Teachers - when a student goes on vacation, do you assign work?

[Ember]

I teach kindergarten right now, so there's really no point. (Though I have had parents ask. I tell them to read with their child. ) But it got me wondering what I'd do at older grades.

I can't help thinking I wouldn't assign work for a few reasons. One, it a vacation. Regardless of the fact that it's during school time, it's still special time with family. Two, other then maybe journal writing it seems like much of the work would be "busy work." Worksheets that cover what the class is doing isn't nearly the same as the lessons taught in class.

Lastly, I don't really think it's fair to ask a teacher to do a lot of extra work for a student who has a family choosing to remove them from school. Part of that choice is knowing the student is missing lessons and weighing that the vacation is more important. (This is not a judgment of the parents, just a statement of fact.)

Anyway, if you're a teacher what do you do when it comes to a student leaving for a week or two to vacation?

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Im also a kindergarten teacher. I have had one child go on vacation for a week this year so far. I just asked them to read with the hcild and practice letters and "word wall words"--i saved a couple of worksheets (new material) for her to do when she got back

 

[daisyduck123]

I teach 1st grade. I don't give any work to do on the trip, & only save a few worksheets on the child's desk while he/she is gone.

The reason I don't save ALL the worksheets for the student to do upon returning is because I don't want a stack of papers handed in for me to grade a week later. Why should I be overloaded with worksheets because a student went on vacation? No way.

I pick & choose just a few for them to do when they return.

 

[Linzybrooke]

I teach high school, and our district has a policy about this. If a student misses school for any reason, no matter what it is, they are expected to make up the work that was done in class during their absense. Further, if they know about the trip/activity before the date it occurs they are supposed to find out the assignments before they leave, and have them completed when they come back. Now, exceptions are made if the student has a long-term illness, but other than that they are expected to do the work as it was planned for the rest of the class. The student needs the work in order to understand what they missed, and all teachers have tutorials weekly if a student needs to come in for help.

 

[Ember]

I teach high school, and our district has a policy about this. If a student misses school for any reason, no matter what it is, they are expected to make up the work that was done in class during their absense. Further, if they know about the trip/activity before the date it occurs they are supposed to find out the assignments before they leave, and have them completed when they come back. Now, exceptions are made if the student has a long-term illness, but other than that they are expected to do the work as it was planned for the rest of the class. The student needs the work in order to understand what they missed, and all teachers have tutorials weekly if a student needs to come in for help.

I can see at a high school level how missed material becomes much more important.

So you, as the teacher, are expected to re-teach the material to the student? Am I understanding that right from the idea of having a tutorial? Does it frustrate you that this is expected when the absence is voluntary such as for a vacation?

 

[Linzybrooke]

Well, I teach theatre so I don't deal with it all that often. However, I know from the times I have had to do it that teaching one student a concept takes much less time than teaching a group of them. It is only frusterating when the student either doesn't show up for the tutorial, or shows up and doesn't even have the work they were given prior to their trip. But, you do what you have to do, and you give them concrete deadlines if the work wasn't something they could get done before leaving on their trip.

 

[stashbin]

Our school also has a similar policy. Students are given 2 days for every 1 day they miss to get their make-up work done. But if they tell me about their absence in advance they don't get their work until they get back. Most of the time I have no clue they are going to be out and then they show up wanting their make-up work. Usually what I do is keep a folder with the week's work/handouts in it and I write on a calendar each day what we did in class. When the student returns it is up to them to check the calendar and get the handout/worksheet/ pages they need from the folder. They know they have a deadline and 9 times out of 10 they never do it anyway. High Schoolers!

 

[Linzybrooke]

Our school also has a similar policy. Students are given 2 days for every 1 day they miss to get their make-up work done. But if they tell me about their absence in advance they don't get their work until they get back. Most of the time I have no clue they are going to be out and then they show up wanting their make-up work. Usually what I do is keep a folder with the week's work/handouts in it and I write on a calendar each day what we did in class. When the student returns it is up to them to check the calendar and get the handout/worksheet/ pages they need from the folder. They know they have a deadline and 9 times out of 10 they never do it anyway. High Schoolers!

I'll drink to that!

Love your folder idea! I might have to steal it!

 

[stashbin]

Feel free. The folder works for the good students. The bad ones aren't going to do anything whether it's in a folder or you stick it up their noses!

 

[ksjayhawks]

I teach high school and there seem to be the same students gone most of the time, so I have a folder for each class. When we do a worksheet, project, online activity, etc, it goes in this folder with their name on the paper.

When they get back, I make a list of the work with due dates, have student sign it and then give them the work.

If a student is going to be gone and knows in advance, I can give them some work but not all as I may not have it run off, finished, etc.

 

[mickeylove2]

I pulled my 1st grader out of school for 2 weeks for our trip and I asked the teacher for Math worksheets for her to do on vacation, the teacher didn't want to give any work. The teacher bought my DD a Winnie the Pooh notebook, 5x7 size, and asked her to keep a journal of her trip and share it with the class when she returned. She also asked me to help her with a "presentation" to the class, what I decided to do was have her keep a daily journal of what she did, what she loved and didn't love, and then we picked up something that represented that day for her to talk about. For instance, when we went to Epcot she did the passport and the masks so that she could take them in, but I also had her ask the CM's from a few of the countries to teach her a couple of words in their native language. It was great!!! I love assignments like that, journaling is a great way for a young child to express themselves and build confidence and self esteem.

 

[portocall]

There isn't a district policy where I work, it is up to each teacher. The teacher I work with does not give work per se, but assigns a project that is worth as much as all the grades they have missed (we have middle school social studies). They can't test on it until the project is done, if they need help they can ask. So basically, if a child misses a week, the project will most likely be worth 5-7 grades. Of course, the project covers the subject matter that they missed and the type varies to the topic. If they know in advance, we will give them the assignment ahead of time, if not, they get it when they get back.

 

[Darcy03231]

Where I live its up to the teacher. Absences for vacation are considered unexcused. If the teacher wants to give/accept make-up work its up to him or her. If not, the child gets zeros on anything missed while they're gone. The teacher is not required to spend any additional time reteaching what was already taught. Completely up to each individual teacher. I will say that I do think most of the teachers are pretty good about it, but there are those who won't give/accept any make-up work.

 

[MushyMushy]

Where I live, it's up to the teacher. When I taught last year I had several kids go on vacation. I only had them take their novels with them so they could keep up with the rest of the class, plus they had to keep up with the book journal.

 

[mom2grace]

I teach teachers, but I do have kids in school! At our school, you cannot get any work until you get back, and then you get the # of days you were away to complete it, so if you were gone for 5 days, you have 5 days to make it up. This is the "vacation" policy, if a child is sick, a parent or sibling can get that day's assignments at the end of the day.

We do pull our DD out for vacations. I thought I would want the work early, and I actually pull some of the spelling worksheets out of her workbook and take them. It's a struggle to do even that much at WDW!

 

[hentob]

I pulled my 1st grader out of school for 2 weeks for our trip and I asked the teacher for Math worksheets for her to do on vacation, the teacher didn't want to give any work. The teacher bought my DD a Winnie the Pooh notebook, 5x7 size, and asked her to keep a journal of her trip and share it with the class when she returned.

When our twins were in 1st grade and my son was in 3rd, we took them out for 10 days for a dream vacation to the Yacht & Beach Club

Their assignments? The first grader teacher requested that they "get their picture with as many characters as possible" And the 3rd grader was told to "Have fun!"

That was it.

As they have been getting older, yes they get work when out, but it is minimal. They basically say “Know this, this and this” when you return and the worksheets were optional. Last time I had them do the worksheets and it took longer for me to grade them than it did for them to do them

I think there is a very big difference in taking out a straight A student and taking out a floundering student.

 

[MushyMushy]

I think there is a very big difference in taking out a straight A student and taking out a floundering student.

Which is why I'm forever doomed to a summer at Disney.

 

[goofy4tink]

Up until 3rd grade, my dd was told to keep a daily journal of what she had seen and done each day of her vacation. After that time, it was up to her to get all missed work and get it done within the school guidelines..usually a week.
Now, in high school, they assign no work beforehand. It's up to the student to get what they need on their own and hand it in.
Should teachers give out work beforehand? No, I don't think so. The family decided if they want to vacation. The teacher shouldn't be expected to go to extra work in order to accomodate the vacationing student. Sure, the work can be held aside, each day,and then given to the student when they return. But not beforehand.

 

[Cindy B]

I wonder if my former district was just very rigid about it.

I had a student that left for two weeks between Thanksgiving and December. My cooperating teacher gave this student no less than 20 pages of workbook sheets to do!

 

[mom2aredhead]

My son's teacher won't give out the worksheets or assignments that were missed. We're talking kindergarten here, but this is pretty much the schools policy across the board.
Homework is generally supposed to reinforce what was taught in the class that day. Therefore if the student was not in class, the homework is either not relevant or could even be confusing since they were not there for the lesson that it corresponds to. When we took him out for our trip this fall, I wrote her a note to let her know we would be gone, and she wrote back saying simply "have fun, we'll be working on _____ and _____ while you're gone." This way I know what he will be missing, and if I feel that its something I need to go over with him I will.
As much as I don't think its fair for schools to "punish" kids whose parents choose to take them out for vacation, I also don't think its fair to expect the teachers to have to either re-teach the lessons one on one, or make them copy, distribute, collect and grade these assignments singly for each child. Honestly, if a few days of homework is going to make or break your child's grade for that marking period, maybe vacationing during the school breaks would be a better idea. I will absolutely continue to pull my son out for a few days at a time for vacation as long as he is doing well. But if he's not doing well in school or I am stressing about him missing 3 days because he will struggle to catch up, I would to re-think my plans.