How long should I wait?
I teach secondary school children in the lower levels of the Dutch educational system. Besides learning disabilities and arrears in reading and/or maths, a lot of these pupils also experience a lack of organisational skills.
This problem especially raises its ugly head when reading reports are due. That’s why I decided to advance the date for handing them in with four weeks, so I wouldn’t be facing this trouble right before Christmas break.
Reading reports were due three weeks ago, and still I’m chasing a lot of my pupils around asking and demanding for their reading reports. This is a tiresome, and by now frustrating, task.
I set the date for handing their reports in four weeks in advance. When they don’t hand them in on the required date, they have another week to hand it in. However, every extra day is ‘punished’ by subtracting 0,5 points of the total. So, if they hand it in a week late, the highest mark they could receive for it is 6,5. When it’s not handed in a week later, they’ll receive a 1, which is the lowest mark (we use a scale from 1-10). Still, they need to hand in a report. They have to work on it at school in their own time. Handing it in will get them a mark but it will always be averaged with the earlier received 1.
I have had a morning and afternoon with some of those students, who manage to not finish their report during that time. I have to make new appointments. This is getting ridiculous and extremely annoying.
I’m getting desperate! What should I do?
