Students and Zeros

This morning began like any other morning. I got up early (see not all teacher's sleep in), made coffee and let my adorable chihuahuas outside. I played a little Yahtzee. No one else was awake to play with me so I ventured over to Twitter and began to read some posts from the night. I read one that was particularly interesting to me. Dr. Justin Tarte penned this tweet- "A student has to receive 13 100%s before recovering from one single zero. Zeros are DEVASTING to kids." HMMMM!!!!! That got me thinking about my grade book. I had a couple students that I felt deserved a"0" on an assignment. Why did I feel this way? What did they do? What did I do? Where is the responsibility in a zero grade? What does giving a zero prove? What does earning a zero prove? These are all my questions and I gulp this coffee (thank you Jesus for coffee).

Let me tell you about Student L I had this year. He is a smart young man, a great reader and thinker. His behavior was out of control. He was living with Dad and things were good for him. When he went to live with Mom things started to unravel quickly. I am sure there is more to this child's story but as his teacher I only knew so much. Student L would come into my mobile classroom (which I will refer to as the trailer because that is just how I roll) and walk right up to any other kid and slap them across the face just because he could do it. Why? I don't know. This is the question I have asked of myself every day since he entered my room in March (he moved over from another teacher's room because she couldn't handle him). He refused to complete work often writing his name and drawing on the paper. How can I grade this? How can he receive anything but a zero? I knew that he knew the answers or could do his graded writing assignment. He just didn't want to. I offered all sorts of extrinsic rewards of his choosing, nothing lasted for more than a day. I tried my very best to instill a work ethic in him. I loved on him, had him sit with me at my desk or at my desk without me. I tried to make him feel wanted, loved and appreciated but perhaps I failed him in some way. I am not beating myself up about this. I am just trying to analyze his actions and my actions to see if I missed something.

The grading piece- giving zeros is a consequence to a negative behavior. Adults have consequences. What if I didn't get my grades in on time or failed to show for a meeting? Not completing work should have some sort of consequence. If you don't complete work in the real world you are fired from your job. Students should receive a consequence for not working but is a ZERO the right one? My principal says NO. If students don't complete the work then there is no grade entered for that assignment. Huh? What? Yes, you read that right. So a child can misbehave and do nothing all grading period long and still receive an A because he or she got an A on one assignment but didn't do the other oh let's say 8. That isn't fair to the hardworking student who read and completed all 8 assignments and perhaps has a B+ or an A. Where is the reward for this hard worker?

As you can see I am up in the air about zeros. I would love to hear from all of you about what you think is the correct consequence to work that deserves a zero.