Last summer I read a blog about A Pedagogy of Kindness by Catherine Denial. It so moved me that I decided to try and shift what I did with students this fall.
I believe in building relationships with students. I was a community college student myself and understand the struggles faced by students juggling busy lives and trying to make better lives by going to college. I believe that no student signs up for a class to fail. I believe that every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. I have approached my students with kindness and compassion. I realized through reading this blog that I still had work to do.
Late Work
I have always had late work policies. I have never really thought deeply about those policies, but just did what "was always done". I had all the reasons typically assigned to this policy. You know them. I felt justified in this policy when a student would fall hopelessly behind and be unable to catch up. I told myself that he or she was just not ready for the demands of college. That it was my job to teach not just my subject matter, but also real world skills. Oddly enough, there were many policies I had changed due to student feedback, including different ways to demonstrate competencies, student created rubrics, providing more time in class to begin working on assignments, and more!
However, late work was not something I felt comfortable changing. I did allow work to be turned in up to one week late for a reduced grade and always said that I would not take work after that deadline, but the reality was that I always did when a student would approach me and ask. Catherine's post had me thinking about those students who don't ask, but just quietly drift away. Was I helping them? So, I decided it was time to change this policy.
The Experiment
I decided that for this semester in all five of my classes, I would rewrite my late work policy. Here is what I came up with. All work turned in early or on time may be revised to earn any points lost ( formative assessment). Any work that was turned in more than one day late must keep the grade earned. I provided feedback to both the on time and late work about reasons for missing points. When a student submitted a late assignment, I told him/her that they could improve the next assignment by heeding the feedback on this one. I did not ask for reasons for late work ( I never have). I do not ever want to be the arbiter of what is or is not too much for someone to handle. One person's crisis is another person's everyday life.
Results
Students were overwhelmingly appreciative of the chance to make up work. I was not inundated with late assignments. Most students turned in their work early or on time and revised as needed to make up missing points. It should be noted that I do provide each student with an overview of their grade and recommendations for how to improve at weeks 4, 8 and 12 in our 16 week semester. So, students who are beginning to fall behind early can be "caught" and provided guidance for how to catch up.
I still have a few students who never turned in any work, despite my requests and follow up. I do have several students who are finishing this semester right now with at least a C where in the past they would have failed. I will check my success rates for this fall against previous semesters, but right now I think they are improved.
Next Step
I will continue with this change. I did have a few students who never turned in any work. I will make a revision that at mid-semester failure to turn in any work will result in my dropping you from the class. At a certain point, it is not possible to catch up and I think that allowing students to believe that they can completed 16 weeks of work in less than 8 weeks is unfair. If they have struggled for the first 8 weeks, there is no reason to believe that they will not continue to struggle for the remainder of the semester.
The email response from a student who is returning to Community College despite having an advanced degree really made me realize how worthwhile this policy change is:
