Late Work Policies that will Work
in your Classroom
Big decisions, policy changes, and pressure to appease are no stranger to those of us in education. We face them every year. In my last post I discussed the struggles with deciding whether or not to accept Late Work from students in the classroom. In case you missed it – head HERE to read it.
Having taught 6th graders for so long, I’ve become very familiar with developmental age of the 11 turning 12 year old. All of my opinions in this post are based on my experience with students of this age. Different developmental age groups may yield varying results.
As a young, inexperienced teacher, I started my career in a private school where expectations were high. Late Work was virtually non-existent. Honestly, it was never really an issue. When a student did not complete their work, they quite obviously felt bad about it – I could clearly see it in their behavior and attitude. Students would stay in from recess to complete an assignment or bring it to me early the next morning before the first bell. All because they didn’t want to be – that student.
High expectations is part of who I am – even outside of the teaching world. It was easy for me to see the expectations of private school as normal. However, like all institutions, private school was not without its challenges. After two years I found myself heading to public school for a change and higher pay.
Upon entering the public school system, I found myself teaching at a Title One school with many transient students and those from low income housing areas. Not only was I learning the public school system, I was dealing with a very different dynamic of students. Most noticeably was their different attitude towards education. I started out with the policies I had previously used, which basically equated to – No Late Work. This proved to be a challenge with my students, parents, administration, and my colleagues. I soon took to a new approach – accepting Late Work for up to one week after the original due date. If students did not complete an assignment, they filled out a Homework Slip instead, and it was posted on a board under the coordinating day of the week. When a student finally did complete the assignment, they took down the Homework Slip and attached it to the assignment before turning it in. Having the board that visually showed how many assignments were missing and when they were due, was a huge help in management.
I still found myself on a quest to find a better way. This is where my quest to promote responsibility in my students truly began. I wanted to see my students believe in themselves, meet expectations, and find success. It was also around this time I was working on my master’s degree, and my final project became Promoting Self-Efficacy in the Classroom.
I experimented with other policies, such as accepting Late Work only until the end of the unit or grading period, but always working towards no Late Work by 4th quarter, insisting they needed to be preparing themselves for middle school. I even tried giving students 3 life-lines each quarter, an adaptation of the tv show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which was popular at the time.
When my career landed me teaching 6th grade in middle school, I had no idea of the shock that awaited me.
When I proposed the policy of No Late Work, I was met with shock and grumblings from colleagues and my administration.
Here I was thinking I was preparing my students for the reality of secondary school. And was clearly being told that this was not the case.
