I swear I'm hearing this about 5 times a day from different kids over stuff not getting done. Kids will start a project... and then drift over to the extra stuff for those who had finished early. The constant excuse is "I forgot I was supposed to finish that/do that first". I write assignments and all of that on the board where kids know where to look. This is fairly recent*. Is this just a case of end-of-the-year wiggles? What's the best thing to do about this? *(One student has had a milder case of "I forgot" all year and for the past two weeks has done next to nothing. Talked to his mom... she says I just need to beg and bribe him as that's what they do at home)
Sounds like you need a fun "pop quiz" on how to read and follow directions properly. I've given this one before and I asked for students to give me silent eye contact when they finished. It took most of my energy to keep from laughing when those surprised eyes met mine, and the rest went out the window when they started to yell out things from the paper.
I believe it is. Just for the mere fact that it's happening with me and my colleagues as well. What I did is,increase group works & introduce more physical activities in the lesson and allow them to (act / present /...) more.. It some how increases their focusing and attention on the assigned tasks.
catnfiddle, I've made my copies of this quiz! I think I'll also start Monday with a nice refresher course on behavior and expectations as well as get some more project and group work. Thanks for the tips! The kiddos are at lunch right now, and we had no less than six kids who "forgot" about their post-recess DLR packets. She was so fed up she declared those six would be on cafeteria duty with her today. The six were my repeat offenders, so I'm hoping that will help too.
This this this. I used it at the beginning of this year...and want to use it next year, but I think we will do a bunch of practice of how to follow directions, and then that way I can use this more as an fun assessment piece of that and less of a "oh, this is why you should follow directions", as I don't think it ended up making a big difference
I actually gave it as an April Fools joke when I was student teaching, but the students got the point.
The quiz, by and large, was a hit (my drama queen was upset over it, but... she's the drama queen). I had a grand total of four second graders who within a minute were quietly doodling on the back of the paper with sneaky grins on their face while the rest of the class made fools of themselves. It made for a good laugh and many flat-out said they should have paid more attention.
This week has been so crazy busy and I have been trying to not get stressed out, so I decided to use this exact quiz for the end of the day. I seriously was CRYING with laughter as kids started shouting "I'M NUMBER ON!"
I get it a lot early on in the year. By now, my kids know what my response will be, and all I have to do is raise an eyebrow and they start saying it themselves. "Unless I was bleeding, throwing up, riding a dinosaur, fighting zombies or kidnapped by aliens, I don't have an excuse and will stay in from recess to finish it."
