What have I tried?

• No late work unless extenuating circumstances (this hurt completion and morale).
• 50% deduction for work submitted up to a week late (students seemed to think it wasn’t worth doing the late work).
• 10% deduction for work submitted up to a week late (this did work better because a 90% was still possible).
• No due dates at all, but I kept suggested due dates (this worked for some students, but many students fell really far behind and tried to do seven weeks of work in the last two weeks of the term).

One of the questions that has guided my thinking is this: “is submitting the work ‘on time’ more important than submitting the work?” I teach because I love to see students learn and grow, not because I like to micromanage due dates.

I understand the argument of teaching students to manage their time and be accountable for deadlines because that’s an important workplace skill. But I’m a professional in the workplace, and I don’t get everything done by every deadline all the time.

As an instructor I had to ask myself, do I always return grades and provide feedback by the time I say I will? Honestly, no. Sometimes my daughter gets sick and my schedule is thrown by a day or two. Sometimes an unexpected need for a committee or project pops up and I fall a little behind on grading. In these situations I expect grace from my students. So I believe that I should extend grace to students who also need it.

I’m going to share the most current iteration of my late work policy. And I invite you to share yours in the comments, and offer me some new ways of thinking about my policy.

What does my syllabus say?

Unit reflections and homework assignments can be submitted up to one week late without any deduction- no questions asked and no judgment given! Assignment folders close at 11:59pm one week after the due date. Discussions must be completed on time, and the final reflection cannot be submitted late because it’s due in finals week.

What does my policy look like in practice?

The day after an assignment was due (Monday morning), I go into the grade book and enter a 0 (or the word “Ignored” because I use contract grading). I then add a note like this:

“Oops- looks like you didn’t get a chance to submit this assignment. But don’t worry! You have until 4/24 at 11:59pm to submit this assignment- no questions asked! Let me know if I can do anything to help.”

What if a student needs even more time? I extend extra grace when needed. Sometimes a student needs an extra day or two, and that’s okay with me. If a student wants to do the work, and I think that the assignment deepens their learning, then a little extra time seems like a valuable way to support learning and equitable student success.

I do have a creative (unadvertised) way for students to make up a missed discussion, and I offer that to any student who needs to get caught up as we enter the last third of the term. Most students take me up on it, which means they got yet another important opportunity to engage with our course content.

How has this approach been working?

Really well! Most students end up submitting their work within just a couple of days after I notify them via the grade book that they can still submit an assignment. Completion is up – I see students persisting in the class more than I did with my previous policies.

I also have received notes from students thanking me for the reminder and ability to submit the assignment late. And overall, I find that students are more likely to reach out via email when they have a question about completing their late work. That open dialogue between us makes such a difference.

I’m happy with my current policy because I can be empathic and show grace while having a schedule and structure for completing coursework. But will I change my late work policy in the future? Probably. I’m always looking for ways to grow and do better for my students.

“Dr. Gottman explains how to build a culture of appreciation simply, like this: ‘Notice what your partner is doing right. Catch your partner in the act of doing good stuff!’”

And that made me think, do I do this in other parts of my life? Do I build a culture of appreciation with students? Or when I’m grading assignments am I just on the lookout for errors and mistakes? After all, isn’t that what grading is- correcting mistakes?

The Case for Building an Atmosphere of Appreciation

I remember being a new first generation community college student, dreading the evidence of how I wasn’t good enough, smart enough on my marked up paper. I’m even a little worried right now about potential criticism or “corrections” I might receive on this blog post. And let’s not talk about the pit in my stomach when I go to open end of course evaluations even if I expect them to be good and helpful. Why do I feel this way? Well, criticism puts us in a . Also, we seem to live in a culture of criticism. In fact, we teach “critical” thinking, and we “criticize” ideas. And let’s not even touch the criticism that social media fuels.

Why have I taken you on a journey of my self-consciousness? I want you to remember what it’s like to receive feedback from your professors, supervisors, your students. That feeling of defensiveness or dread we can have is what students also feel. And our empathy for that experience can go a long way.

Going back to Dr. Gottman… We know that cultivating an atmosphere of fondness and appreciation can significantly alter our communication climates. Just ask my Interpersonal students who do a four day appreciative language assignment. It changes people’s faces, their posture, and importantly their response and feelings towards you. And when my Business and Professional Communication students interview someone about words and phrases they wish they heard more or less of in the workplace, the answers always center around wishing there was more appreciation and gratitude and less complaining and criticism.

Because who doesn’t need to see a cute pup half way through this post? Photo by Cookie the Pom on Unsplash

So here’s my proposal. Try using the words “I appreciate…” in your feedback to students this week. Does it change your perspective to look for what was done well, what you can celebrate? While we want to point out where errors are made because that’s an important part of learning, we can also do a lot to promote learning through highlighting what’s done well and encouraging that to continue because sometimes students aren’t aware of what they’re doing well until we point it out. I will acknowledge that there might be times where issues of plagiarism and cheating require a different approach.

Examples of Feedback

Here are a couple of examples of written feedback. As I’ll note later, I like to use video or audio feedback to also convey meaning through my voice (or paralanguage).

Hi [Student]! Thanks for working to get this assignment in. I know needing to catch up on late work just adds one more thing to your weekly to-do list. I appreciate you sharing about the value you’re taking away from the section on emotional awareness. I wasn’t quite sure which of the fallacies you were writing about when reflecting on sadness. It seems like maybe the fallacy of helplessness? There’s a great video that walks through the emotional fallacies in the unit. I’d encourage you to review it because they’re a really important part of understanding how our thinking impacts our emotions and actions. Drop into the 1-1 discussion board we have if you have some follow up questions about emotional fallacies- I’d be happy to chat more about them!

Hi [Student]! Thanks for summarizing what your interviewee said in response to your questions. For some responses it would be great to see a little more specificity, and if your interviewee didn’t provide it that would be a great time to ask a probing question for clarification (which is a great workplace communication skill). For example, your interviewee said their workplace has a passive-assertive communication style. That’s a little vague to me, so you could follow up with something like “what does it look and sound like when someone is communicating in a passively-assertive way?” It’s always interesting to me how often people mention they wish they heard more gratitude, and the value we can bring to the workplace by sharing more gratitude. I really liked your question about how your interviewee would do things differently if they were the GM. It’s a good question to consider the power supervisors have in influencing communication in the workplace. I appreciated the very clear connection you made to the section about environment in chapter 2 through the use of a direct quote that supports your conclusions.

Student Responses

So how do I know that using more appreciation and positive guidance and reinforcement makes a difference to students? Interestingly, they send me emails of appreciation! This is something that never happened prior to me shaking up my approach. And it also took me off guard because I am not known for having easy classes. Here are just a couple snips from emails last term:

Thanks for your awesome feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to us each week. I know you probably have a million things going on, so that personal feedback means so much more.

I just want to tell you that I really appreciate all of the feedback you give me on my unit reflections. It has helped me grow in my work and I just appreciate that. Thanks so much!

How can you shake up the way you offer feedback?

• Use the phrases “I appreciate…” or “thank you for…” followed by something specific and descriptive in your feedback.
• Instead of “you don’t seem to understand…” style phrases, consider something like “it was hard for me to see… maybe next time you could try…”
• Do a little audit of your feedback. How often is the tone encouraging towards growth and development or a criticism for not getting the “right answer”?
• Remember feedback phrased as criticism/evaluation instead of descriptive guidance can illicit levels of defensiveness that impact our listening and communication. You might even do a quick read about to learn more.
• Try giving feedback as a so students can actually see and hear your appreciation- my students tell me every term how much they love actually hearing from me in occasional video feedback. Remember to consider accessibility for students with accommodations.

Our students are people just like us. The words we use with each other matter. Look for opportunities to be a builder of appreciation and potential. We can always use more of that in our lives.