Taking those grades

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Taking those grades
By Sue

Well, I did the same thing -- I took way too many grades my first year. I paid the price when report card time averaging those suckers.

Now, I take maybe one to two grades. The rest of the work I consider "practice." Now,
if you were learning to play golf, would you want someone to consider you for a coaching position based upon your second or third day of practice? This has been my philosphy. I will check papers, while students are working -- so they can have instant feedback and see error patterns. But, I don't take a grade. IT's practicing. I even tell them, first lets try it out to see how you are

doing.
Then, after a few days, I will set a date for a test (I just tell them I will take a grade -- I don't emphasize test) with a couple of "gradeless" reviews before hand. Also, I give alternative ways to earn points. I might use a Jeopardy or Millionaire game for a group grade, or review grade.

Usually, by the time the "test" comes around they are doing much better. I think the practice that we do lets me know how well I am teaching a subject or objective -- If I get 10 kids who miss, say four sentences, on some type of grammar exercise I think, oops, I didn't get them that time. I give them back the paper and we review.

Regarding averaging the grades, I use a computer program from Gradekeeper.com. It is not the greatest, but it is simple enough for me. It also allows me to drop grades and weight grades without much thought.

I end up with more grades for reading, spelling, and math. For science and S. S., I may only have 4 - 6 grades per nine week period. Mostly because those are project based subjects for my class.

Hope this may help.