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The Best Practices for Emailing a Teacher About Being Absent

Last Updated: April 25, 2023 Fact Checked

Sample Emails

• What to Write

Email Etiquette & Tricks

This article was written by Ashley Pritchard, MA and by wikiHow staff writer, Aly Rusciano . Ashley Pritchard is an Academic and School Counselor at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Ashley has over 3 years of high school, college, and career counseling experience. She has an MA in School Counseling with a specialization in Mental Health from Caldwell University and is certified as an Independent Education Consultant through the University of California, Irvine. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 432,994 times.

It happens! Sometimes you have to miss school. Whether you have a doctor’s appointment during math class or wake up sick with the flu, everyone misses class occasionally. But how can you let your teacher or professor know you’ll be out? A quick email can solve all of your worries and keep everyone updated. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to write an absence email to your instructor so you can stay in their good graces.

Things You Should Know

• State when and why you’ll miss class at the start of your email (and be honest about it).
• Express your apologies for being absent to show the instructor that missing class is the last thing you want to do.
• Ask your teacher or professor for any work you may miss so they know you put your studies first.
• Attach any homework or due assignments to your email to stay up-to-date with your coursework.

What to Put in Your Email

• “Out Sick 3/10”
• “Missing Class on Friday”
• “ENGL 101 - Absent due to family emergency”

• “Good morning, Mr. Dickson,”
• “Dear Professor Smith,”
• “Mrs. Evans,”

• “I wanted to let you know that I will not be in class today because of an unexpected family emergency.”
• “Unfortunately, I cannot attend your lecture on Friday because I have a doctor’s appointment.”
• “I am emailing you to inform you that I will not be in class on Monday, July 17th.”

• “I recognize that we have a paper due on Monday, so I’ll turn it in on Friday instead.”
• “I understand that our Virginia Woolf presentations are due today. Is it possible to record my presentation and send it to you?”
• “I went ahead and attached last night’s homework to this email.”

• “Can I come by during your office hours on Tuesday to pick up the handouts?”
• “Is it possible to get a copy of Friday’s lecture?”
• “What will be focused on in class that day? I’d like to complete any and all work I’ll miss to have ready for you when I return.”

• “I apologize for any inconvenience my absence may cause.”
• “Thank you for understanding. I’ll make sure I have all the required paperwork for you when I return.”
• “The last thing I want to do is miss class, but this was the only appointment available.”

• Stick with a closing like “Best,” “Thank you,” “Regards,” or “Sincerely.”

• The teacher or professor’s email address is typically listed in the syllabus but can also be found on the school’s website.

• For instance, if you know you have a doctor’s appointment on March 16th, email your teacher about your upcoming absence on March 8th.
• If you wake up sick and can’t make it to class, email them as soon as you’ve decided to stay home.

• Ask your doctor’s office for an absent note before leaving the office, even if you don’t think your instructor will ask for one. It’s always better to have it just to be safe.

• Take a picture of a physical assignment with your phone or scan a PDF copy with an app like DocScan .

• Run your email through a grammar checker like Grammarly to catch any mistakes you may have missed.
• Ask a friend or family member to read over your email for a second pair of eyes.

Community Q&A

• Keep your tone polite and formal in your email. Using slang or emoticons can detract from the credibility of your email. [12] X Research source Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0
• If your teacher has a no-email policy, don't email them; instead, tell a friend to pass along a written note for you or call the school office to report your absence. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0
• If you have the teacher's personal email address, don’t use it unless the teacher has specifically asked you to. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 2

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/effective-e-mail-communication/
• ↑ https://www.bu.edu/com/files/2021/11/WC_emails_to_profs_and_TAs.pdf
• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/email-etiquette-for-students
• ↑ https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/writing-resources/different-genres/sending-email-to-faculty-and-administrators
• ↑ https://mhanational.org/how-talk-your-professor-about-your-mental-health
• ↑ https://ugr.ue.ucsc.edu/email

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How to Write an Email for Missing Class

Missing a class can be stressful and disruptive, especially if you are a student who is trying to keep up with your coursework. If you need to miss a class, it is important to let your instructor know as soon as possible. In this article, we will teach you how to write an email for missing class.

Table of Contents

What to Do Before Writing an Email About Missing Class

Before you begin crafting your email, there are a few steps you should take to prepare. This will ensure you provide all the necessary information in your email and present it in the most effective way possible.

1. Review the Course Syllabus

Before you even start writing, it’s essential to review your course syllabus. The syllabus often contains information about the instructor’s policies on absences and missed work. Understanding these policies will help you address your absence correctly in the email.

2. Gather Relevant Information

Make sure you have all the relevant information ready. This includes:

• The date of the class you will be missing
• The name of the class
• The name and correct title of your instructor
• Any necessary details about your reason for absence

3. Decide on a Plan for Catching Up

Before writing your email, think about how you plan to catch up on the work you’ll be missing. This might mean asking a friend for notes, scheduling a meeting with the instructor, or reviewing online resources. Having a plan in place shows your instructor that you are proactive and take responsibility for your education.

4. Consider Your Tone and Language

Think about the tone and language you want to use in your email. Your email should be respectful, formal, and professional. Avoid using slang or informal language. Remember that this is a formal communication with an authority figure, not a casual conversation with a friend.

5. Prepare for Possible Outcomes

Finally, prepare yourself for possible outcomes. Depending on the reason for your absence and your instructor’s policies, they might not be able to provide you with the materials or help you expected. Be open to their suggestions and ready to take alternative steps if needed.

By following these steps before writing your email, you can ensure it is well-prepared, respectful, and effective.

Missing Class Email Template

Here’s an email template you can use right away:

Subject: Absence from [Date of Class] [Class Name]

Dear [Instructor’s Last Name],

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you that I will be unable to attend the [Class Name] class on [Date of Class].

I understand the importance of regular attendance and have reviewed the syllabus and attendance policy for the course. I regret that I will be missing this class and I wanted to make sure that I am keeping you informed.

The reason for my absence is [provide a brief explanation]. I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me any materials or assignments that will be covered in class on [Date of Class]. Additionally, I would be happy to schedule a meeting with you during your office hours to discuss any missed material or to make arrangements for making up the missed work.

Thank you for your understanding and I look forward to catching up on the missed class material.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

Read on to discover how to write each part of this email, and why it’s important.

What to Include in a Missing Class Email

Step 1: plan your email.

Before you start writing your email, it is important to have a clear plan in mind. A plan will help you to organize your thoughts and ensure that your email is concise and to the point. Include the following information.

• Date of the missed class
• Reason for missing the class
• Request for any missed material or assignments
• A plan for making up the missed work

Step 2: Reference the Syllabus and Attendance Policy

Next, review the syllabus and attendance policy for your course.

This will give you a clear understanding of the expectations and requirements for attendance and will help you make the email more effective.

In your message, mention that you have reviewed the syllabus and attendance policy, and that you are aware of the expectations and requirements for attendance.

For example, you could write: “I understand the importance of regular attendance and have reviewed the syllabus and attendance policy for the course.”

By referencing the syllabus and attendance policy, you are demonstrating that you are responsible and have taken the time to understand the course expectations.

This will show your instructor that you are committed to your education and are taking steps to ensure that you are able to keep up with the coursework.

Step 3: Write a Clear and Professional Subject Line

The subject line of your email is the first thing that your instructor will see, so it is important to make a good impression.

Write a clear and professional subject line that accurately reflects the content of your email. For example, “Absence from [Date of Class] [Class Name]” would be a suitable subject line.

Step 4: Address Your Instructor Appropriately

The tone and language of your email will depend on the relationship you have with your instructor.

If you are on a first-name basis with your instructor, you can use their first name in your email. However, if you are not sure how to address your instructor, it is always better to err on the side of formality and use their last name. Remember their title and any honorifics as well. For example, Dear Dr. Smith..

Step 5: Be Clear and Concise

When writing your email, it is important to be clear and concise. You should avoid using overly complex language and instead use simple and straightforward sentences. Your email should be easy to read and understand, so that your instructor can quickly grasp the main points.

Step 6: Offer a Solution

If you need to miss a class, it is important to offer a solution for making up the missed work.

This could be a request to meet with your instructor during office hours or to receive any missed material or assignments. By offering a solution, you are demonstrating that you are taking responsibility for your absence and are committed to making up the missed work.

Step 7: Proofread Your Email

Before sending your email, it is important to proofread it to make sure that there are no typos or grammatical errors. A well-written email will make a better impression and will help you to communicate your message effectively.

In conclusion, writing an email about missing a class can be a straightforward process if you follow these steps. By being clear, concise, and professional, you can effectively communicate your absence to your instructor and ensure that you are able to make up the missed work.

In conclusion, missing a class doesn’t have to be a stressful event if handled properly. This article has provided a comprehensive guide on how to navigate such a situation, emphasizing the importance of preparation, respect, and clear communication.

Key steps include reviewing the course syllabus, gathering relevant information, devising a catch-up plan, choosing appropriate language, and preparing for possible outcomes.

The provided email template is an excellent tool that can be adapted to most situations, serving as a professional and considerate way to inform your instructor about your absence. By following these guidelines, you not only show respect for your instructor’s time but also demonstrate your commitment and responsibility towards your education.

Why it’s hard for students to “just turn in” missing assignments, and how to get them unstuck

Mar 29, 2023 | Blog

With the end of the semester on the horizon, many students may feel overwhelmed by low grades or feeling behind in some of their classes.

As a parent, it can be stressful to see that your student has overdue work, or get notifications from their teacher that they’re missing assignments. 

It’s even more frustrating when you’ve told them over and over again how important it is to “just turn it in”…but the work is still showing up as missing.

The reality is that no matter how simple it might seem to an outside observer, doing missing work is almost never as easy as “just getting it done.” If they haven’t done the work yet, there’s a good chance that something is getting in their way. 

If you can figure out what the problem is before jumping in to help them (or make them) do the work, you’ll dramatically increase your chances of success.

In our experience, there are usually 3 main reasons students resist submitting their missing work…even when it seems like “just turning it in” would be SO much easier!

Reason 1: They think it won’t make a difference

Once the due date for an assignment has passed, students often de-prioritize it and move on to focus on upcoming assignments instead. It’s tempting for students to justify this by thinking “there are lots of other assignments, missing one or two won’t matter.”

But what they often don’t realize is that because of the way most grading scales are weighted, even one or two zeros can have an enormous impact on their grade. Showing students the difference it makes to turn in just a few assignments can increase their motivation to get the work done. 

Here’s an example of the difference it can make to turn in just a few missing assignments before the end of the semester:

Overall grade with 3 missing assignments: 78.3%

Overall grade when assignments are turned in: 90.1%

It’s hard for students to calculate these averages in their head, so it can be really powerful for them to run the numbers and see firsthand exactly how much they have to gain from making up their missing assignments.

When we do calculations like this with our students, they are almost always surprised by how much this makeup work could improve their grades, and feel much more motivated to submit the assignments when they can see for themselves the difference it will make.

Reason 2: They think it’s too late

Another reason students often resist doing makeup work is that they think it’s too late to get credit for it. 

Even if they’ve done the math and know that submitting the work would make a difference in their grade, they still won’t want to turn it in if they think the teacher won’t accept it.

Especially for introverted or anxious students, it can be very intimidating to have conversations with their teachers. They might think they’ll get in trouble for asking to submit their work late, or worry that the teacher will say “no.”

The good news is that many teachers are flexible with their late work policies and allow students to turn in overdue assignments even when it is past the “official” deadline to submit them.

So if students can find the courage to ask for help, there is a good chance that their teachers will respond positively and allow them an opportunity to make up the work.

For students who are struggling to reach out to teachers, we often find it is helpful to roleplay these conversations in coaching sessions if they’re not sure what to say, or work with them to email their teachers if they’re not sure what to say.

Reason 3: They feel overwhelmed

Students who are behind on their work often have challenges keeping track of due dates, managing time, breaking down complex assignments, prioritizing work, staying focused, or following through with plans….which is why they fell behind in the first place. 

These challenges can become even more daunting when they are behind in their classes, and trying to complete makeup assignments on top of their normal workload.

This can feel so stressful that a lot of students avoid or put off doing makeup work even when they   know   how much it would improve their grade.

For these students to get their work submitted, it’s essential to help them find ways to…

• Break down the assignments so they have a realistic plan for getting the work done that they’re confident they can actually follow through with
• Lower the stress they feel while they are doing the work so they will be less tempted to avoid it
• Visualize the progress they are making so they can see that their efforts are making a difference

Providing support

When students have a lot of makeup work to complete, having some additional support to help them work through it can be invaluable. 

For some students, this may mean finding a tutor to help them with the content they didn’t understand when their teacher was first presenting the material. 

For other students, having a family member or friend nearby as a source of moral support to keep them company while they are working (and a motivating reward to look forward to as soon as the work is completed) can be enormously helpful.

Other students may benefit from working with an academic coach to help them get unstuck and started on their missing work. Sometimes, having someone else who is not a family member step in to help can reduce stress and conflict at home and make it easier for students to take the steps they need to get back on track in their classes. If you think this type of support would be helpful for your student, please feel free to reach out and we’ll be happy to help! 

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Aug 8, 2022

How to email a professor with 22 different examples

Learn how to email your professor (and what to avoid doing) and check out 22 sample emails to help you get started.

Lawrie Jones

Table of contents

Is there anything more nerve-racking than sending an email to a professor?

Every student will need to send an email to a professor at some point, whether you're asking for an extension, explaining an absence, or a little extra help. But how do you write an email to a professor?

In this guide on how to email a professor, we break down the steps to writing better messages. You'll learn the structure of a good email to a professor (and what to avoid).

And if this is not enough to convince you that it's easier than you might think, we finish off by providing 22 sample emails to a professor!

If you want to impress your professor with perfect grammar, make sure to try Flowrite :

How to send an email to a professor

So, how do you write an email to a professor? Professors are professional people who will be used to traditional email etiquette. That's not to say that you can't introduce some individuality into your emails; it's just important to show respect. 

You'll understand your relationship better than we do. You can be a little less formal if you feel it's appropriate.

Following the correct email etiquette is essential – and easy. In this article we break it down into steps to illustrate what we mean. We've also written about proper email etiquette on our blog before:

It's also important to keep emails short and to the point. Professors receive hundreds of messages daily and don't have time to delve too deeply to get the information they need. Say who you are, what you want, and why you're messaging upfront.

Should I send an email to a professor?

Classes can be busy, and a professor's time can be limited, so email is an ideal way to communicate with your Professor. Emails enable you to go into detail, create lists and spend time crafting a complex message.  

If your question or comment is urgent or sensitive, consider whether it's better to book a meeting or pull them aside for a chat. 

Only you can decide whether to email a professor.

How long should I wait for a reply?

Professors are people with busy lives and professional responsibilities, so you may need to wait for a reply. But how long should you wait for a response from your Professor?

There are no hard and fast rules on how long to wait for a reply, but the general rule is to give it two or three days before sending a follow-up. You can learn more in our guide on how to write a follow-up email.

Email format for messaging a professor

The email format for a professor should be familiar to anyone who understands the basics of messaging. Here's how it works:

• Subject line

• Body copy

• Signature

If you're unfamiliar with how to write a formal email, check out Flowrite blogs that delve deeper into what makes a great subject line, how to greet someone, appropriate sign-offs, and striking the right tone of voice. 

Subject line for an email to professor

Your subject line should spell out exactly what your message is about. Why? Because professors get hundreds of emails daily, they'll need a reason to open and respond to yours. 

We've provided some examples below.

How to greet a professor in an email

Professors should always be addressed using their titles. You can open an email in a few ways, such as:

• Dear Professor 

• Hi Professor

Avoid casual openings, such as "hey" or "how are you doing?". Instead, always uses your Professor's title to show respect, even if you start an email with "Hi" or "Hello."

How to address professor in email

We've covered the importance of using a professor's title in an email, but there's more to it. When discussing how to address a professor in an email, we're talking about the tone of voice – and getting that right can be tricky.

You'll want to be personal, but being too familiar can cause problems. We've written before about how to hit the right tone, so start there. Our examples below show how we've put this into practice.

How to start an email to a professor

An excellent way to start your email is by stating who you are and explaining what your message is about. As we've established, professors receive hundreds of messages every day, so they'll skim-read your message. Unless you're clear with what you want, you could find it binned.

You can see 22 examples of how to address your emails and get to the point as soon as possible.

How to sign off an email to professor

There are several ways you can end an email you a professor. Traditionally, you'd use "your sincerely," but today, you can be a little less formal. Some safe email endings to a professor include:

• Kind regards

• Yours sincerely

Email to professor examples

So, we've explained the basics of emailing your Professor; now it's time to put it into practice with samples. Here are 22 email to professor examples that should cover any scenario. So, whether you're asking for advice, access to a class, or a little extra support, we've got a template for you. 

22 sample emails to a professor

Here are 22 examples of how to email your Professor. These should cover a whole range of situations that you could find yourself in. As with all our templates, use them as inspiration, and be sure to adapt them to your specific situation. 

Ready to get writing to your Professor? Then let's begin.

1. How to write an excuse email to professor example

2. how to email professor for extension example, 3. how to email professor asking for extra credit example, 4. how to email a professor about failing a class example, 5. how to send a follow-up email to a professor, 6. how to write a formal email to a professor example, 7. how to email a professor about getting into their class example, 8. how to email a professor about a grade example, 9/ how to introduce yourself in an email to a professor example, 10. how to ask professor to accept late assignment email example, 11. how to email a professor for a letter of recommendation example, 12. how to email professor about missing class example, 13. how to write a polite email to a professor example, 14. how to write a professional email to a professor example, 15. how to write a proper email to a professor example, 16. how to ask a question to a professor email example, 17. how to write a reminder email to professor example, 18. how to reply back to a professor's email example, 19. how to email a professor about research example, 20/ how to schedule an appointment with a professor email example, 21. how to email professor about being sick example, 22. how to write a thank you email to a professor example, closing words.

Writing emails to a professor can cause mild anxiety, but it doesn't need to be so. We hope that breaking down how to email a professor into steps and providing a massive number of samples will help.

It's essential to understand the principles of crafting professional emails, such as an email to a professor – now it's time to put it into practice.

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A new, streamlined version of Intervention Central is coming in December 2023. The new site will eliminate user login accounts. If you have a login account, be sure to download and save any documents of importance from that account, as they will be erased when the website is revised.

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How To: Help Students to Complete Missing Work: The Late-Work Teacher-Student Conference

• Self-Management

The reasons that students fall behind in assignments are many. Students who are just developing homework skills , for example, often need more time than peers to complete independent assignments, can find it challenging to focus their attention when working on their own, and may not have efficient study skills (Cooper & Valentine, 2001). To be sure, student procrastination and avoidance in work assignments is a widespread problem. And many students who fall behind in their work also develop a maladaptive, self-reinforcing pattern of escape-maintained behavior: as these students owe ever-increasing amounts of late work, they respond to the anxiety generated by that overhang of overdue assignments by actively avoiding that work. And thus the problem only grows worse (Hawkins & Axelrod, 2008).

When a student begins to slip in the completion and submission of assignments, the teacher can take steps proactively to interrupt this work-avoidant pattern of behavior by meeting with the student to create a plan to catch up with late work. (It is also recommended that the parent attend such a conference, although parent participation is not required.) In this 'late-work' conference, the teacher and student inventory what work is missing, negotiate a plan to complete that overdue work, and perhaps agree on a reasonable penalty for any late work turned in. Teacher, student (and parent, if attending) then sign off on the work plan. The teacher also ensures that the atmosphere at the meeting is supportive, rather than blaming, toward the student. And of course, any work plan hammered out at this meeting should seem attainable to the student.

Below in greater detail are the steps that the teacher and student would follow at a meeting to renegotiate missing work. (NOTE: Teachers can use the Student Late-Work Planning Form: Middle & High School to organize and document these late-work conferences.):

• Inventory All Missing Work. The teacher reviews with the student all late or missing work. The student is given the opportunity to explain why the work has not yet been submitted.  
• Negotiate a Plan to Complete Missing Work. The teacher and student create a log with entries for all of the missing assignments. Each entry includes a description of the missing assignment and a due date by which the student pledges to submit that work. This log becomes the student’s work plan. It is important that the submission dates for late assignments be realistic--particularly for students who owe a considerable amount of late work and are also trying to keep caught up with current assignments.  A teacher and student may agree, for example, that the student will have two weeks to complete and submit four late writing assignments. NOTE: Review this form as a tool to organize and document the student’s work plan.  
• [Optional] Impose a Penalty for Missing Work. The teacher may decide to impose a penalty for the work being submitted late. Examples of possible penalties are a reduction of points (e.g., loss of 10 points per assignment) or the requirement that the student do additional work on the assignment than was required of his or her peers who turned it in on time.  If imposed, such penalties would be spelled out at this teacher-student conference. If penalties are given, they should be balanced and fair, permitting the teacher to impose appropriate consequences while allowing the student to still see a path to completing the missing work and passing the course.  
• Periodically Check on the Status of the Missing-Work Plan. If the schedule agreed upon by teacher and student to complete and submit all late work exceeds two weeks, the teacher (or other designated school contact, such as a counselor) should meet with the student weekly while the plan is in effect. At these meetings, the teacher checks in with the student to verify that he or she is attaining the plan milestones on time and still expects to meet the submission deadlines agreed upon. If obstacles to emerge, the teacher and student engage in problem-solving to resolve them.

Attachments

• Download This Blog Entry in PDF Format: How To: Help Students to Complete Missing Work: The Late-Work Teacher-Student Conference
• Cooper, H., & Valentine, J. C. (2001). Using research to answer practical questions about homework. Educational Psychologist, 36 (3), 143-153.
• Hawkins, R. O., & Alexrod, M. I. (2008). Increasing the on-task homework behavior of youth with behavior disorders using functional behavioral assessment. Behavior Modification, 32, 840-859.

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How to deal with missing & late-work: one teacher’s approach

Hey readers! It’s been a while since you’ve seen anything from us at Three Teachers Talk. We, like all of you, feel like we’ve been trudging through this year. Between the zooms, the Nearpods, the screencasts, the quarantines, the cleaning protocols, the bandwith issues…well, you get the picture. It’s been a lot.

Now we’re at the half-point of this year and so many are struggling with engagement. How do we “hold kids accountable” in the midst of all this? And what can we learn that might go beyond the crisis teaching we’re doing now? I’ve been loving following Tyler Rabin’s (@tylerrabin) journey around these issues and invited him to share his thinking with all of you.

We hope you’re safe. We hope you’re well. We hope this helps.

I’ve gone through this cycle more often than I’d like:

• Realize that grade penalties on late work are bad.
• Eliminate all grade penalties.
• Immediately get overwhelmed by late work and a lack of organization.
• Rush to reimpose late penalties.

I would argue that in most classrooms, grade penalties don’t exist because the teacher likes them; grade penalties exist because we don’t feel like we have an alternative.

On top of that, they work. For some things. The things they work for are the easily visible pieces. Do students hand more things in with grade penalties than without? Typically, yes. 

But, let’s also point out some of the things we know about how extrinsic motivators, especially punishments, impact student learning. This blog captures some of the key points from Daniel Pink’s work on motivation well, and the first point that we have to be aware of is that, while extrinsic motivation does increase short-term motivation, it actually hurts it long-term. This means that we can use it once or twice to convince someone to do something, but eventually that ends up no longer being motivating. Sound like any students you’ve had? 

The second piece is the more concerning piece. Extrinsic motivation increases someone’s drive to complete basic tasks, but it hinders their ability to engage in complex process. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but I believe learning falls under the latter category. While I wish I could put this softly, I don’t know a way around the harshness of this fact: an emphasis on late penalties values compliantly completing a task more than it does the student’s ability to learn. 

Now, here’s where we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Late penalties are, in essence, a barrier to learning, but in most cases, there doesn’t appear to be a sustainable alternative for teachers. We don’t want to have to use grade penalties, but we are human. We need to have lives, and the constantly ebb and flow of late work is exhausting and time-consuming. 

This concept was weighing heavily on me a few months back. I too often criticize the act of using grade penalties without acknowledging the reality of our context or providing possible solutions. As I wrestled through this in an attempt to provide a solution, I recorded the most helpful info I could into the longest thread I’ve ever posted on Twitter. However, as it always goes on Twitter, it lacked the depth the conversation needs. 

As such, I’ve broken the thread into segments so that I can provide additional details about how to address the late work issue in meaningful ways without using grade penalties and without losing your sanity. 

Part 1: Organizing Assignments into Essential vs. Non-essential

This Tweet probably needs the most explanation. If you remove grade penalties and allow students to turn in ALL their work whenever they want, you will lose every ounce of free time you have. The key is to really identify the assignments that carry the most value. This isn’t to say that the non-essential assignments aren’t valuable, but the non-essential assignments should mean that their function is to allow students to practice specific skills and demonstrate their current level of understanding. They should have more than just that one opportunity to do that for each skill. But…I’m getting ahead of myself. 

Part 2: Non-essential Assignments – Multiple Attempts for Learning

The key with these assignments is that the student will have further opportunities to demonstrate their learning, but these missed assignments demonstrate a need for a different type of support, a support that grade penalties just frankly don’t offer. For your sake, don’t take late work that falls into this category. Tell the student that they missed this opportunity, but they will get another shot at it later. However, if you end there, kids will receive the message that every educator fears: deadlines and completing assignments aren’t important. 

This is why there must be a system or process set up to hold students accountable in a way that actually focuses on building those skills. Like I mentioned, my favorite is to have them stay after class and schedule their week with me. I can also put them on my list of students who receive my Remind messages about upcoming assignments. Somehow there has to be a clear next step for students who miss these assignments so that they know (a) you’re paying attention, (b) it’s important, and (c) you want them to get better at self-management and executive functioning. 

Part 3: Final Evaluation

All of this comes down to the fact that we should be averaging scores over time to determine a final score. Not only does that result in an inaccurate report of student learning, but it means that missing assignments will almost inevitably factor into the final grade (unless you drop scores, which I’m always a proponent of). 

At the end of a term, the goal is that you are doing a summative evaluation (preferably with the student) where you are looking through their data to determine their final scores. If this step isn’t happening, missing and late work usually ends up being a significant factor in a student’s grade. 

Now, I know a lot of people are thinking, “What about the student who doesn’t turn in ANY work?!” At some point, a lack of evidence is a lack of evidence, and that student hasn’t given you enough to demonstrate proficiency in the skill. I have found that this happens WAY less often than we think it does, though. 

Part 4: Authentic Consequences for Authentic Assessments

Tweets: 

While I probably don’t need to elaborate here, I want to make sure one word shines through: authentic. How are we creating experiences where students get to apply their learning in authentic ways so that the cost of not doing something is actually meaningful for the student? Is this a one-size-fits-all thing? Absolutely not. For a consequence to be meaningful, there must be an element of choice in it. The student has to have had some control and ability to bring in their full self – their passions, interests, goals, etc – to the project. That is when the consequences become powerful. 

Part 5: Final Thought

This is why I get so worked up about grade penalties. I know we do them because it feels like we don’t have an alternative, but so often these grade penalties are just kicking a horse who’s already down. These are students who often have already been told they’re bad at school, maybe not explicitly, but the message has been sent over and over. They don’t need another reminder that they can’t do it. We teach them nothing when we add penalties on top of self-doubt. What they need is someone who notices they are struggling, but instead of blaming the student and calling it good, that person goes, “Here’s how we’re going to do better next time. Let’s let this one go and move forward together.”

This is why we have to stop depending on grade penalties. They are a way of washing our hands of the responsibility of educating our kids, of helping them see their best selves. We can do better. It’s not easy, but we can do it, one small change at a time.

Tyler Rablin is a current instructional coach and National Board certified high school language arts teacher in Sunnyside School District in Sunnyside, WA. On the side, he is a consultant with Shifting Schools, contributing writer for Edutopia, and a Google for Education certified trainer. His educational passion is focused on the ways that meaningful technology integration, modernized assessment strategies, and strong cultures of learning can allow us to provide meaningful, powerful, and personal learning experiences for each of our students. In his personal life, he enjoys reading, running, and spending time hiking and camping with his wife and two dogs.

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Students Email Their Parents About Missing Work

In my last blog post titled, “ Stop Taking Grading Home ,” I explained how I use the Station Rotation Model to provide students with real-time feedback as they work instead of taking grading home. I had one teacher ask me what I do when a student arrives at my teacher-led station and has not done the work required. That’s a great question, so I wanted to share my very simple strategy with my readers.

If students have fallen behind on a formal essay, large scale assignment, or project , I require that they begin their session with me at the teacher-led real-time feedback station by writing their parents an email to explain why they have not completed the work they were assigned. They must CC me on the email, use the formal business letter format, and propose a specific action plan to catch up on their work.

This strategy is so simple but so effective! Students are rarely asked to take ownership of and responsibility for their work. Typically, a parent does not realize there is a problem until a zero is entered into a gradebook or report cards are mailed home. Requiring students to contact their parents and take responsibility for their work at various check-points along the process creates an incentive for students to prioritize their school work. This strategy also takes the responsibility off of the teacher, who is typically the person tasked with reaching out to the parents when there is an issue.

The most rewarding part of this strategy are the conversations that take place between parents and their children. Because I am CCed on the initial email, parents typically “reply all” and keep me in the loop as they dialogue with their child. I love the questions parents ask in their follow-up emails, like “Why weren’t you able to complete this part of the assignment when it was due? How are you using your class time? What can I do at home to support you in getting your work done?” I see so much value in encouraging students to have these conversations with their parents.

As soon as I adopted this strategy, more students completed their work on time and several parents thanked me for keeping them in the loop about their child’s progress, or lack thereof.

At the start of this school year, I posted a blog titled “ Who is doing the work in your classroom? ” where I said I planned to try to flip my thought process to make sure students were the ones working because the people doing the work are the ones learning. Each time I was tempted to say, “I could…” I challenged myself and my co-teacher to flip the statement and instead make it a question like “How can students…?” This shift in is what led, in part, to having students email their parents. I remember saying to my co-teacher, “We should email the parents of students who’ve fallen behind on their essays.” Her response was, “Why not make them do it?” Thank goodness for her reminders!

So, whenever you feel daunted by all you have to do as an educator, ask yourself how you can make your students do more of the work in your classroom. From that work will come real learning.

59 Responses

Admirable idea/strategy. Are you keeping statistical evidence on its effectiveness? I love the fact that it puts the ownership right where it belongs. I like it.

I have not spent much time comparing data from this year to last year, but I definitely could. This is just one of many shifts I’ve made this year so I’m not sure comparing data would help me to identify the impact of this one strategy given how much has changed in my approach.

Or…your students could track the data??

I agree with Vicki Healy. However, what do you have student do when there is no email for a parent?

If the station is near the phone – you could have the student call home.

I’ll check it out. Thanks, Sylvia!

I’m still reflecting on the strategy. It is borderline punitive, “if you do not do this…then I will tell your parents.” Have you considered sitting down with student and determining why they did not do the assignment before contacting parents? If this intervention doesn’t work, I can see getting parents involved but bringing them into the situation prematurely seems to destroy any relationship and trust a student has with you.

I work closely with my students throughout the entire process of a piece of writing or a project. We have many conversations daily about what they are working on, where they are at, and what they need from me to be successful. Those conversations are fundamental to my real-time feedback approach to assessment, so these parent emails are not premature. They are designed to inform parents of their progress, or lack thereof, and encourage students to take ownership of that progress. Because I do not use a traditional gradebook (as described in prior posts) this is an important strategy to pull parents into the conversation about their child’s progress.

Your strategy incorrectly assumes that all students have control over their learning environment and productivity.

What about those students whose ineffective parents prevent them from completing or submitting work. How do you avoid making home worse for those kids? Even if the kid has good parents, that doesn’t mean those parents have the skills necessary to help students improve their writing productivity or proficiency.

You also assume that all kids produce writing at the same pace. Have you thought about asking students to log their progress during class and monitoring their writing strategies? Building metacognition will more effectively improve all students’ writing.

How can you make your learning environment more conducive to that child making progress?

Your comment about all of the assumptions I’m making about my kids suggests that you may not be familiar with my work or my approach to teaching. I wonder if after reading a bit more about my work and my current program if you would be asking me to think about how I can make my learning environment more conducive to supporting my students in making progress.

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In the State of California it is MANDATORY that parents are notified if their student will fail a class. If not it is illegal to give a student a failing grade. This strategy not only help students realize it is their responsibility to complete the required work, but meets that requirement. Great job Catlin!

It doesn’t have to be punitive if you make sure the student emails a plan to correct the issue. At that point it is a progress report and action plan for correction.

What do you do for those without email or internet?

I’ve only got one parent without email, so we do a phone call instead.

I really like your blog comments. They are a great reminder for educators to keep students accountable and parents informed along the way. I once, early in my career, had a wise principal ask me” who is doing all the work, Heather? You or the students? I stopped. I love email idea. Cheers from a retired senior science teacher.

Thank you for the comment, Heather!

I have had my students call their parents and do a similar thing using a script for years. It’s highly effective. The kids hate it, the parent love it and it saves me time! I find that the kids work harder to avoid having to call home again. I love the email idea ? I think I will try that next year! Thank you for sharing.

Jen, I would love to see a sample of your phone call script.

I have done this for the past 3 years and find it works exceptionally well. Like you, I do it for major items, not every little thing, unless there’s been a string of incomplete work. It gets them to take responsibility and reflect on their learning skills and time management, and it keeps parents informed as well. I find it has also greatly reduced the amount of students who were coming to class unprepared or with incomplete work. I have not found it to negatively impact the relationship I have with students as I very clearly set the parameters at the beginning of the year and I don’t use it excessively or all the time, only for bigger items. I always try and find out what the backstory is first as well, to help brainstorm solutions and what they could do to avoid these situations in the future (ex. Time management and learning skill strategies). We also spend time at the beginning of the year learning to organize and manage our weekly schedules and figure out where the gaps are to get homework done but also to have fun and relax It may not be every students’ favorite strategy (what grade 6 student likes being held accountable?), but, like parenting, I think that we need to make good decisions for our students or help them make good decisions, whether they’re always popular or not. We’re not there to be their best friends, we’re adults there to support and guide them, and of course also have fun and learn from each other. Anyhow, just my two cents, but it sounds like it’s working for you! Thank you for sharing!

I definitely don’t do it for everything either, Steph.

I just do it for the big stuff. The stuff I’d want to know about as a parent.

Thanks for sharing how you approach using this with your kids!

What age group do you do this with? Secondary or intermediate ? Seems like a good strategy.

Hi Valerie,

I teach 9-10 grade. I feel like this is definitely a secondary strategy.

This is a thought provoking idea. I teach 7th grade and always look for ways to promote self-efficacy and responsibility. I would say that 50% of my students’ parents do not have emails. It’s a battle to communicate effectively. I wonder how your strategy would work via text message? I group text including parent and myself could serve the same purpose. I am so glad I came across your article today.

Thank you, Mary

If your parents are open to that, I’d definitely try it, Mary.

Emailing parents sounds like a really interesting strategy! I’m going to give it a shot. As for texting, it works really well in my room actually. I use Google Voice so the number is anonymous but works through all my devices and email. I definitely recommend it.

I also use a Google Voice number for some school-related things. (I’m outside the US now so it won’t work for everything.) . I really love that balance of reachability/anonymity of Google Voice. I get all the texts and voicemail transcriptions right away even though the number is not forwarded to my cell phone.

Catlin, I am constantly fed and encouraged by your work. Thank you very much for blogging about it. I am sorry there are some who just don’t “get it” or who comment without looking at the big picture. I am so glad you started a podcast, too!

Thank you for your kind words! I’m thrilled you enjoy my blog and my new podcast.

Happy New Year!

We have a system where we can use email to text parents and the responses come back to our email accounts. It is excellent for things like following up on attendance as parents are much more likely to respond to a text than an email.

When I was in high school (early 90s), my Latin teacher had a policy that if you did not complete your homework, you had to write a note to your parents explaining why. Those notes were then saved until parent teacher night. It was the only class for which i consistently did my homework. I knew what I was supposed to do. I knew there was no good reason why I couldn’t do it. She just held me accountable differently than my other teachers.

[…] Love this idea from Caitlin Tucker for addressing missing assignments — Students Email Their Parents About Missing Work […]

[…] I just love my class! We did lots of team building and getting to know you activities today and not much meat. I learned a LOT about some of my kiddos! One of them is even PERFECT (just ask him!) One of the things we did today was the sticky note posters – you know which ones. They are all over Pinterest. Students Email Their Parents About Missing Work. […]

Catlin, This blog post is fantastic. I love the idea of using the station rotation model for teacher led realtime feedback and putting the ownership of the learning on the students. Your solution to the homework issue is brilliant. Students learn responsibility, the connection to home is strengthened, and the teacher load is reduced.

Thanks for all your inspiration. We will be sharing this out to our teachers.

We are hoping to see you when you are in Nebraska this summer!

Ann Feldmann .

Thank you, Ann!

Moving assessment and feedback into the classroom has been incredible. Some teachers whether it’s too “idealistic,” but I think that has more to do with teachers feeling like they need to grade every single assignment. I’ve been much more strategic about what we spend our time assessing/discussing.

I’m excited to be in NE this July to work with teachers on blended learning!

Hi- I’m very intrigued by this idea, but I’m wondering how you get students to write an email when they won’t do their assigned work. Do you have to sit there with them while they write the email? I can’t see my students who refuse to do homework doing this. I love the idea if putting the responsibility on the student instead of me having to contact parents when they fall behind, but I’m wondering what this looks like in practice. Thanks!

Hi Kristen,

My students cycle through my teacher-led station as they work on large scale assignments and receive regular feedback from me. Most of the kids who have to write their parents have done some of the work but not all of it. They sit in my teacher-led station and write their email and don’t get to move onto the next station until I receive the CCed version in my inbox.

I do something similar to this in my classroom. I like that students are held accountable and parents are kept in the loop of what is happening in the classroom. As a parent, I would want to be informed. Success in schools involves parents, teachers and students to be involved 100%.

I love that you are encouraging the students to take ownership for their work, while still keeping parents informed. I can see how it would be a huge help with work completion! Thanks for sharing. I can’t wait to try it with my students!

Simple yet important idea….putting it on students opens up communication among all parties involved. I do this with certain projects (via phone call because our district has restrictions on who elementary students can email). I can see them emailing me and I forward it on to parents. Thanks for the tip!

This is a great idea. What a fantastic way to keep students accountable, but also bring the parents into the classroom. As a secondary teacher myself I find myself not involving parents as much as I would like and this would be a great way to get them more informed about your classroom as well as holding the students accountable. Love it!

Thank you for this clearer picture on how I can better handle missing assignments with my students! Our Principal asks for an email to be sent home letting parents know our student hadn’t completed an assignment. This idea helps my middle schoolers become more accountable for their actions and learning all while completed the required task of notifying parents about the missing assignment. Great idea!

You’re welcome, Phillip!

Students taking responsibility for their learning…AMEN!! Providing a path for students to have open communication with the parents about their learning is so valuable!! Thanks for the GREAT blog post!

I’m waiting for your book to arrive and will be implementing many of your ideas next year. I’m wondering how many students you have through the day? Next year I’ll have 38 in each class for 51 minutes. It’s taken me a long time to conference with kids individually this year and am worried about how I’m going to make this happen on a bigger scale next year with such big classes and short periods.

Hi Marianne,

I’m piloting a program where I am actually co-teaching English, science, and technology, so I have 60 students at a time. My co-teacher and I work in block periods, which does give me a lot of time to work with them. 38 is a lot of kids and 51 minutes is not a lot of time. If I was trying to tackle that, I’d probably plan a 5 station rotation lesson that would extend over the corse of a week. Unfortunately, that means I’m only meeting with one group a day, but I could still work with students in small groups or pull them to work individually. It would make keeping all of my feedback/assessment in class more challenging. I’d have to use technology strategically and really keep all of my feedback super focused.

What do you do about parents who are not involved/supportive of their students and emailing/calling is not going to have an effect one way or the other. I have a group of kids this year who are VERY apathetic toward any kind of work. Unfortunately, the parents are the same way. I know that they are capable of doing the work, they just won’t. I have tried all year to find what motivates them and honestly nothing works! Thoughts?

At that point, Melissa, there isn’t much more I can do. My job is to keep the parents in the loop, but I cannot make a parent follow through. I typically focus my attention on communicating with the students in those cases where I know the parents aren’t involved.

with the advancement of technology of course we also have to upgrade tricks and teaching strategies. and that’s a good, simple but effective strategy

Great idea! I am interested in starting this process in my own classroom. Just curious as to how you began? Did you send home a letter explaining the process and ask for parent emails? If so, could I possibly see an example?

Again, great idea and thank you for sharing! Its extremely important for students to take ownership of their own learning and progress!

Students know their parents’ email addresses. Since they write the emails and CC me, I did not need to collect them. Unfortunately, I cannot share a student email for privacy reasons. Typically, the emails begin with an explanation of what the assignment is, where they should be in terms of progress, where they actually are, and how they plan to catch up. Their action plan is the most important part of the email and must be specific with timelines.

Catlin, I really like this idea. How do they email their parents? Do they compose the email using your email address? I don’t know that many of my students have their own email…but then again, I have never asked.

Hi Danielle,

My students have a school email, so they just compose their emails and CC me. You could have them compose messages using your Remind.com account if they are too young for email.

That is an excellent idea! Thanks, Catlin. I do use Remind every year.

[…] also read about Catlin Tucker’s system of having students email their parents about missing work, and I think it sounds like a productive way to spend some of those minutes next to […]

[…] Students Email Their Parents About Missing Work. In my last blog post titled, “Stop Taking Grading Home,” I explained how I use the Station Rotation Model to provide students with real-time feedback as they work instead of taking grading home. I had one teacher ask me what I do when a student arrives at my teacher-led station and has not done the work required. That’s a great question, so I wanted to share my very simple strategy with my readers. If students have fallen behind on a formal essay, large scale assignment, or project, I require that they begin their session with me at the teacher-led real-time feedback station by writing their parents an email to explain why they have not completed the work they were assigned. […]

I’m curious to know if anyone has tried this with behavior?

This works wonderfully with behavior, homework, classwork or anything. I’ve always used it. I dont usually do emails. I do phone calls, during class, in the hallway, on the spot.

Acting crazy? Call your dad. Cant turn in assignments? Call your dad.

Disrupting my classroom? Call your dad. Oh, your dad is at work and can’t be disrupted? Well all the other students and teachers in the school are trying to work and you’re disrupting them, so…

Catlin, I do something similar using Remind. However, I am the one reaching out to the parents. I love the instant responses I usually get using Remind. I wish there was a way to send a Remind message and CC someone at the same time. I’d love to have them send the message. I was the same way and my kids knew that when it came down to it and they weren’t getting things done that a Remind message would be sent. It didn’t hurt our relationships at all. I really think it strengthened it.

For some of my parents without email, I had students record an audio message from the students and texted it to the parents. I agree it would be nice to have a CC feature in Remind to allow students to initiate that communication with parents and include the teacher.

I also agree with your comment about this strategy strengthening relationships with students. It’s their learning journey, they should be responsible for articulating what is going well and what is not. Ultimately, I think kids understand that.

Take care! Catlin

Has anyone given any thought to how this policy might play out for kids in an abusive family situation? I can easily imagine a scenario in which a kid gets beaten for missing a homework assignment that was already difficult to complete because of a chaotic or abusive home life.

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• Teaching Tips

Dealing With Students Missing Exams and In-Class Graded Assignments

Teachers often become more aware of students’ out-of-class activities than they might wish. Announcements and memos from the dean of students inform about sporting teams and their games and tournaments, forensics, service learning conferences, community-based work, and the like. And teachers quickly become familiar with student lifestyles and illnesses ¾ mono, strep throat, hangovers, the opening of deer and fishing seasons, quilting bees, family vacations, and their family mortality statistics. The relationship between exams and mandatory in-class work and the death of students’ cousins and grandparents is so high it should be a concern of the National Center for Disease Control. Given all this, it is a certainty that students will miss exams and other required activities. What is a teacher to do?

If you want to hear colleagues express frustration, ask them about make-up exams and assignments. Despite knowing intellectually that such absences will occur, teachers hope and pray, even in public institutions, that all of their students will take exams as scheduled. Alas, such prayers are rarely answered, and teachers are faced with the practical issues of keeping track of students who miss exams and assignments, as well as managing make-ups.

All of our advice, except that related to ethics, should be read through the filter of the type of institution where you teach, and the types of courses you teach and how large they are. For example, at a small liberal arts school, where teaching is a faculty member’s primary responsibility, more time may be spent with students who miss exams or assignments, and more creative (time consuming) alternatives may be practical as compared with someone teaching classes of 300 or 500 or more in a Research I institution.

Ethics Teachers are not to cause students harm; we must treat them fairly and equitably, and they must be allowed to maintain their dignity (Keith-Spiegel, Whitley, Balogh, Perkins, & Wittig, 2002). Whatever your procedures are for students who miss exams and required in-class work, they must be equitable, providing students equal chances to earn a good grade by demonstrating equal knowledge. The hard part may be balancing academic rigor and accountability for what students are to learn with a fair and manageable process for those who miss required exams and assignments.

Make-up Exams These should not be more difficult than the original test but must be, as best as you can design, alternate forms of the same exam. Exam banks that accompany texts make designing such alternate forms of multiple-choice tests relatively easy, and colleagues teaching two or more sections of the same course in a semester, who give alternate forms of exams, are often a good source of advice on this matter. Be thoughtful about the following:

• An essay make-up exam may be unethical if regular exams are multiple choice or short answer (or vice versa), since students must study differently and they may be more difficult.
• An oral exam may “punish” students who do not think well on their feet, or are more socially anxious.
• Scheduling make-up exams at inconvenient or undesirable times may express your frustration, but you or someone else will have to be there at the “inconvenient” time also, and such arrangements raise issues of foul play.
• It may be inequitable to students who meet all course requirements to allow their peers to do extra credit or drop their lowest grade instead of making up a missed exam.

In-class Assignments The same considerations exist for students who miss in-class required presentations, or other graded work. If possible, students who were to present should be given opportunities to make up the assignment using the same grading criteria.

Planning Ahead

Spell-out Missed Exam Procedure in Course Policies No matter how well you teach or what inducements or penalties you impose, some students will miss exams and required class activities. Good educational practice argues that you plan for this reality as you design your course, not two days before (or after) your first exam. You want as few surprises as possible once the course begins.

Put your policies in your syllabus. Have a section in your syllabus on exams and other graded work. Specify your policies and procedures if students know in advance they will be absent, or how to notify you if, for whatever reason, they were absent, and any effect, if any, absences will have on their grade.

Keep your policy clear and simple. Before finalizing your syllabus, ask a few students to read your make-up policy to determine if it can be easily understood. If your explanation of what students are to do in the case of missing an exam, and how their grade is affected, is not easily understood, revise it. In developing your policy, do you want students to:

• Notify you if they know they will miss, preferably at least 24 hours in advance, and give you the reason? Talking with you before or after class offers the best opportunity to provide feedback if the reason is questionable, to work out alternatives, and so forth. E-mail also can be useful.
• Notify you as soon as possible after missing an exam or required assignment and give the reason? Again, in person or e-mail work best.
• Present a letter from an authority (e.g., physician) documenting the reason? Keep in mind any student can “forge” such documentation or manipulate it in other ways, e.g., “Fred came to see me complaining of a severe headache.”
• Have their grades lowered if their absence is not “acceptable” (e.g., overslept versus seriously ill)? How will you decide what is acceptable? Our experience suggests that “legitimate” reasons for absence include, but are not limited to: illness of the student or a close relative, accident, court appearance, military duty, broken auto, hazardous weather, and university activities (e.g., athletics, forensics).

Policies should reflect the nature of the exam or graded assignment. If you are teaching an introductory course and each module largely stands alone, it may be appropriate for students to make up a missed exam late in the semester. But if you want students to demonstrate knowledge or competency on an exam or assignment because future course material builds on that which comes earlier, you want to give the students much less time to make up the missed work.

Common policies. A common procedure is for the teacher, teaching assistant, or departmental secretary to distribute and proctor make-up exams during prearranged times (Perlman&McCann, in press). You might also consider allowing students to take make-up exams during exam periods in other courses you are teaching.

Make your policies easy to implement. To maintain your sanity and keep your stress level manageable, you must be able to easily implement your policies. For example, even if you, a secretary, or a graduate student distribute and proctor make-up exams, problems can arise. For example:

• The secretary is ill or on vacation, or you are ill or have a conference to attend. You never want to change the time make-ups are available to students once these are listed in the course syllabus. Have backups available who know where make-up exams are stored, can access them, and can administer and proctor them.
• Too many students for the make-up space. Investigate room sizes and number of rooms available. You may need more than one room if some students have readers because of learning disabilities.
• Students often forget there is a common make-up the last week of the semester. Remind them often and announce this policy on class days when students are taking an exam, as this may be the only time some students who have missed a previous exam come to class.

Encourage appropriate, responsible, mature behaviors. Take the high road and let students know how they “should” behave. For example, one colleague includes this statement in the syllabus:

I expect students to make every effort to take required exams and make course presentations as scheduled. If you know in advance you will miss such a requirement, please notify me. If you are ill or other circumstances cause you to miss a required graded activity, notify me as soon as possible.

One of our colleagues states in her syllabus for a psychology of aging class, “It is very bad form to invent illnesses suffered by grandparents!” By giving students exemplars on how to behave appropriately, you can then thank them for their courtesy and maturity if they follow through, positively reinforcing such behaviors.

God lives in the details. Always err on the side of being “concrete.” If a make-up exam is at the university testing center, tell students where the testing center is. If you or a secretary hold make-up exams in an office, you may want to draw a map on how to get there. It is not uncommon for students to fail to find the office at the time of the exam, and wander around a large university building.

Students Who Miss Exams You have a variety of alternatives available on how to treat students who miss a scheduled exam. Select those that fit your course and the requirements of learning students must demonstrate.

Requiring make-up exams. If you collect all copies of your multiple choice or short answer exams, you may be able to use the same exam for make-ups. Our experience is that it is extremely rare that students deliberately miss an exam to have more time to study, whereas asking peers about specific exam questions more commonly occurs. Your experiences may be different. However, if you put exams on file at the university testing center, and students can take them weeks apart, you may want different forms. If you have concerns, you will need to prepare an equivalent, alternative form of the regular exam, as is often the case for essay tests.

Using procedures other than a make-up exam. Some faculty have students outline all text chapters required for an exam, use daily quiz scores to substitute for a missed exam, use the average of students’ exams to substitute for the one missed, score relevant questions on the comprehensive final to substitute for the missed test, or use a weighted score from the entire comprehensive final substituted for missed exam. Some teachers just drop one test grade without penalty (Buchanan&Rogers, 1990; Sleigh&Ritzer, 2001). Consider whether students will learn what you want from various alternatives and whether this work is equal to what students must demonstrate on exams before adopting such procedures. If your course contains numerous graded assignments of equal difficulty, and if it is equitable for students to choose to ignore a course module by not studying or taking the exam, you should consider this process.

Other teachers build extra credit into the course. They allow all students opportunities to raise their grades, offering a safety net of sorts for those who need to “make-up” a missed exam by doing “additional” assignments such as outlining unassigned chapters in the text.

Scheduling make-ups. Pick one or two times a week that are convenient for you, a department secretary, or teaching assistant, and schedule your make-ups then. Some faculty use a common time midway through the semester and at the end of the semester as an alternative.

Students Who Miss Other In-Class Assignments Allowing students to demonstrate learning on non-exam graded assignments can be tricky. Such assignments often measure different kinds of learning than exams: the ability to work in groups, critical thinking as demonstrated in a poster, or an oral presentation graded in part on professional use of language. But you do have some alternatives.

Keeping the required assignment the same. If the assignment is a large one and due near the end of the semester, consider using an “incomplete” grade for students who miss it. Alternatively, students can present their oral work or poster in another course you are teaching if the content is relevant and time allows it. The oral required assignment also can be delivered just to the teacher or videotaped or turned in on audiotape.

Alternative assignments. As with missed exams, you can weigh other assignments disproportionately to substitute for in-class graded work — by doubling a similar assignment if you have more than one during the semester, for example. The dilemma, of course, is not allowing students easy avenues to avoid a required module or assignment without penalty. For example, oral assignments can be turned in as written work, although this may negate some of the reasons for the assignment.

When we asked colleagues about alternatives for missed in-class graded assignments (as compared with exams), almost everyone cautioned against listing them in the course syllabus. They felt that students could then weigh the make-up assignment versus the original and choose the one that gave them the greatest chance of doing well, and also the least amount of anxiety (in-class presentations often make students nervous). They recommended simply telling students that arrangements would be made for those missing in-class required graded work on a case-by-case basis.

Students Who Miss the “Make-Up” On occasion, students will miss a scheduled make-up. Say something about this event in your syllabus, emphasizing the student’s responsibility to notify the instructor. We recommend that instructors reserve the right to lower a student’s grade by “x” number of points, or “x” letter grades. If you place exams at a university testing center, you may not find out the work has not been made up until the course is over, leaving you little choice but to give the student an “F” on that exam or assignment.

When the Whole Class Misses a Required Exam or Assignment On rare, but very memorable, occasions the entire class may miss an exam or assignment. For example, both authors have had the fire alarm go off during an exam. After a bomb threat cleared the building during his exam, the campus police actually contacted one author to identify whether a person caught on camera at a service station was a student calling in the bomb scare. (It was not.) The other author experienced the bomb squad closing a classroom building during finals week due to the discovery of old, potentially explosive, laboratory chemicals. Of course, the blizzard of the century or a flood might occur the night before your exam. What is a teacher to do?

The exam or graded assignment must be delayed. Prepare beforehand. Always build a make-up policy into your syllabus for the last exam or student presentation in a course. Talk with your department chair or dean about college or university policy. State that if weather or other circumstances force a make-up, it will occur at a certain time and place. This forethought is especially important if you teach at a northern institution where bad winter weather is not unusual. For exams and assignments during the semester, the policy that works best is to reschedule them (again, stating this in your syllabus) for the next regular class period. Call attention to this policy early in the semester, and post it on your course Web site. The last thing you want to do is call or e-mail everyone in the class to tell them an exam has been cancelled.

An exam or graded assignment is interrupted. Graded assignments such as oral presentations are easily handled. If time allows, continue after the interruption; if not, continue the next class period or during your designated “make-up” time.

If something interrupts an exam, ask students to leave their exams and answers on their desks or hand them in to you, take all personal materials, and leave immediately. A teacher can easily collect everything left in most classes in a few moments. Leave materials on desks if the class is large, or be the first person back to the room after the interruption. Fire alarms, bomb scares, and the like usually cause a lot of hubbub. Only if you have a lengthy two- or three-hour class, with time to allow students to collect themselves and refocus, and no concern about their comparing answers to questions during the delay, should the exam be continued that same day or evening.

If the interruption occurs late in the class period, you might tell students to turn in their work as they leave. You can then determine how you want to grade exams or the assignment, using pro-rated points or percentages, and assign grades accordingly.

If the interruption is earlier in the hour, the exam will have to be delayed, usually until the next class period. With a multiple-choice exam, we advise giving students the full (next) class period to finish their exams. If you are concerned about students comparing questions they have already answered, you will have to quickly develop an alternate exam.

A teacher’s decisions are more complicated if the exam is short answer or essay. Students may have skimmed all essay or short answer questions before an interruption. Will they prepare for those questions before the next class period? What if some students only read the first essay question but do not know the others they must answer? Preparing an alternate exam may be feasible, but students need to know you will do so, so they do not concentrate their studying on specific topics you will not ask about.

We know that such class interruptions are rare, but they can wreak havoc with students and teachers, be stressful, and raise issues of fairness that echo throughout the rest of the course. We advise teachers to talk with colleagues, and we have found a department brown bag on the topic fascinating. Your colleagues may have some creative and sound advice.

Summary A teacher needs to plan ahead. Take some time to think about what it means for you and students who miss required in-class work. A little preparation can save a lot of time and hassle later in the semester. Students deserve and will appreciate policies that are equitable and manageable.

Author’s Note: The authors are interested how teachers deal with missed or interrupted graded in-class work (and their horror stories). Contact us with your ideas and experiences at [email protected] .

References and Recommended Reading

• Buchanan, R. W., & Rogers, M. (1990). Innovative assessment in large classes. College Teaching, 38 , 69-74.
• Carper, S. W. (1995). Make-up exams: What’s a professor to do? Journal of Chemical Education, 72 , 883.
• Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for teaching . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Keith-Spiegel, P., Whitley, B.G. E. Jr., Balogh, D. W., Perkins, D. V., & Wittig, A. F. (2002). The ethics of teaching: A casebook (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• McKeachie, W. J. (2001). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (11th ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Nilson, L. B. (2003). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (2nd ed). Bolton, MA: Anker.
• Perlman, B., & McCann, L. I. (in press). Teacher evaluations of make-up exam procedures. Psychology Learning and Teaching, 3 (2).
• Sleigh, M. J., & Ritzer, D. R. (2001). Encouraging student attendance. APS Observer, 14 (9), pp. 19-20, 32.

Do you know of any research related to taking points off an exam for students who take a make-up for whatever reason? It is mentioned in this article but I’m interested in evidence to back up that it is fair and/or punitive in a college setting with adult learners. Thank you. Gerri Russell, MS, RN

I teach introductory nutrition and other biology classes. If a student can prove that they missed an exam or assignment for a verifiable reason, even if they let me know ahead of time (usually technology related reasons), I let them make it up without taking points off. If they can’t prove it I take off points as follows: 10% off per day late during the first week after the assignment is due. Half credit earned after that. Even if they know there are always students who just miss things for no apparent good reason. I feel like this is fair because it gives them the responsibility for making it up, and I’d rather people become familiar with the material, rather than just not do it at all.

I think that the mid semester tests must be abolished from all colleges/universities in order to let them prepare for the final exams without any pressure of getting grades,this will not give rise to any decompetition then,so I personally feel that my suggestion will be very useful I want everyone to obey that

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About the Author

BARON PERLMAN is editor of "Teaching Tips." A professor in the department of psychology, distinguished teacher, and University and Rosebush Professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in the department of psychology, he has taught psychology for 29 years. He continues to work to master the art and craft of teaching. LEE I. MCCANN is co-editor of "Teaching Tips." A professor in the department of psychology and a University and Rosebush Professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, he has taught psychology for 38 years. He has presented numerous workshops on teaching and psychology curricula, his current research interests.

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A Better Way to Handle Missing Assignments

Published: November 04, 2022

In a perfect world, all students would submit their work on time. However, for a variety of reasons, this is rarely the case.

Google Classroom is great for allowing teachers to assign work and for students to submit work. As a classroom teacher, I enjoy the convenience of finding student work organized in Google Classroom rather than trying to manage a stack of papers for each assignment. However, I run into the challenge of providing a list of what a student still needs to complete.

Missing Assignments Report

Google Classroom lacks a missing assignments report. When a parent or guardian requests a list of what their student is missing, I cannot send the list from Classroom. In a particular class, I can go to the People tab and drill down to a student, filter for Missing Assignments and then copy and paste that information into an email. 

Customizable Missing Assignments Reports

Fortunately, there is a free and better way to share a list of missing assignments. Schoolytics allows teachers to sync their Google Classroom classes. After logging in, a “Missing Assignments” report is easily accessed.

Create a Filter

Do you just want a list of what a student is missing this week? Or maybe just homework assignments that are missing? Schoolytics allows you to use the filter options at the top to customize the information you want to share. Change the date range from the default “Last 30 days” or filter for class or grading category.

Post to the Stream

If you want to communicate with students about their missing assignments, the Stream is a great option. When selecting to message student assignments the options are “Email” and “Stream.” Click on the Stream to send a list of live links that only the student can view. This shows up right in Google Classroom. The note, either for Email or the Stream, is customizable.

Share with Guardians

Use the 3 dots menu throughout the Schoolytics platform to export information to a Google Doc, Sheets or PDF. Selecting “Save to Drive” creates an editable and customizable missing assignments report that you can send to a parent or guardian. As a classroom teacher, I particularly love this feature since I have control over what information is being shared rather than a generic report that might generate more questions than it answers. 

CC Guardians

A district-wide Schoolytics plan allows you to directly share missing assignments reports with parents and guardians. Under the email option, there is a checkbox to allow you to CC Guardians. 

• Select the email option.
• Checkbox CC Guardians to send a list of missing assignments.
• Customize the email subject line.
• Customize the assignment message. The list of missing assignments will be dynamically generated for each student.
• Document that you notified students and their guardians of their missing assignments.
• Bulk send to students and guardians the report

Save Time with Schoolytics

I save hours of time each week by using Schoolytics to gain insights into student performance, quickly know which assignments have been submitted, and creating reports for better communication about student performance. Schoolytics is a tool that enhances my use of Google Classroom and saves me time. 

About the Author

Alice Keeler is a teacher and author of the book “Stepping Up to Google Classroom.” Find her on Twitter @alicekeeler and on her blog, alicekeeler.com . 

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• Comments policy

Strategies for reaching out to students who have gone missing or are falling behind

by Harry on February 19, 2016

A friend writes:

I am putting together a teaching workshop in my department that will focus on strategies for reaching out to students who have gone missing or are falling behind. Any suggestions of short things to read that I could circulate ahead of time?

I don’t know of any short readings, but thought that some CTers might and that, even if not, a post might generate a discussion worth reflecting on.

All I have are anecdotes and I’m inhibited from telling them because the people involved might recognise themselves — the more detailed the anecdote, the more useful, but also the more likely they are to recognise themselves. My main strategy, if you can call it that, is to write gentle emails to students who are persistently absent, in a tone that invites them back to class without bugging them or being harsh. This almost always elicits a response, and several students have observed, later, that the tone of the email was important because the student had missed enough classes that they were embarrassed to come back, and some of their absence was just caused by previous absences. Here’s one that I feel confident the student in question will recognize, but will be fine with:

“Are you doing ok? I’m just writing because you missed class last week, and I wondered if you’re doing ok. Don’t worry, I’m not giving you a hard time: mainly I want to nudge you to be sure you’re in class on Tuesday because it will be fun, and you’ll make good contributions.”

Obviously, the final phrase is only there because it is sincere (I knew she would make good contributions if she came to class, and in this case knew that she probably knew that too). Occasionally such an email prompts much deeper interaction — obviously, some persistently absent students are just absent, but others have real problems that they are not handling well, and need help with. But even though such emails usually get a response, and always a friendly one, they are not all successful — in the class from which the above email is taken another student persisted in absenteeism, and wouldn’t get help.

Anyway — if you can recommend reading that’d be great, and if you can’t, but have stories that of things that have worked, or haven’t worked, that’d be great too.

Share this:

{ 67 comments }

chris y 02.19.16 at 3:48 pm

Put a Glock to their heads.

AcademicLurker 02.19.16 at 4:19 pm

If Mount St. Mary’s doesn’t adopt a bunny holding a Glock as their new mascot, I’ll be terribly disappointed.

Sumana Harihareswara 02.19.16 at 5:01 pm

Harry, in my experience as a teacher and as a manager, I can’t think of anything more effective (in a broad-spectrum way) than the kind of email you suggested, in an explicitly nonjudgmental tone. If I’m close enough to the person, as in a seminar or an employer-employee relationship, I might add a phone call after an initial email has not been answered for about two days.

When I was doing my bachelor’s and I flaked on an undergrad research assistant gig, I was embarrassed to get back in touch with the professor after what felt like a super long time had passed, and I would have welcomed the kind of note you mention.

Trivial 02.19.16 at 5:09 pm

Your individual *nudge* usually *gets a response,* but both frequently and infrequently (depending on the class) such a message is met with silence. I usually send listserv reminders to the students and, if a student initially provides documentation, a follow-up message. That said, your individual message seems to spur attendance. I’ll mull over more examples from my own limited experience.

RNB 02.19.16 at 5:39 pm

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-improve-your-life-with-story-editing/ “For example, I did a study with first-year college students who were not doing well academically. They were at risk of adopting a negative, self-defeating thinking pattern in which they blamed themselves and concluded that they weren’t “college material.” We randomly divided the students into two groups. One group got information indicating that many people do poorly their first year but do better after they learn the ropes, and watched videotaped interviews of upperclass students who reinforced this message. The idea was to encourage students to change how they interpreted their own academic difficulties, redirecting them away from the negative, self-defeating idea that they weren’t cut out for college, to a more positive interpretation that they needed to learn how to do better. It worked: This group of students, compared to the control group (who got no information), achieved better grades the next semester and were less likely to drop out of college.”

Philip 02.19.16 at 5:40 pm

I am thinking more of ESOL for adults in the UK, than HE but reinforcing that being absent is okay but you need to let the tutor know what is happening. If one session is missed with no explanation then ask why and if everything is okay and give a reminder that you should let the tutor know before the session or if you can’t then as soon as possible. If it is more than a couple of sessions then a gentle email or phone call to see if everything is okay and reassure them that they haven’t missed too much or what they need to catch up. Mainly it is about having a good relationship with the students so they will communicate what is happening. Obviously this will be different in large HE classes. I would imagine more institutional support, from induction materials, student services etc. would be needed to reinforce the message that attendance is important but if you are absent tutors want to know, understand if it is a good reason, and try and help you.

Bloix 02.19.16 at 6:38 pm

And when there’s no reply to the email? In that case, you are watching a slow-motion fall from a ten-story roof.

A human being needs to talk to the student, in person, about the effect of failing a class. Promptly. This can be you or someone else.

Find out if the student participates in an activity. A club sport? A music-acting-debate-journalism-tutoring-student government activity? Ask the coach or whatever to help. This person can impose consequences. (Before you get on the bus for the away meet, you need to talk to Prof B.)

Is there a dorm mommy/daddy? Or does the kid belong to a Newman Club? Hillel?

If nothing is working, go to the dean for student affairs. Someone needs to tell the student that s/he is in danger of being asked to leave. Someone needs to say, which will be more embarrassing – talking to Prof B, or telling your parents that you flunked out? Someone needs to see if the kid is clinically depressed or has overwhelming financial, substance abuse/video game addiction (seriously!), relationship, or other difficulties.

Aside from the effects on the kid’s future – Starbucks, here we come! with $50,000 debt and no degree! – a failed class is $5000 down the toilet. Saving that kind of money is worth a vigorous intervention.

Trivial 02.19.16 at 7:22 pm

I also review academic dates during the initial weeks of the course, including refund and registration deadlines. After three or four weeks, my particular institution requires instructors to submit final rosters with no-show notations. This procedure shifts responsibility for silence, distinguished from limited responses, to administration. By mid-semester, however, administration provides instructors with a roster form that similarly includes grade-check notations (assume grades address participation rather than compulsory attendance). Instructors resubmit the roster, at which time an administration representative emails noted students with a grade-check message. This procedure, however, in no way precludes instructor advocacy for all students aa well as an individual student with prior documentation.

Lisa 02.19.16 at 7:47 pm

I like the way you keep it concerned but light. I wouldn’t say ‘don’t worry I’m not giving you a hard time…’ because I’d worry they’d get the idea their lack of attendance won’t affect their grade. I try to shoot for kind but firm– ‘just checking in…let me know if you need help with …midterm is in 2 weeks…’ I think keeping a tiny edge in there but showing you care is better because they may be looking for a reason why it’s OK to stay home. Totally made up figures but I’d say they respond about 80% of the time and about 50% return from their wanderings when given a breadcrumb trail to complete the course.

If they keep not showing up I say they have to meet with me or withdraw because they won’t pass without attending class–while also giving them that one last chance to catch up when this is possible.

A second suggestion is to talk to student advising. They sometimes have strategies to contact students and offer them more personalized assistance than is appropriate from a professor.

Some of my most brilliant students had periods of very poor attendance or bad grades. Usually it is due to life circumstances but it is also common for people of high ability and potential to become perfectionists and choke under pressure–both within and outside of school. Often it is temporary and they pull it together. I’ve even seen students go on to do wonderfully after a very serious bump in the road that required a leave for poor grades.

You should never shoot bunnies but I doubt anyone can perfectly identify bunnies in one semester or even in Freshman year. And even the bunnies may turn out very well.

Collin Street 02.19.16 at 8:31 pm

No, they really, really don’t, Bloix.

A communication is only useful if it contains information not known to both parties; having failed more than a few classes in my time, and knowing people who’ve done the same, I can assure you that by and large students who fail classes are fully aware of the consequences of that failure, and so communicating that.. well, it can’t be communicated because it’s information all parties already know, isn’t it.

What students don’t generally know, what Harry is trying to communicate to the students, and what you are opposed to Harry trying to communicate to the students is the possibilities and the pathways to not failing: that missing a few classes still leaves them in a recoverable position, that from where they are now failing out of the class is not the only option and attempting to catch up is not futile. Reducing the barriers to getting the student to turn up next time, reducing the stress — and thus cognitive burden, &c — on the student.

Telling students things they’re already perfectly aware of — what you’re proposing — adds stress to the students and so does not “help”. It makes things worse. If someone’s in a hole, they need a pathway out of the hole: they do not need to be told, and it is not helpful to tell them, that they are in a hole.

[to communicate effectively you need to put yourself in the position of the person you are communicating with to see the information that you have that a person in their position would want.]

TheSophist 02.19.16 at 8:37 pm

Many years ago I failed out of an ivy league school at the end of my sophomore year. Looking back on it now, it’s easy to see that after I’d missed a handful of classes due to hung over sleeping in/wanting just one more bong hit on the way out of the door/ just being lazy I got to the point where I was just plain embarrassed to show up, and so I didn’t. I think an email similar in tone to the one in the OP might have done wonders for me, in that it would “give me permission” to return to class without feeling too humiliated. Of course this was so long ago that email wasn’t a thing yet, so a prof might have had to make a phone call – an interaction that I suspect neither I nor the professors would have relished.

Best of luck to your friend with this. Sincerely.

T 02.19.16 at 8:56 pm

What you’re suggesting is standard operating procedure at some US liberal arts schools. I strongly encourage you and your friend to adopt this approach. Sometimes the issue is too many bong hits as noted by TheSophist. Other times it is depression. In either case, having a faculty member or dean show interest can be very helpful. In my experience, large public universities are terrible at this sort of thing, especially in cases of depression where a call or email might help the student reach out. So kudos to you for raising this issue and good luck to your friend.

harry b 02.19.16 at 9:21 pm

I’m basically technophobic, but TheSophist’s last point about emails and phone calls is something I have often thought about (and thought about blogging about) — I can’t imagine making a phone call with the content of the email I described, and, furthermore, I can’t imagine it prompting the valuable kind of correspondence I have sometimes had as a result. Email facilitates a different kind of communication in other words.

In addition to the fact that there are pathways to passing I am trying to communicate something else in the emails– without being too explicit (and thus seemingly pushy) about it I am trying to signal openness to hearing about the reasons for absence, which in some cases has been successful, with very nice outcomes. Students often have problems that are much more easily mitigated than they think; its just that they need to find the people who have the resources to help (and, often, professors know what those resources are, even if they don’t always know how to get the students to them!)

engels 02.19.16 at 9:29 pm

a prof might have had to make a phone call

Or written a note?

Bloix 02.19.16 at 9:31 pm

“No, they really, really don’t, Bloix.” Yes, really, really, they do, Collin Street.

“A communication is only useful if it contains information not known to both parties.”

I cannot begin to count the ways that this is a false statement. A husband says “I love you” to his wife. Is that a non-useful communication? And we can go from there.

“by and large students who fail classes are fully aware of the consequences”

That by and large is doing a hell of a lot of work there.

engels 02.19.16 at 9:34 pm

I can remember missing a couple of classes once at college (for complicated health reasons) and getting a very aggressive response. The dynamic this set in motion was definitely not a positive one (although it wasn’t ultimately fatal).

harry b 02.19.16 at 10:20 pm

Before email, in fact, we had no way of contacting student, now I think of it — neither addresses nor phone numbers were available to faculty (here). I guess you could have gathered them at the beginning of the semester, but I’d bet that would have seemed creepy (as, eg, collecting phone numbers still would have 5 years ago, though I’d guess it would be just fine now — and, indeed, I do sometimes ask for phone numbers, especially from students who are bad emailers)

PJW 02.19.16 at 11:06 pm

I tentatively approached a professor in 1983 at the University of Iowa after missing three lectures in the hope of receiving some guidance about getting caught up in the class and they spoke to me as angrily and harshly as anyone ever had in my life before or since. I just quit going to class altogether and took the mid-term and final exams. I have always regretted her behavior and mine.

engels 02.19.16 at 11:49 pm

Before email, in fact, we had no way of contacting student, now I think of it

I’m surprised to hear that – I was assuming they had pigeon holes or similar (like we did).

harry b 02.20.16 at 12:01 am

I know! I’d forgotten. At a small liberal arts college I know they had voicemail addresses, and pigeonholes, but at the large institutions I’ve worked in — nothing at all! Probably not that hard to track down a kid living in a dorm, but impossible to track down anyone else. Maybe, of course, this made students more attentive. But I guess email is a boon to communication between professors and the kinds of students who don’t just automatically come and talk to them.

Alan White 02.20.16 at 12:08 am

Harry your approach seems very reasonable and charitable (in contrast to PJW@18’s experience!) .

One anecdatum about students’ reluctance to contact professors. . .

Many years ago when we were first using an electronic means of entering final grades on an institutional platform, I received a call from the mother of one of my best students about three weeks after the semester. She inquired on behalf of her child why s/he had received an F. I immediately replied, that’s not possible–the student got an A. She said, no–my child got an F. I assured her that was wrong and I’d look into it.

Consulting student services quickly revealed it was my entry error: a student who had stopped coming to my class early on was listed on the electronic roll just before my A student. That student, not having dropped the course, of course had an F. Somehow I not only gave the missing student an F–I accidentally also gave the following A student an F too! Even though I reviewed my entries, I’d missed the mistake.

Here’s the kicker–the A student just assumed the s/he had failed the final! (Even though had s/he done so, s/he had enough points for a solid C, and should have known that.) S/he refused to contact me because s/he was so convinced I was a diligent professional that failure on the final was the only plausible hypothesis!

(Of course the irony for this thread is that a missing student became a factor in all this.)

Thank heavens the Mom called me and had enough confidence in her child to step up and ask. Believe me–I now triple check my final grade entries.

So students can have a number of reasons for failing to contact professors–including over-confidence in the conduct of their professors’ professional lives.

Maybe we sometimes need to remind students we are not perfect, even while we also try to model strong intellectual values about responsible learning. Humility seems a nice addition to the mix.

magari 02.20.16 at 12:36 am

Interesting post. Is this evidence of a broader shift in the perceived responsibility of what faculty members owe their students?

Trivial 02.20.16 at 1:19 am

At my particular institution, procedural mechanisms attempt to address both employment guidelines and legal or otherwise behavioral modes of conduct for the fulfillment of Instructor responsibilities. But procedure does not necessarily *preclude instructor advocacy for all students as well as an individual student with prior documentation.*

harry b 02.20.16 at 4:29 am

I have a story like yours Alan — longer ago, when entry was done at the registrar’s office. An A was either mis-entered or misread as a D. It was changed ONLY because the student in question told a friend of hers she was disappointed and he came and asked me what was up. It wasn’t my error, but I had no way of knowing (because we were never given the final entered grades to compare with our grade sheets). My handwriting immediately improved, though only for grade recording purposes. (I’m slightly unnerved that I remember her name, as well — she graduated in 1995, according to linkedin…)

Bloix 02.20.16 at 5:44 am

“Before email, in fact, we had no way of contacting student,”

Anyone know Mr Jones? Ms Smith, you do? Would you please see me after class? Thanks.

“the perceived responsibility of what faculty members owe their students”

The employees of an institution that is selling a service that costs $50,000 per year, knowing full well that the money is borrowed and that failure to receive the service can ruin the recipient’s life, perhaps have the responsibility to make an effort to deliver that service.

Bloix 02.20.16 at 5:51 am

@21 – “a student who had stopped coming to my class early … not having dropped the course, of course had an F.” Of course. And the missing student who got an F for failure to complete a trivial administrative task just dropped out of your life. You have no idea what happened to him or her and it has never bothered you for a moment. After all, he or she was an adult, right?

Collin Street 02.20.16 at 6:14 am

Shorter Bloix: the best way to deal with students who have gone missing or are falling behind is to threaten or belittle them; assistance and guidance are neither useful nor advisable.

harry b 02.20.16 at 12:23 pm

Bloix — that might work for some kids. But, thinking about the class in which I sent that particular email, out of 20 students only 5 knew others in the class until I forced them to get to know each other (see earlier post); which is pretty typical, except of my Freshman class. Now, even though they don’t know each other, facebook would come to the rescue if I lacked email. But not then.

magari 02.20.16 at 2:18 pm

I show up, I deliver. I can email repeat absentees to remind them they are welcome in the class, but aren’t there possible negative knock-on effects to this type of hand-holding? I understand the urge to care for students, they are fellow human beings, and I do actually care about education. And I understand that as education “democratizes” it brings in students who, for a variety of reasons, have a difficult time applying themselves to something with no immediate pay-off. Some are working a lot of hours, some have family responsibilities, and some may end up in college just because there wasn’t anything else to do. I understand that the academic teacher-student relation, including expected duties on both sides, was founded in an era when students were relatively privileged. But what Harry is referring to strikes me as part of the general swing in the academic relation towards customer service. Not sure how I feel about this.

Bloix 02.20.16 at 3:23 pm

@27 – Shorter Collin Street: I show up, I talk, I go back to my little office to write articles no one will ever read. If some of the poor schmucks who have mortgaged their lives to pay my salary get fucked, hey! that’s their fault! They trusted us!

mdc 02.20.16 at 3:38 pm

I like being able to run into students in the hall or on the quad ‘by chance’, and take them aside for a quick check-in. (This is one advantage of a tiny school.)

One question is whether there is a shared understanding between faculty and students as to the educational significance of attending classes. At some schools, this understanding and its corresponding expectations might differ vastly between different departments, or even within a department.

jake the antisoshul soshulist 02.20.16 at 3:45 pm

I recommend against chewing them out for not coming to glass. At least not in the way that one English professor (department head, actually) did to me for dropping his class. Not that his points were particularly incorrect, but he certainly did not motivate me to take another of his classes. It was true that I could have gotten my lazy self-indugent body up earlier to get to his 8 o’clock, but in my defense, I was an immature 18 year old at the time.

Alan White 02.20.16 at 3:46 pm

Bloix–

All missing students are informed at midterm by email and snail mail if they are below a C, with a request to please drop the course. It works about 3/4 of the time.

harry b 02.20.16 at 5:30 pm

There is NO agreement about the value of attending class, and I am sure that many classes are worth missing regularly — and I am fine with people missing mine from time to time, as they have other things on their mind. But I try hard to make sure that there is lots of learning to be gotten out of taking my class. At my institution it is rare to run into someone by chance… especially between Thanksgiving and Spring break for obvious reasons.

I don’t think of this as customer service. They are not adults as far as I am concerned, and even those that are took my class voluntarily, and so have subjected themselves to my regime. My job is to try and get them to learn a particular set of skills and content. Most of them can’t do that if they are not in my class. Some combination of their parents, their future selves (as Bloix reminds us) and the state are funding this, so I have some sort of duty to intervene in ways that will help make them both more productive contributors to society and more successful people (not necessarily financially, but all-things-considered).

On the possible negative effects of hand-holding. Sure. Bu I judge that few of my students are at risk of becoming delicate flowers due to excessive handholding. I’m much more worried about severe depressions, people getting lost, and people never getting excited about learning. However their parents treat them, very few have experience of being praised by professors. You’d be surprised how often I hear someone say “I came to Madison assuming that no professor would ever know my name”, and how many have roommates or friends still don’t have a professor that they can talk to. Might be different at a SLAC.

harry b 02.20.16 at 5:34 pm

And — I do not perceive a general swing in the academic relation toward customer service at all! But obviously, its really hard to know what’s going on!

RNB 02.20.16 at 6:22 pm

I’ve had three students thank me for having contacted students services to check whether the student was abusing drugs or alcohol. I am always so wary about doing this as I could be misreading the signs. But I tried to observe the students over some time before making the call, and I present counter-evidence to my suspicion. But I do think it is our job as teachers to make such reports, though I imagine that some here would challenge me; and I am open to hearing the other side. Again let me emphasize–abusing drugs and alcohol in the sense that the student’s speech is slurred or manic, eyes are blurred, temper seems overly sensitive. I am lucky that at my University we have very good professionals who follow up on these calls. And I know that their intervention helped to turn around the lives of at least three of my students. I was also worried about a student becoming suicidal after writing to tell me that she could not write a paper because her boyfriend had made life not worth living after having broken up with her. I immediately called because the student had suggested to me in a previous year that she may have tried to take her life before. The professional on the other side of the call was very happy that I made the call even though the student’s comment could have been nothing but an excuse for the lateness of the assignment. I encourage teachers to know the phone numbers and emails of the mental health professionals who support students at your school.

RNB 02.20.16 at 6:45 pm

No one really picked up on what Tim Wilson said @5. But I loved seeing confirmed what I thought was one of my important roles as an academic adviser to a struggling student–story editing. I reinforce to transfer students how well they have done in their first semester as a transfer even though they may received lower grades than ever before in their life. I tell them that the only mistake they made was not taking a reduced course load in their first semester. I tell more or less true stories of students who struggled until they found a path for themselves and went on to do great things. I validate their alienation from scholarly pursuits, underlining that university learning is indeed only one way of learning about the world and only one way of achieving distinction; but that there is still great value within these limits. If I sense the student’s alienation may have class determinants, I share with them Annette Lareau’s findings about why students from the middle class already having had many encounters with tutors are much more comfortable with professors than working class students who were not whisked to one private lesson after another as kids. There is no set list here; the challenge is getting to know students well enough to motivate them…when you are teaching seven courses a year, writing countless letters of recommendation, developing new courses, trying to write down new ideas, raising kids, and writing comments at CT.

Metatone 02.20.16 at 7:12 pm

As someone who teaches, but was also an imperfect student in my time, I have to second the emphasis on helping students not be embarrassed. Shame is a huge part of the problem for some students who have gotten into a vicious circle.

For me, I think the email approach is good, but it is worth trying to make contact in other ways too. If only to say “I noticed and will try to help.”

Glenn 02.20.16 at 7:34 pm

I’m in agreement with harry b @34 that hand-holding is less concerning than depression or low self-esteem. I remember plenty of people (myself included) who suffered from feelings of isolation and of futility during undergrad. Just knowing that someone cares about your progress and wants you to succeed can make an enormous difference.

Trivial 02.20.16 at 9:56 pm

Different educational institutions may (or may not) serve different purposes, but regulatory procedures for both *teaching* and *customer service* do not always foreclose iterations of advocacy, student or otherwise.

OSweetMrMath 02.20.16 at 11:27 pm

Bloix takes the position that (a) students do not appreciate the consequences of failing and (b) professors who do not threaten the students with these consequences do not care about the students.

I wonder whether Bloix has teaching experience, and if so, whether these methods were successful.

I’d also like Bloix’s input into a teaching experience of mine: Student comes to me during the first week of class to say that they need this class to graduate, have already failed it twice, and have a job which is contingent on graduating (and therefore, on passing this class). I say, “okay then, come to class, do your homework, come to my office hours, work hard.”

The student does not do homework, come to office hours, or work hard. After the second exam, they come to me to say they are concerned about their grade. I say, “well, you failed both exams, but I’m still willing to give you a passing grade if you work hard and do better on the final.” Their grade on the final is the same as on the previous exams.

My question for Bloix is, did this student fail because they were unaware about the consequences of failure, or because I did not care enough about the student to make the consequences clear?

As for what works, I don’t have a lot of experience, but all I can offer is compassion. My sense is that students who are doing poorly are usually some combination of terrified and in denial. What they need is reassurance that they can in fact do this stuff, and that you are willing to help them if they ask for it.

I was a wildly inconsistent student and now I’m on the other side. My belief is that we need to help students to build good work habits, including an ability to recover from mistakes. This means grading their homework, factoring attendance into their grade, and giving in class quizzes. You can’t let them think that because homework or attendance doesn’t directly affect their grade, they don’t have to do it.

To help them recover from mistakes, you have to be open and flexible. Didn’t do your homework? No problem, make sure you do the homework for next week. Skipped a week of class? Make some effort, get the lecture notes from another student, read the sections in the textbook, and come to my office hours to go over it with me. Have a really dumb question in class? Ask it. It may be less dumb than you think. Other students probably have the same dumb question. I may not have taught a concept clearly, and I may not know that unless people start asking dumb questions about it. Failed an exam? It’s just one exam, you can compute its effect on your course grade. If it’s still early, maybe you should drop the course and try again next time. Or if you can do well enough for the rest of the course, you can convince me it was a fluke and I might discount it when computing your final grade. Either way, the standards for this course are now clear, and you can judge how hard you have to work to get the grade you want.

For the course I’m teaching this semester, the discussion sections are to go over homework problems they should have already done. The standard I’m trying to set is that they don’t have to walk in with the right answers, as long as they’ve walked in having worked on the problems. I want them to be comfortable saying that they don’t know, or even that they didn’t try, if I call on them about a particular problem. They’re not the only student in the room who doesn’t understand the problem. If they are willing to talk about what they don’t understand, then we can discuss it collectively and hopefully elevate everyone’s understanding.

One line I’ve been using a lot this semester is, “you probably saw this in a previous class. If you’re like me, you saw it and have since forgotten about it. Let’s review it.” The goal is to say that it’s okay to forget things or to not understand things the first time. Relearning and trying things again is a necessary part of the learning process.

So far I’ve had mixed results. Some people are clearly extremely uncomfortable admitting that they don’t understand. They don’t come to the discussions, or if they do come, they refuse to answer or just shut down if I try to get them to talk through the problems.

Others have jumped at the opportunity, and will volunteer to answer problems and then lead off by saying they didn’t get all of it but this is what they started with. Some students will also cut in to help other students, even if it’s just to say that they think they know the next step, but they don’t know where to go from there.

I have been trying to encourage the students for any response at all, even just saying that they don’t know, in hopes that more students will become more comfortable speaking up as the semester goes on. I also remind them in the lectures that attending the discussions is mandatory. (This doesn’t help for students who also don’t come to the lectures.)

I’m trying for a carrot and stick approach. Sticks: Discussion attendance is mandatory. If you don’t do the homework, you will be embarrassed in discussion when I ask you how to do the problem. Carrots: Any response at all in discussion is acceptable. If you say you haven’t done the problem, I will thank you for any contribution you can make and then move on. You may feel bad for not knowing the answer, but I will do my best to not focus on the fact that you don’t know. I want to keep the focus on the problems and answers, not on whether particular students know the answers.

Another carrot is that the problems we go over in discussion tend to be closely tied to the exam problems. Coming to the discussions and studying the solutions to the problems covered there goes hand in hand with doing well on the exams.

Not every student is going to do well. But I believe that more students will try to do well if you communicate to them that you do not expect them to be perfect and that you are committed to helping them to learn, even after they make mistakes.

OSweetMrMath 02.21.16 at 12:15 am

As a reference, the book “Teaching Mathematics in Colleges and Universities: Case Studies for Today’s Classroom” by Solomon Friedberg, published by the American Mathematical Society, has some discussion on handling struggling students. Case Study 9 may be most relevant, although the focus is more on a student who is not completing the work rather than absenteeism.

Another reference I’ve used for teaching generally is “How to Teach Mathematics” by Steven Krantz, also published by the American Mathematical Society. There’s not much in the book about absenteeism, but I’ve found its discussion of the psychology of teaching to be helpful. Relevant here is the need to convince the students that you care about the course and about them in order to encourage their motivation in the course.

Bloix 02.21.16 at 12:58 am

@34 – “I have some sort of duty to intervene in ways that will help make them both more productive contributors to society and more successful people”

Yes. Thank you. As I’ve said in response to other posts (forgive me for not saying it earlier on this thread) I have nothing but admiration for your efforts to do so.

Alan White 02.21.16 at 3:37 am

And I thank you Bloix for your apology to harry.

Now I have to deal with a student who professed severe psychological problems in a paper I read today–including self-harm–because of course I don’t care.

Stop commenting on people and situations you are ill equipped to evaluate except by sweeping self-confident generalization.

Alan White 02.21.16 at 4:32 am

BTW OSweetMrMath–terrific comments.

Philip 02.21.16 at 10:13 am

As an undergraduate I missed quite a few lectures and seminars but always did enough not to give concern to lecturers. I could have missed some of the sessions with no problems but a word from someone to give me a bit of a kick up the arse might have helped me. Other situations will need a bit of support, gentle encouragement, or reasurance, so to me the important thing is having students communicate what is going on so you can figure out how to respond. This will require effort from both sides to work.

Val 02.21.16 at 12:45 pm

Thanks Harry for this, I appreciate it. Unfortunately I don’t have suggestions, just a problem, but I’d like to mention it in case anyone has ideas or similar experiences. I have to be a bit discreet but it’s difficult – anyway in the undergraduate courses I teach in, it’s normal for teaching staff to contact students if they are not meeting attendance requirements or handing in assignments, and I think we would usually do it pretty supportively. However once a student gets behind, they usually need ‘special consideration’ in order to overcome the regulations around missing due dates etc, and to get that they have to go through an administrative process. This seems to be where they fall out.

It’s frustrating, because you can, for example, have a student who has completed quite a bit of the work, then misses an assignment. You contact them, find out what the problem is, tell them that with special consideration they can still lodge the assignment, and that even if they don’t get a very good mark they can still pass the unit, tell them how to complete the form and where to lodge it, etc – and then you don’t hear any more, a couple of weeks pass, it’s end of semester and you get caught up in assessment, and next thing is results are closing and you have to fail that student.

I think that in some cases it’s the administrative process, or the administrator, that is the block for some students, rather than the teachers. It seems there may at that point be a concern for the letter of the law rather than the spirit, if I can put it that way. It’s hard to know what to do about it though without getting drawn into some major conflict.

Philip 02.21.16 at 3:07 pm

Val, the one time I asked for special consideration was during my MA and my grandad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died when I was writing up my dissertation and I got a two week extension. Earlier in the course a lecturer had made a comment about students claiming a grandparent had died, in order to get an extension. That made me put in a copy of his death certificate with my special consideration form, which was a hassle I could have done without, especially asking my parents for the certificate but there had been that implication the reason would be disbelieved. I have been lucky and always been on courses with low numbers of students so got to know staff a bit in seminars. I got on well with my dissertation tutor so I had no problem going to him to ask for some help.

My general feeling is that there needs to be an environment where students are encouraged to contact staff if they have any problems. That would help give time and clear any admin hurdles and you would also need flexibility on the admin side for genuine emergencies and unforeseen problems. The message needs to be consistent and can’t just be delivered by academic staff, especially in large courses where you can’t get that individual relationship with each student. It needs to come from support and admin staff and general information given to students so they know they can get help and where from before they run into problems.

kidneystones 02.21.16 at 3:24 pm

All students in classes where attendance is monitored are required to take the cell phone numbers and email addresses of at least two other students. This exchange occurs in-class under my supervision during the first two weeks of class. We repeat this activity for the first four classes to ensure that all students have the contact information. It is then the students’ responsibility to come to class. If students choose to absent themselves from class for any reason, they alone are responsible for learning from other students what they missed and ensuring that they come to class prepared with the missing assignments completed and in-hand.

Like others (many, perhaps), I have been confronted by students who are burdened by health issues (physical or mental). My responsibility is to ensure that the administration is made aware of this fact, so that the students receive professional care/counseling. Once I have done that, I concentrate on ensuring that the students who are trying to improve receive all the support I can provide. Teaching practices and class activities are designed to re-enforce through peer-review, peer-teaching, and task activities designed to reveal concept error. Some students self-select for failure. That’s their decision to make and I respect their right to make that choice.

harry b 02.21.16 at 3:32 pm

Is there an actuary reading. Here’s a puzzle:

If you are teaching a class of 100 students for a whole semester (16 weeks), how many of them, on average, will have a close relative or close friend die, or become seriously ill — or a not quite so close friend die in tragic/traumatic circumstances — during that time? At least one, surely? I am surprised, to be honest, how rarely it seems to happen.

I usually, in large classes, make a comment early on saying that I know that a bunch of people are going to be dealing with difficult things over the 16 week period.

Bloix 02.21.16 at 4:33 pm

@44 – I’m not apologizing to Harry. I liked the OP and it’s not my problem if you’ve read me so carelessly that you don’t understand that. What I do not like – what fills me with rage, in point of fact – is universities that fleece their students and professors who don’t much care. Harry is not one of them. And yes, I understand that you’ve got no choice but to deal with a student who has announced to you that s/he’s going to kill him or herself. You’d be sued if you didn’t. But how many of your students simply disappear?

@50 – in one three-month period an uncle, a grandparent, and a very close friend died. Three funerals and one four-day bedside vigil. I didn’t flunk any classes but it wasn’t my best semester.

harry b 02.21.16 at 7:09 pm

That’s awful. When I wrote #50 I thought about the kid who lost his father in early March a couple of years ago. His mother and father weren’t talking, and his mother offered no help. No will. A younger brother. He had to do everything including the funeral. He only told me because two of his friends knew me well enough to know I’d be sympathetic, and they bugged him to talk to me (or, maybe, told me to talk to him, I can’t remember).

Phillip @#48’s story suggests something that is very hard, actually, to process and internalize — that off-hand, seemingly insignificant, comments can have quite bad unintended and undesired consequences. During one of the times that Charlie Sheen was making a fool of himself in public, I made an offhand, humorous, negative comments about him. Later on that day a student who was dealing with pretty serious mental health issues very sharply pulled me up on it — “He’s bi-polar; you shouldn’t have said that”. I was pleased that an 18 year old kid felt comfortable enough to be so sharp with me; and I became more careful (but I am sure not careful enough).

Collin Street 02.21.16 at 7:38 pm

> @44 – I’m not apologizing to Harry.

You really, really ought to. Harry told you that he had no way to contact students; you rather flippantly proposed a method. Which is to say, you rejected his direct claim, denied the reality of what he says he experienced. “I can’t do this”. “Yes you can”, when you don’t have the knowledge or experience to override what harry was saying to you.

In context this meant that you were calling Harry a liar . This is, fundamentally, disrespectful; if you had reason to believe that harry were a fantasist or liable to miss obvious things, then you could do this without needing to apologise then your disrespect would be justified, but I can’t see anything like that and you haven’t mentioned anything either.

[which is to say: people think less of you precisely because you won’t apologise; it shows that you’re bad at spotting when you’ve made mistakes and dogmatic about your own correctness. This will severely impact the interactions you have with others… except I, and probably others, worked this out about you years ago, so this particular incident won’t have any huge effect.]

RNB 02.21.16 at 8:11 pm

“worked this out about you years ago” Did these previous exchanges happen under other noms du plume (assuming that these are that)?

Philip 02.21.16 at 9:11 pm

Harry, yeah I think the comment was about undergrads trying to blag an extension and not serious students like us but it still stuck. From my ESOL experience classes had people of all ages from 16 to older adults. One tutor planned a lesson on the topic of families and a student, I think she was 17, left the class upset because her parents in Germany were getting divorced, so it can happen with something totally innocuous. Also there would be asylum seekers and refugees in the class where you wouldn’t know their history, so you would try and be careful around some subjects but might not know if something hit a nerve. Another one I read on a blog was a teacher playing hangman at the end of a lesson, a common EFL activity, and one of the pupil’s parents had been hung.

Alan White 02.21.16 at 10:55 pm

Thank you CS @ 53–some lessons on charitable reading certainly could be learned– and harry I apologize for inadvertently diverting discussion. I didn’t sleep much last night.

harry b 02.22.16 at 1:01 am

Just to say Bloix doesn’t need to apologize to me — Bloix has been very complimentary about my pedagogical threads, so I take his good will (toward me at least) as read, and I know where he is coming from. We both know this, and his “I am not apologizing” is not a refusal to apologize (as it might look to other people) but a signal that he knows I know where he’s coming from due to other interactions.

The hangman thing is so awful.

harry b 02.22.16 at 1:04 am

Phillip — its something a number of colleagues have said to me, and I have (rather humorlessly) gone through the actuarial probabilities with them. Alan — i hope its ok, You didn’t divert anything!! Looking forward to seeing you in a week or so!

Alan White 02.22.16 at 1:39 am

Thanks harry–I’ll borrow your forgiving attitude since I certainly cannot know the ins and outs of others’ lives and should model my own pleas for epistemic/judgmental humility. I’ve been reading for our get-together and still have a way to go!

Val 02.22.16 at 1:59 am

Phillip @ 48, thanks for that example, it illustrates how easily an unsympathetic atmosphere can be created as well as the hurdles students have to jump over the meet the admin requirements.

I had all sorts of family problems in my undergraduate days but I never talked to anyone about them – one of my tutors did once ask me if everything was all right, but only after he had failed me on an essay and given me a tongue lashing – by that time I would never have spoken to him about anything personal, I was just trying not to cry in front of him.

In later years a friend of mine (similar age) told me that when father died in her second year at University, she never spoke to any of the academic staff about it, just ‘sort of dropped out’ – she was doing commerce, which in those days was quite male dominated, and said she never felt like she belonged anyway – there was no way she would have tried to discuss it with any of the academic staff.

I think things are somewhat better in principle now, but in the system in the large university where I am, it is important that everyone – tutors, unit coordinators and administration staff – is on the same page and that’s hard to achieve, especially when everyone tends to be overloaded anyway and ‘just wants to get things done’.

magari 02.22.16 at 2:30 am

There is one big issue that hasn’t been addressed yet: people of color and people from poorer backgrounds are much less likely to privately engage the professor when they are having moments of difficulty. Growing up in a social setting where you have no entitlements, plus a racial order that moves against you–many don’t even think/know special arrangements are an option. White students from middle class and higher backgrounds are much more assertive, by contrast.

Matt 02.22.16 at 2:50 am

At Penn, where I have done most (but not all) of my teaching, there is a very active and supportive student services program that helps students who are having all sorts of problems – from the fairly mundane to the unusual or serious. If anything, they may be slightly too ready to help students and to reach out to professors on behalf of the students, asking for accommodations of all sorts. (I think I have always granted them when asked.) It is the exact opposite of who Bloix sees many universities as acting. I cannot say for sure if this is unusual.

At the start of all of my classes, I make a point of noting to the students that these services are available to them, and that Penn is greatly committed to their doing well. I tell them that if they have problems of any sort during the semester, they can go to student services, and they will provide help. Importantly, they will contact all of the students professors, try to arrange (or sometimes demand) accommodations, and pass on only needed information. That last part is something I emphasis. Typically, I do not need nor want to know the personal problems of my students. If they go to student services, I will have no need to know them, but will just be told that the student needs an accommodation for some broadly stated reasons (health, or family, etc.) This seems preferable to me. Sometimes students still approach me, of course, and I’m happy to work with them, but the centralized system works nicely.

(I’ll note that I’ve sent out an email like Harry suggests to a student just a day or so ago as well, to a student who was missing many classes in a class where that is likely to be a serious problem.)

harry b 02.22.16 at 4:17 am

Magari’s right — and that’s a reason for professors to be proactive and purposeful about interactions with students. Such students are also, in my experience, less likely to feel comfortable going to a mental health professional, and once they exhaust student health services they are more likely not to want their parents to see on their medical insurance bills that they visited a counselor. And, of course, much more inhibited about it, because it typically costs their parents (who have worse insurance, or no insurance) more money, which they can less well afford.

RNB 02.23.16 at 12:41 am

@61. May be interested in Annette Lareau whom I cited above. Many of my students have told me how interesting they find her work; she is one of the respondents along with harry b to James Heckman in a short book on early childhood education. Here is a brief discussion of her work. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/explaining-annette-lareau-or-why-parenting-style-ensures-inequality/253156/

harry b 02.23.16 at 4:21 am

One student, about Unequal Childhoods, which we read when she had been a freshman for 6 weeks, said, 2 years later: “I have thought about that book every day since we read it”. That’s only the most vociferous of many endorsements from students I’ve read it with.

Meredith 02.23.16 at 6:34 am

This post and comments put me in mind of the double accusative verbs of teaching take in Latin and Greek. (What’s may be going on in English is obscured by the shared morphology of dative and accusative.) Each student and the subject and skills we teach are intertwined in a complicated way. It’s all about the student (otherwise, why bother?). It’s all about what we’re teaching them (otherwise, why bother?). If a student doesn’t even show up, the intertwined connection is broken.

The Penn comment above: student services are so pervasive in my life at a small liberal arts college that, if anything, they threaten to displace my relationship with my students. But still, does any professor these days not have access to useful, professional resources beyond emails (in the olden days, handwritten notes sent by campus mail)? I mean deans, psychologists….

Several have commented that they failed out or had bad semesters from too much partying or when family/personal problems even briefly disrupted things. So, we can learn from our mistakes and overcome stuff life deals us. Let us remember to give our own students such space for learning and overcoming. Each and every student does not have to produce a fine looking transcript to be of value as a person, or to have benefitted from the courses they took, or half-took.

Just some thoughts.

Ronan(rf) 02.23.16 at 8:26 am

I wonder if we overdo the class/gender (and I guess in theUS race) stuff. I went to college from a relatively privileged (middle class) background, and a lot of these things (asking for help, approaching lecturers for non academic advice etc) would never have occurred to me. I would also have found class participation or presenting relatively discomforting (although I’m not overly shy, it just took a long time to develop any sort of comfort in them.) I understand badly remembered anecdotes really only go so far, but I can certainly recall a number of people I Knew from what you might call working class backgrounds who hit the ground running (joining everything , getting involved , speechifying in college politics etc) Also related to other parts of this conversation. My brother died when I was in second year, and approaching student services (or anyone) would have been the last thing I would have wanted to do. That worked okay for me, and retrospectively I still think it was the option that best suited my personality. I think at times we try to hard to cram square pegs into round holes by adopting general principles about how a person should cope with such a thing , and instead should adopt something more skin to a horses for courses approach . Though, one lecturer did put me up to a passing grade so I wouldn’t have to repeat the exam over the summer (the death happened a few weeks before exams, though I probably would have failed anyway ) I’m Obviousky not trying to contradict Harry or anyone who works in this area, my memory and skewed perspective on myself doesn’t really match up toa professionals experience and research. It just always struck me a little that a lot of the stronger claims in this area (about class, or gender , or I guess race) suffered a little from selection Bias and taking these categories as too homogenous

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Homework Letter to Parents | Email Templates

As a teacher, communicating with parents about the homework expectations for their children is crucial for fostering a successful learning environment. Crafting a homework letter that is both informative and engaging can be a challenging task. That’s why we’ve created a list of homework letter-to-parents templates that you can use to effectively communicate with parents about the assignments, expectations, and goals for their child’s homework. In this article, we’ll go over the key elements of a successful homework letter, and provide you with a customizable template that you can use for your classroom.

The key elements of an effective homework letter to parents include

• A clear introduction that establishes your purpose and goals for the homework,
• A detailed explanation of the assignments, expectations, and grading policies,
• A schedule outlining when homework is due, and a section dedicated to answering frequently asked questions or addressing concerns.
• Additionally, adding information or resources about how parents can support their child’s learning at home and providing resources for additional support can also be helpful.

These elements will help ensure that parents are well-informed about their child’s homework and can effectively support their child’s academic success.

Example of detailed Homework letter to parents

I hope this email finds you, your child, and in good health. I wanted to take the time to talk about the value of homework and how it may aid in your child’s development as we begin the new school year. I’ve designed a template for a homework letter to parents that I’ll be using this year to assist keep you informed about your child’s homework requirements.

The homework template was created to give you succinct, clear information about the homework assignments, goals, and expectations for your child. It will also include a schedule explaining when homework is due, as well as a part devoted to addressing any worries you might have or frequently asked questions.

I’ll explain how the assignment helps your child learn in the introduction, as well as its purpose and goals. You can have a clear grasp of what is expected of your child by reading the thorough explanation section. This section defines the assignments, expectations, and grading guidelines. You may assist your child manage their time by giving them the due dates as per the timetable area.

I have also included some resources to help your child’s learning at home. You can learn how to support your child’s academic success.

I am aware that parents and students alike may find the topic of homework to be difficult, which is why I am providing this homework letter. I hope that this template will make it easier for you to support your child’s learning by having a clear understanding of the homework expectations.

If you have any questions or concerns about the homework letter to parents template, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I am always available to discuss your child’s academic progress and answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for your continued support in your child’s education.

Homework letter to parents templates

• Dear parent, This is a reminder that it is your child’s responsibility to bring their homework assignments home. We encourage you to make sure your child has their work ready with them each day so we all spend less time on this task and more time on teaching. Missing homework assignments may result in a lower grade for the assignment or even being taken out points from the report card altogether. Please see attached a list of missing homework assignments from your child’s class.
• Dear Parent, We are writing to inform you that we have not received homework from your child for the following subjects [list]. If we do not receive this assignment by 2024, your child will receive a zero grade on all assignments until the missing homework is submitted. We thank you in advance and appreciate your help with this matter.
• Dear parent, we noticed that your child did not hand in his/her homework. We will do our best to ensure your child does not miss out on learning from this lesson. Please ensure that your child brings home their homework next week. Thank you for your time and cooperation.
• Dear Parent, It is important that your child complete their homework on time each night. Please help them by discussing the importance of homework completion and encouraging it to be done every night. Thank you.
• Dear Parent, It has been brought to our attention that your child has been missing homework. We are asking that you remind your child of the importance of homework. Please ensure it is being completed daily, as this greatly helps your child in the classroom. Thank you for your time and cooperation.
• Dear parents, Please see below a list of your child’s missing homework assignments. Please check if there are any questions you may have and then sign the form at the end. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank You,
• Dear Parent, Your student has not turned in the homework assignment. Please see that they bring it with them tomorrow. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me at [number]. Thank you for your time. Sincerely,
• Dear parent, this is our weekly homework reminder. We would appreciate it if you could check and make sure that your children have their homework completed. That way, they will be capable of focusing on school work instead of struggling to complete missing assignments in class. Thank you for your help.
• Dear Parent, your child has been marked absent for missing homework. Please see the attached document for more information.
• Dear Parent, I am sending this email to notify parents that the assignment [name] was not turned in. I hope that the assignment will be returned soon.
• Dear Parent, We noticed that you missed the lesson titled [name] on Monday. This lesson was designed to help your child develop a better understanding of grammar and sentence structure, which are crucial skills to learn as they grow into successful adults. To access this lesson again and complete the homework assignment please visit the link. If you have any questions or concerns during this process please do not hesitate to contact me. 

More Simplestic Templates: 

• Email to parents about academic concerns
• Positive Email to Parents from Teacher: 15 Example Emails

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