Many of my fellow faculty members never give extensions, never accept late work, and have explicit rules against these things. Having, for several years, accepted late work and generally given an extension or two per term I don't get it.
I understand perfectly about teaching students responsibility, I really do, and I make allowances for late work and extensions for precisely that reason (with points taken away for things being late, of course).
What they, perhaps, don't understand is that even if I do give extensions and accept late work I rarely ever receive any of that work. Ever. Never ever. Occasionally a student will pull through by the date I've given them with some outstanding work and get a B (it could have been an A), but that's a rare case. For every student I say "Sure, you can turn it in next week for a X% grade reduction" I know that I have a 1/15 chance of ever seeing that work again. It doesn't really create any extra work for me.
So why do it? Well, for one, it makes me look "nice." Nice because I'm willing to give them an extension at all. But for me, the conversation we have about that work is more important, in many ways, than the extension itself.
"Here's your contract to get the work done. You'll get it to me by this date. This is your responsibility, and you understand that this is the final extension you'll get on this project."
I never hear anything about this being unfair, even if they don't do it. I've asked a couple students after their new due date and generally get a "yeah, I screwed up." More often, I never hear anything again.
I don't know why the original deadline doesn't teach responsibility to some students, and instead creates snowflakery, but if they still don't do it after their precious extension I rarely hear a peep. My life is peep free. It's wonderful. I'd like to think they maybe learn something from it, but I think if they do all it really is is that their failure isn't my fault. I was "nice" after all.
PS I know some of you will write in that it doesn't work. Unfortunately I can only speak from my own experience. I suspect that making any rules pertaining to assignment deadlines work ultimately has to deal with the personality of the people involved, not to mention the course.
Yes, but...you're not really "nice". If you impose a late penalty, that's not "nice". I allow students to turn in late papers. But they are penalized one letter grade per calendar day.
ReplyDelete"Nice" is allowing them an extra few days for which they are NOT penalized, for an excuse that could easily be a total lie.
This is of course not "nice" to the rest of the class, as they aren't being allowed such an extension.
Stella's quite right. If you're still accepting late work, and you're penalizing the hell out of it consistently, then good for you, and good for your students who turn in their work on time.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Stella and Dr. C.
ReplyDeleteI'm not hearing people say there can never be an moment of flexible extension.
So long as there is recognition of the consequences of failing to meet the set standards, bend to your heart's content.
As you pointed out, it is a rare student who then actually takes you up on it anyway.
Win-win for the proffie.
Well, I've worked with a lot of folks who don't allow for late work ever, unless somebody's dying (and it better be the student). They seem to see it as giving in or something. *shrug* I just know that if I do accept it, it really doesn't seem to change anything... except students see me as being "nice" while my colleagues are not. Bizarre, but the logic has held across multiple schools now...
ReplyDeleteI'm one of "those people." I allow students one emergency per term that gets them a short extension. It has to be a real emergency, not necessarily that they're dying, but if it's a sick kid/spouse/pet (fill in your own significant relationship), a sudden mandatory overtime shift, or something that's truly unexpected and urgent, I will work with a student that one time. And surprisingly, those people usually do come through for me. But I don't accept "I just forgot to do it" or "I didn't check the calendar" or "My computer broke" as excuses for extensions. I do, however, respect any proffie's philosophy on taking late work as long as there's some rationale behind it other than "whatever, whenever, wherever."
ReplyDeleteThose who have completely open policies are the ones who ruin it for anyone with a standard. They're also the ones who create those job applicants we keep reading about who expect bosses to let them do whatever they want. I frankly don't know how they do it. I have one colleague who does, and she is consistently flooded during finals week with a bunch of crappy work that's been cobbled together in hopes of salvaging a passing grade. Then she has to read and grade it all on top of exams.
I'm also one of "those people." I think that it's unfair to the students who follow the rules to give those who don't an unfair advantage. So I drop assignments for everyone. This makes it even for the *good* students.
ReplyDeleteEven though I do this I find the students think that they have a right to extra drops because of some reason or another. That's where I am firm on the policy. I sleep better at night knowing that everyone has been treated the same. They each get the advantage of some drops so they can flake, be sick, or be extraordinarily responsible.
I take late assignments but subtract 1% per day. I can do this without blinking or finding excuses for why this time, I shouldn't; when I try to subtract more than 1% per day I find myself finding reasons not to do so.
ReplyDeleteI find that this produces a flurry of papers that come in 1-2 days late, from generally good students who have calculated that they can do a sufficiently better paper if they take another 12 hours that their increased grade will outweigh the missing 1-2%. I think this is perfectly fair, since anyone can perform and take advantage of the same calculation.
Any other late papers will come in weeks later, from people with no time management skills, and usually they were clearly cobbled together at the last minute even before they lost the 21% or so to late penalties. Which I cheerfully deduct.
I grant extensions for documented emergencies: sickness (with a doctor's note); emotional crisis (with a note from counselling); family crisis (note from counselling again). No documentation, no extension.
As far as I can tell I'm not being unfair to anyone or too easy on anyone, and I don't get a flood of papers during finals week, either.
My students can use one "late pass" per semester, no questions asked. It gives them until the start of our next class period to deliver the assignment. The better students save it for the big term paper or use it when there's a problem set due the same day as an exam.
ReplyDeleteIt's fair because everyone gets one, and the students accept that. It saves me the hassle of sorting the sob stories from the true emergencies. And since there's only one class period delay (a maximum of 5 days if there's a weekend), it doesn't hold up my grading significantly (and I tell students that if they hand in a paper late, I'll be grading it late, too).
Rarely, I sometimes also grant quiet extensions for documented, severe emergencies: the student who was hit by a car, for example, and the one whose husband got a retina transplant well ahead of expectations in mid-semester.
BTW, I stole the "late pass" idea from a colleague who worked out the bugs first.
I allow extensions, but only when it teaches the student a lesson. My lateness policy is very simple:
ReplyDelete- ALL short-term extension requests will be granted, so long as they are requested PRIOR to the deadline.
- All late work, regardless of how late -- 2 hours, 2 days, 2 minutes -- lose 20%. After 3 meetings of class, I do not accept it.
So: You want to request a 24-hour extension to write a decent paper instead of a last-minute piece of shit? Asking me *before the deadline* encourages students to plan ahead and teaches them a lesson about putting of work. And this is precisely what would need to happen in their future jobs. They would need to come clean to their boss, get a brief extension, and never pull that nonsense again.
You want to laze around with your new boyfriend and then come to class 3 days later with your poorly-written paper? Best you can get is 80%; chances are you'll get a B which becomes only 60%, and I feel that's fair.
I very rarely grant incompletes though. I find that short of a stellar performance already, most students will waste away their incomplete, cause me to have tons of extra work, and end up with an F anyway. No thank you.