How to handle a case of senioritis?

[skimomma]

My dd is graduating.  She had four subjects this semester.  Two were DE and those courses ended two weeks ago.  Both were very challenging for her and took a lot more time and effort than she expected.  She worked really hard on those courses.  The third subject is outsourced and wrapping up this week.  The final course is US History, designed by me.  History is dd's least favorite subject.

I have never attached mommy-course grades to exams.  I have always approached assessment from a mastery standpoint.  Basically, we never moved on until she had full mastery of a topic.  That means that if she did the work and put in the effort, she got an A in every subject that I supervised.  There was one subject in 10th grade that she slacked on and I gave her a B.  She actually did all of the work eventually but it was turned in far outside of the due date parameters and when the due date passed I gave her the option of completing everything late and getting a B for A work or repeating the subject the following year.  She took the B grade option.   

For this history class, she had reading from several sources, including primary sources, each week.  She then reflected on those readings by answering prompts provided by me in short essay format.  She was also expected to complete a substantial research paper each semester.  Her fall semester paper was very well done and all other routine assignments were done on time and done well.  Her spring paper was due last Friday.  That day she asked me for an extension.  We had some family circumstances that made this a reasonable request and I extended to Sunday night.  Then forgot all about it.

I woke up at 2am to use the bathroom and discovered dd was still awake writing this paper.  This paper was assigned in February.

I now have it in my hand.  It is not well done.  At all.  It is very clear that she did not put much effort into it.  It is shy of the minimum length (pages) and on top of that she double spaced it and used a slightly larger font so it is not even half the required length.  I realize that I should have used word count in the requirements but I have used pages from day one and she has never pulled this sort of thing before.  I am trying to decide what to do here.  If I were to grade this, I would give it a D.  If I were grading traditionally, I would say this paper should be 10% of her total grade.  With that in mind, she would still get an A in the subject.  If this were any other semester I would ask her to redo the assignment until it was A work.  Dd's graduation ceremony is next week and I need to submit her final grades to her university.  I am struggling to figure out what to do that will not forever put a dark cloud over her last weeks of homeschooling. Options I am considering:

1.  Do nothing and give her an A.  Explain that I feel this was a half-assed effort, but even at half-assed, the whole year of effort is still A work.

2.  Give her the choice of redoing it or taking a B for the subject.  Her grade would not actually be a B by anyone else's standards but would be consistent with how we have operated in the past.

3.  Other ideas?

I am about as done with homeschooling as she is.  I just want to be done done DONE.  If this were any other semester, I would for sure go with option 2.  It does not do her any favors to let something slide since no professor is going to do so.  She has a lot of exciting things coming up and it would be very difficult for her to redo this work before her final transcript must be submitted.  She has a 4.0 in her DE classes, including a class from this semester that kicked her butt in the beginning and that she crawled her way back up to an A.  This paper is literally the only thing that she has slacked on all year.  

 

[regentrude]

5 minutes ago, skimomma said:

If I were to grade this, I would give it a D.  If I were grading traditionally, I would say this paper should be 10% of her total grade.  With that in mind, she would still get an A in the subject. 

Then give her the A and be done.

She will be in college next semester. Every college student does academic triage. A student who has an A in a class even with a crappy final paper is not going to turn it in for revision to get a higher A. You have given her a rigorous school experience, made her work, did not let her off easy. I would not insist on perfection with this final paper if she has  excelled the rest of the year.

 

Edited May 10, 2021 by regentrude

[Alicia64]

30 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Then give her the A and be done.

She will be in college next semester. Every college student does academic triage. A student who has an A in a class even with a crappy final paper is not going to turn it in for revision to get a higher A. You have given her a rigorous school experience, made her work, did not let her off easy. I would not insist on perfection with this final paper if she has  excelled the rest of the year.

I agree with regentrude. And I vote for option one. A 4.0 in DE classes is awesome!! Especially in the one class that was difficult.

You both sound wonderful!

Congratulations to you both.

[fourisenough]

Option 1.

[Lori D.]

Agreeing with @regentrude, esp. in light of what she quoted from your post. If the paper is worth 10% of the grade, and otherwise she has A work, the only way the paper could pull her final grade down below an A would be by failure to do it at all. She did do the paper -- not to her usual standard, true -- but she did do it, and it's time to close the books on this paper, on this class, and on the senior year.

The only thing I would suggest doing is have her re-format the paper into standard MLA or APA format (12-point type, 1" margins, etc.), and explain that you are having her do that because college professors DO take off for papers out of format MORE than they take off for papers that are short of the minimum requirement. Also, it's an attempt at being deceptive, and that just NEVER would fly here -- sloppy half-assed work I can have sympathy for due to burn-out and being so ready to be done. "Lying" to me by going out of format to make the paper appear longer than it really is just makes me mad. 😉 

So I would have her re-format to the required style format, have that little conversation, and then let it go and MOVE ON, for everyone's sanity. 😉

And -- congratulations to you and DD for all your years of hard work with homeschooling and crossing the finish line to move to the next stage! Go celebrate! 😄 

 

PS -- And please, be kind to yourself and to DD -- don't let this one little slip up due to burn-out mar your memories of the senior year, the homeschool high school years, and all of your homeschooling experiences. hugs!

Edited May 10, 2021 by Lori D.

[BusyMom5]

I'd give and A and call it done.  She is on to college,  and it sounds like she prioritized DE classes over yours.  That's one reason I don't like to mix at-home and DE classes.  

[skimomma]

Thanks everyone!  That is really what I want to do.  I just needed some sort of "permission."  Now I have it!  

[skimomma]

1 hour ago, Lori D. said:

 

The only thing I would suggest doing is have her re-format the paper into standard MLA or APA format (12-point type, 1" margins, etc.), and explain that you are having her do that because college professors DO take off for papers out of format MORE than they take off for papers that are short of the minimum requirement. Also, it's an attempt at being deceptive, and that just NEVER would fly here -- sloppy half-assed work I can have sympathy for due to burn-out and being so ready to be done. "Lying" to me by going out of format to make the paper appear longer than it really is just makes me mad. 😉 

 

That is actually the funny thing.  She DID use APA format.  That is what she has been required in her DE classes all along.  But she has never used that format for me.  She usually uses single space, 10 pt font, which is what I taught her to do early in high school just to keep the paper bulk in check.  So, when I set a minimum page number, I had our "normal" in mind.  She would definitely have grounds for challenging the length requirements.  The general half-assed-ness, she would not.

[Lori D.]

1 minute ago, skimomma said:

That is actually the funny thing.  She DID use APA format.  That is what she has been required in her DE classes all along.  But she has never used that format for me.  She usually uses single space, 10 pt font, which is what I taught her to do early in high school just to keep the paper bulk in check.  So, when I set a minimum page number, I had our "normal" in mind.  She would definitely have grounds for challenging the length requirements.  The general half-assed-ness, she would not.

lol. 

[EKS]

6 minutes ago, skimomma said:

She usually uses single space, 10 pt font, which is what I taught her to do early in high school just to keep the paper bulk in check.

Wow--that sounds like a nightmare to look at!

(BTW, I vote for the giving an A option.)

[MamaSprout]

1 hour ago, skimomma said:

That is actually the funny thing.  She DID use APA format.  That is what she has been required in her DE classes all along.  But she has never used that format for me.  She usually uses single space, 10 pt font, which is what I taught her to do early in high school just to keep the paper bulk in check.  So, when I set a minimum page number, I had our "normal" in mind.  She would definitely have grounds for challenging the length requirements.  The general half-assed-ness, she would not.

I have always told my students, “Please, for the love of my eyeballs, do not give me anything in 10 point font.”

Edited May 10, 2021 by MamaSprout

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, skimomma said:

She usually uses single space, 10 pt font, which is what I taught her to do early in high school just to keep the paper bulk in check.  

Yikes 🙂

Yeah, 12 pt font and double spaced is the standard for college papers. Sooo much easier to read. (And yes, I know, all that paper. )

[Lori D.]

This year due to pandemic and my classes only being all-online we had only all-digital essays, so no paper waste! 😄 But even before the pandemic, I was starting to move towards some drafts coming in as digital, so as to reduce paper waste.

Absolutely no way I would have my students turn in anything that was NOT in MLA (or APA) format... IMO, it's absolutely critical to have them practice, practice, practice format so that it will be second-nature to them when they hit college, where I want them to be able to spend all of their time thinking about what they're going to write, not on trying to figure out formatting. 😉 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Lori D.

[regentrude]

21 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Absolutely no way I would have my students turn in anything that was NOT in MLA (or APA) format... IMO, it's absolutely critical to have them practice, practice, practice format so that it will be second-nature to them when they hit college. I want them to spend all of their time thinking about what they're going to write, not on trying to figure out formatting. 😉 

The formatting rules can be looked up so easily that I don't really see any point in practicing that for years. I never had to write a paper MLA style before a class I took this year - I looked up the few things, and that was that. (also, different teachers/schools/disciplines require different formats - so what's the point in drilling a specific one?)
My kids figured that out in college easily. I required citations, but didn't make them format according to particular style in our homeschool.

Edited May 10, 2021 by regentrude

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

The formatting rules can be looked up so easily that I don't really see any point in practicing that for years. I never had to write a paper MLA style before a class I took this year - I looked up the few things, and that was that. (also, different teachers/schools/disciplines require different formats - so what's the point in drilling a specific one?)
My kids figured that out in college easily. I required citations, but didn't make them format according to particular style in our homeschool.

Sigh. You would think so.

But every year I have at least one student in a class who spends an entire semester -- sometimes the entire *year* -- turning in paper after paper after paper NOT in format, and always with some new way of NOT being in format. And not intentionally. It's like they just don't get how to make a or use a template and start from scratch every single time they sit down to write a paper. These are usually my "free form" or "out of the box" students, who are so focused on getting their thoughts down in writing that formatting goes right out of the window. They just do NOT have brains wired in the way that makes it easy for them to look up something like formatting and to make it happen.

So yes, there is a point to me requiring formatting, and a reason why I require that practice of formatting all year. 😄 Yes, other teachers will require other formats, but the point is that they understand how to quickly be able to implement those specific formatting requirements -- and practice with formatting is how that happens for some students. 

And for all of you who have students who can look up formatting and citations from a website and "get it" instantly -- take a moment to be grateful that your students DO find it easy. 😉 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Lori D.

[Roadrunner]

I would move on. I have only seen research paper requirements at a DE history course locally. Honors US History at our high school has minimal writing. 

[pinball]

Just to see what she thinks of her paper, id have her give herself a grade.

 

[klmama]

3 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

I would move on. I have only seen research paper requirements at a DE history course locally. Honors US History at our high school has minimal writing. 

Is their grade mostly tests then?  

[Roadrunner]

57 minutes ago, klmama said:

Is their grade mostly tests then?  

Yes, mostly tests, some short written assignments. 

[kiwik]

We handwrote single spaced.

 

 

 

 

[Hilltopmom]

On 5/11/2021 at 5:47 AM, kiwik said:

We handwrote single spaced.

 

 

 

 

In blue exam books!