Phone Messages from Students

Here's an interesting phenomenon:  Students can do an assignment on leaving a message and do it well.
They give their first and last names and their nickname if they have one, and they spell their last name so you can check it in our alphebetized gradebook.

Then one day they really have to call you, and their message is something like this:  "Hi, Tina.  I'm sorry I can't come to school today.  My little girl sick.  Have a nice day."

I went to some seminars with CCSF, Skyline, and SFSU, and the absence of carry-over was a topic.  Why didn't the student apply what they'd learned to the next class or even the next lesson?

These are some thoughts that pass through my mind as I listen to their second phone message assignment, which was to apply what they learned  in the first lesson and add some information.  (In this case, they're telling me when they made an appointment for an interview with a native-English speaker and when they'll be conducting the interview.)

Some of them are remembering to spell their names:  A as in a, i as in I, etc.