During second period today I received an email from Guidance with the report card schedule on it. It turns out that my grades for this nine week grading period are due Thursday.
I went to the homework board and wrote in big, huge script..."All missing work is due no later than this Wednesday."
"This Wednesday?" a tiny voice squeaked.
"Yup, this Wednesday. I have to get your grades finalized. That means Thursday morning won't cut it."
The look of panic on some of their faces was pretty evident. I have a lot of kids who haven't turned in work, ranging from homework, to vocabulary, to 100 point assignments. Some because they don't care, a few because they've been absent and aren't in any hurry to make up work, and others just because they're disorganized and confused. Last week I printed off progress reports for kids in danger of failing and highlighted their missing work.
Any guesses how much work came flying in after that little exercise in paper-wasting???
Yeah, a big fat zero.
Today, however, was different. I had kids coming up all day asking if they owed me anything, kids digging through binders checking for lost and missing assignments, a few cleaning out lockers to find worksheets never turned in.
By the end of the day the late work showing up in the homework basket was piling up.
Nothing like a deadline to put the fear of God in them.
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7 comments:
I had that happen last year, when I had a long term assignment in Las Vegas. As soon as I put up a deadline the homework came flying in. Of course nobody checked the no name pile so many kids failed who should not have, but that's their problem not mine. Now I have an 8th grade math class that I'm doing another long term (read maternity) assignment for. We're doing the big testing thing this week so the homework has been non existent, but I've started laying down the law.
We'll see how it goes...
You know, to keep that Wednesday night from being a nightmare for you, perhaps you should do this every other week or so.
I also have a flat rate for late work- 50% credit for the first one, and then ten percent after that (I do not allow kids any extra credit unless all their work is in).
Ms. Cornelius, lucky for me I had a webquest scheduled for yesterday and today which pretty much left me free to grade/monitor/grade/monitor for the past two days. I walked out of school this afternoon with the grades entered and everything finished!
BTW, I love your idea on extra credit...that's a post I've been pondering and you may have pushed me to it.
yeah I have students that always want to make up late work. I usually just take it...homework is some minimal in my class due to copying/cheating.
I just hate it when a parent or counselor comes in and does the asking for the student. Students nowadays aren't being held accountable for anything it seems like.
I don't take extra credit when a kiddo is missing work, either. I tell them that extra credit = extra work for me, and I already did all my work. I will only do extra for those who have also done everything.
I always set my deadline about two weeks before the end of a semester.
That's great! Very Love and Logic-like! Glad it worked.
Here from the carnival of ed.
This year I'm not taking any work more than five days late. I have to say it is a huge relief. I used to hate the stack of makeup work. The five day period gives grace, while setting a limit I can live with. If kids are absent, they have five days from the day they return to make up regular work.
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