Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Case of the Missing Drafts

I'm not going to even pretend here because this type of scenario has happened to me more than once. It seems that no matter how much you threaten, remind, or deduct points from students, some of them still don't understand that they need the multiple drafts. I generally just take points off if all of the components are not there--especially if the student missed the workshop and doesn't have that particular draft. I take 5 points off for not having a peer-edited draft and 10 points off for not having the draft with my comments. Thus, if they turn in the final draft by itself, they automatically have an 85 before I even start taking off points for other things. Perhaps I should be more strict with point deductions, but I've found that most times these lonely final drafts end up with Cs or Ds, which could have been prevented had the student turned in all of the materials. I also make sure to note on the draft how many points I deducted and for what; this way they can visualize how detrimental not having all of the drafts can be to their grades.

As far as not turning in the reflective essay, I would certainly go as far as to fail the paper. If an exterior assignment was given to be turned in along with the paper, then not having that assignment causes the paper to be incomplete. I would just fail the paper or give the student another class period to get it to me (with deductions for lateness, of course).

I've never been as extreme as to fail or not accept papers that don't have all of the component drafts. I feel that docking points is enough, and if they can't learn their lesson after a few assignments, then it's just apparent that they don't care. I make it a point to verbally remind students the class period before a final draft is due that they must bring all initial drafts and workshop sheets; I've also sent out email reminders on occasion. Alas, it seems that I can never get ALL of them to comply. If they can't get the hint from all of the points they're losing, then nothing will get them to do it. I don't feel that failing the paper or not accepting the assignment is the right answer, but perhaps I need to go to more extreme measures and see if they work.

1 comment:

Sarah Viehmann said...

I have a revision policy in my class (students can revise as many times as they like before the end of the semester and I won't give a grade until they're satisfied with their drafts), which seems to have become an open invitation for students to not turn in workshop drafts, but turn in half-assed final drafts and continue to revise. I got so irritated with this that I told them that from now on, I was only going to allow revisions if they turned in the workshop draft and the final draft on time.

I'll give you two guesses as to whether that cut down on the number of papers turned in late or without workshop drafts, and the first doesn't count.