Grading Physical Education and Fine Arts

[carol]

Do you use an evaluation sheet done for outside instructors? How do you objectively grade swimming,

tennis, drum lessons, etc.?

 

Carol

[Karen in CO]

For PE, I grade on effort. If I have to remind him to go to the gym or if he just does a lack-luster mile and then stops, he gets a bit lower grades. I sit down with him at the beginning of the semester and define what he will be graded on and what he needs to do to get an "easy A."

 

For fine art, again we define what he will be graded on before he starts. He has x number of projects using y techniques and exactly what will effort and improvement will give what type of grade. I can't grade him on his artistic vision or ability, but he does get grades.

[DollyM]

I just put P for Pass where the grade was recorded on the transcript. No college DD applied to had a problem with that.

[Gwen in VA]

We also did pass/fail for non-academic electives.

 

No college questioned this at all.

[SwimmerMom]

I was going to kid with you that I give Bean an A for each first place ribbon she gets in swimming, a B for every 2nd place, etc., but I don't really do that. Plus, it would be super unfair to her as she's getting ready to age-up to another division and probably won't win almost EVERY race like she did last year.

 

I agree with the above posters that Pass/Fail is fine for PE. :)

[carol]

I guess may main concern with pass/fail is I am taking homeschooling one year at a time and my son may eventually transfer to a private or public high school. If they don't accept pass/fail how would you grade P.E.

 

Carol

[harmonyartmom]

For PE we set up a sheet at the beginning of the semester with goals. We use the President's Physical Fitness Exam standards for part of his grade. We pre-test and then set goals. This way the grade at the end of the semester is not subjective.

 

This semester we also included goals for outside activities that my son participates in and used hours spent and new skills as a goal. He skateboards and snowboards so we set specific goals and I just check hours and skills off as he completes them.

 

For art we use Artistic Pursuits as our main text so we use the rubric that comes with the book as a measure of how he is progressing.

 

For other elements we set goals at the beginning of the semester such as how many pages he needs to read in the Annotated Mona Lisa, what sections to read in The Story of Painting and how many summary reports he needs to write for the semester. I just go through his notebook and make sure they are done completely and grade accordingly.

 

He also takes trumpet lessons and I keep track with his teacher as far as his progress and attitude. She helps me come up with goals and grades.

 

I try to make it as easy on him as possible by setting concrete goals and expectations. I think all the subjects you listed could easily translate to goal-setting and then how well they meet the goals.

 

Hope that helps,

Barb

[SwimmerMom]

I guess may main concern with pass/fail is I am taking homeschooling one year at a time and my son may eventually transfer to a private or public high school. If they don't accept pass/fail how would you grade P.E.

 

Carol

In that case, I would go with grading his effort. If he puts only the minimum amount of effort into whatever physical ed activity you offer him, then he gets a "C". If he puts an extreme amount of effort into it, he gets an "A". If you find out that he's been sitting off to the side in karate class (or whathaveyou), then he gets an "F".