There are many reasons why students may struggle with their homework grades. Some students forget to track their homework, some students forget to do their homework, and some students even do homework but forget to turn it in!
All those mistakes can be fixed with a little better student organization!
But what happens when your student just does NOT care much at all about homework?
There could be several reasons why our teens might not prioritize homework. They might not do homework because they believe it is just “busy work”, or provides no educational value.
If your teen or student does not care about completing homework, then their homework can be killing their grade!!
You can show them how important every grades is and how impactful a zero is to their overall grade!
Here is an example:
Let’s say your student turns in most of their homework and gets a pretty good grade at 90%. They worked hard and turned it in and did really well to get that grade. For the first 4 homework assignments, they get a 90%.
BUT then they didn’t turn in one assignment. They either forgot or were just too busy to complete it. That assignment resulted in a zero.
What is the new homework grade average?
90 + 90 + 90 + 90 + 0 = 72%
Their grade just went from an A to a D, just because of one missing homework assignment!
Imagine how much their grade might be suffering if they have even more missing homework assignments!
Most teens really have no idea the impact a single missing homework grade has on their overall grade. It’s hard for students to really understand when they don’t see the grade book or see how the grade changes when they miss an assignment!
Most teens just need an example, like this one, to see how important every single assignment is!
RELATED: The BEST way to STOP missing homework!
What you can do
1. First, show them an example of what their grades looks like both before and after a zero is averaged in (like the example above).
2. Second, have your teen ask their teacher if they can turn in missed homework for partial credit!
Having even partial credit will be much better for their overall grade then having no credit. Even if they only get 40%, or 50% on all of the missed homework assignments, that is still better than nothing, and can significantly improve their grade.
Plus, if your teen puts in the effort to complete the homework, remind them that 1) the homework wasn’t that hard to begin with, so they could have completed it before, and 2) if they had completed the homework before, when it was due, then they would have gotten full credit instead of only partial credit!
3. Third, help your teen or student get completed organized by creating an organization system with methods of tracking homework assignments and completing homework assignments so that they can stay on top of homework and never miss another assignment again!
My name is Rachael and I have been a private tutor for over 12 years. I earned my undergraduate degree in 2 and a half years and earned my graduate degree by age 22. I have tutored dozens of high school students, college students, and graduate students. I offer my resources and experience to help parents learn how to best help their teen or child that is struggling in school.
