Why do homework questions have no explanation or poor wording?
Assignments often feature poor wording or lack clear explanations of what is expected, leaving adults struggling to help and forcing children to reteach every piece of work at home. This disconnect leads students to write the exact opposite of what was taught on exit tickets, resulting in automatic failures if everything isn't spelled out precisely.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Accepting that students may have been zoning out or daydreaming and guessing on the assignment
- 2Trying to touch base with other parents to compare assignments
- 3Asking the teacher for clarification
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I just cannot understand why they wrote the complete opposite of what I was saying. Any advice?”source ↗
“Most adults in the house have struggled to help her figure out some of these questions due to poor wording or no explanation on what was wanted.”source ↗
“I’m having to teach every single piece of paper that comes home because she doesn’t get it, yet if it’s not wrote out to a T it’s an automatic failure?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Why do students just copy worksheet text instead of answering?
- 8Why won't students do the reading assignments?
- 2How to help kids understand what test questions are asking
- 5Students constantly forgetting materials, am I overreacting?
- 4Why do textbook explanations make no sense?
- 3Learning about current events from my students