We've all taught Student 2 before. Maybe you're even teaching him (or her; mine happens to be a "him") right now. Student 2 couldn't be any more opposite from Student 1. In class, this student's confidence borders on arrogance, but individually, he's a pleasant student to talk to. Student 2 is gifted with innate intelligence, but would rather verbally demonstrate how smart he is than complete the assessments which would demonstrate his skill. Student 2 chronically misuses class time, turns in assignments late, and performs well below his ability. You like Student 2, but you want to shake him. Student 1 works so hard to achieve half of what Student 2 can achieve with little effort.
In the Land of No-Homework, Student 2 started the year cautiously curious about whether or not I was actually going to hold true to my policy of requiring no outside homework. During our narrative work, Student 2 took awhile to land on the "snapshot moment" or memory he wanted to develop. Daily work time was often spent either spinning his mental wheels (but not getting far) or talking to those around him. What I noticed is that as the due date grew closer his focus in class seemed to waver even more while most of his classmates' focus seemed to grow. Student 2 ended up turning in a hastily completed narrative two weeks late. Despite the faults that inherently arrive from hurriedly completed writing, his narrative showed definite skill in certain areas. This is the student who, had he used writer's workshop time to his advantage rather than as "free time", could have scored across the board in the skilled and exceptional categories of the narrative grading rubric.
Unfortunately, as we moved into informative writing and the students were given an extra 10 minutes of workshop time per day with the addition of a research element, not only did Student 2 not focus, he became an outright distraction for other students during workshop time. Some students gravitated toward his use of workshop time and also became distracting, so they were finally allowed to work out in the hallway during this time so as not to disturb those who were working well. A hastily completed paper was again turned in 2 weeks late. True to his argumentative nature, his informative paper was much more argumentative than informative, so he scored poorly on it overall.
Although Student 2 represents a specific student, his misuse of class time is similar to a few other students in class as well. This misuse of work time is the foundation of the largest obstacle to being a successfully homework-free class. Three-fourths of my students are using workshop time to their advantage, writing, revising, editing, and seeking feedback from both me and from peers. Their writing is better and they show more ownership of their writing. Although I know "you can't win 'em all," I'm still convinced I could be doing something differently, not sure what, to get a few more of these "Student 2's" to turn away from the "dark side" and use class time to their advantage.
What I do know is that 96% of students turned in their narrative writing on time and 73% turned in the informative writing by the due date. This is a significant drop, but narrative writing did not ask students to step outside of themselves, whereas writing informatively required them to pose a tough question and research and read to find their answers. If there's one thing many students dislike more than writing, it's reading, and informative writing requires both from them.
Stay tuned for more adventures from the Land of No-Homework.
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