I am sorry to report that there are still several 7th grade English papers that are still unfinished. They were due weeks ago. My co-teacher and I have provided after school help a few times a week for a couple of weeks--and even went so far as saying that students who weren't done had to stay after until they were done.
The students who are low-level aren't necessarily low-motivation. Many of the low-level students in the class were adamant about getting help from us. They were worried about their work being late. They sought help. In short, they took responsibility by being in charge of getting help for themselves. We certainly assisted them, but they were the ones coming to the after school help sessions to get finished because they wanted to.
What do you do about students who are at medium skill level, but don't take charge of their work. In fact, when you remind them about their paper not being done, they look at you as if they didn't really realize it wasn't done. I am making one more effort to help these students. I am speaking to them individually about staying after school for the last help sessions tomorrow and Friday. But why aren't THEY coming up to US? I will make a point of asking them this. It almost seems like they think that if they don't mention it, it will just disappear!
Any other strategies??
I wish I had an answer to this....I am finding some difficulty with this right now too!
ReplyDeleteI have students have papers that are 3 weeks late and this is after I have offered time at school, talked to them individually, made them call home, given them deadlines to get full credit, have them come in during study hall or lunch, etc.
Part of the problem that I am running into is that I have some students who cant stay after school because they dont have any transportation to get home. So then I would love for them to come in during Study Hall, but they dont have a study hall.
I wish there was a solution to allowing students the chance to stay after school with it in mind that they would also still be able to get home.
I really agree with your last statement, Ann, that students think if they don't mention anything, the assignment will just go away! It seems like some students are very much in denial.
ReplyDeleteI have also used lunch time for students to work...it is not always ideal, but in the end it does motivate some students who would much rather be in the lunch room with there friends than in the classroom working.
Thanks for your ideas.
ReplyDeleteI have now stayed after school working on getting students done with these papers--so many times. It is just too much when these students need 1:1 and if you are trying to get them finished--you can't give them this if there is more than 1 students present! And there are only so many hours in the day.
There must come a time when we require students to have laptops--and we provide them?
One thing that I do to try and increase motivation for a larger assignment is that I will send an email home to all parents (I understand that many of our student's parents don't have email but there are many that do). I usually give a description of the assignment and always attach the directions/handout to the email. I usually try to do this a week or so before the due date. I have found that it provides one more person to try and help get the student to do the work and turn it in on time. I often have students say "oh yea my mom/dad made me work on that this weekend." Obviously, there are still kids that don't turn in the assignment...but it's something that might help some! :)
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