I'll try to keep this one short. I think most education friends are in one camp (late work means a grade penalty and their are no redo's) or the other (no penalty late work and redo's are welcome). I'm in the second camp. I was not in that camp as a child. It drove me crazy that peers could even turn in work late at all or could redo it. I was a rule follower, on occasion to my own detriment. But as a grown up, I embrace late work, don't feel the need to penalize a student that turns it in past the deadline and am open to redoing work. When I watched the Rick Wormeli video for the first time a few years ago, my belief that I am in a good camp was solidified.
I recently had a conversation with a mom friend who I knew disagreed with me prior to our chat. I explained that if I am grading something, that grade is meant to be an indicator of mastery of some piece of content. It's about the learning. If I don't take the assignment, or take it but apply a penalty for it being late, I am now grading a behavior. Kids are learning content pieces for the first time and are not seasoned professionals who have already shown mastery and who just know better. When we allow students to turn in late work, there is almost always some other cost/consequence. A student may have to spend their "free" time making up the work they didn't turn in or redoing their work.
"We're in the world to look out for each other, not to play gotcha. We're not really preparing kids for the world beyond school when we use adult level deadlines." I'm cheering from the sidelines Rick!
Let's fast forward, since I did promise to keep this short, and think about late work and redo's as an adult. So you missed your electric bill. Or a car payment. What did you do? You paid it plus the extra fee. There was a cost. But, you still have the whole car and all of your electricity. No one took the passenger door and you can still turn on all your lights. Didn't pass a licensing exam for your chosen career? Study more, maybe wait a bit, pay your fee and take it again. If it weren't for being able to take an exam twice, I might not have been afforded the opportunities to teach the variety of sciences that I have enjoyed. There was one exam (from another state and before a composite one was offered) I had to take twice because I barely missed the mark the first time. Do you think any less of me knowing that? So should we think any less of our students when they need the same break?
References
Stenhouse Publishers. (2010, Nov. 16). Rick Wormeli: On late work [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHeij2Zfil4
Comments