For me, trying to manage students’ missing work used to be such a headache! It was so much work to keep my lists up-to-date and get current information to students.
I tried so many systems, and regardless of what I did, I found myself drowning in small sheets of paper. It took more time for me to track down missing assignments than it took for the students to complete the work.
I guess it took remote and hybrid teaching to help me finally get down an effective system.
First, I created a sheet in Google Sheets™ to record the assignments I assigned each day. Each week, I created a new tab and labeled it with the date. I checked off work once it was turned in, changed the box to red if the assignment was missing, and changed the box to blue if the assignment needed a second look.
Now that it was easy for me to see who completed a given assignment, who was missing it, and who needed a second look, I needed a system of communicating that with the students. I also wanted to make sure this information was available to parents.
Using Google Docs™ allowed this information to be easily shared
I created a separate Google Doc™ for each of my students with each of their names, brief instructions, and the list of what they were missing. Using the share button, I changed the permissions so that students, their parents/guardians, and support teachers were able to edit and view the document. This allowed everyone to have up-to-date information regarding students’ outstanding assignments.
So I didn’t have to go back into each missing work page to update as students completed their work, I allowed students editing access. They delete the assignments off their list after they complete them. A few students tried deleting their assignments off the list without completing them. For students who made this a repetitive habit, I changed the settings to comment only which allowed them to inform me what was finished without actually deleting their on-going list.
Initially, it did take a bit to set up each of my students’ pages. However, now that it is done, I can quickly update my students’ pages. I created a bookmark folder on my taskbar called Missing Work. Within that folder, I have each individual page. I just need to click on that folder to access the missing work pages. Compared to handwriting, erasing, searching, forgetting to update, and writing again that happened with my previous systems, Google Doc missing work pages are saving me tons of time.
Why I LOVE this system:
- Students are responsible for checking their missing work page and managing it themselves by deleting what they complete
- Parents have easy access to see if their child is missing work and help support him/her at home
- When I email parents about missing work, it is easy to reattach this page for the information
- Teaching assistants or other staff members can help support my students complete their work, too
- I don’t have to continually rewrite missing work notes
- All the information is in one place—say goodbye to little notes everywhere
- Students just need to click the hyperlink to find their assignments
Let me know if you try this system! I would love to hear about it.
Happy Teaching!
Julie from Llama with Class
Grab some freebies to help you manage students’ missing work with this system
You will need a Google account in order to get these freebies. Click each picture to force a copy to your Google Drive™
