Why won't students do the reading assignments?
Students frequently fail to complete assigned readings unless they face an immediate grade penalty for doing so. This forces teachers to spend unplanned time on extra grading and creates immense classroom frustration over student disengagement.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Giving a wake-up call quiz early in the year to let students suffer consequences and motivate them to do better.
- 2Telling students that everything is now graded if they ask
- 3Explaining that exercises are like practice for sports or music rather than chores for points
- 4Giving students completion or partial completion grades instead of rigorous point tracking
- 5Telling students to assume everything is a grade and do their best work
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“One of my classes had literally 1 kid read it.”source ↗
“I was so, so upset. So angry. I didn't raise my voice a bit, but I told them I felt disgust.”source ↗
“I did so much grading today that I did not plan to do because of this exact thing”source ↗
“Most of them appear to have very limited retention and transfer of the information being taught.”source ↗
“Even when students are listening during instruction, many of them cannot recall or apply the information when they’re expected to begin classwork, and I frequently have to physically hold up the book and guide my students page by page showing them which page to turn to in which questions are expected to complete despite very specific prompting.”source ↗
“I have lots of students who fully understand that in order to pass the test they need to do the exercises, but somehow just can't make themselves do the exercises unless they're going to get a grade on it.”source ↗
“I hate grade grubbing so much.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why am I being forced to give minimum grades for missing work?
- 2Why am I passing homework but failing quizzes?
- 2Special education pull-out services during core instruction time
- 2How to grade trash student work without sugarcoating it
- 4How to handle students falling asleep in class
- 2Why is nobody ordering from classroom book clubs?