Yeah-- and she does do pretty good at switching like that. We've worked on that with her since it's a relative feature of her immaturity, in some respects.
But there again, clear expectations is one thing-- but this is something quite different.
Quiz time!
It is okay to be behind:
a) two lesson days, provided that your grade is passing
b) one week, depending upon your history in the course
c) it isn't. Not even one day. (yeah, yeah-- I know what marketing tells families. Bite me.)
d) BEHIND? Who cares-- just remember that your grade without the term paper at the end will SUCK. Here, let me show you just how MUCH it will suck.
e) all of the above, depending upon the teacher's whim. S/he'll let you know. Probably. Well-- maybe. You'll figure it out when it happens.
The problem is that the answer is e.
I'm not sure
what kind of students actually respond to this with
improved motivation, honestly.
Bear in mind that my DD added precalculus late-- and IMMEDIATELY got hit with '26 lesson' overdue (because of the high school's method of fixed start and end-dates and automatic scheduling). Three full weeks, please note.
She made up all but 8 of them within ONE week while keeping up with everything else more or less, AND took the ACT and interviewed at a college during that same week--
before she even had a course textbook. But that wasn't enough to prevent the dreaded raft of temporary zeros that took her grade from a 96% to a 17% instantly (two midterms). Her current grade is about 90% because (IMO, seeing what she was doing and how) she was doing ANYTHING to make it go away.
Like I said-- there were NO communications of any kind from the teacher about this. None. Not even "hey, welcome to my class, here are the class policies." Nothing.
This is like an adult being blindsided by a boss that gives them a crappy performance review on something that they had no idea HAD expectations attached to it-- like "being more talkative with colleagues during the lunch hour" or something-- but not to worry, that crappy quarterly performance review is just to "help you" do better by the end of the year.
