Does anyone else figure grades for their D students? I'm trying to get my 8th grade D student ready for the realities of high school. Last year I assigned grades for many classes, but not all. I was hoping that once I had a year of Tapestry under my belt that assigning a grade for history would be crystal clear. But alas, I'm still not sure how to do it!

I've considered the following breakdown, although I'm unsure about the percentages:
Thinking/Accountability questions (translation: preparation for discussion) 20%
Discussion 20%
Maps 20%
Evaluations 40%

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
Thanks,
Michelle

Michelle
If my experience with grading my high school student has taught me anything it is to be specific about how I am grading her otherwise she gets really upset about it. The challenge is if she does not know what she is aiming for it is hard to hit. For example in grading her writing I give her a copy of the rubric so she knows what she needs to do to get an A.

I agree with the break down of grading such as Evaluations, Map work etc but I am not sure if I would grade discussions or even preparing for discussions. The reason I say that is do you have something specific the student can follow? For example what will the student have to do in order to get an A or 100% in preparation for discussion time? Do they have to simply have an answer for all the questions? What if their answer is only one or two words? Is that ok? I personally would find it very difficult to grade something like this, especially since I have personally have found discussion time and answering the questions to be a very up and down area for my children. Some weeks they do fine and others they don't. It is not that they are not putting forth the same effort I know they are, but some weeks the reading material is more challenging or they simply have a more difficult time finding the info. This is why I find discussion so important....so I can fill in the holes for them. But giving them a grade here would be very defeating for my kids.

I do not grade my high school student on discussions or on questions. This is her time to learn. I recall TOG also suggesting that this part of the student's work not be graded although I have no clue where I read that. The forum or an intro doc by TOG.

What I would suggest is this, give your student a quiz each week. Count quizzes to be 40% of the grade. Then count end of unit evaluations as 20% of the grade, count the final exam as 20% of the grade and then either count map work map 10% and a final report or some other hands on in depth project as 10% for 100% of the grade or skip the map work portion (there are maps in the unit evals) and have the student complete an in depth or otherwise hands on project for each unit for 20% of the grade. This could be anything you or the student choose such as a display board, a model, serving a feast etc.

Hope this helps!

Lisa in AZ

Hi Michelle,
Lisa has been right on the money with her thoughts. However, there are some kids (I know this through experience with one of mine!) who *need* a discussion grade as their "carrot." And, I've also discovered that colleges now give discussion grades in many classes. So, TOG also gave them excellent preparation for this type of class activity.

Here's what I did...maybe you can get some ideas from it.
*I first made myself a one-page grading chart for each student. There were small charts on the page for each subject the child was completing that year. I made mine 20 cells across and the number down depended on the subject.
*"Daily" grades were written in pencil, quiz grades in red, and big exam grades written twice in red.
*Regarding TOG, I gave a daily grade for map work, a daily grade for completing T/A questions and charts, and a daily grade for discussion participation.

I am now teaching my last child and he doesn't need a "carrot," so he will get one overall weekly grade for his evaluation.

Hope this gives you some more ideas!

Dana
I am glad to see you responded.

I must confess that I have been frustrated with my high student in particular in regard to her participation in our discussions. I am beginning to see my disappointment is due to high expectations on my part and immaturity on her part however, I believe she would benefit from the carrot you are speaking of.

So, am I to understand from your response that the daily grade you gave your student was based on how well they simply completed the maps and the questions/charts? And when they received a grade for participation in discussion time, how did you determine that? No participation bad grade, some participation medium grade, lots of participation high grade? How do you determine participation? Does them asking you lots of questions count? Sometimes I find my daughter is just totally lost especially when it comes to the thinking questions. I KNOW it is because she isnt't thinking about it...I just don't know how to get her to start! LOL!

Thanks!

Lisa in AZ

Hi Lisa,
Yes, the daily grade was based upon the *effort* that I saw regarding the maps and questions/charts. Typically I gave a 100 if I could see excellent effort; I gave an 87 (top "C" grade) if I could see they tried somewhat, and yes, I was willing to give a 0 if there was nothing at all done. (This may have happened once in all my years of homeschooling, but I explained my whole system to them up front.)

Now, of course the completion of their questions (actually, for one child in particular) played a role in how well the discussion went. When I asked a question and got a fairly generic answer, and it was obvious the work wasn't done, that warranted re-assigning the week's assignment over the weekend and going nowhere and doing nothing extracurricular. The child also got a talk with Dad, explaining the spiritual and educational repercussions of laziness and lack of effort.

At that point, I required each and every question to be answered legibly and in thorough detail. (When it's prep for discussion time, I allowed abbreviations, small notes, etc. I did not require detailed written answers.) After that, I graded their paper again. If they normally would have received an "A," this time it was dropped one grade level to a "B." And, they did not receive a discussion grade.

How did I determine if participation was adequate? Well, from the get-go, I required *all* of my children to sit in on discussion time unless it was a topic not appropriate for little ones. I took turns asking questions to all children who were dialectic level and up (and I was always amazed when my youngest child would chime in with answers, even when he was just becoming a fluent reader). If one child gave a detailed answer, and then the next child gave a generic answer to the next question, I'd go back to the first child and ask the same question. Then we went on to the next question. The child who previously gave the generic answer was given the question first. If, again, he gave another generic answer, we again proceeded to the next child. Typically, after about 3 chances at this, I determined that the child had not adequately prepared. As I continued to ask questions, I skipped the child with generic answers. IF by chance he knew an answer, he would jump in and share.

So, it was through this method that I easily could see who tried and who didn't. The majority of the time, my boys all shared the same books, so I knew they had read the same material.

Um, if they ask lots of questions that show they really have given thought to them, then, yes, I would certainly consider that a part of good discussion.

**Keep in mind that all I've said above was for the student that needed a "carrot." Now I have only one son at home, who needs no carrot. I don't even check if he's written answers to questions (although I do if it's charts). I do not grade his discussions, because he's always prepared. He is graded only on his weekly quizzes and unit exams. When I go to average his grades at the end of the semester, I usually throw in 1/2 row (10) 100's because I know he made excellent effort. (I don't really know why I do this for him because he rarely makes less than a 100 on his quizzes.)

So, this is becoming rather long winded, but I'd like to encourage you with your daughter. Try to be really patient with her as you work through the discussion outline. You'll have to ask *lots* of leading questions for a while. You will feel like you are trying to cross a stream and stepping on stones that are one inch apart when your stride is more like one foot. That's okay. It's going to take a while for her stride to match yours. The fact that she's trying says a whole lot about her!

Hope this helps...