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please help with a common but frustrating issue

 
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Your student swears the homework was handed in with others. You never saw it and consequently have nothing to grade. One month has passed. What would you do?
leave the grade as a zero
14%
 14%  [ 1 ]
allow students to repeat the assignment
14%
 14%  [ 1 ]
allow students to do a different assignment
42%
 42%  [ 3 ]
take full responsibility and give students the avg. class grade
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
other (please specify in a reply)
28%
 28%  [ 2 ]
Total Votes : 7

Author Message
frigginhippie



Joined: 13 Mar 2004
Posts: 188
Location: over here

PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:13 am    Post subject: please help with a common but frustrating issue Reply with quote

****EDIT****
I found the HW on my couch, beneath a different textbook. I'm horrible. But the poll still stands. Hypothetically speaking Smile, what would you do?
************

I returned an assignment 3 weeks after receiving it. After class, 2 students tell me they didn't get their papers back. I check and I never graded them. To the best of my knowledge, I never received them. They may have been lost but I highly doubt it. The students and their classmates swear both assignments were handed in with others. I have no reason not to trust them.

If they're allowed to do it again, they already have all the answers, as we reviewed in class. Also, they'd have been given 3 more weeks than the other students. That's not fair to other students.
If they're allowed to do another assignment, they'll have to read another short story, which means I have to find another short story (see short story search). That's not fair to the students in question.

What would you do?

In the future I may resort to time-stamps and record books. Jeez.

Please offer your thoughts. Thanks,

-FH


Last edited by frigginhippie on Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:32 am; edited 2 times in total
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burnsie



Joined: 18 Aug 2004
Posts: 489
Location: Beijing

PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Get them to do another story. At the end of the day it should be in your pile but it wasn't.

They will object and may even go to the FAO but what can you do! Nothing.

If your decision is overridden then so be it but at least you have some kind of standards.

When I am faced with these objections I just say 'you think I am unfair' wait until you have your first boss and paypacket. Then they will know what is unfair. Shocked Shocked
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kev7161



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 5880
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, there's really a very easy way of solving this problem. First, assign each student a number. That is their number for the entire course. 1(one) through however many students you have. Make sure they know to write their number in the upper left-hand corner of every paper and test they turn in.

Once you ask for assignments to be turned in and you have collected them, give them to a student in the front row to sort them numerically. If the student finds one without a number written on it, make sure and find out right then and there who it belongs to and call out his or her name. Get that student's number - - eventually he'll get used to his own number. Once the student has sorted the papers, you can take just a minute to go through them and see if there are any missing (or your student can tell you if you trust them to do so). This may take a couple of minutes out of your class lesson time, but it's worth it to prevent yourself from a future headache.

Also, invest in a few file folders (one for each class) and label them with each class title (Senior One, Class One). A few paperclips can do wonders as well for keeping all those errant papers from going every which way. As a matter of fact, you could keep a class list of names with corresponding numbers attached to the file folder and, if the students are doing some sort of writing exercise in class, you can quickly check off assignments received while they are doing their work. Or, you can do it immediately after class. If you find that one is missing after class has finished, you can ask the student next class instead of THREE WEEKS LATER. A little organization can go a long way - - especially if you have many classes/students and are kept quite busy.

Believe me, the number system works quite well. I also always have my students write their class on the top of their paper as well (Senior One, Class One, for example). I've been known to have two or three "King"s or "Cherry"s in my different classes.
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tony lee



Joined: 03 Apr 2004
Posts: 79
Location: Australia

PostPosted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 3:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote]I returned an assignment 3 weeks after receiving it[/quote]

I guess that is where the problem lies, especially when you have several classes all handing in stuff at the same time.

The suggestion about the numbers is good -- but usually every student already has a unique number (if it is regular school or university) and most of the class will have consecutive numbers so it makes it vey easy. Most school classes have homework monitors and it is their job to sort out who has handed in their work. I found the monitors to be very good value and worth consulting about anything concerning suitability of teaching material or student problems.
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