meaning of make up homework

Making the Most of Make-up Work

Chronic absenteeism—missing at least 1 in 10 school days—correlates with low test scores and other achievement deficits. The fact that these measures can reflect negatively on the school is one motivation for building- or district-wide programs aimed at improving attendance. Classroom teachers, however, have a more personal window into the lives of individual students. We know that the more days a student misses the farther behind he is likely to get—and the harder it might become to engage him. We also know the reason for missing class might not be the student's fault. Family disruptions, transportation difficulties and chronic illness (of the student or a family member) may all contribute to absenteeism.

For all these reasons, it’s important to establish systems and routines that support the whole child and set him up for achievement when he returns. The following suggestions address both classroom management and curriculum strategies that can help.

Classroom management: What do students do when they first come into my classroom?

You may have established a bell ringer or warm-up activity that helps students shift into thinking about your content. When students are accustomed to a self-led routine at the beginning of class, teachers can give individual students attention in the first few minutes. During this pre-established time, absent students can find out what was missed, gather needed materials and be ready to rejoin the class community. Set routines also help students who miss class transition back into learning because they know what to expect when they return.

In addition to the designated warm-up activity, establish the communication system so students can find out what material they missed. This system will look different at different grade levels, and many methods will work. Here are a few to try:

In the elementary classroom:

Mailboxes . Mailboxes or cubbies where students keep their materials are standard in most elementary classrooms. Leaving a half-page note is a way to communicate to an absent student what he missed while he was out. To promote social emotional skills, assign your elementary students a class buddy—one peer who can help out by filling in the blanks when her partner is gone.

You may not always know why a student missed class. A friendly heading on the note expressing that the student was missed helps him transition back into the class community in a positive way, regardless of what may have kept him out of class.

In the middle level classroom:

Class calendar . Use a bulletin board or the back of the door to post a large calendar. Write objectives and assignments on the calendar each day and refer to the calendar when returning to objectives and goals during instruction. Keep learning objectives up for three to four weeks, and include a folder near the calendar for any handouts students might have missed.

In the high school classroom:

Daily class journal . Assign a student in each class to record the date, objectives, activities and any assignments in a class notebook. Keep the notebook in the same location in the classroom. Returning students should know to check the class journal during the bell ringer. Rotate which student writes in the journal each week.

Social media . A social media platform provides another method to communicate missing work with absent students. If your district firewalls allow access to Facebook, you can create a private group for each class and post objectives, activities and assignments daily to that group’s wall. Edmodo is another free online platform that allows teachers to populate calendars, upload documents, track student progress and communicate with families, all in one location.

Curriculum: What is the purpose of the assignment?

Graded assignments provide students an opportunity to independently practice skills and demonstrate their progress toward mastery of objectives. They also allow teachers to collect data about student learning for planning future instruction. Because they are rooted in standards, it should matter to student achievement if an assignment is not completed.

Ask yourself: How do students know the value of class assignments?

Share class goals and objectives with your students and keep them posted in a visible location in your classroom. Point out how assignments are explicitly linked to those goals and objectives, and make it clear that students who complete the assignment by the due date move to the next skill or assignment based on mastery. This reinforces the authentic importance of attendance and of making up work when students miss a day.

Students should also understand the distinction between a due date and a drop-dead due date. Drop-dead due dates are driven by the school calendar and marking periods. Reporting midterm and end-of-term grades is mandatory, and students must complete all required work by these dates. Help students understand that assignments are intentionally built into the quarter or semester to help them work toward previously identified goals and objectives. The desired outcome is to master all class objectives within the marking period. Making this connection allows students to see their learning as cumulative and fosters self-monitoring and awareness—skills that become increasingly important as more and more independence is required of them.

Facilitating and tracking student make-up work can feel like a chore, but incorporating strategies designed to maximize student success serves two important purposes. One, it keeps learning on track and kids moving forward academically. And, two, it makes your classroom an environment that welcomes students back rather than heightens their anxieties about being gone in the first place.

Wicht is the senior manager for teaching and learning for Teaching Tolerance.

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Does homework really work?

by: Leslie Crawford | Updated: December 12, 2023

Print article

You know the drill. It’s 10:15 p.m., and the cardboard-and-toothpick Golden Gate Bridge is collapsing. The pages of polynomials have been abandoned. The paper on the Battle of Waterloo seems to have frozen in time with Napoleon lingering eternally over his breakfast at Le Caillou. Then come the tears and tantrums — while we parents wonder, Does the gain merit all this pain? Is this just too much homework?

However the drama unfolds night after night, year after year, most parents hold on to the hope that homework (after soccer games, dinner, flute practice, and, oh yes, that childhood pastime of yore known as playing) advances their children academically.

But what does homework really do for kids? Is the forest’s worth of book reports and math and spelling sheets the average American student completes in their 12 years of primary schooling making a difference? Or is it just busywork?

Homework haterz

Whether or not homework helps, or even hurts, depends on who you ask. If you ask my 12-year-old son, Sam, he’ll say, “Homework doesn’t help anything. It makes kids stressed-out and tired and makes them hate school more.”

Nothing more than common kid bellyaching?

Maybe, but in the fractious field of homework studies, it’s worth noting that Sam’s sentiments nicely synopsize one side of the ivory tower debate. Books like The End of Homework , The Homework Myth , and The Case Against Homework the film Race to Nowhere , and the anguished parent essay “ My Daughter’s Homework is Killing Me ” make the case that homework, by taking away precious family time and putting kids under unneeded pressure, is an ineffective way to help children become better learners and thinkers.

One Canadian couple took their homework apostasy all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. After arguing that there was no evidence that it improved academic performance, they won a ruling that exempted their two children from all homework.

So what’s the real relationship between homework and academic achievement?

How much is too much?

To answer this question, researchers have been doing their homework on homework, conducting and examining hundreds of studies. Chris Drew Ph.D., founder and editor at The Helpful Professor recently compiled multiple statistics revealing the folly of today’s after-school busy work. Does any of the data he listed below ring true for you?

• 45 percent of parents think homework is too easy for their child, primarily because it is geared to the lowest standard under the Common Core State Standards .

• 74 percent of students say homework is a source of stress , defined as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems.

• Students in high-performing high schools spend an average of 3.1 hours a night on homework , even though 1 to 2 hours is the optimal duration, according to a peer-reviewed study .

Not included in the list above is the fact many kids have to abandon activities they love — like sports and clubs — because homework deprives them of the needed time to enjoy themselves with other pursuits.

Conversely, The Helpful Professor does list a few pros of homework, noting it teaches discipline and time management, and helps parents know what’s being taught in the class.

The oft-bandied rule on homework quantity — 10 minutes a night per grade (starting from between 10 to 20 minutes in first grade) — is listed on the National Education Association’s website and the National Parent Teacher Association’s website , but few schools follow this rule.

Do you think your child is doing excessive homework? Harris Cooper Ph.D., author of a meta-study on homework , recommends talking with the teacher. “Often there is a miscommunication about the goals of homework assignments,” he says. “What appears to be problematic for kids, why they are doing an assignment, can be cleared up with a conversation.” Also, Cooper suggests taking a careful look at how your child is doing the assignments. It may seem like they’re taking two hours, but maybe your child is wandering off frequently to get a snack or getting distracted.

Less is often more

If your child is dutifully doing their work but still burning the midnight oil, it’s worth intervening to make sure your child gets enough sleep. A 2012 study of 535 high school students found that proper sleep may be far more essential to brain and body development.

For elementary school-age children, Cooper’s research at Duke University shows there is no measurable academic advantage to homework. For middle-schoolers, Cooper found there is a direct correlation between homework and achievement if assignments last between one to two hours per night. After two hours, however, achievement doesn’t improve. For high schoolers, Cooper’s research suggests that two hours per night is optimal. If teens have more than two hours of homework a night, their academic success flatlines. But less is not better. The average high school student doing homework outperformed 69 percent of the students in a class with no homework.

Many schools are starting to act on this research. A Florida superintendent abolished homework in her 42,000 student district, replacing it with 20 minutes of nightly reading. She attributed her decision to “ solid research about what works best in improving academic achievement in students .”

More family time

A 2020 survey by Crayola Experience reports 82 percent of children complain they don’t have enough quality time with their parents. Homework deserves much of the blame. “Kids should have a chance to just be kids and do things they enjoy, particularly after spending six hours a day in school,” says Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth . “It’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.”

By far, the best replacement for homework — for both parents and children — is bonding, relaxing time together.

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Creating a Homework Policy With Meaning and Purpose

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We have all had time-consuming, monotonous, meaningless homework assigned to us at some point in our life. These assignments often lead to frustration and boredom and students learn virtually nothing from them. Teachers and schools must reevaluate how and why they assign homework to their students. Any assigned homework should have a purpose.

Assigning homework with a purpose means that through completing the assignment, the student will be able to obtain new knowledge, a new skill, or have a new experience that they may not otherwise have. Homework should not consist of a rudimentary task that is being assigned simply for the sake of assigning something. Homework should be meaningful. It should be viewed as an opportunity to allow students to make real-life connections to the content that they are learning in the classroom. It should be given only as an opportunity to help increase their content knowledge in an area.

Differentiate Learning for All Students

Furthermore, teachers can utilize homework as an opportunity to differentiate learning for all students. Homework should rarely be given with a blanket "one size fits all" approach. Homework provides teachers with a significant opportunity to meet each student where they are and truly extend learning. A teacher can give their higher-level students more challenging assignments while also filling gaps for those students who may have fallen behind. Teachers who use homework as an opportunity to differentiate we not only see increased growth in their students, but they will also find they have more time in class to dedicate to whole group instruction .

See Student Participation Increase

Creating authentic and differentiated homework assignments can take more time for teachers to put together. As often is the case, extra effort is rewarded. Teachers who assign meaningful, differentiated, connected homework assignments not only see student participation increase, they also see an increase in student engagement. These rewards are worth the extra investment in time needed to construct these types of assignments.

Schools must recognize the value in this approach. They should provide their teachers with professional development that gives them the tools to be successful in transitioning to assign homework that is differentiated with meaning and purpose. A school's homework policy should reflect this philosophy; ultimately guiding teachers to give their students reasonable, meaningful, purposeful homework assignments.

Sample School Homework Policy

Homework is defined as the time students spend outside the classroom in assigned learning activities. Anywhere Schools believes the purpose of homework should be to practice, reinforce, or apply acquired skills and knowledge. We also believe as research supports that moderate assignments completed and done well are more effective than lengthy or difficult ones done poorly.

Homework serves to develop regular study skills and the ability to complete assignments independently. Anywhere Schools further believes completing homework is the responsibility of the student, and as students mature they are more able to work independently. Therefore, parents play a supportive role in monitoring completion of assignments, encouraging students’ efforts and providing a conducive environment for learning.

Individualized Instruction

Homework is an opportunity for teachers to provide individualized instruction geared specifically to an individual student. Anywhere Schools embraces the idea that each student is different and as such, each student has their own individual needs. We see homework as an opportunity to tailor lessons specifically for an individual student meeting them where they are and bringing them to where we want them to be. 

Homework contributes toward building responsibility, self-discipline, and lifelong learning habits. It is the intention of the Anywhere School staff to assign relevant, challenging, meaningful, and purposeful homework assignments that reinforce classroom learning objectives. Homework should provide students with the opportunity to apply and extend the information they have learned complete unfinished class assignments, and develop independence.

The actual time required to complete assignments will vary with each student’s study habits, academic skills, and selected course load. If your child is spending an inordinate amount of time doing homework, you should contact your child’s teachers.

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• Creating a Great Lesson to Maximize Student Learning
• How Much Homework Should Students Have?
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• Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Equity and Engagement
• Effective Classroom Policies and Procedures
• Collecting Homework in the Classroom
• 5 Types of Report Card Comments for Elementary Teachers
• Methods for Presenting Subject Matter

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What does "make up assignment" mean? See a translation

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It means if you missed or failed an assignment you have to redo the assignment or do a new assignment in its place

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If you miss any work from school because you were absent, the teacher could give you a make up assignment to help you catch up with the class.

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Definition of homework noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

• acquire/get/lack experience/training/(an) education
• receive/provide somebody with training
• develop/design/plan a curriculum/course/program/syllabus
• give/go to/attend a class/lesson/lecture/seminar
• hold/run/conduct a class/seminar/workshop
• moderate/lead/facilitate a discussion
• sign up for/take a course/classes/lessons
• go to/start preschool/kindergarten/nursery school
• be in the first, second, etc. grade (at school)
• study/take/drop history/chemistry/German, etc.
• finish/drop out of/quit school
• graduate from high school/college
• be the victim/target of bullying/teasing
• skip/cut/ ( informal ) ditch class/school
• cheat on an exam/a test
• get/be given a detention (for doing something)
• be expelled from/be suspended from school
• do your homework/a project on something
• work on/write/do/submit an essay/a dissertation/a thesis/an assignment/a paper
• finish/complete your dissertation/thesis/studies
• hand in/turn in your homework/essay/assignment/paper
• study/prepare/review/ ( informal ) cram for a test/an exam
• take/ ( formal ) sit for a test/an exam
• grade homework/a test
• do well on/ ( informal ) ace a test/an exam
• pass/fail/ ( informal ) flunk a test/an exam/a class/a course/a subject
• apply to/get into/go to/start college
• leave/graduate from college (with a degree in computer science)/law school
• study for/work towards a law degree/a degree in physics
• major/minor in biology/philosophy
• earn/receive/be awarded/get/have/hold a master's degree/a bachelor's degree/a Ph.D. in economics

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| Grammarist

Makeup is 1.) cosmetics 2.) the composition of something 3.) in American English, a special test or assignment given to a student who has missed a test or assignment. Make up is used as a noun or an adjective. Makeup may also be rendered as the hyphenated make-up , though since the 1980s the hyphen has been dropped for the most part. The word makeup was coined in 1821 to mean manner in which something is put together, it was first used to mean cosmetics in 1886.

Make up is a verb phrase which means 1.) to compose 2.) to invent 3.) to arrange 4.) to apply cosmetics 5.) to reconcile after a quarrel. Make up is also used as an adjective.

Examples The Columbian singer celebrated her 39th birthday by reminding us all how glowing she is without a drop of makeup on, posting a picture of her “birthday bun” on her official social media accounts. ( USA Today ) And at this point she might as well just move into Lagerfeld’s guest room, she’s got so much going on for the brand — after all, it was just announced that she’ll front its next makeup campaign. ( People Magazin e) Gender makeup of Allegheny County Council a concern for some ( The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ) That was the makeup of Arsenal’s midfield for their FA Cup fourth round clash with Burnley at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, with Mohamed Elneny making his debut, Francis Coquelin back from injury and Alex Iwobi handed only a third start of his senior career. ( The National ) Stacy Caldwell, College Board’s vice president for college readiness assessment, said the makeup test will probably be scheduled in a month or so, according to Associated Press. ( The South China Morning POst ) Kristen Stewart has landed an amazing new beauty gig: she’s the new face of Chanel make-up. ( Marie Claire Magazine ) John Elway realizes as well as anyone just how difficult a decision it is for an elite quarterback to retire, and he has no plans of putting pressure on Peyton Manning to make up his mind right away. ( The Columbus Dispatch ) If you missed Bruce Springsteen’s Madison Square Garden concert due to Mother Nature’s interference, the Boss has something to make up for the disappointment. ( Billboard Magazine )

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Makeup, Make-up, or Make Up?

"makeup," "make-up," or "make up".

• For the noun and adjective, use "makeup."

• For the verb , use "make up."

Do I Write Make-up, Makeup, or Make Up?

Write makeup (for the noun).

Write Makeup (for the Adjective)

Write make up (for the verb).

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[ hohm -wurk ]

• schoolwork assigned to be done outside the classroom ( distinguished from classwork ).
• a single assignment of such schoolwork: Homeworks are due at the beginning of class.
• paid work done at home , as piecework.

to do one's homework for the next committee meeting.

/ ˈhəʊmˌwɜːk /

• school work done out of lessons, esp at home
• any preparatory study
• work done at home for pay

Discover More

Word history and origins.

Origin of homework 1

Idioms and Phrases

Example sentences.

Now, they log on to Zoom from their bedrooms, surrounded by unfinished homework assignments and tattered stuffed animals, waiting to be assigned calls, texts and emails by the trained therapists who oversee the program.

Yow started her homework and saw Frese had gone 35-22 with two winning seasons at Ball State, which hadn’t had a winning record in its previous nine seasons.

Do some homework before investing in a diamond, and that lifelong commitment.

Another poster included an image of their losses over what appeared to be online math homework.

As we countdown to Inauguration Day, I've been doing my homework—and looking to the past for inspiration.

“I can help my children with their homework and sometimes we text in English at my job,” Santos says.

Scheunemann, meanwhile, had no idea who Spencer was, and did some homework.

She jumped at the chance to watch RT, or jumped at the chance to skip calculus homework.

And we encourage parent-student “contracts,” for class attendance, homework submission and even extra-curriculum activities.

Adicéam did his homework, spending 50 days collecting pieces, many with unexpected stories behind them.

Much of this homework is done by a very bad light and the boy's eyes suffer much.

For homework we have prepared alphabets where the letters are printed in type-writing order.

His parents were always getting angry with him for losing his clothes, or his toys, or his homework.

Only at the time when he was going to Beauregard School, with his homework.

And once a week or twice a week she was sending her homework or something to him.

Related Words

• arrangement
• construction
• establishment
• preparedness
• qualification

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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