I had a huge WTF moment just now.
One of my students approached me on Monday with a request to discuss their many missed assignments. I told them they’d need to come in during my office hours and to my surprise, they did. Their request was simple – some leniency around about 4-5 weeks worth of assignments they have not turned in. I would have considered their request, but they didn’t bother to complete the tasks due this week, much less in the last five weeks. Specifically, they had an assignment due by midnight last night. It didn’t get turned submitted.
What makes all these worse is they aren’t difficult assignments. Really. Some of them should be able to knock them out easily with a skim of their text. Others with a bit more life under their belt should be able to get them done with less reading. But it’s as if they aren’t even looking. What’s worse is probably 2/3rds of this particular class is engaging in the same behavior.
So I’m still swimming in my WTF moment, wondering how to deal with some of this and how much of it is my responsibility and how much to let the students carry. There is a large part of me that wants to be compassionate and work with students who have fallen behind. It also seems that there is a significant accountability piece that many of these students are missing, and don’t get, when they are allowed to slide. Ultimately, I don’t have an answer and the more I ask and struggle with this problem, the more questions I generate for myself.
Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated.