Overview For Teachers

ATTENDANCE & PUNCTUALITY: The ability to come to work/school every day on time; leave and return for meals and breaks on time; the ability to notify supervisor/instructor in advance of planned absences; make up work or assignments punctually; come to work/school prepared to work.

​

PURPOSE: Upon completion of this module, the student will understand the importance of maintaining good attendance and being punctual in the workplace. In addition, the objectives listed below should be met.

​

OBJECTIVES:

 Ability to recognize the importance of maintaining a good attendance record.

 Ability to understand the importance of being punctual in all aspects of life.

 Ability to understand how your attendance and time management skills can positively and negatively affect your

    life.

 Ability to recognize the importance of being prepared for things and how this impacts others

​

OVERVIEW:

This module concentrates on teaching students to recognize that attendance, punctuality, and being prepared have widespread impacts on personal reputation and opportunity. In addition, attendance and punctuality affects other students and a teacher’s planned activities. Maintaining good attendance sets a tone of commitment and accountability, and by nature if not maintained, portrays a lack of commitment and/or accountability. These perceptions, whether accurate or not, can adversely affect a person’s reputation and the potential for future opportunities. Lessons provide students with an understanding of the importance of being prepared vs. unprepared.

​

TEACHERS: WHAT ARE YOU OBSERVING?

What does attendance and punctuality look like in the classroom or in school in general? A great way to answer this and get things going is through engagement with the students. Ask your students these questions:

1. What do attendance and punctuality look like in school?

2. How does your attendance or being punctual affect others around you? Example: other students (if someone in your group is late), teachers (already started a lesson), team members, etc.

3. What do attendance and punctuality look like within your learning?

​

RELEVANCY OF ATTENDANCE & PUNCTUALITY:

Employers state that many applicants and employees have issues with being punctual and being consistently present for work. They rank good attendance and punctuality as the most significant employability skills needed in the workplace.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

LESSON:

The Effects of Being Late
Time Allocation: 20  minutes
Materials/Resources: computers/tablets/smartphones (students) or printed copies of the article, The Effects of Being Late, chart paper, whiteboard, markers, paper, pens/pencils

ANTICIPATORY SET IDEA:

 Share the following quote with the class either by reading it out loud or writing in on the whiteboard:

     o “If you’re 15 minutes early, you are on time. If you’re on time, you’re late and if you are late, you didn’t want to be there.”

 Ask them to tell you what this means.

​

WATCH THE VIDEO:

DIRECT INSTRUCTION:

 Tell students that it’s important to be on time and have a good attendance record for many reasons. Your tardiness affects more people than just you.

 Brainstorm: How does your tardiness or absence affect you at school? How does it affect others?

 As you can see, your tardiness affects not only you, but others around you as well. The same goes for the workforce; being late or absent from work affects more than just you – in fact, it could have a dramatic impact on the overall success or failure of a company.

GUIDED ACTIVITY:

 Give each student a printed copy of the article Effects of Being Late or access it online. 

  When they have finished reading, have students find a partner and discuss their thoughts about the article.

 Next, divide the class into four different groups and give each group a piece of chart paper and a marker. Assign one of the following questions to each group and have them work together to brainstorm all the possible answers.

     o Question #1: As an employee, how can your tardiness or absence at work affect you?

     o Question #2: As an employee, how can your tardiness or absence at work affect others?

     o Question #3: As a boss/manager, how can your tardiness or absence affect you?

     o Question #4: As a boss/manager, how can your tardiness or absence affect others?

 When students are answering these questions and they are running out of ideas, recommend that they think about different types of careers and how this would differ between them.

 After the groups have a good amount of answers written down, come back together as a class and have each group share their

    answers.

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:

 Technology Use: Online reflection: Students could complete their reflection of the lesson (see Review and Closing) on the computer either with Google Docs, Google Forms, or any other format that could be easily submitted to you.

 Non-Technology: Students will write their reflection (see Review and Closing) on a piece of paper and turn it in when finished.

​

ETHICAL SCENARIO--Optional (if not using, skip  to "review and closing")

The Ethical Choice Scenarios have been developed to provide teachers with the ability to make the material applicable to real-life and relevant to the students. Within this guide, directions and prompts for the teacher will be in BLUE for ease of facilitation.

 

READ THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO OUT LOUD TO THE STUDENTS: 

ONE BIG LIE

You’ve been working as the front desk receptionist for one of the local country clubs for three months and you really enjoy your job because you get to meet a lot of new and interesting people. When you were first hired, you told your supervisor that every July, you go with your parents to a big family reunion because your family counts on you being there and being able to spend time with relatives. Your supervisor told you it was no big deal but to make sure you requested that time off as soon as possible. The country club has a huge event coming up this weekend, which is the same weekend that you are supposed to be going with your parents. Your supervisor must have completely forgotten about your family reunion because he has asked you to help with the event. Since it is such a big deal to the community, you reluctantly agree to help. You are confused about why he would ask you to work – he should have known you will be out of town. You log into the online system where you request absences and you realize that you never requested the time off! That’s why your supervisor forgot – because you didn’t request your time off. You don’t know what to do – on one hand, you don’t want to remind your supervisor about your trip since you forgot to do what he asked and request time off but on the other hand, you CANNOT miss your family reunion. As you start to pack up for the day, you have an idea. Since your parents are leaving early tomorrow morning, you will email your supervisor before you take off informing him that you are home sick and you will no longer be able to help with the event. That way, you will be able to go to the family reunion and you won’t have to bring it up to your supervisor. But you also don’t want to be caught up in such a big lie because someone will be bound to find out about your trip when you were supposed to be helping with the event. What do you do?

ASK THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: (display them to the class if necessary)

1. How many of you have already been faced with this scenario in real life?

2. What are the possible courses of action you could take?

3. What are possible positive or negative consequences for you, depending on your decision?

GUIDED DISCUSSION: ASK STUDENTS TO SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ON THE SITUATION AND HOW THEY ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS.

NOTE 1 : To help facilitate discussion, share any personal experiences you may have encountered with this same sort of issue.

NOTE 2 : Another option to foster further critical thinking is to then ask students, “How could this scenario negatively impact your reputation with your family and your reputation at work?”

NOTE 3 : Another option to foster further critical thinking is to then ask students , “ What values do you think are in tension here, why is it an ethical dilemma?”

CLOSING DISCUSSION: ASK THE STUDENTS, “WHAT ARE THE APPROPRIATE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE ABSENCES AT WORK?”

REVIEW AND CLOSING:

On a piece of paper, have students write down their dream career. Then have the students write down how a bad habit of showing up to work late and having a poor attendance record will affect them in their dream career.

​

CORRELATION TO OBSERVATION TOOL: The Frequency Observation Tool (FOT) will rate students on their punctuality and their ability to keep a good attendance record. This lesson will show them exactly how being late can affect everyone and everything around them.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IDEAS:

-Visual: Visual learners will benefit from having a printed copy of the article and being able to see and read what the other groups wrote on their chart paper.

-Auditory: Auditory learners will benefit from the partner and the class discussions.

-Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic learners could benefit by writing down any important information.

-ESL: ESL students would benefit from having a partner to assist them in the writing activity in case they have questions or need clarification.

-At-risk: At -risk students will benefit from the interaction they have with their group to help keep them focused and on task.

-Advanced: Advanced learners could benefit from helping other students write down their schedules, or by assisting ESL or At -risk students who may need additional help .