Seriously, it seems like this shouldn't be a big deal but it is. I'll tell you why late work probably bothers most teachers. We all know how hard we worked on getting our lessons together, we know how integral every piece of work is that we ask our students to do, but most of all we know how important it is to keep this train we call school moving. We have tons of stuff to cover and not enough time to cover it. The worst part is that we are not in control of when and where students get stuff done and the train often can't leave if kids are not on it, or at least that's the sentiment. My first question is, why do we all have to leave at the same time? I mean, what is the natural and logical consequences of late or missing work? The kids might not know what we are talking about, they might miss out on the wonderful world of education that we are offering them, they might actually do poorly on the assessment? If this is what we are worried about, these are all valid things to worry about, but what do we do about it. Many teachers penalize (some penalize for retakes of assessments, but that's another story) "Sure you can turn it in late, if you are willing to accept no higher than an 80%." I don't know why, but that sounds absurd to me. Did I do this at one time? Yep! Did it sound absurd? Yep! Why did I do it? I thought I had to to get work done.
As I got far enough along in the classroom to stop and think about all my curriculum decisions instead survival, and realized that there was research out there that said there were better ways, I decided to experiment (crazy science teacher stuff). I asked myself, what happens if I tell students that the only thing they have to do in my class is assessments, but I knew I couldn't just bust this out without a caveat. I knew that my assessments and the work I was asking them to do had to change because I had to make every peice of work matter to the assessment (what a frickin' novel idea huh?). So, no more extra credit, no more study guides for those last minute junkies, if you wanted your grade you were going to have to practice what we do or, as I tell them every year, good luck doing well on the assessments. I still check the assignments and write things down on them and hand them back (if they do them) but I don't require them. I tell them that I don't care when, where or how they learn the material, but they have to learn the material if they want the grade.
So, off we go into the craziness of my current world. Guess what, students are still doing as much work as they always did and there grades are higher, because they are not being drug down by silly things like penalties that had no reflection on learning. So, obnoxious kids get A's and I don't have to explain things like "He would have an A if he would just get stuff in on time" or "She wouldn't be failing if she didn't have so much missing work. Now, if you know it, I'm good. If you don't and you haven't been doing the parctice, then it's time to intervene and get you in to do practice.
The biggest thing about late work and missing work, is to keep in mind that the importance is learning. It doesn't motivate students to punish grades for late work, it motivates them to say "screw it, its not worth turning it in" and if you want to know how I feel about punishing grades for missing work please see my post about zeroes.
Is that all? Probably not, but it's what I have for now.
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