How to Help Kids Catch Up

Almost as soon as the school year begins, everyone starts getting sick. We hear that first cough, and everything snowballs from there. Before we know it, kids are absent right and left, and they often return to class too soon because missing so much class is hard to make up. How can teachers help students make up work in a way that doesn’t make the grading process harder? After all, late work can only be accepted up to a point before there is no more reasonable time left in a marking period. There may be no magic solution to the endless sea of assignments that come flooding in, but there are some ways to try and stem the tide to a more manageable trickle.

Assume the Best

When kids are absent or tardy a lot, it’s hard not to take that personally. After all, teachers pour so much hard work and dedication into lessons and having someone constantly miss out on everything and then struggle to make up missing work can bring out all kinds of negative feelings. However, we all know that greeting students with a genuine welcome rather than sarcasm upon their return is a far more productive and helpful approach. If we assume that students are really doing their best rather than jumping to less positive conclusions immediately, that can help to build the kind of relationship that makes our classrooms the safest spaces possible for students.

True, some students are absent without good reason, but that doesn’t mean we should therefore conclude that they are horrible people who do not deserve our help. Most kids want to do well; some have just lost faith that it’s possible for them to be successful. When we meet chronic absenteeism with scorn rather than kindness, the resentment that builds prevents any real progress from occurring.

Follow Up (Within Reason)

When students come back to school, especially in the secondary years, they are responsible for making up a lot of work in very little time. Think about a high school student with seven classes who has missed three days of school because of the flu. In those three days, there have been multiple tests, quizzes, assignments and presentations in many of those courses, all of which need to be made up quickly. It is extremely easy for even the most responsible kid to lose track of some of their missing work. 

While teachers are too busy to keep nagging kids to get work done, we should try to follow up within reason. That means that a reminder or two can’t hurt, perhaps one verbally and another in writing, with any needed specifics around exactly what needs to be made up. And yes, teachers do typically list assignments online to help both students and parents stay on top of their work, but it can still get overwhelming. Any little nudge helps.

Set Aside Time

Once or twice a week, setting aside time to help struggling students is both an act of kindness and practicality. For example, one of my children was out sick last week. Luckily, several of her teachers already have office hours set up for students who need extra help or have fallen behind. Sometimes, teachers wind up helping kids every single day, which can lead to burnout. We all need time to ourselves. However, just taking a portion of lunchtime or setting aside time before or after school to explicitly invite students to receive support really makes a difference and allows them to get the help they need. 

Explain Your Limits

At the end of the day, all of us only have so much time to get late work graded. It is very important that we clearly tell students what our limits are, and that we do so kindly. Just as they would not appreciate being given last-minute work to complete at the close of a marking period, we can explain that we are not able to grade assignments that magically appear in the waning hours of any unit or semester. Providing an ultimate deadline in writing (and sharing it more than once) is extremely important in communicating effectively with students and families, and in making sure that we do not feel compelled to push ourselves past the brink in assessing work that came in far too late. 

While we’d all love to avoid getting sick in the coming months, it just isn’t a realistic expectation. If we up the pressure for kids to attend school when they aren’t well (not to mention ourselves), nobody ultimately benefits from pushing themselves to the brink and likely infecting others in the process. Within reasonable limits, offering kids a clear pathway for catching up and extending as much grace as possible can really lower the pervasive levels of anxiety that have ratcheted up in so many students over the past few years. Our ultimate goal for kids and ourselves is to remain successful while taking care of health and wellness at the same time.

Written by Miriam Plotinsky, Education World Contributing Writer

Miriam Plotinsky is an instructional specialist with Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, where she has taught and led for more than 20 years. She is the author of several education books with W.W. Norton and ASCD. She is also a National Board-Certified Teacher with additional certification in administration and supervision. She can be reached at www.miriamplotinsky.com or via Twitter: @MirPloMCPS

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