Lazy Students

I didn't have much to say today so I've decided to bitch about students that think they can blow off my class. Yesterday when I was gone, their assignment was to write the rough draft of their request letter. (They're writing letters to a person of their choice requesting information.) Even though the substitute said my classes were good, I discovered than many of them either did not do the work at all or some only wrote a single sentence. They had the entire class period to write the rough draft. They had two example letters to follow and detailed instructions. My class is not a hard class. I don't assign homework unless a student doesn't finish within the time I give them in class. I almost always give them entire class periods to work on assignments in order to not give them homework. They get a grade at the end of the week that is basically a "freebie" for behaving and doing their work. This week I started cracking down on those not working. I gave them the opportunity to correct their test they took in order to improve their grade. I know there will be students that won't correct it, even though it is worth 60% of their grade. I'm just amazed at how lazy these kids are. They are aware that they have to have this class in order to graduate. I really have no sympathy for those students that are failing. There is really no excuse to fail my class. If they just try, they will pass. But it is not a blow off class. There is work to be done and I do grade the work. It's not difficult or even time consuming. Kids are just lazy. Now, I'm not saying this is true for all my students. I do have some great kids that are doing very well... and that is what is making it worthwhile.