I’m posting this in the wise parents’ forum because I know you all will have great answers.
Long story very condensed: My husband and I feel that our sophomore son’s Honors English teacher possibly graded something unfairly because it was handed in late due to illness. Our son was sick on the day of a graded oral discussion and he wasn’t sure if the teacher expected him to hand in notes for the discussion or simply to do a makeup assignment as she has been known to give out. He emailed her over the weekend to ask what she wanted him to do, but she did not respond (as usual).
On Monday he did not have any notes to give her as he had kept his discussion points in his head–plus, he figured she would offer him a makeup assignment. But no, she wanted his notes, and said he could hand them in next day for half credit.
Now our son is left with an 82.3 for the marking period, which is a B-. If he hadn’t had points taken off this assignment, he would be ending the marking period with a B. The teacher refused to budge. Our son is apoplectic at the thought of us getting involved in any way, shape or form. He says it will come back to haunt him.
Do we reach out to the teacher, or the language supervisor, or do we chalk it up to life being unfair?
Is there a syllabus? Are policies like this in that?
This is a B- instead of a B. And it’s not a final grade…it’s a mid year grade.
I personally think this is not a big deal. Your son will know in the future to have his “ideas in his head” in writing…just in case they are asked for.
I would stay out of it. I have never contacted any of my kids teachers in high school to fight over a grade. Your son should fight this for himself. He learned a lesson here. He thought there was the possibility that she wanted notes but didn’t bring them in. Next time he will bring the notes.
@thumper1, the official policy is an extra day to complete assignments for every day out sick. The reason this is a little murky to me is that the teacher did write on her web site “Annotate in preparation for Socratic seminar.” It was my son’s understanding that the oral discussion would have been the whole grade had the class not been cut short (actually, the teacher wasn’t there). So one could argue that he shouldn’t have been expected to hand in notes if he felt confident about the facts in his head. On the other hand, she did say annotate on the web page. So one could also argue that he wasn’t fully prepared for whatever changes she decided to make. On the other hand, my son tried to find out what she wanted by emailing her, and she never responded. That’s galling to me.
“On Monday he did not have any notes to give her as he had kept his discussion points in his head–plus, he figured she would offer him a makeup assignment.”
Thanks for the reality check! It can be hard to see things outside of the parent bubble. The only thing that gave me pause in this whole thing is that my husband, who is usually of the “oh well, he learned a lesson” school of thought, also wasn’t happy. But perhaps this will be good for our son in the long run.
I am with your H @lauriejgs. I am a professional and I respond to work emails all the time over the week-end. And when I was employed by a major bank I worked through a lot of week-ends. I didn’t get paid any more or less for that.
Since she had frequently given make-up assignments and did not respond to your child’s inquiry about how he should handle the missed oral discussion, I would think she would have to give him some direction by answering his question before giving him half credit. If it had been a written assignment that he was to hand in on the day he was absent, then she could dock him for not bringing it in on Monday. How was he to know she wanted notes when the grade was based on an oral discussion?
I don’t like this sort of thing. Just makes life difficult and unpleasant for students who most likely are usually on top of their work.
Hi OP
sounds frustrating, but listen to your son. it is his case to argue…
good training for college when if he wants to challenge a grade it will be up to him.
some teachers answer email at any hour of the day, any day of the week. of course they don’t have to, but this can create an expectation of communication from the other teachers. never answering an email from a student is not cool…especially when that is listed as preferred method…
What I find disturbing is the official school policy that they are allowed a day to make-up work when they are sick. If I’m understanding correctly, that did not happen. Our school had that same policy, and there were some teachers who routinely violated it. Very frustrating.
Ditto to a teacher who routinely doesn’t respond to student (or parent) emails. I don’t expect a teacher to reply during the weekend, although I do think today’s reality is that many of us do check/respond to client/customer/student emails during evenings and weekends.
I also agree with the OP’s son that there is sometimes retribution as an effect of getting involved in something like this.
This sounds similar to my son’s English teacher from last year, and he ended up with his only 2 semester B+s so far from her. He talked to her and sent email to ask about a few things, but she said she was “doing him a favor” by giving him even half credit for some things that other teachers in the same department would have given full credit for. I didn’t ever contact her, because DS “knew” there would be some form of retribution.
She interpreted the “extra day per day out” differently depending on the student’s activity. DS’s work was all due the day he got back from a national competition or half credit the following day; her Mock Trial kids had multiple days for makeup. She didn’t grade some large projects at all; it was very arbitrary. She didn’t appear to grade/read many essays other than writing a grade at the top, so there would be no clue as to why an essay got a B or whatever. She would yell at the class for mistakes “everyone” made that weren’t present in his essay that got a similarly low grade to the kids that did make those mistakes. Again, very arbitrary. She marked some essays down for not having specific phrases; say if she couldn’t find the words “in comparison” but the essay said something synonymous, that was marked way down because the assignment was to write a comparison.
It still makes me a little mad to think about it, mostly because my son came to doubt his writing ability that year. However, he’s got a 98% in AP English Lang this year, regularly gets 100% on released multiple choice sections of AP Lang tests, and she uses his essays as good examples. So, one might hope that the contrast between a B+ one year and an A+ in a harder class might indicate to at least some adcoms that the B+ was a fluke. (Also, he’s a STEM guy, and this was “just” English.)
Anyway, I guess my answer is that you chalk it up to life being unfair and hope your kid learns a useful lesson about sometimes needing to do what the teacher/boss wants rather than what makes sense.
Did your son go to the doctor? Could he bring in documentation of his illness and try again with the teacher? Otherwise, the only other avenue is through a principal or assistant principal, that kind of thing, and going to that length over a single grade is not something your son will want to do, from what you have said.
I totally sympathize though. And agree it is “galling.” I also wonder what tone the teacher took with him, as if not trusting him or whatever, which can be a hard thing to deal with.
I was lucky. When things like this happened, my kids would sigh and say to me “Oh Mom, you know the world isn’t fair, right?” They were much better at handling things than I was!
Our school policy is that work is due the day you return. You don’t get extra days. You were meant to have completed that work before you got sick. If your school’s policy is real (never heard of such a policy), he should respectfully remind her that school policy says that he is allowed the extra day without penalty.
If he had any uncertainty about what was expected, he should have emailed the teacher during the school day when he was out, not wait until over the weekend expecting the teacher to be on call for him.