Sick Sally is one of two students I've had this term who've come down with poly chicken plague. She wasn't a strong student at the start of the term when she was healthy. So, of course, she comes down with the poly chicken plague at the end of the term. This is exactly what an Incomplete is designed for; however, university policy mandates that a student's work must be "of passing quality" at time of illness/tragedy. Sally, with her F- exam average and C- HW average, just doesn't qualify.She came to my office the other day (as they so often do when it's too late) and asked me to compute her grade for her. Disturbing as it is she's an engineering major who doesn't understand how to compute a weighted average. She missed roughly 2 weeks worth of classes while she was sick plus the classes she skipped when she was well. My policy is to drop X number of assignments for every student. Sally is missing X+n assignments. So her HW grade is low.
At this point she's missed roughly 1.3 chapters of work. Even if she could pass she'd not likely do well in the next course in the sequence. I know this. She probably knows this. But she still must make her last ditch attempt to eek by with a C- so she can stay on track. I reminded her of my policies and said that's all I could and would do.
She countered with the claim that her Hamster Basket professor over in the College of Weaving and Animal Husbandry was just dropping all the work that she missed when she was sick since it was an "excused" absence. This could be the truth or she could be feeding me a line.
After she left I got to thinking about dropping work. Suppose that a student misses all of Chapter 6 toward the end of the semester. The only work that the student will have submitted on the Chapter 6 material will be the 2-3 problems over Chapter 6 on the final exam. So outside of those handful of problems the student hasn't had to demonstrate any kind of mastery of the chapter's topics. So it's like giving a student credit for Underwater Basket Weaving with Applications when he or she has missed the entire underwater applications practicum.
Question: If we drop a chapter or two's worth of assignments for a student, is that saying that the student isn't responsible for learning that material? Should the student really "earn" credit for the class (assuming that the student could pass with the other submitted work)? Should this student's C- really carry the same meaning as the C- of a student who actually submitted all the work and honestly made effort but just wasn't capable of pulling the higher grade? What would you have done with Sick Sally and her very sickly grades?
Answer: You know the routine.
Being sick is a good excuse for an extension on assignments missed while ill, but I've never heard of just letting those assignments go. I will drop a quiz in preference to having to make up a makeup quiz, so long as the student only has to drop one quiz; but assignments they can get to me.
ReplyDeleteIf you drop a chapter out of Sally's grades, you have to drop a chapter out of everyone's. It's that simple.
ReplyDeleteDon't let this student slide by, because the professor that gets her next is going to really be pissed at you. You're turning the next prof into the "bad guy" because you don't want to do it. That's lame. And it makes you a bad colleague and a bad teacher.
"Who was your teacher for Hamster Basket 1?" they will ask the dunderhead. When your name is revealed that teacher will make a mental note about you, and they will think you are either lazy or soft, or both.
And about this they would be right.
I definitely never heard of an "excused" absence meaning dropping material, instead, I've always seen it used as the ability to make up the missed work, whereas a non-excused absence means you get zeros, period. I think you are being played and that we should not "drop" work in a class.
ReplyDeleteI'll just echo what everyone is saying. No, never drop the work. Let her have some time to do it.
ReplyDeleteOne bit of advice: make a set schedule, get her to agree to it in writing (e-mail is good for this without making too big of a deal out of it). Make sure she knows the new deadline is not at all flexible.
Chances are, she'll blow that one too. But at least you gave her a chance.
I have never heard of anyone just excusing work due to students being sick... otherwise, I'm sure students would ALL be sick during major projects and tests. I have worked out an alternate due date (extension) for students who are sick, but only if it's fully documented and I know they really were sick.
ReplyDeleteThis said, if a student has missed TOO much, that's just too bad. Sometimes life sucks and we get sick and have to repeat classes because we just haven't been able to do it.
Besides... why does it matter what the policies are in another class? This is YOUR course! Your policies matter.
I have a theory about incompletes. Usually, they never become "complete." They demand amazing extra unpaid labor on the part of the teacher.
ReplyDeleteAnd so, I have very stringent requirements for the incomplete. The first, which few ever master, is that they must have proven a "stellar performance" before the need to request an I arrives. Brilliant observations, eager participation, etc. Second, they must have a "valid reason" ie, car accident, death of family member, arm amputation surgery, sudden deployment, whatever. Very few manage that category either.
But if both requirements are met, I find Incompletes to be okay. They reward good students who have terrible fortune.
I recently denied a blind student her I because while blindness might be difficult for the reading, she also skipped half the classes. So when her son was in a car accident, I didn't offer her the incomplete. Had I given it to her, and had she completed the work, her best chance was a very low D. Not worth my time.
Neither is this. Don't give it.
Brava, A.M.!
ReplyDeleteI make students asking for incompletes sign a contract that specifies what work needs to be made up and by what deadline before I convert the grade to an F. Most just give up at that point. I'd guess I convert about two-thirds of the I's to F's on the deadline day.
ReplyDeleteAngry Archie and I share a similar approach, except that my "I" grades are automatically converted to "F"s by the end of the following semester.
ReplyDeleteI will be meeting with a student tomorrow who has had a number of health issues (and two surgeries, both of them emergency in nature), but who has turned in ALL of the coursework to date--at least one assignment was delivered by his wife. He emailed me late last week to tell me he would have to take the "F" because he was still in the hospital recovering from surgery #2 and couldn't make it to class. I wrote him back and told him that this is why we have "I" grades, and to please not give up.
He'll get the "I" and I have no doubt that he'll finish the work. Wish I could say the same for other students I've had in the past, the majority of whom failed when they didn't turn in the work.
As for "dropping" two weeks' worth of the readings, or whatever, I'd say absofuckinglutely not, especially if you're in a technical field. Or any field, actually. As Stella pointed out, it's not fair to the rest of the class, who will have [theoretically] done the work that Flakey Jane will magically not have to do, but still pass.
And I just had a meeting with another student in the same class who disappeared for 2 weeks, didn't turn in a 100-point assignment 2 weeks ago, and didn't turn in today's 100-point assignment. He wanted to know what "we" could do about his grade. Answer: nothing, because it's not fair to the other students, and it would be especially unfair to the student who was doing the homework *while in the hospital.*
ReplyDeleteThe thing that irritates me is that I tell them at the beginning of the semester that if they run into trouble (illness, legal "issues", whatever) that they need to contact me AND student services so that a plan can be worked out to help them. But so many of them just sink without a trace...sad, but also necessary, I guess.