They Bombed the Assignment: 10 Ways to Help Students Recover

What should educators do when one bad grade suddenly feels like the end of the semester? In this episode of The What & Who of EDU, ten instructors share practical teaching strategies for helping students recover from academic setbacks without lowering expectations or erasing accountability.

From calming the initial panic and doing the actual grade math to diagnosing what went wrong, improving study strategies, and designing low-stakes opportunities to recover before the stakes get high, these educators show how a disappointing result can become useful information. You'll also hear why flexibility works best when it is built into the course from the beginning, rather than reserved for the students most comfortable asking for an exception.

Brought to you by Macmillan Learning

Episode Breakdown

[01:32] There Is No Academic Emergency

[3:51] Shrink the Setback

[6:16] Do the Grade Math

[9:32] Ask What Happened

[11:35] Diagnose the Miss

[13:50] Don't Assume They Know How

[16:43] Make It Feel Fixable

[18:43] Design for the Mess-Up