Jessica's Essay
Jessica did not turn in a second quarter essay. During the writing workshop, I struggled to hold her accountable due to her frequent late arrivals to a computer lab with 30 computers for 33 students. I went easier on her than I should have because she did not have a computer on which to type her paper. However, in the week following the essay's due date (a grace period of sorts in my grading), I repeatedly checked in with her and reminded her about the paper, but to little avail. At one point she asked me to "go ahead and put the zero in" the grade book. I was not sure if this was her giving up or if she needed that zero there, along with the plummeting overall grade, to motivate her. I went ahead and put the zero in, and while it did not motivate her, this same strategy did work to get several other students to submit papers of their own.