I hated doing homework when I was a kid. In fact I often just didn't do it and ended up taking correspondence courses my freshman year to make up the credits I screwed myself out of. I also ended up taking Freshman science my junior year because I failed it. So I get the struggle. Especially when you don't like the class. If they're not talking about something you give a shit about, you're going to find it hard to want to bother doing any of the work.
But what I also learned is that it doesn't matter if you don't like the class or the subject they're talking about. You have to do the work to be able to get out of that grade and graduate. Which is what I keep trying to tell Dawn. But she just does not believe me. She is under the impression that she is going to be able to get crappy grades and not care and they'll just go ahead and move her to the next grade. She thinks us talking about holding her back is BS.
Either that or she wants to be held back. Either way, she's going to have to get over it and do her work.
This weekend's struggle comes from Social Studies (a hated subject of mine also). She failed her civics test not once, but twice. Getting a worse grade on the second test than the first. How that's even possible I have no idea. Of course I would have never known any of this had her teacher not emailed me yesterday and informed me of what was happening.
I spoke with Dawn in class today and thought I better send you an email as well. Dawn did not pass the Civics Test the first time it was given in class. She was given a second opportunity to take the test on Monday during Advisory and did not pass. She actually earned a lower score on the exact same test the second time. I made arrangements with Dawn on Tuesday to take the test a third time after school on Thursday. She did not stay to take the test. When I spoke with her today about missing the test yesterday she said forgot and that she doesn't have anything to use to study. I reminded her that she was to keep her Civics materials until she passed the test, but they are long gone at this point. I asked if she made corrections to her test when I shared the correct answers after the first test was given. She had not. So, Dawn came in after school today and used my answer key to record the correct answers. She can use her test as a study guide to prepare for her third try. I asked Dawn to stay after school on Monday to take the test.
Notice how it says she let her write the correct answers on her test to study from? Yeah, Dawn threw one of her subtle fits and decided that in an act of rebellion she would just write the answers in the wrong places. When she brought it to me to quiz her she informed me of this and told me "I don't think you'll be able to use this to quiz me." So what did I do in my #momwin moment? I told her to grab some paper and rewrite the questions with the correct answers under each question. I would use that to quiz her. She did (with some complaining of course).
Today when I went to quiz her using what she had written (which she did twice because she couldn't even tell what was question and what was answer on the first one) and she couldn't answer the questions. She said You keep jumping around read them in order! Which sparked another argument because she was insistent that she could just memorize the order and she would pass the test. No.
The test on Monday will be a different format. This time there will be no short answer response questions. Everything is multiple choice, matching, and True/False.
I literally had to read this to her so she would stop trying to memorize the order the of the questions and actually focus on the answers to them.
She is currently writing it out again. I don't mean for it to be a punishment. Of course she thinks it's one. But writing the question and answer helps you remember.
This is one of those times when I don't care if she hates me or not, this is going to help her and I know it. It's also one of those times when she's going to look back and be thankful that I didn't let her get by with not studying and failing.
I kind of wish someone would have jumped my ass about my grades. I was certainly not made to feel like this was a big deal. I wish I would have been pushed a little more.
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