Grading in High School

[tmh356]

I have a 9th grader and I'm wondering how you do your grading .  Just counting tests and quizzes or do you also give a grade daily work?  I'm of the thought that the daily work is where he is learning the material so grading seems unnecessary, just wondering what others are doing?

[regentrude]

I do not grade daily work. Daily work is for practice. I do not believe in penalizing learners for making mistakes. Problems in math and science have to be complete and correct.

In math, I give one comprehensive final exam per semester, that's it.

In science, I give monthly tests. Lab has to be completed to my satisfaction, but is not graded separately ("my satisfaction" equals grade of A)

In English and history, I base the grade on long writing assignments.

The one exception is foreign language; since I do not speak Italian, I have to rely on the quizzes provided by the textbook publisher to determine a grade.

[Dina in Oklahoma]

Very helpful post! THANKS!

[kiana]

The biggest reason daily work is assigned credit in high school and college is because many students won't do it if it isn't worth points. Then they will fail the exams because they haven't practiced.

 

I think the model of requiring work to be completed and corrected if wrong, but basing the grade on exams, is far superior, but if implemented in most non-selective high schools or universities would cause astronomical failure rates.

[bobbeym]

For us, it depends on the specific curriculum.  The science curric we do is online and grades the unit review questions, labs, and quarterly exams.  For history, I only grade written assignments and quizzes.  English is writing assignments only.  Math last year was unit quizzes but this year will be project based grades.