Special Needs 2 - Best Practices for Online Communication

I chose to write about option 2 where the student with the 504 plan is doing very well but not turning assignments in necessarily in order of the pacing guide.  One thing that could be going on with the student is that they are just following what is listed in the content and not necessarily following the calendar that the teacher sent out.  I have had students do that and they sometimes end up turning in work late or much earlier than the calendar says.  It could also be, since the student has a 504 for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder that she starts something and doesn’t finish a task at the same time.  Maybe she gets distracted before finishing something and then gets to working on something else and sort of gets out of order that way. 

The first method of communication I would choose to use is a phone call.  Phone calls often clear up so much confusion and answer many questions that the parent and/or student has about the course.  It is sometimes much easier to have conversations over the phone rather than trying to type out everything you want to say and put it into words that make sense.  I would call the student the first time I noticed assignments being submitting out of order to help avoid the same thing happening in the future.  I would expect the outcome of the phone call to be positive and have the student begin to follow the course schedule in the correct order. 

The second best practice of communication I would choose to implement would be to send a personalized email to the student.  It is possible that the student lost the schedule and doesn’t know where to find it in the course.  So I would send an email and remind her that she needs to follow the calendar so that she doesn’t get any late penalties.  I would also compliment her for turning such great work and working so hard in the course.  I would attach the schedule for her to have and remind her to contact me any time she has any questions.  I would expect the outcome of this method to be that she would begin following the schedule in the correct order.

The third best practice of communication I would choose would be assignment feedback.  In the feedback of an assignment that the student turned in early I would say something like “You did excellent on this assignment but please make sure you are following our course schedule.  If you need help finding it please don’t hesitate to send me an email or call me.”  If the assignment was late I would obviously apply the late penalty but would also address the fact that it was late and to remember to follow our course schedule.  I do think most student read the feedback so I would think this method of communication would also be effective.