Second chances - how many are too many?
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I read this over the break: How many chances do students deserve to make up work and bring up grades? and have had time to really think it through as I plan for this next semester.
I have one student doing his third attempt to get his grade to passing. He cheated on the first one, did a slap happy job on the second and is finally (when it is close to too late) actually doing what I wanted him to do in the first place - you know, on time so we don't have to do all this catch up work?
I have several others who let all of the opportunities slip through their fingers.
The district has taken away one of the tools I use to let them catch up - minimal work for me since it is a graded test on another site. Have to figure out what I can use instead.
Because, sure as God made little green apples I have kids who will put off until the last minute anything they can do to raise their grade.
In that link I put above there is a comment form a teacher: "As a teacher I always allowed students to submit missing homework—even months late and with no penalty!—provided they did twice as much as originally assigned."
That is twice as much work for me but it will probably be so worth it. I think I will start doing the planning for that now.
3 comments:
Have you heard of giving 50s instead of 0s? This is a new doctrine I've heard preached around schools these days.
They tried that and then they added "recovery" where any student with any grade could retake the test. The teachers said "pick one"and dropped the 50s and instituted 0s. We are still fighting the recovery culture - they use the tests to determine what they should study so they are constantly looking backwards.
3 strikes and you're out!
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