Check. Check plus. Check minus. Zero. I have more zeros in my book than I’d like to admit. At least I know that a zero is a zero. But, the rest, what number grades are they?
Grades were due today, and I had never calculated grades before this. I escaped this wonderful process earlier in the year when I was exessed from my school. Well the entire process made my head spin and left me feeling very overwhelmed and saddened by the number of failing students I had.
I tried to break grading down so that I was not so overwhelmed. Days ago I began to calculate some of the grades I had. My first step was to examine the grades and assignments that I had listed in my grade book. When I began to do this, I realized how many students had done no work – there was zero, after zero in my grade book.
I felt that if my students saw their grades on paper, rather than hearing me say them, they would be more motivated to work for extra credit. So, I went through and typed up each student’s name and grade for different things such as homework, classwork, quizes and projects. I really thought it would pay off, I guess that’s why I spent a great deal of time doing it. I felt good afterwards; I felt semi-organized.
That changed when it really came down to putting a percentage to each category. I suddenly had an overwhelming feeling of “I have no clue what I am doing!” I was very angry that no one had offered to show me how to do this or even asked if I knew what I was doing. How could I be given so much responsibility with so little experience?
After a very frustrating weekend of trying to figure it out on my own, I went on Monday and inundated my AP with questions. She was very helpful and offered to sit down with me and discuss it further. Well because of time constraints and conflicting schedules this never happened; I ended up doing it on my own. I think, I hope, I figured out a good method.
Now I’m just praying that I didn’t screw up any of those 25 bubble sheets I had to fill out.
4 Comments:
1 Chaz
· Dec 5, 2005 at 6:56 pm
I don’t know what grade you are teaching however you can use these broad outlines for grading:
Tests/Quizzes = 70%
Homework = 10%
Participation = +/-20%
There is both positive (+) participation, answering questions, doing the do now, good behavior, keeping an organized notebook etc, and negative (-) participation, talking, sleeping, uncooperative, poor behavior, not doing work etc.
The bottom line you are the teacher and you give them the grades they earned.
2 newteachernyc
· Dec 5, 2005 at 7:59 pm
http://www.gradekeeper.com
This grading program does everything, and is free to use. You can actually keep clicking “pay later” forever, although I started to feel bad and ended up paying the $20.
3 NaniRolls
· Dec 5, 2005 at 8:20 pm
My department sets a grading policy (percentages, weights) but I usually ignore it. It takes a while to find a grading method that works for you. I’ve finally settled on using a rubric system. Works well for me, but its not for everyone. Don’t be afraid to play around with different ways to grade. Also, whether you use gradekeeper or excel or easygrade pro, definintely track grades on a computer…makes your life easier in the end when you have to compute final grades…just a matter of applying to formulas to whatever numbers you have.
On a personal note, I don’t use checks/checkplus/checkminus because its too abstract and doesn’t give students very much information.
4 oldpro
· Dec 6, 2005 at 8:42 am
Grading, lets be fair.
That is enough. Grading is not an exact science. Use your best judgement.
Is out goal that all students fit into a bell curve? If yes than 50% are on the bottom and who wants that?