For the past three weeks, I have been teaching my freshmen about personal narratives. We read some examples, and then they were to write their own.
I gave them lots of time to practice in class. It was like pulling teeth.
Throughout the entire three weeks, I had been reminding them that all of our short practice assignments were to get them ready to write their own narrative. We worked together on choosing a topic, pre-writing strategies, and writing the rough draft. I told them over a week ago that their final narrative (typed, double spaced, etc.) would be due on Monday (yesterday). I also told them that I do no accept late work--I know, I'm so mean.
However, it is just amazing to me how many printers die, or run out of ink, or paper, or whatever the nigh before a large assignment is due. I feel sort of bad for them...but not really. I tried to explain to them that the universe has a way of making things like that happen when you decide to leave it until the very last minute.
Tough luck, I guess.
All of this reminded me of a Strong Bad email from many moons ago. Please check it out for a good laugh.
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail64.html
