What is your grading method?

Im going to be grading next year and I’m hoping to get some ideas on how to grade. As far as what percentage of grade comes from daily work and tests or quizes. I’m planing to do some of the subjects pass or fail style and some letter grades. I would love to hear how you all are currently doing it. This would be really helpful. I will be teaching 3 rd grade. Have any suggestions?

Hey Easypeasy! I’m currently teaching 1st grade. I only grade tests (geography, spelling, match, grammar, etc) - I also “grade” using a rubric for every major writing assignment we work on. I simply grade the test and get the percentage and put the tests in a binder with dividers. At the beginning of the year I decided what an A+ would be, an A, B+, B, etc. Two times during the year I make a formal report card - I include all the subjects we have learned. I find out the average for each subject based on the grades from that portion of the year. On the report card I also include the subjects I don’t formally grade - I just give those a E (exceeds expectations), S (satisfactory), etc. The most important part of my report card is the written portion - I include a page long written portion that tells in words how I feel she’s doing thus far. I feel this is more important and telling than the grades.
Most states don’t require one to keep a report card such as this, but I do it for two reasons. 1-I feel that keeping records can’t hurt anything, and if ever someone came knocking, I’d be able to show/prove what we have done. 2- more importantly, I always loved going back over my report cards from childhood. I don’t know if my daughter will like doing that as an adult, but this way she has the option if she wants to see what she was up to. Hope that makes sense - let me know if you need me to clarify anything. :slight_smile:

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I am thankful I am not required to turn in grades in my state. I teach mostly to mastery. If a child doesn’t understand a topic we go back over it. If they don’t get at least 90% on their teaching textbooks math we back up a few lessons and review. I need to improve my grading rubric for my daughters writing assignments so she has clear feedback for improvement, but in general I plan to wait on formal grades until probably 7th (my oldest is finishing 4th). But my kids don’t like to repeat things they actually know, so knowing they must do well or go back and repeat the work keeps them doing their best.

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What curriculum are you using if any? sometimes your curriculum will tell you how to grade tests and quizzes. We are currently doing Abeka language for example and the near the beginning it tells you what and A,B,C and so on is and how many points to give to each question. CLE does the same.

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Do you have to grade? I mainly graded tests at that age. I didn’t give subject grades until Junior High (practicing for high school when I had to keep records).

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I’m using a psp and they told me that I’ll be needing to do my own grading but that I could do it however I want. I’m not exactly sure yet of how to pull it all together but I’m glad for your input!

Hello, I will be teaching 5th, 8th, and 9th grades this coming school year and have decided to pretty mauch make my own point system for each assignment and so on. I think that making a point system and the children knowing how many points are possible, they will try to get the highest points possible, but like I said I am homeschooling middle school and high school children. I would them use math and figure out the percentage and that would turn into a letter grade. 100 A+, 99-95 A, 94-90 A-, and so on. 89-87 B+, 86-84 B, 83-80 B-, etc.

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Thank you for all the info! This helps a lot.

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@Easypeasy With my elementary students my grading is really simple. At the end of each semester I give the following grades: E for excellent, S for satisfactory, & U for unsatisfactory. It has been my practice to not give official grades: A, B, etc. until they enter middle school.

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