Today and yesterday have been disappointing days. I assigned informative speeches to be delivered the day after spring break, and no speakers showed. Perhaps that was my mistake, and so I will remember to try something different next spring.

However, absenteeism has happened consistently for each of the speeches we’ve done so far. It was just particularly bad this week. Of the students who did come to class, very few of them were prepared to deliver their speech. Students are fully aware that this costs them a letter grade on their speeches. I don’t understand why students don’t do their work. Consistently, students don’t show up for their speeches, or show up unprepared.

My chair was right when he said I didn’t have to worry about grade inflation. I’m worried about my students passing the class.

What do I do?

1 Comment

  1. Wow. That is a problem. What do they say when you ask them to take their turn in front of the class? Did they seem embarrassed, or nonchalant? Is this common in other sections of the course?

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