What To Do About Grading Policies

UPDATE 8/29/16
Unfortunately the grading policy of my county is still the same, and while over the past 2 years I did try a form of standards based grading, it didn't work so well.  I'm putting it on the back burner for the time being.


I have read so much from other teachers all over the US about standards based grading and grading policies.  Many of these ideas are amazing and make me wish I could try these things in my classsroom, but unfortunately my hands are tied when it comes to the way I have to average grades. The county in which I teach has a uniform grading policy for all teachers in the county, which leaves me very little room to be creative in my class.

There are exactly three categories ... all three must be used.  They are Learning Activities, Independent Practice, and Unit Assessments.

1. Learning Activities are basically anything you would do in class; participation, group work, notebooks, practice tests, vocabulary, etc.  This must be 10-30% of students term grade. I actually put homework in this category because to me homework is a "learning activity".
2. Independent Practice is something the student does by themselves as an extension to classroom instruction. This must be 20-40% of students term grade. I put quizzes in this category.
3. Unit Assessments are obviously tests, but they can be anything else that is summative in nature like projects, research papers, portfolios, and rubric-evaluated assignments.  This must be 30-40% of students term grade.

I'm guessing you are looking at the percentages ... they just don't add up! While I might like to make homework worth 10%, the math will not work. The only options I really have are a 30-30-40, 20-40-40, or 30-40-30 (or percentages in between like 35%).  In addition to this, I have to give at least one grade in Learning Activities and Independent Practice per week and a minimum of three Unit Assessment grades per 6-week grading period.  To be quite honest, I have a hard time following these guidelines. Within a 6-week time frame, I may or may not get through 3 units to give tests. And to simplify my life, I did not record every homework assignment but instead took them up in packet form.  I definitely did not do this every week.  But I think I have a plan for next year that might help with all this, which includes a form of standard based grading!

Enjoy the day!

>^..^<

  

Never the Way It's Planned

I thought for sure I would blog all year about the progress and planning of interactive notebooks.  In July I was so excited ... and then school started.  There was no way I was going to find time to reflect in my blog this year.  I barely had enough energy to plan and grade, let alone add another thing to the daily to-do list. So, the blog had to go.

I did do interactive notebooks with my Math III students.  I loved them, and got a lot of positive feedback from students on them as well.  The plan is to eventually share my INB's and the progress I have made with the blogging world.  We shall see how long that takes.  :)

>^..^<