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Failing Grades for Late Assignments:
Teaching Responsibility or Giving Permission to Fail?
A recent discussion on the Middle-L listserve explored the question
of how best to manage students who fail to turn in assignments on time.
Do "automatic F's" give students permission to fail? Do "second
chances" undermine efforts to teach students responsibility? Here is
a rich discussion that gets at some of the most basic questions about the
purpose of school and the role of the teacher in setting high expectations.
(We've included only the conversation -- not the names of the conversants.)
"I was giving my students permission to fail . . ."
Until this year, I was always a "too bad it's a zero" teacher.
Whenever a child failed to complete an assignment when due, unless there
was a note from home then I recorded a zero in the book. Since homework
was only a small percentage of the total for the 6 weeks, this policy did
not destroy any grades but would bring down a grade a letter and a half
if the student did NO homework at all.
Then, this summer, I had a revelation. It occured to me that when I gave
"F's" and zeros, I was giving my students permission to fail as
well as permission to not turn in work. When our team met, I made a "radical"
request. I asked that we abolish "d's" and "F's" entirely
and go to an A/B/C/I system.
Whenever a student turns in work that does not meet the criteria for a passing
grade then the assignment is returned to the student and they re-do it.
Three of the four teachers on the team use rubrics so the students DO have
the criteria in advance. The problem was how to handle the homework. Since
I only give homewo rk a couple of days a week and its purpose is to extend
the day's assignment, I didn't want homework dragging well into later weeks.
So I began an "oops" policy and included it in a contract. Now,
if a student doesn't have their homework, they simply say "oops"
and I put an "o" in the gradebook. No hassle... They get up to
3 oops in the grading period... one for an "A", two for a "B"
and so forth.
What I had to decide for myself was what lesson I wanted the students to
learn.
Was it "you didn't do your homework so you'll pay with a zero"
or was it "I want you to be successful so I refuse to allow you to
fail. Therefore, you'll have the chance to do it until you get it right."
???? I chose the later.
In the real world, we do have to adhere to deadlines, but most of us find
more time if we need it.
I'm working really hard this year to make sure that ALL of my students will
be successful. This first grading period, I had 10 I's... About half of
them have done what they needed to do to reach a satisfactory level... For
me, this is a much better measure of success than giving 10 f's. Just my
two cents worth for what it is worth.
High standards support the learning process
A teacher wrote: "Was it 'you didn't do your homework so you'll pay
with a zero' or was it 'I want you to be successful so I refuse to allow
you to fail. Therefore, you'll have the chance to do it until you get it
right'? I chose the latter."
You need to know, if you don't already, that this is a highly controversial
stance. I argue that we want our students to LEARN to be responsible, and
that when we take this position that disallows them to easy way out of taking
the zero, we are supporting the LEARNING process. Others argue that they
expect their students to BE responsible and to learn the consequences of
their actions.
Unfortunately, consequences like zeros and Fs are only effective when they
are meaningful to the students and their parents. That they are meaningful
to us is pretty much irrelevant here.
Nevertheless, don't be surprised to find that many will think you are being
too soft and failing to prepare the students for "the real world."
Deadlines are deadlines
What if the "expectation" was "the work was due LAST WEEK"???
(How many tries does the IRS give me on my taxes? April 15th is April 15th...
period!)
Deadlines are relative
Since you mention the IRS don't forget that for the price of a 32 cent stamp
you can ask and automatically receive a 90 day extension on filing your
tax returns. Also for the cost of writing a brief letter of explanation
a much longer extension is usually granted.
There are very few real deadlines in any job, construction routinely runs
over time and budget as do accounting reports etc...... The real criteria
applied to jobs in the real world is more likely to be the quality of the
end product and not an artificial deadline. So let the students revise their
work to accomplish "quality results" in which they can be proud.
Adolescents are *becoming* responsible
A teacher wrote in defense of holding to standards which include absolute
deadlines for completion of work and consequences for failing to meet those
deadlines. In his answer, he gave this example: "How many tries does
the IRS give me on my taxes? April 15th is April 15th...period!"
I'll give a two part response. (a) You are not an early adolescent learner,
for whom learning to BECOME responsible is not the same thing as BEING responsible;
I hold you, as an adult, to a higher set of standards. (b) Even the IRS
gives "Incompletes"; one may file for an extension.
"Incompletes" worked for me
Zeros for undone work is perennially a problem. I tried to design classes
where missing work didn't result in an immediate failure but in an incomplete.
Of course by school policy I couldn't just keep giving incompletes, the
kid did fail if the work didn't get done within the marking period, but
it gave me some room to work in. I hated it when a student got the message
that the only difference between an F and a B was a few missing assignments.
The work was out of sequence and meaningless and we both feel like we jumped
through hoops.
The incomplete system worked for me because my seventh graders were fiends
for knowing their grades when their friends did (say, at 2 week intervals
thanks to computerized grade books), so having an incomplete was annoying
to them. Another crucial component is midterm reports, if I didn't keep
on top of these, then I had to resort to the F system.
We tried weekly assessments to parents
Our 8th grade team also tried the incompletes. We sent weekly assessments
home for the parents to see the missing assignments. As usual the parents
who show concern make sure the work gets in, but with the other students
it is always the same story. Finally at semester break, our principal asked
us to revise the system, because it just was not working.
I still feel if we had hung in there for a year to send messages to the
subsequent grades, we could have made a difference. I am not convinced that
it won't work. There is a tremendous amount of work involved for the teachers
to keep up with all the paperwork, but in the end I still think we will
have sent out a message, that work has to be completed, be it at a job or
in school.
We also had a late penalty for incompletes. The highest grade they could
make on any assignment was a 75 and that had to be quality work, not just
a rush, rush job. It is tragic that more and more children in our society
do not see the value in a good day's work, but someone has to keep trying
to get that message out. Now we are back to the traditional 0's if work
is not turned in. I have used this for years, but I just wanted to try a
new system and see if I could get a lower failure rate for the year. I WILL
not give grades, but I will give opportunities for anyone.
What about all that extra grading?
Requiring students to meet a specific standard is an admirable goal, BUT
. . .How do you find the time to do all the extra grading?
I am retired now, but while I was teaching, I normally had 170-180 students
in six classes. The classes were ability-grouped for 7th-grade math (my
subject), and with three math teachers I had the bottom third, aptitude-wise.
I was hard-put to get the assignments graded once - forget grading them
n times.
"Just turn in quality work" won't cut it in the real world
I also wonder if we are *really* doing students a favor when they learn
that they do not have to follow criteria. Of course, there are exceptions
and those should certainly be considered, but many students start their
projects the night before, and to say, "oh, that's okay, just turn
in quality work," will not cut it in the real world. I disagree, I
believe there are *real* deadlines. I'm required to meet them every day,
every week, etc. Is this a question of teaching "quality" or teaching
"character."
Responsibility is part of the lesson
There are a lot of deadlines in the world. Granted you can get an extension
on your income tax -- but a penalty goes with it! Yes, deadlines do run
over but that is usually accepted at the higher administrative levels and
not the lower employment levels. There is a lot of competition out there
at all employment levels!
Further, if the principal of your school needs a report from you about your
classroom needs by a certain date and you turn that "needs" report
in after the budget has already been turned into the board -- will you be
told:
"Well, you have quality results here!"
What if the assignment is critical to the next day's lesson in class? Do
you teach something else because your students told you they didn't have
time to complete the assignment as well as they would like to?
Incompletes not for "piddly" assignments
I don't mess with Incompletes on piddly little daily assignments, only on
major projects (which constituted most of what we did in my classes in the
middle school.) A consistent failure to do daily assignments and homework
needs to be dealt with in a different way, which includes things like parental
involvement and/or administrative interventions such as ISS.
What about linear material and concept-building?
What if they do not choose to do "quality results", because they
do not care. In many classes, especially science and math, material is linear
and a concept has to be developed to go on. At what point do you say we
all do not have to wait and be bored for a student who will not try, and
go on. I can not have 150 students all at different levels and different
topics.
Also there are many jobs that do have specific deadlines. If you have an
order to meet and it is not filled, they will go elsewhere and not deal
with your company again. If you are in construction, especially in the last
few years, you will pay contract defined fines for not finishing on schedule.
Let's remember to purpose of homework
My understanding of homework is as follows:
1. It is an extension of the day's lesson to help the student and the teacher
assess learning.
2. It is sometimes used with the next day's lesson for clarification and
re-teaching.
3. It instills in the student their responsibility for learning.
You may or may not agree with these. At the very least, though, it does
assess whether or not the student learned the lesson taught. I often give
math as homework. The next day, we go over the papers as a class and students
share problems and successes. Those who need it are given the opportunity
to work in smaller groups to understand the material while the students
who understand the material act as peer tutors. If everyone in the class
did not do the assignment, this assessment technique breaks down, and so
for that matter, does the following day's lesson.
How does one handle that? 1) throw out the lesson, 2) discover at test time
that the students misunderstood the information, or worse 3) give free time
to the students completing the assignment so the rest of the students can
get it done during instructional time (NOT a good idea).
A principal who wouldn't accept "no" for an answer
I have to agree that letting students not hand in homework accomplishes
nothing. Science homework accounts for only 10% of their grade. So many
students would opt to do nothing. In fact several years ago when I was subbing
for a teacher an extremely smart student told me that "You've noticed
that I don't do homework. I'm very happy with my B so why bother."
I have made over 30 calls to parents letting them know that their child
has not handed in their notebook. Some parents have needed two calls before
I got the notebook. I know this requires a great deal of work, but fortunately
I have a principal this year who will back me up. As long as I do this,
and then take it to the next level -- detention to do the work -- she will
take over if the homework continues to not come in. She has told us that
homework is a home responsibility and that she will have the parents come
in after school if necessary to get them to finish their work.
Last year about 30 students were going to fail in her school because of
assignments not being handed in. She asked for every assignment that each
student owed. She then sat with the students for three weeks after school.
The first week they stayed until 7:00, the second until 6:30 and the third
week until 6:00. Only one student was sent to summer school and that student
was not one of the after-school group. It was up to the discretion of the
teacher as to how much credit was given for the work.
Let the students (and parents) own the problem
Seems to me, we don't have the luxury to take a "sink or swim"
attitude until and unless we have done everything in our power to help our
students achieve success. They will come up with a thousand and one "reasons"
why they were unable to complete a project on time, reasons for which they
are very likely to be supported by their parents.
I always try to be very sympathtic and accepting of their tales of woe,
whether I believe them or not. But then I turn it back to them and say,
"OK, now, what are you going to do to take care of the problem?"
I force the issue with both the student and parent, and I force them to
come up with a solution. By giving them the opportunity to rectify the problem,
I am taking away the excuses and the opportunity to shrug and accept an
F and say "it's not my fault I got an F; it was because that mean old
teacher wouldn't believe my very special excuse."
There are differences among the concepts of blame, punishment, and accepting
responsibility. I truly believe it is not a good idea to allow them to get
by with not doing something, as opposed to allowing them to turn it late,
with an appropropriate grade penalty (eg. 1/2 credit). The attitude I try
to convey is: "You are responsible for completing this project at a
satisfactory level of performance. I am not happy you didn't get it done
on time, but you WILL do it. Now, let's figure out together what you need
to do and what you will do to see to it that it is done."
Do remember, we are talking about early adolescents here. I would not--do
not--apply the same set of standards with older students. Again, one of
the tasks of early adolescence is to learn to become responsible. This is
not the same as our expecting that they will come to us with that skill
in place already.
Cruel? Mean? Realistic.
A teacher wrote that we should let the students revise their work to accomplish
"quality results" in which they can be proud. Can't that all be
done BEFORE the deadline for submission approaches? Aren't we all doing
some sorts of formative evaluations as the kids are working towards completion
of their projects? Or are we only doing summative evaluations after they're
all done (or, in the case of this thread, not done at all)??
Why are you implying that we will get these "quality results"
if we allow the kids to hand in work AFTER the (supposed) deadline?? When
MY students are working on projects, I'm constantly checking up on them
asking for "progress reports." I ask to see their "works
in progress" while they're STILL "in progress"! If I sense
that a kid is going to have trouble completing the assignment by the due
date, I've still got plenty of time (and ideas) to help him along to meet
the deadline... that is, if he CHOOSES to accept my help and listen to my
advice.
But if, after all that, the work's STILL not done on time... hey, I did
all I could do! "Game over, man"... it's a ZERO! Cruel? Mean?
NOT! I think it's "realistic"!
But what about daily homework?
[The above comments are] fine for the long term projects, but the problem
that we started with is short-term overnight homework. In my district, the
homework is mandatory from the board level. I do not load them down, it
is usually two problems, but I require that they explain how they solved
those problems. I am not making them do pages of work, but still some can
not get it together to get the work done. My biggest advantage is that the
parents had to apply to go to our school so they are interested and involved,
if they have a phone so that they can be contacted. At some point there
has to be a responsibility at the student level and this is it.
High expectations can turn students around
I am teaching this year at a school for students who have been retained
one or more years. Our purpose is to get these kids back to their correct
grade by doing "two for the price of one". (In other words, we
go to school 11 months instead of 10 and we cover two years of work.)
Students had to apply to come here, so they have at least some motivation,
but we found that many were very used to accepting F's and 0's as a way
of life. Now that they have discovered that the assignment won't just "go
away", they have begun doing the work and -- guess what -- most have
begun doing it ON TIME!
Now, to get even MORE revolutionary, our team has a policy that if a student
doesn't like a grade he gets on something, he may redo the work and turn
it back in for a better grade! We look at this as learning -- and yes, it's
more work for us. How rewarding it is, though, to have a student bring an
F paper to me and say "I didn't understand this. Will you expain it
to me?" and then later turn it back in corrected.
"Most failures are people who didn't realize how close they were to
success when they quit." --Thomas Edison
What about the issue of fairness to other students?
This conversational thread, in all of its ramifications, has overlooked
one issue, the issue of fairness. Assuming the assignment was reasonable
as to time, duration, instruction, appropriate checkpoints, etc., there
is still the fact that those students who do the work, hand it in on time,
and receive their credit, are essentially being told that the rules, guidelines
and procedures they adhered to were not to be applied universally. If a
segment of the class is to be allowed more time, another chance, whatever,
the message is that the directions were essentially meaningless to start
with.
The result of this type of approach is visible in every classroom in my
school -- there are those who occupy every class, moving along with their
peers, even though their level of participation is nil. The resentment is
immense -- kids seldom get to do anything about it and with a philosophy
as prevalent as the one we currently use in classrooms, it is a miracle
that ANY students stick it out for twelve years.
ASK those other kids in your classroom what they think of these flexible
rules -- especially the ones regarding promotion to the next grade.
Isn't making them get it right the fairest thing of all?
You certainly are right! Fairness is important! If the students were told
"Anyone who misses the dead line will suffer a consequence", and
then some were given more time, that wouldn't be fair! However, we approach
"deadlines" more as pacing guidelines for the student's benefit.
Kids who get everything done as it is given are all caught up. Those who
let it slide find themselves "snowed under", but they still have
to get it done.
Similarly, those who do it right the first time have less work than those
who have to do it over to improve their grade. Ultimately, though, the hope
is that all the students will do the work and do a good job, thereby LEARNING
the material. Do you really think this is "unfair" to those fortunate
students who "get it" the first time they do it? They will all
learn what they need to learn and no one will be "passed on" to
the next grade just for "showing up". The fact that it takes some
students longer than others is a pretty minor problem in the overall scheme
of things. Are we trying to punish or teach?
Those who don't "get it" and those who don't "do
it"
My issue here is not with those who do not "get it", but with
those who do not "do it" or at least "try it." These
students do not even know what they do not understand so that they can ask
questions, because they were too lazy or "busy" to do the assignments.
If they do not try, then they can not learn and they have wasted your time
as well as everyone else in the room's time. This is theft of the most heinous
type.
Document the excuse!
After reading the dozens of responses (yes, even those marked "last
word") I am calling for a grade level meeting during lunch tomorrow
to discuss many of those strategies.
One strategy I use, however, has not been mentioned. I keep pre-printed
half sheets of paper...a BIG stack, this year. At the top I ask for the
name, date and exact assignment not done. Then the student writes (and MUST
fill up) 3/4 of the sheet with a detailed excuse. The other 1/4 is a plan
of what he/she is going to do about it. When the assignment comes in (if)
I date-stamp the excuse. Sharing these with parents at conference time can
be a real eye-opener. Parents can get quite angry at being blamed IN WRITING
for homework not turned in. Another heartrending excuse about taking the
dog to the vet after an accident really surprised one parent -- they do
not and never did have a dog or any other pet. I have not used these slips
for several years (second grade) but have instituted them again this year.
"Responsiveness" as important as "responsibility"
It appears [from this discussion] that the mindset of many schools is that
they are places in which teaching is something done to students and if they
would only get with the program we'd be able to do such a good job.
As a result you have kids trying to "outsmart" you by creating
excuses for late assignments etc. I would like to suggest an alternative.
There are two ways to win any game. The first is to be the best... strongest
, quickest...smartest or whatever; the second is to redesign the game so
that the results are what you want and leave the methods up to the players.
It would be interesting to learn what the experiences of schools that have
implemented "problem based learning" and "project based learning"
have been. In my limited experience the results are dramatic. Attendance
goes up, the breadth and depth of the work improves (subjectively and objectively)
and many discipline problems disappear. I do not pretend to draw general
conclusions from my own expereince but wonder if there are reports of similar
improvements.
I've been thinking for the past several days that the discussion of late
assignments was wide of the mark and we were chasing a red herring when
we talk about "responsibility" and never mentioned "responsiveness".
Why should we be responsive when they aren't?
Responsive to what? To the whims of students who have no intrinsic interest
in learning about the subject you are supposed to be teaching them? To the
parents, who want "little darling" to be able to play football
or basketball, regardless of whether he/she does any work? To the laws of
the state, which mandate that certain topics be taught in a given course?
To . . . . .?
Regarding late assignments, I mentioned in an earlier post that accepting
assignments late to a large degree defeats the purpose of the assignment
(to practice one day's concept/skill in preparation for building upon it
for the next day's concept/skill.) With 170-180 students, it is a challenge
to keep the papers graded on a daily basis, in addition to lesson preparation
and such administrivia as filling out reports on students who are special
ed, etc.
Isn't a half-credit really an F?
Question from a teacher: Doesn't 1/2 credit work out to be an 'F'. Some
credit is better than no credit, but it is the same letter grade no matter
what the % isn't it?
Answer from another teacher: Glad you asked. This is going to sound like
a copout, but I tell the students and the parents they're getting half credit
for late work. It's a very concrete, easy-to-understand statement.
Having said that, now I'm going to sound like Humpty Dumpty when he tells
Alice in the book Through the Looking Glass that words mean precisely what
he chooses them to mean at any given point in time. Here's the deal:
For a student who is able to absorb the penalty, I figure in half credit
when I determine the grade for the report card. Typically, this is a situation
where I have strong parental support and the late assignment is the result
of a temporary early adolescent slip-up. We swallow our medicine and learn
our lesson, and I make it a point to keep the parent informed of upcoming
projects for the rest of the year--knowing that I will have their support.
For a student with whom this is a more difficult and chronic problem but
who--with all the coaxing, cajoling, and nagging I do--does manage to get
her/his act together, I sort of fudge in determining the final report card
grade and look very carefully at the amount of progress we've made.
It may not be a perfect system, but I try to tailor it to the particular
situation.
Zero tolerance . . . and a loophole
Previous years I allowed makeup work on homework, set the ultimate turn
in deadline the Friday before six weeks tests, and spent the next weekend
grading. It was the pits.
Several teachers that had the same students in other classes had zero tolerance
and had as good or better results in getting homework in. I switched this
year. Homework is due at the start of the next period or it is a zero. I
actually have a bigger percent of the students doing the work than I did
before and the students are better prepared for the next class.
Loophole! I created homework tickets. These can be earned by such things
as bringing back your progress report the next class period, bringing mom
and dad to open house (not normally well attended at my school), and 30
minutes of tutoring time. The math teachers team up to do tutoring so it
all doesn't fall on one person. My choice happened to be lunch time so that
I could become a chauffer for my personal children after school. Even at
lunch I will have 2 to 15 students in for tutoring--especially just before
tests. We have a sign in sheet and let the various teachers know when one
of their students come in.
These homework tickets aren't free grades. They are stapled to the front
of the missing paper when it is turned in. This allows me to accept it after
the due date.
I do see a difference (as always) in the level of the student. The students
that are at level take more interest in their grade and getting the work
in. The students that are behind level are less likely to get the work in.
Tons of reasons and tons of promises. And by not doing the current work
they become farther behind.
The tickets are working so far (8 weeks into the program.) It also allows
me to not have to be judge on truly good reasons they couldn't get the work
done.
The answer is somewhere "in the middle"
I think the answer is somewhere in the middle (?! :-). Kids should learn
about deadlines; they should also take enough time to do a good job. In
the "real world" there are as many ways of treating this issue
as can be thought up. Some get a bonus for producing "on time"
while others are ignored even when they are early or late. We need to set
a standard that we are comfortable with. Humans (including kids) are nothing
if not adaptable. With the right incentives they will conform to almost
anything.
Thanks for the time and energy
I have read this thread with great interest because the postings have strongly
addressed a top concern of mine and of all the dedicated educators that
I know. Thanks for all for the time and energy you have invested in helping
us learn together how to help our students learn.
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