Nifty Grading ToolWe have never worried much about "grades" in our homeschool. The kids were told what I expected and they did it. If they didn't meet my expectations, they did it again. ::snort::
It worked. Two children graduated and have gone on into life just fine with my unorthodox "grading" system. The girls graduated in AK. We chose to work with a state program because they wanted to have a diploma from the school district. They took whatever grade I awarded and wrote it down. They checked the kids' work every 9 weeks and verified that the work I was turning in was worth high school level "A" work. I was told that their work was actually college level (we were using Cornerstone Curriculum at that point).
When we moved to TX our boys wanted to graduate from a program similar to Cyberlynx. We found NARHS. They let us homeschool as we see fit, we turn in work once a year; they give us a transcript from an accredited private high school. THEY want number grades; they check the work much closer than it was checked in AK, they require log books...well they are easy to work with, but they do have more requirements than the state program in AK.
I was having trouble figuring out how to give a NUMBER grade to Jamin's book and writing assignments from Christian Writer's Guild. Louise, our teacher/advisor, called today with the greatest little system.
She had a check, check +, check ++, check -, check R system.
Check was average - they did all that was asked of them - 85%
Check + a bit better than I expected 95%
Check ++ - very rare 99- 100%
Check - Work was done but not up to expectations 75%
Check R - RE DO and keep the 75% grade
Well - now - is that simple or what? I told her that I was doing something similar but I thought that if they did what was asked - in other words - average work - they earned 50%. She laughed. She told me again that the boys' work has been great and that she loves the work we turn in. She gave me tips for making all the "self-designed" courses that we do "official".
Yes, this is LAST YEAR'S portfolio. I have until 31 Dec to turn it in. They are very homeschool friendly and this allows families to homeschool year round or be on their own schedule. I've NEVER been this late turning in a portfolio...but we did have deployments, graduation, pregnancies, miscarriages, 6 week trips etc last year. I thought we did GREAT to finish the work and get this year going....now I have to document last year. This may be what I end up working on at our next Ladies Project Night on Friday instead of that illusive Christmas Letter.
3 comments:
So, if they have to do the work over you're giving 75? Do they get any extra credit from redoing the work? I never had to worry about such things with our oldest.. still not sure what to do this time around.
No, according to this system a redo is an automatic 60% and they do not get to raise the grade by doing it right the second time.
Since you DO have the 85% for doing what you told them to do and 75% for doing a bit less than you asked - well the 60% would be out and out rebellion it would seem...so really I can see why you would have them redo it and not give them the better grade...one of those life lesson things. Anyway - this is HER grading scale - she taught for over 25 years and developed it for quick use in those subjects that don't have a lot of objective work to grade.
Oh - when I've told children that their work wasn't up to par and asked them to redo it I never gave them extra credit for it. I did from time to time substitute the new grade IF the problem wasn't just laziness or attitude. LOL
I've been blessed that they simply do what I tell them to do.
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