For example, each week Reading AIG students are supposed to complete Reading Response Journals. The journals should be 15 or more sentences about a book students are reading. When we did the math, we figured out that 15 sentences divided by 5 days = 3 sentences a day. All students agreed that 3 sentences a day is not very much to be asked to complete. However, if it is the day before the journal is due and there is still a blank piece of paper, 15 sentences suddenly seems like a ridiculous amount of work.
We discussed opportunities throughout the week to finish the assignments. We talked about ways to remind ourselves that the assignment is going to be due soon. We also talked about how, especially for fourth grade students, it is a big change to have long term assignments that they are expected to fit into their day.
Each week is another opportunity to fine tune our time management skills, and I know that in a very short amount of time, they will have no problem completing these assignments each week!