I got this question. It’s been discussed before here – there is even a category for this topic – but this is a possible reminder for those who might benefit from reading it:
Hi Ben,
I have enjoyed the start of the year using many of the Stepping Stones for comprehensible input that you have written about. Thank you very, very much!
However, what do you do with students who are absent and/or leave class early (legitimately excused). Some of my more “traditional” colleagues stated that if I used the textbook activities and handed out the matching worksheets I wouldn’t have a problem.
Since the emphasis is on what is acquired in class versus the lists/worksheets they “learn” at home, I am stumped. The more that I thought about it the more I was determined to not take the easy way out and abandon the comprehensible input approach for the sake of expediency.
Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Here is my response:
The basic idea here that your colleagues miss is that when a child hears or reads the language, they are acquiring it. When they don’t, when they do the outmoded and traditional book-oriented things your colleagues do, the students are not acquiring but merely learning about, which brings no real gains.
So when a child is absent from your class, all that happens is that they hear less language. When they are present, they are acquiring. When they are absent or present, either one, for your colleagues classes, they are not acquiring but merely learning about.
So don’t grade their work that day! It’s so simple! When I give a quiz and a child is absent, it counts as nothing, because they weren’t there!
However, do note that this only applies to excused absences. If the student ditches class the zero that you automatically put in the book for the quiz or whatever grade from that day stays. You therefore must inform your students that if they were absent with an excuse you MUST be informed about it the next day and only then do you go into the gradebook and change the already posted zero (because at the time you didn’t know that it was excused) to an x, which in Infinite Campus, which is what we use in DPS, means that the grade doesn’t count either for or against the child’s grade.
That’s how I do it. Hope this helps.
Ben