I am always bogged down by late work that students hand in. I'm at the end of my first year and I can't settle on a policy that I like and works for me. Here are some policies other people have; please comment on which ones work the best for you: 1. No late work at all except if absent 2. A certain number of allowed missed assignments/semester 3. Late work accepted but no matter how many days late it can only receive up to 50% 4. No late work accepted after a unit ends. So if you move from unit 1 to unit 2 you no longer accept work from unit 1 5. Some other variant of the above?
I'm in an intermediate school and we are required to take late work up until the week before the grading period ends. We also are not allowed to take off more then 25% of the grade, so a student still earns a C for work done well. Our middle school takes late work only during the unit. Once the unit is passed, no late work accepted. However, teachers may take up to 50% off for the work turned in late.
I will explain my teachers' late work policy: Hour 1: This teacher does NOT have any late work policies. Meaning that anything that is not done will be a straight-up zero until it is turned in. Hour 2: If you do not have your work done, you get a big zero. But if you turn it in, she changes it. Hour 3: Study Hall; N/A Hour 4: Just like hours 1 and 2, if you do not turn in any work assigned by the teacher. It becomes a 0 until it's turned in. Hour 5: LUNCH. N/A Hour 6: This teacher is really nice about her late-work policy. If you do not have your work turned in, you'll still get a 0 but it will change once you turn it in. She likes to help students with her work after-school and during our lunch hour. Hour 7: I don't exactly know her late policy. But she does not yell at you anytime the work is not done. Hour 8: This teacher does not have a late-work policy but allows me to turn in any missing work assignments.
Our principal's philosophy is whatever it takes, so we are expected to take late work regardless of how late it is turned in. We've played with other policies, but we can't seem to find one that works for all of us. I am not a big fan of this current policy. Too often one or two kids will wait and turn everything in for the entire nine weeks (a term for us) during the day or two before the final. It creates a huge burden for the teacher.
It really depends on the situation. If it is a student who consistantly turns in work on time and had an unexpected situation arise, I will give extra time. I tell students to come talk to me about it before class begins, not when it is time to hand the papers in. If it is a student who rarely has their work, and we have discussed the problem with parents, and it is more a case of laziness, then I accept it late with a 10 point penalty per day. I contact parents through phone or email and let them know. I usually only give 3-4 days max. I had a student who never completed homework and was constantly in trouble. After about 3 months, I finally found it that it was because as soon as he got home, he had to go help dad at dad's job and wasn't getting home till very late each night. His real life homework was helping support the family. I felt like such a terrible teacher. It really made me analyze the amount and type of homework I was giving. I give lots of homework passes and try to encourage students to use them when they need them, not just because they have one. It really made a difference.
When I become a Math Teacher, I won't accept late work unless absent. However if the Administration says I have too then I will.
My kids are allowed to miss, then make up for full credit, up to 3 homeworks per marking period. Sometimes life gets in the way of daily schoolwork. And I would MUCH rather they make up their homework honestly than copy it off someone on the bus or in homeroom.
I really like that idea Alice. What about students who use all of their passes? The past couple of years, I have accepted late work, but the student loses one letter grade, until the following Tuesday. After that, late work is accepted and graded but only earns 50%. The reason for the Tuesday rule is because on Monday I send home a folder of last week's work with late and missing assignments noted. Students are expected to note missing assignments and complete the work by the following day.
At that point the assignment is gone forever. (Barring absence. As a math teacher, I honestly can't expect my kids to teach themselve the material they've missed.)
As a parent I absolutely abhor this policy. My child struggled all throughout and I attribute a lot of his work ethic in school to this. Then we moved to a school district that has a different policy and he couldn't survive. In my experience, this pollicy doesn't do students any favors.
Our state is moving toward a philosophy of education that now requires I accept any late work for full credit...it could have been assigned in August, but I must accept it in June. Additionally, if a student didn't pass a test in August I must be willing to reteach and provide a make-up test in June. Yeah...that's all I'll say about that.
It doesn't work well for the teachers either, but as of now that's what we do. My daughter's school is just as bad on the other end though. If it's late, it's a zero. Period. No exceptions. My daughter had one teacher who gave her a zero on an assignment because she came in tardy! I'm all for high standards, but to me that's ridiculous. The moment my daughter came in (about 30 seconds late) she handed in her homework, and the teacher said, "Sorry. It's late just like you. Zero."
I so wish I could undo the effects that policy had on my child but alas it is what it is. The other extreme doesn't seem reflective of the real world either.
This was my first year and I had a tolerable policy, but totally didn't follow through with it. In my syllabus, it said: 1 day late = 15 points off 2 days late = 30 points off No late work accepted after Day 3. Instead, I usually ended up accepting late work through the end of that unit (which is how I voted) with a 15-30 pt penalty, depending on how late I knew it was. I would really like to follow through better next year - I will have more students and it's a pain in the rear to keep up with all the missing work.
No late homework at all. While that sounds extreme, the way my homework grade was structured and weighted, a student could miss 2-5 assignments without it having an effect on their letter grade. Homework was only worth 10% of the final grade, and the grade was determined by dividing the number of assignments turned in by the number assigned. Since I gave homework every single night, that turns out to be a lot of assignments. Long term assignments were different. While I still didn't accept late work, I was very generous with extensions, providing the student talked to me in advance and made the arrangements. If the student was on top of his schedule, he could see at least a couple days in advance that he had three tests, an English paper and my project all on the same day. I was more than happy to cut that student some slack when life piled up like that.
If I had to pick an extreme, as a parent I prefer the no late policy over turning it in any time. This is strictly my personal experience with my own children. I have yet to teach a letter grade so I can't speak from professional experience. Ideally though, I think I would have some sort of leeway because life does get in the way and real life works much the same way. I would err though in more accountability rather than less.
Bandnerd, I had no problems with the teachers in my son's situation because I understood it was a district decision. And I also acknowledge that there are probably reasons why districts make these kinds of decisions and who knows, maybe it actually helps some students, though I would be hard-pressed to believe that's the case for the majority. I'm just giving my perspective as a parent who is currently dealing with the aftermath.
I will take work only on the day it is due if there are no absences involved. For regular homework if it is not done by the time I ask for it in the morning, it is assigned for detention that afternoon. It must be in my mailbox that afternoon, not the next morning. For bigger projects I will take them a day late, but it is a full grade deduction from what the grade would have been. If a student is absent, they have two days for every day they were absent to get all work in. After that it will not be accepted.
For our grading policy, our district follows the philosophy How to Grade for Learning. - We never take off points for late assignments, but there are alternative consequences if work is not turned in promptly. (Like a phone call home or missed recess.) - We also never take grades on homework, as there's no way we can account whether the child actually did the work (instead of a sibling or parent). - We allow students to redo assignments or take alternative exams if they did not show mastery the first time. As long as a child can show mastery of a particular concept before we have to post grades at the end of a quarter, we will replace the old grade with the higher score.
While I was subbing at a middle school I noticed that the school wide policy was 1 day late 50% off. I'm not sure what it was after that. I have seen schools that take % back off per day and when it is down to 0 the student still had to turn it in even though they wouldn't get any credit.
My DEPARTMENT'S policy is to accept it - 10% off each day up to 50%. My personal belief is that a student's grade should solely be a reflection of their performance and achievement in the curriculum and while some other punishment could be given, such as a detention for turning in too many assignments late - the grade should not be affected. But I follow the school's policy because I have to and its not fair if everyone else follows it and I don't. But I do not notice any difference in the number of papers turned in late. It actually creates MORE of a problem for me because I have to keep track of who turned in what and when and who was absent and gets to turn it in late and who just turned it in late, etc. ETA - I put all late work in a separate bin. It gets graded twice a MP - once for progress reports and once at report cards. If it is late it goes into the book as a zero and the zero stands until one of those grading times. That way, it is only a hassle to me to pull out keys, rubrics, etc. twice a MP. Their final grade ultimately is not affected by their irresponsibility. But I tell them - if the 0 means you are ineligible for a sport or you parents aren't going to let you do something - too bad.
As a school rule we are not allowed to let the students turn it in, unless the reason is excused (used by my best judgement). It will be a zero and they still have to do the assignment. I am not sure if it works any better than other policies.
Alice, how do you keep track logistically of your system? I'm trying to imagine looking in my gradebook and saying, "okay, this is the second one you've missed." Do you just put in the zero and check later when they turn it in? Also, by three per marking term do you mean quarters, semesters? I think you mentioned you run on trimesters in other posts. Would you suggest 2/quarter for those of us who have four quarters?
I use Alice's system as well. I give 3 passes a semester and they can be used to turn work in late (daily homework can be turned in late by the end of the time, major assignments have a 2-day extension per pass. They can also use the pass to push back a test/quiz and take it after school within two days. Unused passes are worth 10 extra credit points each to to total points.
I walk from desk to desk checking the homework as the kids are doing the Do Now problems. I run a highlighter through each assignment; the kids can still see it to go over it, but that way a friend doesn't show me the same notebook later in the day. I have a separate gradebook for homework, though it would work just as well to have a separate page, per marking period, in your regular grade book. If a kid has the homework, I write nothing. (I do date each column, so I know how many homeworks I've checked.) If it's missing, I put a dash for the kid. As he makes it up, the dash gets circled. You don't get more than three circles. And we have trimesters, with progress grades in the middle.For me it's 3 per trimester. And, honestly, the number doesn't matter; 3 just seems reasonable to me. I've had GREAT kids use all 3 sometimes-- sometimes sports practice runs late on the day before a history test, for example, and they choose to use one of their makeup days so they can study. I have no problem with that. Or it's grandma's birthday, and they have to go to Brooklyn for cake. Or the dog dies. Or their boyfriend breaks up with them and they're simply too upset. Or they're fighting a cold and go to sleep as soon as they get home. The real slugs tend to miss way more than 3 and their grades ARE effected. Our trimesters run Labor Day to Christmas, Christmas to Easter (whenever it is) and Easter to June. So first trimester I checked something like 45 homeworks; this year third trimester I checked something like 15. I also have a 20 minute rule for homework: once you've spent 20 minutes seriously doing your homework, you're done. If you're the only kid who didn't finish, you need to be seeing me for extra help. If it was the whole class, then either the assignment was too long or I didn't explain it well enough. I like my system, because I think it acknowledges that they do have a life outside my classroom. And it's a huge hit with parents, who know what it's like having a child up until midnight doing homework, simply because life got on the way. The parents start the year on my side, and that goes a long way.
Alice and Brendan, I think I will try a mixture of how you both use them. Brendan, do you give them tangible passes at the beginning of every semester? If they save them all up can they turn in six at the end of the year or must they be turned in by the end of that semester?
"Other" policy-- 1) Students should make up any work from when they are absent and we will work out a time frame for when work is handed in if the child has been absent for a few days or longer. (I work with younger students so I can not pressure them to get all their missing work done in just a day. I tell them hand in the work when you've finished it, but it shouldn't take longer than a week usually.) 2) Most HW assignments are 10 points-- for every day they miss handing the assignment in, I will take off 1 point. 3) Projects worth 50+ points lose around 5 pts a day that it is missing. 4) If they have science with me in the morning, they must stay in at recess and finish the HW (unless they were absent before that class). If they have science with me in the afternoon, they must either hand in the missing work that morning (before homeroom) or they will stay in at recess to complete it. (They still lose a point for not having it done)
Last year my small school had a policy where students could turn in late work for ten points off each day. Students across the board would make the decision to intentionally submit late work because they had parties to go to or the new episode of Glee was on that night. They shrugged off the ten points over and over. We spoke to the principal about the trend and all agreed that the late work policy would stop. Students would get zeros if work was not submitted on the due date. Immediately students switched gears and started gettingthings in on time. The students that did not were the ones who had written off any work to start. They got zeros on assignments at the start of the year too - it just took more time for me to write that zero down. And a lot more work on my end. I always built in an extra due date to combat the inevitable issues with printers and laptops. So students would be told the papre is due on Tuesday but I will give you until Wednesday to submit. Of course some students waited until Tuesday night to start the work but if they did and THEN had computer issues they were out of luck.
Before I state my policy, I'll say that there is tremendous pressure on me to pass my students. However, given the student population I have, I don't feel like I can be any more strict with my policy and manage to pass students. For all projects/assignments - 5 points extra credit if handed in at least one day early 5 points deducted each day the project is late (up to 25 points off) Work is accepted at any time during the remainder of the marking period with a 25 point deduction.
Ha! Mine is similar, even for the younger kids. I go around and stamp it at the beginning of class, and keep track of who did not do it on a special homework page. If there are 3 or more circles in a grading period, their work habits grade goes down. I don't take grades on homework, because in elementary school their parents or older siblings often help them, which I support (as long as others don't DO it for the student). To me, it's not fair to the kids who don't have someone at home to help to take a grade. I don't accept late work because we check right then and there as a warmup. I like for students to have that instant feedback for themselves. If students are absent, they do it with us as we check. If they are not doing their homework regularly, then I contact parents.
I like your way of handling late work. I too have a late/missing bin, but I try to empty it every day and date stamp the items. If students' assignments are late due to absence, they are to write ABSENT across the top of the paper, or I mark it as a late assignment.
I hand out two HW passes for each 6 wk. marking period on average. They are not accepted on certain assignments such as long-term HW or projects. All missing assignments go into my gradebook as zero. If they are handed in late, and are done reasonably well, they earn 60%. Projects lose a grade level each day they are late. If a child is absent, any assignments that were made prior to the absence, are due the day they return. I do give a little leeway. If a student turns in the HW by 3:00, I generally accept it at full value. As long as it isn't a habit, I accept parent letters if the student doesn't get work done. But there are limits. This year I had a student turn in a project 4 days late with a parent note. When I called home, the parent was not aware that the child had 4 weeks to complete the project. She agreed that I should not accept the note as an excuse.
I like the 20 minute rule - but what do you do with students who are on a lower level and always take longer? Do you tell them to just do the odds etc.
I should add that I also allow re-takes on major tests allowing 1/2 credit for each corrected answer. In the real working world, we often can make corrections, we can use notes,etc. I don't see why we can't do the same in many cases in school.
They have to be turned in by the end of the term and yes they are tangible passes. It puts the responsibility on them instead of me.
Well, for starters, I'm in a Catholic school. Our kids are homogeneously grouped, so it's rare that I have a kid on a noticeably much lower level than his classmates. But that sounds like a fair solution to me. Either that or don't modify the assignment at all, but to accept from the outset that his 20 minutes won't match that of the other kids. And of course, if he is that far behind his classmates, then I would expect to see him at extra help fairly regularly anyway.
I also had a 20 minute rule and had a pretty wide skill level. At the end of 20 minutes, my students could write a note explaining what part of the topic they didn't understand. I never had students abuse that rule, and the notes I got back gave me a lot of insight into what I needed to reteach (if it was most of the class) or where to start with extra help.
Well, 1. I am not allowed to give a student less than a 60- so my kids get a 60 whether they turn it in or not. 2. If a student turns something in late- they get an 80- unless they were absent. They have one day for every day they were out to turn their work in.
I just love (puke) how schools require that students who fail to submit an assignment earn a sixty percent. I'm glad that many schools are realizing the need to completely rework the entire grading system. The one-hundred point scale is flawed, and then we have schools creating policies to "correct" that flaw which are just as rotten because of the message it sends students. We need a brand new approach to assessment and grading. It's coming, slowly but surely.