Grading

When do I grade?

I do practically all of my grading on Sundays in the afternoon/early evening. I am pretty regular about this, but very occasionally I will not be able to get it done that week. When this happens I do my best to clear any backlog before the following weekend. Some assignments like tests, essays, or projects can take longer to grade, and might not be finished on the first Sunday after they were completed. In these instances I do my best to mark them as "Collected" with a green indicator on PowerSchool if they have been turned in.

What about assignments that are turned in late?

For the most part, as long as an assignment is turned in within a week of the due date, there is no penalty. I believe that it is far more important for students to do their best work a couple days late rather than to turn in a mediocre product on time, so it is completely fine with me if students want to take extra time. However, beyond a week late starts to become an issue of procrastination, not diligence. Assignments turned in more than a week late (measured after the second Sunday after the assignment's due date), will receive a late penalty. This is usually ~20%, but it depends on the assignment and circumstances. After two weeks late, 50%. After three weeks I will not accept the assignment.

There are exceptions to this policy. Specifically, assignments like bellwork and current event presentations, where timeliness is important given their nature, will incur immediate late penalties.

What about assignments that were not turned in/are marked as missing?

Assignments that are not turned in on time will be marked as "Missing" with a zero in PowerSchool, so keep an eye out for the yellow "missing" indicator! If an assignment is marked as missing, it means it was not turned in as of the most recent Sunday. Missing assignments stay that way until the assignment is turned in and graded. Please note that I am unable to accommodate custom grading time requests. All assignments, regardless of what day t hey are turned in, will be graded the following Sunday. Assignments that show two dashes on the score (--/4) have not been graded yet - this is different than having a score of zero!

Very often when an assignment is marked missing and a student swears they turned it in, they simply forgot to put their name on it. I would appreciate it if before sending an email, students would check the no-name bin for their work. This really is one of those "If I had a dollar..." situations.

Speaking of bellwork...

There is bellwork just about every day. Students should be answering their bellwork as soon as they enter the room and get their binders. Often bellwork questions are written to get students thinking about that day's topic or continue the conversation from the previous day. Because of this time-sensitive nature, I do not allow for bellwork to be made up by students who were present but did not complete it since there is often little value in doing so. Students who are absent are excused from any bellwork they missed, and should write "Absent" on the fields for whatever day(s) they missed.

Because bellwork is part of our daily routine, I do expect it to be completed and turned in on time and will assess a late penalty if it is not in when it should be (unless the student was absent). I always remind students to turn in bellwork, and the whole class will be doing it, so there is no excuse for not doing it.

I hand out and collect bellwork on a bi-weekly cycle, so their sheets will be turned in every other Friday.

How about test corrections?

For unit tests, I allow students to do corrections with the understanding that corrections cannot raise the test grade above 80%; each question can receive up to ½ credit back if corrected well; and all directions are followed on the Test Corrections sheet. Test corrections are a non-trivial activity, so I expect to see plenty of evidence of effort and reason.

What should a student do if they have questions about their grade on an assignment?

Email me, catch me in the hallway during Passing Time, or right after class. Middle school is the time when students are expected to start taking on more responsibility for their education. I would much rather hear from my students (as opposed to parents) when it comes to questions about individual assignments!

What kind of grade information can I expect to see in PowerSchool?

I enter pretty straightforward scores into PowerSchool. I do not place weights on assignments or assessments, so the point values are easily understood and compared from one assignment to another. Typically small assignments are 5-10 points. Larger multi-day assignments could be 15-25. Tests might be 60-70.

For 6th grade, because this curriculum is brand new, there may be some deviations from my expected breakdown:

· 40-50% assessments (tests and quizzes)

· 30-40% classwork (daily work)

· 10-20% Other (Current Events, mini projects, etc.)