Thread: Make up work...

Don't worry about "opening your mouth" at every school I've worked out, there is a policy in place or teachers are required to have a policy about make-up work. Generally, the rules where I've worked it that if it is an excused absence, you HAVE to let the child make up the work. If it is unexcused you do not. So, we all need a system to let the kids know what they missed. In reality, they aren't likely to do well on this make up work since they missed the lesson. I have a wipe-off calendar where I write the hw for the day and so when students return, they check the calendar. Other teachers have a binder (maybe with a calendar in front where they note the page numbers) and in the binder are the extra handouts/worksheets. If students can't do the work because they missed the lesson, they can come after school to see me, or can go to our after school homework help. I find that very few students actually do this, so it isn't like I'm inundated with students after school. I have to have it available to students, though, and some do take advantage. I rarely make up a new assignment for a student, with a few exceptions. If a student was out for a week or more and we read a story and wrote an essay, I might assign a different essay on a previously read story.

I have a box for work for each class. Every assignment missed due to an absence goes in the box. Their responsibility to pick it up and make it up within the school guidelines.

As for grading, I don't enter anything in the online gradebook, so not doing it doesn't count against them - but they have to know the material for tests. Most of them see the cause and effect there. Of course, I teach a class in which that's possible.

I hold "catch up detentions" for work missed. Not all students come of course... but at least at this school, I have an action plan when that happens. The school then issues a "real" lunch DT.
The other thing I do is have a star chart. Every time that a part of the unit standard is finished, they get a star, so other students can see where they are up to etc. I also shame them by writing a list of "by this point in the year, you should have completed..." and putting ticks beside those who owe me work.
And, of course, thos parents who came to the interviews over the last few days, all walked away with a record of achivement for their students in varying stags of completeness.
There is no way in my class that students cannot know how far they are behind work. And it is just bliss to have the school back me on how I get student work in.

I take a lot of makeup work that I probably shouldn't. But then again, it is usually turned in by students that have had a change of heart- all the same, they won't make an A on it.....

We accept late work up to the assessment (unless they were absent the day before the assessment and then we give them an extra day). We take 5% off for each day late.

We have a folder in the back of the room with a list of assignments and stacks of previous worksheets. They don't ask me, they go to the folder and write down what they need to do. If you don't revisit the old information, your students may miss out on skills and knowledge that they need. I think it's a disservice to the students to skip out on that.

I think it depends on why they are absent. Do they have some sort of medical condition that requires lots of hospital visits? Or are they just a "trouble child" who is not very concerned with learning?

I have a binder with assignments in it and the date. The students are responsible for getting the work and finishing it in a timely manner. If they ask me what they need to make up, I'll direct them to the binder.

If the student was out for a long time (a hospitalization, for instance) I excuse some of the missed work.

A student's being habitually absent is no reason for you to have to reteach a class. Come up with a policy concerning making up work that puts the responsibility on the student. Be available certain hours to help, but clarify your rules and stick to them. There's a reason students have teachers and classes. If there were a pill or something he could take without having to come to class, we could save a lot of money on tax dollars.