What to make of this teacher?

Question

i was told by a mate that in his english lit. set for GCSE, there was this girl that had not done a piece of coursework and the deadline was on that day. and the teacher said to rip out the draft and hand that in. what do secondary school teachers think of this?and the teacher was very unorganised as well apparently

I think that it's terrible that this happened and the teacher allowed it to get that far. imagine the spelling mistakes and gramma problems with a handwritten draft!

Answer 1

As a teacher I have done the same thing.

The situation is that the deadline has been reached for the school to submit the work. A pupil has mssed all the deadlines and handed nothing in. I have two choices, submit nothing or take the draft and submit that. What would you do?

I submit the draft,at least the pupil has a slim chance of getting some sort of grade.

Answer 2

The parents probably should be contacted, but that would be done out of the classroom so your mate wouldn't know.

There are two reasons for doing this, one as the others have said is to get some sort of grade, the other is that she might have a chance to resubmit, or improve on the work. The only way the teacher can help is to have some work to mark. From a rough draft it can be seen if the student understands the work and to give guidance to get a better grade.

Answer 3

I don't think this is one of the worst things I've heard of.  It is no worse than giving partial credit on an exam for an answer that is only partially correct.  As to spelling and grammar problems, those are usually no worse on handwritten drafts than on any other type of paper.  Either you know spelling and grammar or you don't.  If she made a lot of errors, presumably that would hurt her with regard to the grade she would receive.

Answer 4

yes, I agree with other people that it is better to get a grade than to get nothing.  however, I see a problem with this.  why did the teacher let it get this far?

if the student is not turning the work in, the parents should be contacted and made aware of the situation.  a child, even in high school is still a child and parents need to know of their situation in school.

I would have contacted the parents when the first deadline was missed.

Yes, I am a teacher a s well, and we need to work in conjunction with partents so that our students are successful.

Answer 5

A due date is a due date.

Most teachers would not even accept the rough draft.

It is better to get some type of grade rather than no grade at all.

Answer 6

For many English Literature courses there are very few marks for grammar and spelling (in the case of AQA- 3 marks over the whole folder (3 pieces).  Often, if a piece is missing, the exam board actually take marks away as well as giving zero on that piece.  I think they take 1/3 off the total marks for Literature coursework as well as giving zero for a missing piece.

Some students just don't hand things in.  I have sent letters, telephoned parents, had meetings with them, had the head of department speak with parents, kept the student behind to complete work and sometimes work still doesn't come in before the deadline set by the exam board.  Yes, teachers should do some/all of the above to make sure students meet deadlines, but students really need to take some responsibility for themselves.  After all, if there was a deadline in the workplace and it wasn't met, employers would not be as supportive as teachers are in making sure the work is done!

the teacher may appear disorganised but there really is a lot to do when you have 6 or more different classes.  I had 2 classes taking GCSE English and Literature this year so that meant marking over 200 individual pieces of coursework.  When students don't meet your deadlines so you can't mark the work at the time you specifically set aside then organisation goes out of the window a bit!

On a few occasions I have torn draft work out of the books of students who do not attend regularly enough to complete the work just so they have some chance of passing.  Perhaps the teacher in the case you mention should have contacted the parents and kept the student behind after school/at lunch on that day to make sure it was done.  

Answer 7

Maybe she had phoned the parents as most suggest.  I agree she was trying to help the student.  As usual blame is laid at the teachers door, what about the student who knew when the deadline was and was probably told on numerous occasions by the teacher.

At least she had a chance of increasing her mark with the draft copy!!

Give the teachers a break!

Answer 8

that is not very professional of her

Answer 9

Nowadays, it is actually acceptable to submit a draft; teachers generally recommend a draft followed by a corrected version as naturally the corrected version is likely to earn them a better grade. The teacher was acting completely in the student's best interests by agreeing to submit this draft and believe me, it was by no means to the detriment of the other students, as they are all likely to get better grades, having submitted a polished version!

As for the teaching being 'very unorganised' - it is a stressful time for teachers too, believe it or not, and in my experience, an unorganised teacher is generally a teacher who CARES about his or her class and is willing to get stressed for them!

Answer 10

The teacher was saying, in effect, "it's better to submit your draft for a 50% grade, than to submit nothing and get a Zero!" This has nothing to do with teacher's organization, and reflects a rather liberal attitude considering the irresponsibility of the student.