Useful punishments for students

[MissMaCo]

if im really humiliated ill do my homework next time

note that this remark comes from a 16 years old student !!!

 

[Laura M]

I wouldn't get them to sing a song. Maybe getting them to do extra excercises or something

My friend makes everyone write an essay if they don't do their homework 4 or 5 times, whateevr the school states as the maximum times someone can get away with not handing their homework in. The last essay they had to write was: "A day in the life of a handbag".
I liked that.

 

[Tomer]

note that this remark comes from a 16 years old student !!!

whats that supposed to mean?

 

[Tomer]

oh at greek lessons someone didnt do his homework at all and he compensated it with pie
not the way to go either but its nice for once

 

[Rono]

Hmmm, some lessons about homeless people or a excursion to a mindkilling factory. Maybe taking more test as planned so the pupils need to learn for a better grade but single one out would be a bad idea. Anyway, i think you are better off asking other teachers right now.

 

[Tomer]

ask the students

 

[Tomer]

 

[beegee]

note that this remark comes from a 16 years old student !!!

indeed.

but just out of curiousity, tomer, why aren't you in school right now?

 

[ylimeU2]

ask the students

I don't think that would work. You would probably just get a lot of "Don't give us homework" answers. But then again, I'm not a teacher, so what do I know?

I think Rono's got the best idea. Talk to some of your fellow teachers. I'm sure it's a common problem for all of them.

 

[nbcrusader]

Missing assignments shows up on the grades record (keep in mind, my current experience is only through 3rd grade (for my son, not me)).

In higher grades, the best way to encourage completion of homework is dread pop quiz.

 

[BAW]

there IS a punishment for students who fail to live up to their responsibilities - it's called failing the grade. hold a student back while his classmates advance, and he'll learn quick enough.

i am absolutely disgusted you would actually consider humiliating a student in front of his peers like that. this is exactly the kind of thinking from teachers that has made me consider home schooling my child over the years.

Exactly.

I don't know about European schools, but in the US, a percentage of your grade/mark in most core subjects is determined by homework assignments. If you don't turn it in, your grade is lowered.

Personal accountability works much, much better than humiliation. If I ever found out one of my kids was singled out and made to do something like sing a nursery rhyme in front of the class as punishment, he would no longer be in that teacher's classroom.

By the time a kid has reached 16, his study habits are fairly set so after making the parents aware of the situation and talking to the student about the consequences of failing his classes, its pretty much up to the student to motivate him/herself to succeed.

On a personal note, my notoriously lazy kids were motivated the most by teachers who took a genuine interest in them, showed that they enjoyed teaching them and voiced any concerns about their lack of effort in private, not during class in front of the other students.

Its very painful as a parent to have your child come home on the verge of tears because a teacher has made a thoughtless or humiliating comment to him in front of his classmates.

 

[Popmartijn]

I have been thinking about this on my way home (and granted, that's currently only a 15 minute drive ). Anyway, what do you do after you've given homework? Do you discuss it in class the next time? If so, do YOU discuss it/give the answers, or do you ask a student what (s)he has for answers?
In the second case, you can make appoint a student who hasn't make his/her homework. I think that after a short while you may have a good feeling who has or hasn't been doing homework. If that person has not made homework (s)he has to admit it before class. I don't think this is a real humiliation, but that person is forced to say (s)he didn't make it. It may be fun the first time, but after a few times it does get a bit tiresome for that person, so there's a higher chance (s)he has done homework the next time.
Additionally, what's been suggested earlier, you could mark the pupils who have not done their homework. After a certain amount of marks that person should do an extra assignment.

C ya!



Marty

P.S. Don't try to single out only those who haven't done their homework, but also those who have, who are very good in it, who are struggling (to help them). But do try to give the impression not making homework will get noticed.

 

[isabelle_guns]

i like the idea of making them sing

 

[cell]

just out of curiousity, tomer, why aren't you in school right now?

i like how tomer disappeared right after you posted that.

 

[MissMaCo]

Thanks everybody, it's interesting for me to hear parents & students here.
Bono's American Wife : Singing a nursey rhyme... well, I don't know now. But I like the fact that students may be reluctant to learn a nursery rhyme and think "well, I should have done my homework : it's easier that learning a baby song !"
A nursery rhyme may sound ludricrous for you but don't forget that I'm teaching English to French teenagers, so that could a way to learn some more English ! Of course, I find it stupid to learn a French baby song as a punishment ! Not useful at all ! I wasn't sure you got the fact that I'm teaching English. Anyway, it was good to read your opinion.

Tom : the fact that you want to be humiliated yourself is strange cause that means that maybe your classmates think the same. Maybe you should ask them. I dunno if every student is eager to be humiliated in the classroom...apart from you !

Marty : good advice as usual

 

[souLnation2002]

Perhaps copying pages out of a dictionary would be good.

 

[MissMaCo]

Hey soulnation

Do you think it would be very useful ? I mean, what's the aim of copying pages and pages... I'm looking for punishments which can be a means to learn some more English.

 

[souLnation2002]

Copying words out of an english dictionary, then, lol. I had to do that once, when I was younger. I had to either copy out a page of the words with definitions, write an essay of what I did wrong, and have my parents sign the essay or sheet of dictionary words.

 

[MissMaCo]

parents signing the essay...

 

[ABEL]

indeed.

but just out of curiousity, tomer, why aren't you in school right now?

maybe because it was after 5pm where he is when he posted? lol.

 

[bammo2]

lol you beat me to it ABEL

 

[beegee]

you're right abel, i forgot about that !!

 

[cass]

I don't have any ideas to add Marie. But as you can see from the responses here, one things parents get VERY uptight about is their kids. Good luck

Corporal punishment was still allowed when I was in high school. Reading and writing and 'rithmetic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick. It was traumatic just to hear it. Ugh! I'm glad those days have changed.
You are so new to your career, do you have a mentor/advisor you can turn to in your place of work? It's good you want to help the kids. The school curriculum can be so uniform and some kids just do not fit.
Are you finding it is mostly boys that don't do as expected of them? My sons weren't keen on homework and doing that extra bit and I had trouble relating to that. I LOVED school and always did extra. I do think there are gender differences.
There are LEVELS in the schools here. Level One means you have to stay in the classroom at lunchtime. Level 2 means you can't go on excursions or attend school dances. Level 3 means you have to have a booklet teachers from every class sign commenting on your behaviour that has to also be signed by your parents and the principal. And after that you are suspended from school. Something like that.

You have chosen an important but difficult career. You are doing the right thing to be asking questions.
martha is a regular here, a fair-minded and beautiful human being, as well as a teacher with a lot of experience. You might get to know her, she's tops

 

[oliveu2cm]

Reward him/her for good behavior, so she/he will want to be rewarded for other things. Punishment will not necessarily work, and may enhance feelings of frustration, disinterest and resentment that are already there. Speak with the student one-on-one, see why he or she is not doing the homework (forgetting the book at school, bad home life, not understanding the work maybe, etc.) and maybe you can help the root problem- it might take a little extra work like reminding the student every afternoon to grab his or her notebook. What about sending a note home for the parents, or even having a conference if other forms of communication don't work?

Singling a child out in front of the class is humiliating for children- for adults, in fact! I took a grad class last year in which the professor glared down a student who came in 5 minutes late (due to a 20 minute commute to the school and after letting the prof know her situation). As a result of this professor's insane, humiliating behavior I had a panic attack on my way to class later in the semester. Humiliating a child like that is wrong, and I don't think it will really change the root cause of the problem.

Additionally, if a student is not doing the homework, making him or her do extra assignments as a punishment may not work either- why would he or she do the extra work if they can't even do the regular work? I stick with what I said above: speak one-on-one with the student and try to understand what is going on. Use the parents as a resource. Encourage positive behavior.

 

[BAW]

Additionally, if a student is not doing the homework, making him or her do extra assignments as a punishment may not work either- why would he or she do the extra work if they can't even do the regular work? I stick with what I said above: speak one-on-one with the student and try to understand what is going on. Use the parents as a resource. Encourage positive behavior.

Great point. I have a very intelligent, but lazy and somewhat scatter-brained son and it turned out that part of his homework problem was his lack of organizational skills. Piling even more work on him made him come home, drop his backpack in the living room and hide from it for the rest of the day because he felt overwhelmed.

A few of his teachers took the time to call me and discuss his problems and those were the classes he tried to make improvements in.

 

[JessicaAnn]

I think parental involvement is critical. And not just when things are going bad. Be sure to tell parents when their children are doing well. Kids love to get praise from their parents.

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

I've never heard of that either. That students parents would be up in arms that their child wasn't getting their education.

Social promotion is what usually happens now. I am against it. This is how students get to high school and read at a 4th grade level.

As for parents being up in arms, maybe they should take a harder look at what their student is or isn't doing in school. Teachers and parents have to work together to get children through school.

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

I made my high school juniors sing the School House rock version of the Preamble to me this week. (for US History) I made them memorize it. They seemed to enjoy it. I know I enjoyed it. It counted as a quiz grade.

I give my students zeros if they don't hand in homework. Late work is 50% off.

 

[Liesje]

I think it depends on the age of the kids. In middle school (10-13) and high school (14-18) everything we did was for points. For example, each day's homework was maybe 10-20 points, a test would be more like 50-100, an exam like 100-200 or so. In the end, your grade is just based on your percentage of total points. So 98-100% was an A, 95-97% an A-, 93-96% B+, 90-92% a B and so on.

I don't see any reason to use any sort of "punishment" for not doing homework besides simply not getting the points/credit/grade for it. In a lot of my classes, there were larger assignments and projects that you had to do or you could fail the class and have to take it over. But it sounds like you're working with really little kids....uh, maybe send home a schedule of each week's assignements so the parents know what the kids have to do each night. Then at the end of the week, the kids have to turn in the sheet signed by a parent, along with all their work. This encourages parent involvement and also insures that the parent will make sure the kids does the homework.

 

[MissMaCo]

I don't have any ideas to add Marie. But as you can see from the responses here, one things parents get VERY uptight about is their kids. Good luck

Corporal punishment was still allowed when I was in high school. Reading and writing and 'rithmetic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick. It was traumatic just to hear it. Ugh! I'm glad those days have changed.
You are so new to your career, do you have a mentor/advisor you can turn to in your place of work? It's good you want to help the kids. The school curriculum can be so uniform and some kids just do not fit.
Are you finding it is mostly boys that don't do as expected of them? My sons weren't keen on homework and doing that extra bit and I had trouble relating to that. I LOVED school and always did extra. I do think there are gender differences.
There are LEVELS in the schools here. Level One means you have to stay in the classroom at lunchtime. Level 2 means you can't go on excursions or attend school dances. Level 3 means you have to have a booklet teachers from every class sign commenting on your behaviour that has to also be signed by your parents and the principal. And after that you are suspended from school. Something like that.

You have chosen an important but difficult career. You are doing the right thing to be asking questions.
martha is a regular here, a fair-minded and beautiful human being, as well as a teacher with a lot of experience. You might get to know her, she's tops

Cass
In one of my class, I have 26 boys vs 6 girls ! I have a good relationship with them. I don't know yet if I can stick to the cliché that says that boys are lazy and girls are serious ! What I think though is that 15-16 years old girls are shy inside the class... but not in outside !
We don't have such levels in France.
I have a mentor but her schedule and mine are so different that we can hardly see each other. I think she gives some extra works as punishments... Maybe not the right solution as someone told here.
Keeping in touch with the parents is of course important. But some parents are not as serious as you and the BAWS. Some parents really don't care if their children do their English homework because, "at the end he won't need English when he's a carpenter !"