Homeless Work

Imagine this: It’s the end of a 100 minute class; you’ve been working for almost two hours. 

You’ve grappled with a new concept. 

You’ve paired up, squared up and reported out. 

You’ve taken notes, participated in a popcorn reading, done a station activity and completed a note catcher. 

When you reflect back on this block, you realize you’ve learned a lot. Now it’s time to bring it all together and show your teacher how effective their lesson was and what you have learned. 

It’s time for the exit ticket.

“This is easy,” you think as you rapidly answer all the questions, including the ones hidden on the back. 

That’s it - end of class. 

You’ve done good work and should be proud of yourself. You correctly answered every single question on the exit ticket. Your hard work and newfound knowledge should reflect in your grade.

But, wait… there’s a problem.

You left the most important part of the exit ticket blank…

                                           Name________________________

You have not taken credit for your work. 

And, unless I can put my detective hat on and figure out whose nameless exit ticket this is, you’re not getting credit.

You have one last chance to take credit for your effort.  When I return this graded work to the class, I will designate a student to show all the poor, unnamed papers to everyone in the room. Maybe you’ll recognize your work, maybe not.

The odds are, it’s probably going to end up in my homeless work bin. 

That bin is where the uncredited work goes. 

Don’t let your work become homeless; take credit for your hard work. Write your name on your paper.

Pssssst - it might not be a bad idea to look through the homeless work bin and see if any of it is yours.