Prep time is as good a time to write as any, and better than most. I have just graded the quiz that my kiddies took for reading yesterday, and I am making a good effort to get current on grades and stay that way through the end of the semester, which comes in eight days. There are still kids that need to get make-up stuff done, and I am pondering the best way to do that in the next few days. I suspect that I can come up with some sort of extra credit assignment for the students that have kept up with their work.
Part of the reason for my solicitude is that we switched from a much different curriculum system at the beginning of the year. The old way allowed students to progress at their own pace, which may have been better suited to ESL students in some ways. We are now on a traditional system of pacing and grading, although "Ds" have been eliminated. A student with a 69% now has an "F." The kids here have always been on the old system, and some of them clearly have not adjusted to the new way of doing things. For now, I will try to cushion that shock a little bit. My concern is that the new way simply makes it too easy to fail. They may ultimately need to get toughened up to the new way of doing business, but they may also need a bit of a hand up in the process...
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