A Missing Assignment Isn't Just Missing Paperwork — It's Missing Learning
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why missing assignments represent gaps in actual learning, not just incomplete busywork.
Key Takeaways
- Missing assignments mean missing learning - Assignments are intentionally designed learning tools, not arbitrary paperwork
- The 'lazy genius' is mostly a myth - The student who already knows everything without doing assignments represents maybe 1 in 10,000 cases
- Most students need to do the work to learn - The learning process typically requires completing assignments, not just demonstrating knowledge through tests
- Grade integrity matters - Passing grades should reflect genuine mastery rather than administrative convenience
Transcript
When a student has missing work, the thing about that is they also have missing learning.
It's not just an assignment.
It's not just a grade and a gradebook that could be wiped away with the stroke of a pen.
It's not just an arbitrary, you know, kind of mean thing the teacher is doing to the student.
When you have a student with a missing assignment or lots of missing assignments, that student is also missing learning.
And I feel like a lot of people who are not teachers or maybe who have never been teachers or just haven't thought about teaching enough miss the point.
that assignments are for learning and they represent learning.
And we don't always do a perfect job of that.
Like maybe you have some assignments that could be skipped and it wouldn't really critically undermine the unit and the learning that students are supposed to do.
But isn't that kind of central to curriculum design?
Isn't that the whole reason that we plan the assignments that we do in a unit?
I mean, like when I got my master's degree in curriculum and instruction, that seemed to be kind of a big deal is that you plan assignments that students need to do in order to develop the understandings that you want them to develop.
And people will frequently, frequently say things like, well, what if they've mastered the content and they just didn't do the assignment because they don't feel like it or they don't need to?
Are you going to penalize them for mastering the you know even though they know the content are you going to penalize them for not doing the assignment and my main reaction to that is like come on this is a hypothetical student 99 of the time like yes you will occasionally have a student like that maybe there's like a one in ten thousand rate of that kind of thing where you have a student who's just like you know the lazy genius who knows everything and you know doesn't actually have to do the work but like for the most part students have to do the work in order to do the learning and the idea that we can somehow grade them intuitively without them doing the assignments to reflect their true level of understanding like come on they've got to do the work to do the learning and if that's not the case either the student doesn't need to take the class some of these like supposed hypothetical genius students don't actually need to take the class if they already know everything in it and some of the time the grades that people want to give do not reflect reality like if you want to give a kid points or if your principal wants you to give a kid a passing grade when they haven't done the work, like that kid probably has not actually mastered what they need to.
So let me know what you think about missing assignments and zeros and missing learning.