclusively available from JIMMYESL: The following bundles include illustrated vocabulary worksheets for various exercises, flashcards, and a certificate of achievement. They’re great to help young learners memorize new vocabulary with fun!

School & Classroom Objects – ESL Vocabulary Worksheets & Flashcards

School & Classroom Objects – ESL Vocabulary Worksheets & Flashcards

Shape Names – ESL Vocabulary Worksheets & Flashcards

Shape Names – ESL Vocabulary Worksheets & Flashcards

Body Parts – ESL Vocabulary Worksheets & Flashcards

Body Parts – ESL Vocabulary Worksheets & Flashcards

Esl worksheets for beginners and elementary.

These are the ESL worksheets for young students, and for beginner and elementary level students. Again, you can download all worksheets in PDF and Word format, edit and print them for your lessons. Have fun teaching!

Beginner and Elementary Level (A1-A2)

Esl reading comprehension worksheet: in the restaurant (beginner-elementary), esl reading comprehension worksheet: france (beginner-elementary), esl reading comprehension worksheet: zoo animals (beginner-elementary), esl reading comprehension worksheet: playing football (beginner-elementary), listening comprehension worksheet: the pet competition (elementary), esl vocabulary worksheet: sports activities, action words (elementary), esl reading comprehension worksheet: the world of dinosaurs (elementary), list: prepositions of place: at, in & on (elementary), elementary-intermediate level (a2-b1), esl vocabulary worksheet: weather report & forecast (elementary-intermediate), esl vocabulary worksheet: let’s go shopping (elementary-intermediate), esl grammar worksheet: using articles (elementary-intermediate), esl grammar worksheet: -ed & -ing adjectives: describing feelings & situations (elementary-intermediate), esl vocabulary worksheet: describing people (elementary-intermediate), ideas to create your own esl lesson plans.

Check these ideas for engaging and fun ESL lesson activities which you can use to easily create customized worksheets. Or browse our full list of activity ideas to find tons of inspiration and materials.

Community building activities for the classroom

15 Engaging Community Building Activities for the Classroom

Icebreaker Activities for your ESL Lessons

ESL Icebreakers: 8 Games & Activities For Students of All Ages

Warm Up Activities & Games for ESL Lessons

Fun ESL Warm Up Activities & Games for Adults & Kids

Fun ESL Speaking Activities for Teens and Adults

12 Fun ESL Speaking Activities for Teens or Adults

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homework ideas for english students

Your Career• 3 Min read

6th September 2020

Creative Homework Ideas

How can you create homework assignments that build on the day’s lessons and encourage creative, student-led learning? It’s a challenge for most teachers, especially as motivating pupils to complete homework can add a whole extra layer to your lesson plans. But it’s essential to bridge the gap between teacher and student learning –  the skills gained through independent study reinforces knowledge from your class, as well as a host of other benefits:

  • Extended learning time – outside of the constraints of the school day, students are free to learn at their own pace and in their own environment.
  • Independent learning – vital skills for exam preparation and higher education
  • Teaches students to be resourceful and to overcome challenges independently.
  • Gives students the freedom to be creative in their learning, gain valuable problem-solving skills and confidence in their own abilities.

Tips For Setting Creative Homework

  • Plan independent learning both in and out of the classroom – you can monitor students effectiveness and address issues that may arise in the classroom before they become problematic for pupils at home.
  • Don’t leave homework assignment to the end of the lesson, rushing through the task might leave some students confused which inevitably leads to a lower homework completion rate. Write plenty of time for explaining homework assignments into your lesson planning – read our Beginner’s Guide To Lesson Planning here
  • Homework should to not too easy nor not too hard, offering pupils a challenge that reinforced the topics learnt during the day
  • Give room for creative expression – allowing students to add their own diagrams, decorations or chose their own project topics from a selection. 
  • Try using peer or self-assessment to mark homework – a double whammy of reducing your workload and allowing pupils to take control of their own learning.
  • Include timings and explicit steps for completing more complicated assignments, especially for pupils that you anticipate might struggle. Comprehension of the task is the biggest hurdle in getting pupils to work on an independent basis.
  • Self-driven projects, posters, creative tasks and research are more exciting than standard comprehension tasks and might encourage pupils that find sitting and writing dull or hard to complete the homework set – give students the freedom to learn and be creative in their home study.
  • Provide specific instructions and internet safety reminders for research-led assignments. It’s very easy for children to find research overwhelming with a vast amount of information available online. Provide suggested websites and links in your homework to keep things on track!
  • Don’t introduce a new topic for homework – keep it to topics that you’ve already covered in class
  • Taking note of the subjects that excite and engage your class and set homework accordingly – try keeping dryer topics and  for the classroom so that you can monitor engagement
  • Mark work promptly – essential to keep students motivated to complete work in their own time!
  • Offering students the opportunity to select the homework that they would like to do from a selection guarantees a higher rate of completion. We’ve seen some teachers create grids or sheets of homework assignments for the pupils to select, or offer baskets of activities for younger children to take home and complete with an adult.

Creative Homework Ideas For All Ages

Coming up with innovative ways for students to reinforce their knowledge at home can be difficult – many of these ideas would be suitable for lots of subjects with a little tweaking!

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homework ideas for english students

20+ creative alternative homework ideas for teachers

homework ideas for english students

When giving homework, it must always be based on learning goals your students have to reach, just like in your lessons. But it’s sad to see that lots of teachers are using homework as extra lesson time. Of course, as a teacher, you’re on a clock. But that doesn’t mean your students have to suffer from it and keep working on those boring textbooks and worksheets at home.

Consider goals like attitudes, real-life experiences, and practice, physical exercise, social encounters, creative solutions, and philanthropy as crucial as your lesson goals. These are things students don’t just pick up in your classroom. These are things they pick up in life.

In this blog post, I’ll give you some innovative homework ideas that will engage your students more. These alternatives to traditional homework will thereby also teach your students new things that can’t be taught in the classroom. You will find a variety of homework ideas: online and offline.

I will mention homework alternatives for primary school and high school. Some of these ideas can be changed a little bit, so they are the perfect fit for the right audience.

20 Creative homework ideas

You can divide homework tasks into the following themes or categories:

  • Crafts & arts
  • Outdoor activities & outings
  • Games and activities
  • Physical activities
  • Digital or computer activities
  • Philanthropy & social work
💡 Good to know : all the ready-to-use homework activities are created with BookWidgets . You can easily create activities like these yourself or duplicate an activity below for free, edit it if needed, and share it with your students. You can do so in the examples separately, or you can find all the homework examples in the BookWidgets Blog group folder .

Crafts and arts homework

1. prepare a dish from a recipe book.

homework ideas for english students

2. Make a board game

homework ideas for english students

3. Create a birdhouse

homework ideas for english students

4. Transform a fictional book character into a hand puppet

homework ideas for english students

Outdoor homework activities and outings

5. coupon game.

homework ideas for english students

Students can also go grocery shopping with their parents. Here, they have to read the ingredients of the products and help their parents choose the healthiest products for the best prices, figure out the best deal between the sizes of items, …

6. Visit the zoo

homework ideas for english students

7. Visit the local dumping ground or container park

homework ideas for english students

8. Build a tree house

homework ideas for english students

Games and activities as homework

9. bookwidgets games.

homework ideas for english students

10. Minecraft

homework ideas for english students

11. Play Cards

homework ideas for english students

12. Play Zoo Tycoon or Rollercoaster Tycoon

homework ideas for english students

Physical homework activities

13. rope skipping.

homework ideas for english students

Many rope-skipping songs let your students do different tricks while rope-skipping. This is an excellent opportunity for homework as well. Ask your students to transform a rope skipping song into a song with lesson content. Let them count or spell or even sum up the different states or capitals. To engage their lifestyles even harder, you can additionally give them the assignment to create a TikTok in which they are jumping and singing.

Click here to see how you can get Tiktok more involved in the classroom.

14. Walking quest

homework ideas for english students

If there aren’t any walking quests in the neighborhood, you could ask your students to create a walking quest like this for their fellow students. What a fun day it will be!

15. Obstacle Quiz

homework ideas for english students

In order for students to answer the questions, they have to run and pass a challenging parkour. This is a fun homework exercise, and in the end, it’s a great lesson starter or lesson end.

16. Swimming games

homework ideas for english students

After the activity, they can fill out an Exit Slip:

Swimming games

Digital or computer homework activities

17. create a picture album.

homework ideas for english students

This teaches them to handle the online software, add pictures and write without spelling mistakes. And of course, creating memories is so much fun!

18. Video job application

homework ideas for english students

19. Your life in 10 minutes - video

homework ideas for english students

20. Email pen-pals

homework ideas for english students

Is it still too complicated? Read the messages from your students, before they send them, and provide them with some feedback.

Email pen-pals

Philanthropy and social homework

21. grow a community garden.

homework ideas for english students

22. Help in a retirement home

homework ideas for english students

23. Help at a homeless shelter

homework ideas for english students

24. Collect litter

homework ideas for english students

Here’s another homework tip: Don’t call homework “homework”. Call it a challenge. Homework has become a negative word for students, and I bet they start rolling their eyes as you even mention the word.

Still looking for more inspiration? Check out the blog on short films and lesson activities that spice up your Google Classroom . Tip: even if you don’t use Google Classroom, there is a lot of inspiration back here.

Above you have read single assignments. But, you also have the option to involve your homework in a project. Find out more here .

So, as I mentioned earlier, there are many fun alternatives to traditional homework. Now it’s up to you to apply this in the classroom as well. In this folder , you will find all the examples you have come across.

Which idea do you or perhaps your students like the most? Let us know on Twitter . Of course, there are many more alternatives. If you have other ideas, you are always welcome to share it with other teachers in our Facebook group .

One more thing: don’t forget to say hi👋 on LikedIn .

20+ creative homework alternatives

Join hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and get the best content on technology in education.

BookWidgets enables teachers to create fun and interactive lessons for tablets, smartphones, and computers.

homework ideas for english students

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If you’re looking for a fun group project for 4 or more kids, wacky abstract word art activity is just the ticket. Offering  writing practice  and grammar review, this isn’t your average art project.

Kids practice building sentences with different parts of speech, then create paintings of the silly mad-lib sentences they come up with. In an unexpected fun twist, at the end they get to rip up their paintings and arrange them into wild and unique abstract collages.

Autobiographies

In this fun project, you ask the students to detail their life history in an interesting tone. To avoid monotone, ask them to only include those events in life which they consider adventurous or unforgettable. 

Ask them to highlight emotions rather than timeline. 

You can add a twist to the exercise by asking them to write their ideal future life in an epilogue.

This project will focus on verbal communication skills. 

Ask the students to select a book or excerpt from a book to read. You can assign a genre to keep the communication streamlined. 

Students can take turns to give a short review of their reading together with their viewpoints about it. They can talk about the moral values of the characters or change endings or events to discuss if the plot becomes more entertaining with these changes. 

Check out these ideas on how to run a successful Book Club !

Class Magazine

classroom newsletter

This is a perfect project for all classes in middle and high school. You can take it to the next level by asking the whole school to start a competition for the best class magazine. 

You can ask your class to select a theme of environmental, health, literary, or societal topic. 

Then ask them to gather all skills; idea-generation, writing, design, and presentation. You will get the most benefits if you make it mandatory for every student to produce content for one page of the magazine. (You can include the advertisement activity within the activity of class magazine.)

Comic Strip 

This is another extensive project that will not only win the hearts of your students but also allow you to assess their creative capabilities. 

Ask them to illustrate interesting events from their lives, or imagination, in the form of comic strips. 

ALSO READ: SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR ANY LANGUAGE CLASS

This activity is similar to the comic activity given above. The only difference is the increased detail that is required in drama writing. An absence of images adds the obligation on the students to describe scenes and expressions. 

Again, students can describe any life event from their reality or imagination. 

You can later ask the students to act on the best dramas to improve their verbal and non-verbal communication. 

Paper Mache Activity

homework ideas for english students

In this messy yet super fun project, students make paper mache futuristic Earths or other imaginary planets as described in science fiction.

This was my cross-curricular activity based off of our Literature reading of  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  and a unit topic in English about the environment and recycling. Of course, you can do paper mache for any lesson or unit that you have!

This article gives you the step-by-step instruction on how to do paper mache in the classroom!

Editorial/ Fan Letter

Editorial is one of English project ideas most suitable for high-schoolers while fan letters work for learners from all English expertise levels. 

Ask your high-schoolers to analyze a societal issue that is close to their heart. Next, they need to define the problem from the viewpoint of aggrieved parties. Ask them to write out the problem and get it published in a local or national newspaper. 

(Be ready to proofread and edit the piece before they send it to relevant personnel.)

Younger students can write fan letters to their best actors, authors, and singers. 

This is another English project which will combine societal, and practical, understanding with English learning. In this project, the students will learn problem-solving skills. 

Ask them to understand a societal or scientific problem. Once they have understood and defined this issue, they have to provide a solution to this problem. 

In the end, they have to present their solution together with the need which gave rise to it in front of the class. (You may want them to include a video presentation with visual effects .)

diorama project

This activity is one of my students’ favorite s not only because it’s fun but also because it facilitates their learning. I tried this project on two literature readings I had before (The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe) and both achieved the same fantastic end.

In this project, students are tasked to illustrate the setting or a specific part of the book in the form of a three-dimensional miniature scene. Students will pick a favorite scene from the story they are reading and decide how they want to represent it using the materials given (above) and a variety of design strategies.

This writing exercise contains the most fun among all the given projects. You will excite their creativity as well as their inner critic.

Start by inquiring about the literary work which fascinates or inspires them most. 

Ask them if they can add humor to that piece. Let them edit a single character or scene or if they want they can give a humorous outlook to the whole plot. 

Fables 

This open-ended English writing project will ask the students to select one event in their life. This event should be intriguing as well as contain a life lesson. 

Then, they have to retell this piece in third person pronoun. Ask them to keep the tone conversational as well as engaging. 

In the end, ask them to write a conclusive moral of the story. 

POPULAR: 5 Project-based Learning for High School English

Self-Portrait Project

self-portrait project ideas

These self-portrait ideas were part of a short project that went really with my middle school ESL class so I thought I’d share them with you.

My students were able to come up with three products in one activity: a mind map, a self-portrait and an essay. The unit topic was about “Identity” or “Personality” but I guess this will work for general descriptive adjectives lesson as well. 

Charts 

If you want to include futuristic touch to your English lessons, include a thing or two from STEM subjects. One great way is to ask them to explain or detail a mathematical chart. (You can come up with variations in this original plan. For example, you can ask future businessmen to interpret graphics related to market studies.)

See, if they have enough vocabulary and concepts to comprehend and convey the message to their fellows. 

Fictional Pen-Pals

Just like fan letters, this activity asks the students to write letters to their favorite characters in fictional and non-fictional worlds. 

Ask them to pinpoint the era, region, settings they like most in a given novel or historical account. Next, they would show interest in one of its characters and the reason for this interest. 

In the end, they need to write a letter to this character praising or advising him/her regarding his/her role in the piece. (You can reply on behalf of that character if you think the point made by the student inspires further dialogue.) 

Book Trailer Project

book trailer project

Book Trailer Project  is a digital storytelling activity for middle school or high school students after they finish reading a book. Students need to take the key idea from the book to create a short video that persuades people to check out a book they have read.

Doing the book trailer project requires students to summarize, synthesize and analyze the book and put that analysis in their trailer. Furthermore, having students create book trailers is a great way to incorporate  technology in the classroom  and encourage reading. Thus, book trailer project is a great alternative to boring book report assignments, and can easily be done individually or in groups.

So these are some of creative English project ideas you can use in your English class to prompt your students to express their creativity and language skills. These are fun, practical, and learning-inducing. 

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creative English project ideas for middle school and high school

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One-third of Australian children can't read properly as teaching methods cause 'preventable tragedy', Grattan Institute says

A young boy looking at a sheet of paper with words on it

One-third of Australian students are failing to learn to read proficiently, at an estimated cost to the economy of $40 billion, according to a new report.

The Grattan Institute's Reading Guarantee report calls this a "preventable tragedy" caused by persisting with teaching styles popular at universities, but "contrary to science" and discredited by inquiries in all major English-speaking countries.

"In a typical Australian school classroom of 24 students, eight can't read well," said report lead author and Grattan education program director Jordana Hunter. 

"Australia is failing these children."

The estimated cost of this "failure" was profound both personally and economy-wide, with students unable to read proficiently more likely to become disruptive at school and unemployed or even jailed later in life, the report concluded. 

Dr Hunter said the "conservative" financial estimate amounted to a "really significant cost" that did not include productivity benefits from increased reading. 

Students left to 'guess' meaning of words

The Grattan Institute attributed the major cause of its findings to the rise of a teaching style called "whole language", which became dominant on university campuses in the 1970s. 

It is underpinned by a philosophy that learning to read is a natural, unconscious process that students can master by being exposed to good literature. 

Proponents say it empowers young people by giving them autonomy. 

However, Grattan said it left students to "guess" the meaning of words and was saddling parents with expensive tuition costs to help their children catch up.

After decades of the so-called reading wars , "whole language" has incorporated elements of other approaches such as phonics, but Grattan said it remained "light touch" and "contrary to scientific recommendations". 

"What we need to do is set our expectations higher. We need to stop accepting failure," Dr Hunter said.

"It's not good enough that one in three students are not where they need to be in reading."

The Grattan Institute said evidence showed a much greater number of students learned to read successfully using the alternative "structured literacy" approach, and at least 90 per cent of students would be proficient using this model. 

Small laminated bits of paper with phonics on them are seen in a classroom

"Structured literacy" includes phonics, but also teacher-led "explicit instruction" backed by the latest science on how children's brains learn new concepts. 

"The quality of teaching is the thing that will shift the dial for our young people," Dr Hunter said. 

"We need to make the most of every single minute we have with our young people." 

Why are some schools still not using phonics?

Despite major inquiries in Australia, the United Kingdom and United States settling the argument that structured literacy teaching is superior, that hasn't flowed to all classrooms, the Grattan Institute says. 

It said where school systems had embraced it, students had  reaped the rewards . 

Australia's 10,000 schools have a high degree of autonomy, and even in states where education departments advocate for the structured literacy approach, the report says there needs to be more support for teachers to re-train and be provided with ready-made lessons. 

"The real issue here is, are governments doing enough to set teachers up for success?'" Dr Hunter said. 

"The challenge is making sure best practice is common practice in every single classroom." 

Western Sydney University's Katina Zammit, president of the Australian Literary Educators Association, said the whole language method should not end up in history's trash can. 

She said that in school systems that moved to the teaching methods championed by the Grattan Institute, some teachers found it too prescriptive. 

"The teachers that I have had contact with, some of the children who are being taught this way, have either lost interest in reading because it's a whole class approach or they are not retaining the instruction," Dr Zammit said. 

Dr Zammit agreed whole learning did not work for all students but said it could still be useful in the classroom. 

"One size doesn't fit all students," she said. 

"Yes, the majority it might, but we do have to look at engagement and motivation as well." 

However in a statement to the ABC, Education Minister Jason Clare said the science on teaching reading had been settled.

He also foreshadowed mandating teaching styles in the upcoming school funding agreement.

"The reading wars are over. We know what works. The current National School Reform Agreement doesn't include the sort of targets or reforms to move the needle here," he said.

"The new Agreement we strike this year needs to properly fund schools and tie that funding to the sort of things that work. The sort of things that will help children keep up, catch up and finish school."

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Holi 2024: Best Holi Essay Ideas In English For Students And Children

Bhupinder Singh

Holi, a cherished Hindu festival, is celebrated with pomp and enthusiasm  across India, particularly in the states of West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura, where it is also known as 'Dol Jatra' or 'Basanta Utsav.' This vibrant festival, often referred to as the 'Festival of Colors,' spans two days and holds deep significance in Hindu culture.

Holi symbolises the triumph of good over evil and marks the arrival of spring, bidding farewell to the chilly winter months. It is also associated with the commencement of the spring harvest season, a time of abundance and prosperity.

With the celebration of the festival of Holi just around the corner, educational institutions host Holi Speech and Essay writing competitions to encourage students' growth in knowledge and boost their self-assurance in effective self-expression. So, if you are looking for long and short Holi essay ideas in English, then read on. 

500 words Essay On Holi

Holi, the festival of colors, is celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervor across India and other parts of the world. This vibrant festival is also known as the "Festival of Love", the "Festival of Spring" and the "Festival of colour". It marks the arrival of spring and the end of winter, symbolising the victory of good over evil. The festival is celebrated by people of all ages, and it is a time for people to come together, forget their differences, and enjoy the joyous occasion.

Holi is celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu lunar month of Phalguna, which usually falls in March. In 2024, the festival of colour, Holi will be celebrated on Monday, March 25. The festival is celebrated with great energy, and it is a time for people to indulge in fun and frolic. The festival begins with a bonfire known as Holika Dahan , which symbolises the burning of the demoness Holika . On the day of Holi, people gather in open spaces and smear each other with colors, dance, sing, and enjoy delicious food and drinks.

The festival of Holi has a deep cultural significance and is associated with various mythological stories. One of the most popular stories is the story of Prahlada and Holika. According to the legend, Prahlada was a devotee of Lord Vishnu , but his father, Hiranyakashipu , was a demon king who did not approve of his son's devotion. Hiranyakashipu tried to kill Prahlada in various ways, but Lord Vishnu always protected him. Finally, Hiranyakashipu's sister, Holika, who was immune to fire, tried to kill Prahlada by sitting with him in a fire. However, due to Prahlada's devotion, Holika was burnt to ashes, and Prahlada emerged unharmed. This story symbolises the victory of good over evil and is commemorated during the festival of Holi.

Another popular story associated with Holi is the story of Lord Krishna and Radha . According to the legend, Lord Krishna, who had dark skin, was jealous of Radha's fair complexion. In a playful mood, he applied colors on Radha's face, and since then, the tradition of applying colors during Holi has been followed.

Holi is also associated with the legend of Kamadeva , the god of love. According to the legend, Kamadeva was burnt to ashes by Lord Shiva's third eye , but his wife, Rati, pleaded with Lord Shiva to bring him back to life. Lord Shiva agreed, and Kamadeva was brought back to life on the day of Holi. Since then, Holi has been celebrated as a festival of love and romance.

Holi is a time for people to come together and celebrate the joyous occasion. It is a time for people to forget their differences and come together in a spirit of unity and brotherhood. The festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervor, and people indulge in fun and frolic. The festival of Holi is a time for people to spread love, happiness, and joy. It is a time for people to come together and celebrate the victory of good over evil.

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    12. Analyze a Song. Music is great for English learners since it stresses many aspects of language that can otherwise be hard to isolate, like the emotion of language, intonation and stress. Have students choose their favorite English language song to listen to for homework and then ask them to do the following:

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    1.Read A Short Story Or Short Book Chapter. Reading is the foundation of the StoryLearning method and makes for the perfect ESL homework idea. Instead of spending time reading in class, get the students to do it between classes. They can find a quiet time to read the story or chapter as many times as they like.

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    Find fun, engaging ideas to suit any level! Here at Twinkl, we've compiled a list of 10 ESL homework ideas and writing projects to try with your students. From practising their English skills to sharing their native language, you're sure to find something to suit your pupils' needs. A presentation or report on their country or language.

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    1. Ask general comprehension questions on the video. 2. Re-create the story as a class, eliciting it from students piece by piece with the help of key words from the story as prompts on the board. Alternatively divide the class into A and B. For homework, A's watch one video and B's another.

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    No-marking assignments have benefits for class time also. Students can recap on the last class or prepare for the next one by watching grammar videos. Teachers can use material from a podcast or video as the basis of a speaking activity. This is why, I believe, that TEFL teachers set a no-marking study assignment at least once a week.

  10. Outside-the-box ESL homework ideas

    The flipped classroom approach will give your students plenty of opportunities to 'own' English. Tell them what the topic of the next lesson will be (e.g. recycling) and give them the following homework: look up five words that they think will be useful to talk about recycling. They will then have to use them in the next lesson.

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    This article presents ten innovative homework ideas that aim to make learning English a dynamic and enjoyable experience, enhancing language proficiency both in and out of the classroom. 1. Daily ...

  13. 11 Vocabulary Homework Ideas And How To Motivate Students To ...

    Step Three. Third, some students may be quite unhappy when being mandated to do specific work. Therefore, teachers should stress the choices a student gets when completing their homework and that students get to complete the work that best reflects their own sense of self. Step Four. Finally, the teacher should praise students individually, as ...

  14. 5 Creative ESL Homework Ideas

    So here are five creative ideas for ESL homework assignments that won't make your students groan too loudly. A good way to pump a little more energy into your ESL class is by skipping the traditional boring homework assignment and assigning something a little more fun. So here are five creative ideas for ESL homework assignments that won't ...

  15. 5 Basic ESL Homework Ideas

    These five tried and true ESL homework ideas are perfect to help your ESL students improve their English and help your next class go as smooth as possible!

  16. 73 ESL Writing Activities to Spark Your Students ...

    Keep this post bookmarked for ideas the next time you run out of ways to creatively dish out writing assignments for ESL students. Use these prompts wisely, and watch your students' love of written English grow! ... Great ESL homework ideas can be difficult to come up with. So check out these 13 great ideas for ESL homework assignments that ...

  17. Homework for Beginning ESL Students

    The best homework for ESL practice is typically an assignment that prepares students for in-class activities and maximizes your effectiveness in the classroom. Try some of these ESL homework ideas to make the most of your time in the classroom: Preview a text for the next day's class. Review a vocabulary sheet for a text for the next day's ...

  18. Printable ESL Worksheets for Teachers (Word & PDF)

    Download, customize and print the resources, incorporate them in your lessons or assign them as homework to your students. Our Massive Library of Free ESL Worksheets by Category. If you are looking for ESL worksheets for different learning areas, select the matching category. ... Ideas to Create Your Own ESL Lesson Plans.

  19. Creative Homework Ideas

    Create a board game. Complete a quiz - you could also ask students to write the quiz in groups and then swap and complete for homework. Write a lesson plan for teaching the topic to a younger class. Teach the teacher - create a poster, Complete a series of exercises. Complete a family tree, real or imaginary.

  20. 20+ creative alternative homework ideas for teachers

    2. Make a board game. This is definitely one of the most creative homework assignments. Let your students come up with an idea for a board game about the lesson content. They have to make cards, and pawns, draw, write, cut, and paste. They have to use their imagination and inventive ideas to create a coherent board game. Click to open.

  21. 18 English Project Ideas You Can Do Right Now!

    Editorial/ Fan Letter. Editorial is one of English project ideas most suitable for high-schoolers while fan letters work for learners from all English expertise levels. Ask your high-schoolers to analyze a societal issue that is close to their heart. Next, they need to define the problem from the viewpoint of aggrieved parties.

  22. 10 Helpful Homework Ideas and Tips for Primary School Teachers

    Firstly, divide your class into smaller ability groups, 3 or 4 groups would work. Each group can be given their own coloured homework basket. You then fill the coloured homework baskets with activities, games and task cards that the students can take home and play with parents, carers or older siblings throughout the week.

  23. One-third of Australian children can't read properly as teaching

    One-third of Australian students are failing to learn to read proficiently, at an estimated cost to the economy of $40 billion, according to a new study.

  24. 500 Words Essay On Holi For Students And Children In English

    With the celebration of the festival of Holi just around the corner, educational institutions host Holi Speech and Essay writing competitions to encourage students' growth in knowledge and boost their self-assurance in effective self-expression. So, if you are looking for long and short Holi essay ideas in English, then read on.