Absent Students

If I were to compare the grade each of my students received each term to the number of days the student attended class, I am sure that almost all of the F’s and D’s were earned by students who missed more than three days of class each term. Some of my students have particular patterns of absences. Some are absent everyday; others come to school about once a week; and still others come every other day (only on A or B days…I guess they have a class or two that they like on one of the block days??). Then there are those students who come to school everyday but are absent from my class because of school events or activities. Those students are just as disadvantaged when they miss class as the students who choose to stay at home for the day because they don’t want to get out of bed.

So, what can I do to help students pass when they are not in class? Although I give the students the assignments that they missed while out, few of my students are able to read the textbook and learn what they need in order to work the homework problems. I do incorporate a mini-lesson of the prior day’s lesson in every class period, but that is usually not enough to help the students who were absent to catch up (especially the students who instead of missing only one day at a time miss several days or even weeks at a time). I also offer tutoring during my planning periods and after school, but very few students take advantage of that. The result is frustrated students who are behind and don’t know how to catch up, as well as a frustrated teacher who has no clue how to structure the class so that students can miss class and somehow still catch up upon their return to class. (Suggestions are welcome on this one.)

This is an issue that is particularly on my mind right now being that state tests are quickly approaching, and I know that students will need to miss class to make sure that they are fully prepared for those. There are many students who are straddling the fence between passing and failing. I know that if I keep the class structured as it is, and those students miss several classes, it will be unlikely that those students will be able to raise their grades. So far, I have been more flexible with homework assignments – telling students a week in advance when all homework assignments for the unit are due instead of taking up homework everyday. This way, when students miss class, they still have several days to learn the material and complete their assignments. For one of my classes, I am going to assign several online lessons that students can complete without my assistance. I definitely think I am going to try to restructure this term such that more of the learning is independent learning. Teaching definitely becomes much more challenging when the ideal setup for student success – the student’s actual presence in the classroom – is no longer a given.