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Grades and Recognition of Achievement for Elementary Age?


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All 3 of my girls now want grades. I've never given grades (with the exception of things like spelling and math tests), we work on things until they are mastered and they don't really count until HS anyway so I haven't seen the point. However, I can recognize that having something that makes note of their accomplishments can be nice, as well as a grade to mark their proficiency. So, I'd like to honor this request in a way that is meaningful to all of us without too much extra work for me. Ideas? I thought perhaps about marking milestones- like for younger ones I saw one for counting to 100. I could also do proficient reader? certain grade level reading? long division? I don't know, any ideas??? 

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You could make a list of learning goals for the semester and put them on a chart...add a sticker when they complete a goal?  When they finish everything, do something special, like go see a movie together?  (We're a family of 7, so going to the movies is like a momentous occasion for us - lol)

That's the best I could come up with, too.  I don't do grades, either.  

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13 minutes ago, Evanthe said:

You could make a list of learning goals for the semester and put them on a chart...add a sticker when they complete a goal?  When they finish everything, do something special, like go see a movie together?  (We're a family of 7, so going to the movies is like a momentous occasion for us - lol)

That's the best I could come up with, too.  I don't do grades, either.  

Thanks for the idea. I will have to run that idea by them and see what they think. I mean that still falls in with working towards Mastery which is my preference but it gives them recognition for achievement.

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I like Evanthe's idea of a goals chart for noting achievements all during the school year.

Not quite what you're looking for, as it's only a one-time at end of school year, but... at the end of each school year, we did a 5 minute closing ceremony to our school year. I printed out a certificate of achievement on colorful certificate paper from Office Max that stated the child had completed ___ grade. I called them one at a time to stand on the "podium stage" (an overturned crate), listed some of their achievements for the year, handed them their certificate and shook their hand. (At random, here are images of 3rd grade certificates, to give you ideas for wording.) That did help give DSs both a sense of achievement and "closure" for the year.

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I’ve fallen out of the habit, but my daughter and I used to do quarterly “check ins” in which we would review what was going well, what had been accomplished/achieved, and what the next set of goals would be. As she did any written work, it would get thrown into a big pile, so we sorted through the pile quarterly as well to choose a few pieces to keep and recycle the rest. I would type notes as we did the quarterly meeting, and add those notes to the portfolio we kept. They were my version of a narrative report card, and included my assessment of how she was doing, her assessment of how she was doing, and some description of what had been done.

Come to think of it, I miss those quarterly meetings and need to get back to them.

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Thank you ladies! Lori the kid's loved the idea of a graduation of sorts, sounds like a nice new tradition.

I talked to them again and they want straight up grades, no list of achievement or such. I think they want to have a clue how they are doing. They want grades for the core subjects for sure, I'm not certain about science and history. They mentioned maybe doing it every month which seems way too much too me! But perhaps we could do grades at the end of this month and then just twice for the rest of the year. IDK I'll have to think on it more and Jackie I like the idea of doing it quarterly, maybe w/ grades they want and assessment I want.

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18 minutes ago, soror said:

... I talked to them again and they want straight up grades, no list of achievement or such. I think they want to have a clue how they are doing. They want grades for the core subjects for sure, I'm not certain about science and history. They mentioned maybe doing it every month which seems way too much too me! But perhaps we could do grades at the end of this month and then just twice for the rest of the year. IDK I'll have to think on it more and Jackie I like the idea of doing it quarterly, maybe w/ grades they want and assessment I want.


Along the lines of Jackie's quarterly verbal "check in" idea -- maybe have a quarterly (every 9 weeks) or trimester (every 12 weeks) shortened school day, and then have a 10-min conference with each student and flip through the binder of their work so far, and go over a very simple report card, with a grade, and one sentence of "progress report" or assessment? Below, I've linked one of the several downloadable homeschool report cards from the Eszaktolnatksz blog. Those could be handy to have as part of your record keeping, and at the end of a school year, use them for yourself for planning for the next school year.

734886151_homeschoolreportcard.jpg.48f42bafa9b6cff039e296264fa52d01.jpg

 

Edited by Lori D.
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30 minutes ago, Lori D. said:


Along the lines of Jackie's quarterly verbal "check in" idea -- maybe have a quarterly (every 9 weeks) or trimester (every 12 weeks) shortened school day, and then have a 10-min conference with each student and flip through the binder of their work so far, and go over a very simple report card, with a grade, and one sentence of "progress report" or assessment? Below, I've linked one of the several downloadable homeschool report cards from the Eszaktolnatksz blog. Those could be handy to have as part of your record keeping, and at the end of a school year, use them for yourself for planning for the next school year.

734886151_homeschoolreportcard.jpg.48f42bafa9b6cff039e296264fa52d01.jpg

 

Thanks Lori, that looks great, fabulous ideas. I usually divide the school year in trimesters but this year is all wonky anway. I think I'll aim for twice in the spring and then reevaluate for next year when we get there

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6 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Not quite what you're looking for, as it's only a one-time at end of school year, but... at the end of each school year, we did a 5 minute closing ceremony to our school year. I printed out a certificate of achievement on colorful certificate paper from Office Max that stated the child had completed ___ grade. I called them one at a time to stand on the "podium stage" (an overturned crate), listed some of their achievements for the year, handed them their certificate and shook their hand. (At random, here are images of 3rd grade certificates, to give you ideas for wording.) That did help give DSs both a sense of achievement and "closure" for the year.

 

We do a graduation ceremony into the next grade, too.  I "knight" them into the next grade with a foam sword.  (We're fancy here in Texas.)

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We do a quarterly report card. Since my kids came from ps they could. not. fathom. not having grades, even though the idea really appealed to me. Even my K'er enjoyed seeing "A's" for reading and math lol (I figured if she was progressing and meeting my goals, she got an A). I include a section on behavior as well with room to write a plus sign for doing well, a check for needs improvement, and a minus sign for you're driving me crazy about this 😁 They seem to get just as competitive and and/or proud of themselves on this section as they do with their grades. I include things like punctuality, attitude, organization, quality of handwriting, interaction with siblings, productive use of free time, etc. 

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My kids want candy for breakfast, but I don't give it to them. Just sayin.

I like a lot of the above ideas. We find that portfolios does this. The kids write their self-assessment. I compile a book and field trip list and summarize in a sentence or two what we did for each subject. They pick out the work they're most proud of and we put it in the notebook. We do it four times a year. Then they "present" it to their dad since he's not here on the day to day, and show off all the work. It makes us all feel good. No grades needed.

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7 hours ago, Farrar said:

My kids want candy for breakfast, but I don't give it to them. Just sayin.

I like a lot of the above ideas. We find that portfolios does this. The kids write their self-assessment. I compile a book and field trip list and summarize in a sentence or two what we did for each subject. They pick out the work they're most proud of and we put it in the notebook. We do it four times a year. Then they "present" it to their dad since he's not here on the day to day, and show off all the work. It makes us all feel good. No grades needed.

Aw, well,  I've told them that I want their input and suggestions. I see this request as a need of theirs to see some recognition and marks of their achievements and progress. I honestly don't know that they will find grades all it's cracked up to be, even after a week their enthusiasm has waned some but see that as a learning experience. Maybe we'll end up landing on the method of evaluation and assessment more in line with my preferences. 

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Well, not an evaluation, but every time a girl finishes a book or level of a program, we drop what we're doing and have a family dance party to one song that they get to choose. They look forward to it a lot, usually for days before as they see us reaching the end. We do school on a continual basis, though, so we finish things all the time. 

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On 11/27/2018 at 7:14 AM, soror said:

All 3 of my girls now want grades. I've never given grades (with the exception of things like spelling and math tests), we work on things until they are mastered and they don't really count until HS anyway so I haven't seen the point. However, I can recognize that having something that makes note of their accomplishments can be nice, as well as a grade to mark their proficiency. So, I'd like to honor this request in a way that is meaningful to all of us without too much extra work for me. Ideas? I thought perhaps about marking milestones- like for younger ones I saw one for counting to 100. I could also do proficient reader? certain grade level reading? long division? I don't know, any ideas??? 

You could do grades, real honest-to-goodness grades, the same way they'd be given in school, based on the work completed and graded. And then perhaps your dc would see that grades aren't all they are cracked up to be. 🙂

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3 hours ago, Ellie said:

You could do grades, real honest-to-goodness grades, the same way they'd be given in school, based on the work completed and graded. And then perhaps your dc would see that grades aren't all they are cracked up to be. 🙂

 

That's what I'm doing now but as you said I think they might tire of it, we'll see!

6 hours ago, MeaganS said:

Well, not an evaluation, but every time a girl finishes a book or level of a program, we drop what we're doing and have a family dance party to one song that they get to choose. They look forward to it a lot, usually for days before as they see us reaching the end. We do school on a continual basis, though, so we finish things all the time. 

 

 

On 11/30/2018 at 4:03 PM, Momto5inIN said:

We do a quarterly report card. Since my kids came from ps they could. not. fathom. not having grades, even though the idea really appealed to me. Even my K'er enjoyed seeing "A's" for reading and math lol (I figured if she was progressing and meeting my goals, she got an A). I include a section on behavior as well with room to write a plus sign for doing well, a check for needs improvement, and a minus sign for you're driving me crazy about this 😁 They seem to get just as competitive and and/or proud of themselves on this section as they do with their grades. I include things like punctuality, attitude, organization, quality of handwriting, interaction with siblings, productive use of free time, etc. 

2

Oh, good thoughts, I love your list, great ideas. 

On 11/27/2018 at 4:20 PM, Evanthe said:

 

We do a graduation ceremony into the next grade, too.  I "knight" them into the next grade with a foam sword.  (We're fancy here in Texas.)

You sure are fancy, knighting never occurred to me! I think I mentioned up thread the girls mentioned that they'd maybe like to do the movies as a celebration at the end of the year, we do that to kick off the year the first day of school, I think it would be nice to do something outside since we finish in the spring.

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On 12/2/2018 at 3:16 AM, Farrar said:

My kids want candy for breakfast, but I don't give it to them. Just sayin.

I like a lot of the above ideas. We find that portfolios does this. The kids write their self-assessment. I compile a book and field trip list and summarize in a sentence or two what we did for each subject. They pick out the work they're most proud of and we put it in the notebook. We do it four times a year. Then they "present" it to their dad since he's not here on the day to day, and show off all the work. It makes us all feel good. No grades needed.

I love this idea Farrar and would love to hear more/see pics if you're so inclined! 🙂

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On 12/2/2018 at 3:50 AM, soror said:

That's what I'm doing now but as you said I think they might tire of it, we'll see!

But you said you've "never given grades (with the exception of things like spelling and math tests)." 🙂 So I'm saying grade every.single.thing, as they do it, not for mastery, just like school.

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4 hours ago, Ellie said:

But you said you've "never given grades (with the exception of things like spelling and math tests)." 🙂 So I'm saying grade every.single.thing, as they do it, not for mastery, just like school.

No, I've not given grades in the past, that is what they are asking for and I'm trying to do, or nearly. I'm not grading EVERYTHING they don't even do that in PS. 

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