Absent students are a part of teaching that cannot be avoided. In a perfect world, each and every student would be in your classroom every day and never miss a thing, but that’s just not the case!
It’s actually likely that your whole class will not be there most days. Either someone is sick, there is a family emergency, they have events they have to attend during the school day, or they just don’t show up, just because!
Although it is their responsibility to make sure they ask you for any make-up work they need, it’s great to have some support for your students to aid in their success.
In middle school, they are still “babies” in my eyes. Of course, they should be on their way to gaining their independence, but we need to help them along the way.
Here are five ways you can support your absent students!
Ways to Support Your Absent Students
Create a System
You need to have a plan going into the school year on what you want to do when your students are absent. Then, you need to communicate that plan with your students and their parents.
- How will you make sure that absent students receive their makeup work? Will you require them to come to you first? Will you have an absent folder they could visit to see if they missed anything? Will you post all of your work on an online learning platform so they can check to see what they missed from home? There are many options. You can choose what best fits your classroom’s needs.
- In my classroom, I actually had a “What Did I Miss” bulletin board. This is where I placed make up work for absent students. If there was a worksheet or guided notes, or just any “paper” we completed in class, I would write the names of the absent students on this paper and pin it to the board. They could visit this board and grab their makeup work when they came back to school. If there were no papers, I would write down what they missed on a sticky note with their name on it! This served as a great reminder to me as well. I’d constantly walk by this bulletin board. It helped me remind students to grab their work if they hadn’t already!
- What if students missed a lab? In that case, I would suggest providing an alternate virtual lab or assignment, or you can just exempt them from the assignment.
Communicate with Parents
Make sure that parents are aware of your absence policy. This can be told to them at the beginning of the year, but you can also place your policy in an email, whatever learning platform you are using, your syllabus, etc. You can also include a snippet on how absences affect student learning! It’s important for students to be in school, unless of course there is sickness or an emergency.
You don’t have to contact your absent students’ parents each time the student is out. If parents are aware of the policy and students are making up the work, then all is running smoothly!
However, I would suggest contacting parents on these occasions:
- There is an extended absence with multiple missed assignments.
- The student is not making up the work.
- Students are missing work, even when they are in class!
- If you need to clarify anything such as deadlines or resources needed.
It’s hard to give advice on this because every situation is different. Assess the particular situation and give a parent a phone call or an email when needed!
Use Technology
Technology can be a wonderful thing, and when it comes to supporting your absent students, it can be extremely helpful.
- As mentioned, technology can be used to contact parents and students to make them aware of your absence policy in addition to posting work. Whatever way you communicate with your students and parents, whether it be an online learning platform, email, class website, or something else, you can use these to raise awareness of the absence policy and/or place work for each day so students know what they need.
- You may have an online grading system that students can log into. When they do this, they will be able to see exactly what assignments they may be missing. This is perfect to help keep their grades up after being out.
- What about content? Of course, students know that they may be missing some paper assignments and online assignments, but what about the important content they missed? You can share PPT slides with them, YouTube videos, or even interactive lessons. Interactive lessons provide both content and practice for students. This is perfect for makeup when they miss content in class.
Create a Buddy System
Another option, to take some of the load off of you, is to create a buddy system. This will provide peer support for each student. You can assign each student a “buddy” to keep an eye out for when the other is absent. Their buddy can take notes, collect all of the handouts needed to be placed in a folder, and help explain missed content!
Disclaimer: I have never attempted this approach before, so I really don’t know how it would fly, but it’s definitely something to explore. There are some students that may not make the best of “buddies” so this could become problematic.
Another option would be to assign an “absent buddy” as a classroom job each week or even every other week. This way, you can choose reliable and willing students to help you out.
Encourage Independence
Throughout this process, it’s important to help students learn that they are responsible for making up the work that they miss. For a middle school student, especially a younger middle school student, they may need some scaffolding in the process.
Some students will not have any problems making sure they make up the work missed. Others may need some assistance. Here are some ways to encourage responsibility.
- For students that are having trouble making up work, tell them to write a reflection. Ask them to document their progress in the classroom and decide what changes need to be made.
- Give them an extension. Some things need to be made up within a certain time period, but as far as making sure the learning is happening in your classroom, some things can be extended.
- Offer time for makeup. If students are not making up work on their own, you could give them the option to make it up while they are eating lunch. This usually gets them going!
- As a class, goal-set every 3 weeks or so. This reminds everyone to stay on track!
- Encourage them! If students are out and they forget to make up an assignment. Even if they get a zero, it’s not the end of the world. Pick up from where they are and carry on!
In the comments below, let me know what systems you have in place for absent students!
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