How should a teacher respond to a student's request to work at home on
independent-study materials? The teacher certainly doesn't want to stifle a
student's interest; on the other hand, some students race through work so
quickly that, instead of really learning, they are just covering ground.
Furthermore, school materials that are safe in school are sometimes lost or
damaged at home - "My dog chewed on it," the student says! Lastly, if the work
requires checking, at a student's home the teacher is not at hand to check it.
It is true that some parents are just as good at checking student work as the
teacher, but others aren't. Then there is the student who does work at home and
brings an armload of work to school for the teacher to check, expecting the
teacher to spend an inordinate amount of precious class time doing so. For
sure, the question of whether to send independent-study work home is not a
simple one.
If the teacher does decide to allow independent-study materials to go home,
the teacher must be particularly diligent to work with the student managers of
kits and collections to be sure that they are keeping track of the materials.
As any librarian knows, lost materials are a major headache. If possible, the
teacher should keep a backup copy of the materials.
To those students who arrive at school with an armload of completed work,
expecting the teacher to check it, the teacher should say, "Excellent! You have
done a lot of work. Let's spot check it to see how conscientious you have been.
If there are many mistakes, back you go to redo it."
Students who allow materials to be lost or damaged cannot be allowed to
continue on their destructive path. On the other hand, their sentence shouldn't
be forever. Once they commit to more responsible behavior, they should be given
another chance.
Parents who are willing to work with their children are a godsend not only to
their children but also to the teacher. The teacher provides the
independent-study materials; the parents do the checking. However, sometimes
parents are not knowledgeable enough to check their children's work, so the
teacher must continue to spot check.
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