Late Work and Other Obstacles

It is the final semester of my English Education degree! May 16^th I will graduate and have the qualifications to be an actual, real life Language Arts teacher! The past two and a half years have flown by! But before I get too excited, I have to finish this semester: student teaching. Yikes.

I began my student teaching on January 5^th – the first day of the semester at my placement school. I am teaching three classes of College Prep English, and assisting with two other classes. I designed the current College Prep unit alongside my cooperating teacher, and have been teaching or co-teaching almost every day. So far, it has been an absolute blast. My CT and I built a great relationship last semester, so now I feel completely at home, productive, and happy.

The unit that we are currently conducting is a “book group” unit, where each group is reading a different book. I have organized their work load into weekly work, including one graphic organizer per week and reading notes in their notebooks, long-term assignments chosen from a menu of options, and one collaborative project which will serve as the final assessment for the unit. Fridays are group discussion days, with every other day building up to the discussion. So far, the unit has the potential to be very successful.

But of course, it isn’t perfect. My CT and I hit our first snag last Friday—the first group discussion day. Our plan seemed great: students will come to class with completed notes including questions, thoughts, personal connections, and observations regarding their books; students will have finalized their first graphic organizer with all sorts of insightful ideas to share with their groups; students will engage in discussion for the entire 50 minutes, which will seem like way too little time because of all the class time and home time they have spent preparing for this exact discussion. Oh my…I sure learned my lesson. Turns out, giving students 50 minutes to discuss literature from their own notes on a Friday is not realistic. As I walked around to listen to, and participate in, group discussions, I noticed that students were often talking about something unrelated to their book, or they were not talking at all. This was the first problem. Second problem: many of the graphic organizers were not finished. Students were hustling to complete their work to turn in at the end of class instead of participating in discussion. A few groups even spent discussion time copying the work of those students who were finished. Not a good start to the unit.

My CT and I had a long discussion on Friday. We came up with a game plan to address the problems. For example, we are planning to provide a “focus piece” to each group on Fridays to help guide their discussion, such as an article or poem that connects to the novels. We have also informed the students that they will be given a participation grade, and that points from this grade will be taken off any time they have their cell phones out or are not prepared for discussion.

 The final item that is still baffling my CT and I is late work. Many students simply did not complete their graphic organizers, and are turning them in as they finish them. Just today I was handed four late graphic organizers. We decided on a policy of 10% removed per day late, but is this really the best policy? Will this discourage students from completing their work if they are late? Isn’t it most important that students are doing the work and learning, no matter when the work occurs? This question has been bugging me for days.

 To get some insight about the late work issue, I read an article called “4 Tips to Address Late, Missing Homework.” The article can be found at http://www.teachhub.com/teacher-missing-homework-tips. According to the author, Stephanie Wrobleski, there is no “one size fits all” solution to this question, but Ms. Wrobleski does offer some helpful hints regarding how to handle late work.

One of Wrobleski’s suggestions is to “gather reinforcements” for the students who are consistently late. This could mean guidance counselors and other school staff, but it could also mean parents. Wrobleski reminds us that we cannot assume that parents know that their children are behind. I think this is especially true for the grade level I am teaching—seniors in high school. I wonder, though, what I should do if a parent doesn’t seem to care…or if the student is 18 and on their own. I have several students that have been living on their own since the beginning of this school year. In some of these cases, parents are out of the picture.

Another suggestion from the article is to “establish a plan” with the students on an individual basis. Put together a schedule of when they will turn in their assignments, and create individualized rewards and consequences. This seems great in theory, however, I have one student who has only come to class a handful of times this semester. I have planned make-up times with her about 5 times now, and she has never followed through. When is it time to pull the plug? How many chances are they given?

Wrobleski’s final suggestion is simply to “be realistic,” which is probably the most helpful suggestion of all. She reminds us that not every student will pass, even if we do our absolute best as teachers. I don’t like to think about this, because I believe that every student has the ability to succeed in my classroom, but she has a point. I think that, with this in mind, my late policy might still be my best option—10% per day. This way, students have the ability to make up work, but if they wait too long to do the work, it is out of my control. Now, I just have to stick with my plan and stay on top of my grading, and everything should work out for the best! (Here’s hoping…)

 Although we had a few obstacles last Friday, I think it was a good learning experience. It really forced me to re-examine my plans and adapt my lessons to help my students get the most out of the unit. I am feeling extremely optimistic about this unit, and this semester! I am ready to work!