FIAE Chapter 10: Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit

This chapter states at the beginning that all work a student does should be allowed to be redone. However, as with any privilege it can be abused and for a teacher’s sanity the chapter gives some tips as to avoid that. One suggestion was that the parents and the students sign a contract that gives the teacher the right to withhold the privilege if abuse is suspected. After all students are growing and for the sake of integrity it may be a lesson the student needs to learn. As adults we know that sometimes life gets in way even of our best intentions and mercy is well deserved. As teachers we should not feel the need to withhold that mercy from our students, if they need a due date to be extended. To keep the communication lines open, some teachers have the parents sign the original task in order for the student to redo the assignment. Sometimes the original assignment was a huge project that was tedious and took a lot of time. It might be easier to test the student’s mastery of the material by some other form, such as an oral test. This is okay as long as the teacher communicates the change to the student well in advance. If however, part of the mastery is embedded in the process of making the project, sitting down with the student to work out a plan of attack, or how the student plans on completing the assignment on time while keeping up with current work is a good idea. When a student retakes a test, it should not be averaged with the first score. In real life that is not the case, it should not be the case in the classroom. The student knows the material now, why punish them for not knowing it before. This affects me as a teacher to know the importance of allowing students to redo work. I especially like the idea of students writing not only the correct answer when the assignment is redone but also what was the mistake they made and how they would do it differently next time. This affects my students by allowing them the opportunity to show their true level of mastery and give them the encouragement to keep trying to learn even if they do not understand the first time around.