Class Policies (Intermediate)

Practice on Your Own

Each teacher has his or her own policies to manage his or her class. Review some of your recent course syllabi. What are some of the policies?

• List some of the terms used to express these policies in the target language, such as late, on time, grade, exam, mid‐term exam, final exam, absence(s), presentation(s), paper(s), fail, pass…
• Think of some sentences/expressions/combinations in which you can use these terms.
  • Late homework is not acceptable.
  • No more than two absences
  • Each student does two presentations.
  • More than two absences, fail
  • Two papers, one for mid‐term, one end of semester
  • Be on time… late papers, lower grades…
  • Below X grade, fail
• Not all countries, schools, or teachers have the same class policies, and sometime it is a cultural matter. For instance, punctuality in one culture may be critical while in another it may be less important; writing papers may be more common in one country while some other countries may be more focused on exams; etc.
  • You can ask your conversation partner what policies are common in the country/ies where the language is spoken, or do some research online.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Show your conversation partner the word list you have written. Is your spelling correct? Pronounce the terms/combinations you have listed out loud to check your pronunciation with your conversation partner.
• Your conversation partner may question you about the policies for one of your courses. Pay attention to the questions!
  • How many absences are allowed?
  • How many papers are required? When?
  • What grade do you need in order to pass?
  • Are late assignments accepted? …
• Now ask your conversation partner about the policies for one of their courses.
• It is important to remember that there are often different ways to ask the same question. If it seems to you at first that you cannot express a particular question, think about how to get your message across in another way. Look at this example:
  • You may not have learned to say “Are students allowed to submit papers after the due date?” but maybe you can say “Is a late paper okay?”
• Think of another course (maybe a high school class this time) and answer your conversation partner’s questions about policies for that class.
• Work on some of the verbs that are used in expressing rules such as to accept, to allow, to prohibit, etc.