Any consequences for late work (4th gr)?

[K&Rs Mom]

My 9yo asked to do book reports, because she thought outschools did them. The ones by us, at least, don't, but I've assigned her a few reports and she wants me to keep track of grades for her. She's done about 4 so far, with a week to work on each. Now that it's no longer new and fun, she doesn't care to turn them in on time. From the day it's assigned, I remind her how much time she has left until it's due. Last week's was a day late, and I took off 5 points for that (warned her that would be the consequence). There's one due today before dance class, in about an hour and a half, that I'm pretty sure she hasn't started (she did finish the book, just hasn't written anything). I have reminded her 4 or 5 times today, but am not going to force this - there are other issues with this kid at the moment, and it's not worth it. So do I continue to take off points each day it's late? The grades don't count for anything, we don't report them to anyone, but she does seem to care what her scores are in most things (naturally competitive kid). Does anyone have other consequences that aren't going to punish me more than her? I had no intention of assigning book reports until she asked for them, but now that she's done a few and I see the improvement with practice, I do want her to continue. I also want her to start to take responsibility for managing her own time, though with regular reminders for now. Thanks for reading this far! Thoughts?

[mommymilkies]

:lurk5:

 

My ds is this way with his math work.

[ondreeuh]

Well, as you've seen, points off for late work is sort of an irrelevant consequence.

 

What is her "currency"? You could remove privileges, require work to be done at a time/place she doesn't prefer, assign extra work ... you just need to find some consequence that matters to her. In my dd's high school classroom, iPods are the big privilege. Late work means you can't use your iPod while doing math. Falling too far behind means you can't go on any class trips (those are a BIG DEAL here). With the younger kids, they have restricted access to "gym night" if they don't do their work and sometimes they have to stay after school.

[K&Rs Mom]

What is her "currency"?

 

If I can find that out, we'll all be better off. :tongue_smilie: It seems to change regularly (like every time I think I might know).

 

Since I posted this, we had another discussion, and decided that she'll be doing a 5th day of school this week - we normally do 4-day weeks. Since she can't manage her time on her own, I'll have to schedule it for her. So on Friday, she'll be doing the report that was due today, plus the one that's due next Weds.

[NanceXToo]

Wouldn't be worth the struggle to me. It's just not that important. She asked to do book reports which you wouldn't have even assigned and successfully did four of them. Good for her!

 

She's no longer interested, and it wasn't one of your requirements, so let it go. Maybe if you want this last one to be finished, either tell her it can be the last one, or tell her she can do it in some creative way instead of whatever it is she's been doing- a storyboard/comic book, a picture collage that depicts the main idea of the story, writing in a new scene or ending, doing an oral report and even videotaping it if she wants, etc.

 

ETA: P.S. When my daughter did book reports in 4th and 5th grade, she had three weeks to do each one and we often made them more creative than just a standard book report.

Edited September 22, 2011 by NanceXToo

[choirfarm]

HOnestly, if I had to do a book report every week, I wouldn't want to do that either!!! She has done 4. That is about what mine do for the whole year as far as book reports go. Now have her write a descriptive paper or comparison/contast, etc. I say this, but my 4th grader is just working on writing a good paragraph. I can't imagine having her write a whole page book report yet. Hopefully by the end of the year. Having to do the same thing every week is incredibly boring!!!

 

Christine

[K&Rs Mom]

Thanks, again. Right now it's also a defiance issue (whole life issue, not just school related), so I'm not going to back down on the one already assigned, but I think I am going to change the plan a little once we get through that. The book for next week has some discussion questions in the back (one of those "school editions"), so I'll let her do that instead.

 

We had been doing creative projects about books for her book-it, like making a game based on a book, but she didn't think that counted as a real report. Maybe now that she's had some of both, I'll give the option of mixing in some of those again.

 

I like the idea of reporting on other things, too, and maybe less often. I had no intention of having her write reports early in 4th, but seeing her improvement already, I don't want to quit and let that all evaporate.

[missmoe]

My kids can't do anything else until school work is done. If the report is due on Friday, then nothing else happens after school time until all work is turned in. No dance class, no computer time, no tv time,. ect.