If required, what do you do for grading/reporting?

[seekhimfirst]

Hi Ladies!

I am curious on what some of you may do if you are required to keep grades or progress reports? I have a couple ideas but would love to hear how others are doing this too! We just started Preparing and Beyond. We are finishing up the math and language programs we were already using so I have those covered for now but will at least switch to R&S for language in the fall.

Thanks in advance!

[amysconfections]

Here in AL we have to report to our cover schools the attendance days. It's almost like we are our own private school classroom and report attendance. We are required to have 170 days.

[seekhimfirst]

We are required to report attendance also so I am keeping up with that on Homeschool Tracker. I have been doing tests and quizzes with the curriculum we were using and recording those grades as well. We switched to HOD towards the end of our school year (but so glad we did ). I don't believe we have to turn them in but need to keep such things in case we were asked for it at some point. I figure I can use the last day of the week's spelling (Beyond) and dictation (Preparing) as "tests". Reading grades will be easy to do with their oral reading. I have noticed a few of the books have test booklets or worksheets that you can order from the individual sites. Do any of you use those for grading purposes? If not, what do you do for history, science, and R&S language. I realize many prefer not to test - we just like to err on the side of caution in this area. I know we will have the notebooking pages but not sure that would count as test grades or how to use them for that??

[inHistiming]

I'm not sure where you are, but when I was in NY we also had to submit 'grades' on our quarterly reports. One of the options, though, was either S (satisfactory) or U (unsatisfactory). There were some things I did turn in actual grades for, like math or spelling, but for the rest I chose the S. Since we homeschool and we can always re-do things or cover material until they 'get it' I never had to feel like their grades were unsatisfactory. Anyway, I don't know if that's an option for you but it may be something to consider. I wouldn't add more worksheets and tests to the curriculum if you don't have to. HTH

[seekhimfirst]

inHistiming,

Thanks for your help. I'm curious what exactly you used to mark as S or U? Did you "grade" the notebooking pages? Or did you just report the grade in a gradebook so to speak for the other subjects and not actually mark anything on their work?

[inHistiming]

We had to create a form to send in that told about what we had done each quarter, and include a grade for each subject. So, History might say...covered Units 12-20, Bigger Hearts for His Glory...under the 'grade' column I would just type S or U. If you didn't use the curriculum a particular week/quarter you could add under the subject column whatever else you did, such as "studied Presidents 1-4, created notebook pages for each, cooked favorite meals of each president", etc. It was relatively easy....just had to look back to see which units/subjects we had covered during that quarter.

[seekhimfirst]

Thanks so much inHistiming! Now I get it and that makes perfect sense! I'm going to come up with something like that. I said before in KY it's my understanding we don't have to turn in grades but they could be requested at any point so I want to have it all organized and that way I won't get behind!

[my3sons]

InHisTiming already helped out so much, and I think you already have a great plan in place. So, I'll just add that the binder portfolio you keep for the year can actually be graded overall too. Actually, many colleges are having dc prepare portfolios for entrance - you'll find a ton of information on "Preparing Your Portfolio for College Admissions", and also for job interviews, etc.. So, I love the portfolio concept at a young age. I feel it better showcases their year and provides more information about what they can really do than grades can. I do understand the need for grades if states require it, but you can easily assign a grade to the portfolio as a whole at the end of the year if you want. I had portfolios I had to turn in for some of both my undergrad and masters classes, and my entire grades were based on the portfolios for those classes. Just thought I'd throw this out there - as the portfolio way of doing things was not around back when I was younger, and I thought it might be a new concept of grading for others on this board too.

In Christ,
Julie