I was just wondering if any of you ladies does a report card for your children and if you all do, how to you deceide the grade. Do you all have a grade scale like they have at school? If anyone has one could you share it with us. This year is new to us without a report card. We went through a Christian School and they always sent my children report cards every 4th quarter. Hope to hear from someone with some suggestions. Thanks
We made up a report card each year. In 1st/2nd I graded according to how well she did on daily work and any tests. I just averaged the grades. When I taught kindergarten, many times the grade was simply your call...you decided not based on grades. I have used letter grades every year. Now, I'm rethinking that. I may switch to something like S, N, U. I don't really like letter grades.
I think it would be good to keep track of strenghths and weeknesses and improvements. If you make it up card style the kids can bring it to chucke E. cheese for tokens.
I wanted to make one up for tokens and other places give out report card free stuff too, but wasn't sure how to grade... I make her redo her work till it's perfect so all the papers are correct. We sit and discuss what was wrong with the things that need correcting. Should I figure it on how many things she has to fix? Or how many times she has to do the same thing over (never has been more than twice). An S for completing her work and a U for a really bad day? I don't think my methods are very grade compatible. Maybe I should start giving her tests. I wasn't because ofher age.
I don't keep track of grades much, but this year I will be more with Rachael. That's partly because she's at the age where I need to be able to validate what I give her. She'll be getting a grade in math, language, history, and science this year. It will be based mostly on her tests. (Except for language, and she's going to be taking a class with a "real" teacher, so he'll take care of that!)
I don't grade "daily work" as I feel that if they don't get it then...you just do more. HA! I do grade test and I do test just because I am training him that test aren't a big deal! This from a mom who suffered from test anxiety. We mostly do math, spelling and reading test. Science will probably come this next year or the following one. I won't test History or Geography cuzzzzz some things you just gotta have fun with, right? Maybe if he was high school and needing those transcript credits but....yawn...ya either know it or you don't and I'd rather he know it than know it long enough to take a test. kwim?
Boy, do I! It's the difference between "long term" and "short term" memory. Better a little in long term, than a lot in short term and NOTHING in long term!
I do use a report card and like others have said, we get free stuff for it sometimes. I have had different grading methods depending on the grade. In K, it was based mostly on oral evaluations, along with a once in a while graded worksheet, and then also I factored in for "participation" which is really staying on task, paying attentions, attitude towards their work, etc. Children that age shouldn't really ever get anything but A's. For subjects that don't have worksheets, tests, or quizzes, I assign a participation grade. Starting in first grade, it was a combination of tests, quizzes, oral evaluations. I teach to mastery, in other words, the work she does daily is not typically graded, unless it is that once in a while worksheet. That keeps them on their toes because they don't know when one might be graded. Also, it means that the daily work is checked and corrected until completely correct. However, on a test or quiz, there is generally not the chance to correct before it is graded. Therefore, even though I'm teaching to mastery, she is graded on her first effort for tests and quizzes. She still has to correct it, she just gets the grade for the first effort. Then starting in third grade, some assignments are weighted to be worth more than others, so grading is based on tests, oral evals, quizzes, reports. I do also have a grade scale I use because although I assign A/B etc, I use Homeschool Tracker which will only accept number grades. So I have to convert the letter grades to number grades. Often times, depending on what curriculum you're using, it will suggest a way to grade the assignments it gives. I use A Beka and I base my grading loosely on their recommendations, changing it to accomodate my preferences. HTH!
In some teachers manuals, they give samples of ways you can grade. I always grade her on her tests. As for daily work, I do what Syele does. If an answer is wrong, then we go over it so she can correct it. I also grade her quarterly for effort, strengths and weaknesses, and test scores. It is more for me because it allows me to go back and see were she is falling behind or areas we may not be touching on enough. God bless. Patty
The umbrella school that I am under requires a report card every semester. There are no guidelines for grading. That is left up to the parents.
I do give my 9-yr-old a grade for her work, but it's not really a report card. I use Quattro Pro (a spreadsheet program) to enter in each assignments grade & let it get the daily average, the weekly average, then each subject's 9-week average. I just recently started making her re-do the wrong problems on all of her subjects, we used to only do it on math because that's her big problem area. This means I'm going to have to re-evaluate how I grade each of her assignments... I'm thinking of switching to a different grading style completely because she studies to pass the test not to keep it in her memory. I'd be grateful if any of the other parents out there that teach that way could offer me some advice on making the switch without totally losing my sanity. lol
