Do You Let Students Turn in Work Late?

To DZ
CR Is in my study hall. If he is missing any work that can be made up, put it in my mail box and I will see that it gets done.

To BM
There is no make-up opportunity beyond 1 day late.....he is working on turning his work in on time...thanks for your concern....we are working on improving his attitude towards school.

To DZ
Wow. I'm glad my kid isn't in your class. 

To BM
Why is that?

To DZ
Because turning in late work is still evidence that the student learned. My child has ADHD, does most of her assignments, but often has them in the wrong folder or notebook, or at her dad's house. She learned the content, even if she doesn't hold the right paper at the right moment. My job is to assess learning in my content area. If the kid learned it, I measure the learning, even if I measure it on a different day.
Usually teachers don't take lates because it doesn't 'teach responsibility'. Or what they see as responsibility. I haven't taken any classes or found any books about the best practices for learning responsibility, and since it isn't something that is assessed by my content standards or any testing, it seems that 'teaching responsibility' is often done based on assumptions, or what was done to them in their childhood, and not best practice. If you have any good studies or books about the best practices of teaching responsibility, I could use them. In the meantime, most people seem to just not grade late work because that's how it was when they were in school.

Also- imagine what would happen if when, we missed a credit card payment, we didn't 'get' to pay it. We'd all start missing all the payments. By not accepting lates, you're giving them the excuse to never do the work. If the option is left open, they are refusing to do the assignment over and over and over. It is clearly their fault, not the fault of any late policy, or organizational difficulty. Their responsibility shouldn't vanish with the deadline, just like a credit card payment. When my students are late, I increase the amount of work due to get the same points, just like interest on a credit card payment.   

To BM

Where do I begin? We should sit down and discuss this idea of late homework or not assigning zeros to missed assignments. I did enjoy the PLC conference but they began to lose me when they started to preach this new theory on not holding kids responsible. If someone can guarantee me that other classes in high school or in college have the same rules on grading, then I may consider changing my rules. It seems to me we are creating a group of students who are not being held accountable. So many things in this high school have changed because we as a group of teachers cant enforce the rules in place. Kids wont follow the dress code, we don't enforce it. Kids don't follow the cell phone policy, we don't enforce it. Kids don't do homework, we change the policies on homework. You have given a lot of though regarding this, I look forward to exchanging ideas and philosophies.

 To DZ

I have been thinking about it a lot. I am not closed minded. I want to really investigate this, but I want to find facts!  I think this is a problem that really needs to be solved.

Once, when I worked for another school district, I worked for a principal I LOVED (imagine that). He said something that really stuck.
"Oh, you don't have a pencil? Borrow mine. You forgot paper? Here's a sheet. You left your book at home? Here's one from the classroom set, because....
NO ONE GETS OUT OF HERE WITHOUT LEARNING."
That's when it hit me. Duh. They weren't bringing books and pencils and papers and homework ON PURPOSE. They were abdicating responsibility from the beginning. "Oh, I don't GET to write my report. boo hoo hoo." Not letting them turn the work in is EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED. They didn't care about grades. Should they? yes. Do they? no. What they care about is either being a lazy lump, or clinging to their self image that they just don't 'do' school. Once they missed a few deadlines, they could kick back and relax! Now there was no way, mathematically, they could pass the class, so they could just kill time, since there was no point in doing anything.

I'm not even saying take lates, necessarily, but the way many teachers structure their classes, by October there are lots of kids who kick back and relax. Too late to pass, now it's playtime for them. They sit and do nothing, while other kids work hard. It takes the whole class vibe down several notches. It makes the kids who do stuff feel self conscious.

Unless one of their classes is mine. I take lates on the big projects, (little stuff I only take a little late) but they keep thinking I am going to start ignoring them anytime. Instead, I scoot up a chair and start talking about how they can still pass, and what are they doing for this project. This makes them uncomfortable. They aren't used to it.  Why haven't I given up yet? Why do they feel so uneasy? Because I am still holding them accountable. They can still do something. They want me to start looking through them at the kids who can still pass, and instead I am still acting like it's on them.

Inflexible deadlines take the power away from them. Nothing they can do, shrug, oh well. But with flexible deadlines, Work they can still turn in hangs over them. They aren't just refusing to do it that one time. They are choosing not to do it over and over every day. It is STILL THEIR CHOICE.

I think inflexible deadlines work great with kids who come from achievement oriented backgrounds. But with kids who have a hard-wired image in their head that school is not for them, and that's what they're comfortable with, the only thing they learn from inflexible deadlines is that they've been right about themselves all along. They'd rather be right than pass a class.