I have one child who never turns homework in, has been failing things lately etc. and I emailed the mom to see if anything unusual was happening at home and if there was anything I could do to help since this was not ordinary behavior for him. She replied that he was simply not following directions and that they will deal with his grades appropriately - that he needs to learn his own lesson and thanked me profusely for my concern. Love that parent.
Skip to next parent who emailed me when her son failed a homework assignment because, once again, he didn't listen to instructions. Wants me to, and I quote, "enlighten" her as to why his answers are wrong. I did my best to hold my tongue while I replied, and simply told her that the directions were said in class and why it was the it was, and to let me know if she had any other questions.
Why can't they all see that making excuses for their children and rushing to fix everything for them DOES THEM MORE HARM THAN GOOD. Children learn from mistakes, so they need to be allowed to make them and learn a lesson from them!
I had a parent email me over the past weekend and tell me that I needed to re-give the spelling test to her son, because I mispronounced the word "paw." Her son told her that I had said "hall" and that's why he wrote "hall" on his paper.
I emailed her back, and explained the spelling test procedure: I say each word twice, then read it in the sentence it is in in the spelling book, and then say it again. After I finish all 12 words that way, then I go back and repeat the whole list again. Then I ask if anyone needs me to repeat a word. Incidentally, "hall" isn't even one of our spelling words this week. In short, it wasn't my fault that he missed the word. It's okay that he made a mistake, because maybe he can learn from it. But if he learned to lie to his mom, or that mom would fix all his mistakes, then he learned the wrong thing indeed. So, nope, I didn't retest him.
Skip to next parent who emailed me when her son failed a homework assignment because, once again, he didn't listen to instructions.
Were the instructions given only verbally? That assignment would be very difficult for me; I don't always process verbal instructions very well. Is there any way you can provide written instructions in addition to those given in class?
My son is currently in Special Education (Kindergarten). We are hoping he will be able to transition to a typical classroom for first grade. Though he will have an IEP, I would not expect his teacher to know all the nuances of his needs. I would expect him/her to answer my questions so that I could help my son to be successful.
I would want to be "enlightened" as to why the answers were wrong, too. How else could I help my child to improve?
My son's neurologist once told us that he could jump from the top of the playset 9 times, get hurt every single time, and still jump that tenth time because his brain is not wired to "learn from his mistakes."
I like the first parent's idea--let him fail once, given he is not like...6 years old...
We have a student who deliberately failed the eighth grade. We made him retake it. He failed the first quarter but we told him we would hold him back again if he didn't wise up...slowly his grades rose as he found we were serious,and he was at about a B average for the rest of the year. You know, because he woke up, smelled the coffee, and actually tried.
I"m not sure how old the child is that we are discussing here from the original post, but students in the older elem. grades should certainly be able to follow directions. I find this problem is reaching epidemic proportions.
I have wondered if it was because teachers in previous grades did not hold students accountable for this and accepted 1/2 completed work or gave kids multiple chances to re do it or whatever. It seems to run deeper than that, since the problem seems to be so widespread.
Honestly, how many different ways can you say "check your answer with multiplication (the way we did in class all week)" or "show all of your work"?
I just gave a quiz this past week where this was a problem for some students. Not only did I give a very stern lecture before the quiz about following directions (which were very simple) and explain what the directions were, but they were also written at the top of the paper. "Check by multiplying. Show all work". Seriously, it was 6 words. That should not be complicated.
During just about every quiz, there are kids that just leave an entire page of the quiz blank or just don't complete some of the items. I handed it back to them to complete the first few times, but then decided... enough. It is their job to LOOK at what they are doing and to care enough about it to complete it. They are old enough to be held responsible for this. They don't have vision impairments or anything that would justify not completing it.
So, now before every quiz, I remind them that it is their job to complete all the items. They are visible right there on the paper, with directions (which are explained orally also) and they even agree that there is no excuse for handing in a 1/2 completed quiz. So, I said "Ok then, if you hand it to me incomplete, whatever is not done is just marked wrong". They felt this was reasonable.... but yet it still happens.
10-29-2009, 02:41 PM
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