I am about to start full-time student teaching in an 8th grade classroom in the spring and have a general question about repetitive absences. There are a few studnets in my classes who seem to miss school a couple days a week or will be gone for multiple days at time, not truency violators, but 'excused' absences. I was wondering how you approach the grading and evaluating of these studnets. Should I expect them to take the same assessments as my other students, or should their assessment be modified? Do I give these students more individual attention while they are in class or will that take away from my regular participators? Any advice on this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Each school district/state has their own set of rules where attendance is concerned. I can't imagine that a student who misses school on a consistent basis, can get the same information from a worksheet when they were not in the classroom. I would ask your counselor what the school district's policy is in this case. However, I always keep a folder that contains the handouts/homework from each lesson taught each week. I also have the student/s who sit next to the absent person keep up with notes and when the absent student returns they share what the other student missed. In 8th grade, it should be the absentee student's responsibility to copy the notes. However, none of those things can possibly make up what that student missed in a lab and classroom discussion. Surely, there is a set max number of days a student can miss before an SBLC or school building level committee meets to discuss the student who is at risk of failing due to the excessive number of absences. In our district, it is a percent of days missed during the year. When we meet, we determine what our next step is and if it isn't a truency contact, it is a meeting with the parent.
Hello Zachary,
There was a similar question recently. You may want to read my suggestions: https://learningcenter.nsta.org/discuss/default.aspx?tid=rF2zqXg6cVg_E#95655
Regards,
Gabe
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