Whether you call it an agenda, a planner, or a homework diary, no single piece of equipment is more important to staying organized.
However, not all homework diaries are created equal.
To be most effective, a homework diary should remind you of essential daily tasks and make it quick and easy for you to check them off as they are completed.
For example, it’s not enough simply to provide space to write down homework assignments. There should be a blank for each subject that might assign homework that day, followed by a quick way to indicate that homework either was or was not assigned, followed by space for writing down the assignment and the due date.
Here’s a sample excerpted from the SSIS Homework Diary that I designed last spring. Middle-school students at SSIS have a maximum of three homework assignments per day.
MONDAY
Today’s Homework
1. ___________ HW/NHW
2. ___________ HW/NHW
3. ___________ HW/NHW
Assignments
1. ____________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Date Due ________
The students fill in the three subjects on their homework timetable for that day. For each class, they circle HW if they have homework, and NHW if they have no homework.
This “NHW†feature is important. Without it, no one can tell whether (a) no homework was assigned, or (b) the student forgot to write down the homework.
The key to forming habits is repetition, and a well-designed homework diary helps remind students to record their assignments, thus building one of the good habits essential to success.
