Grades: to keep or not?

[hsingscrapper]

My son has become a bit needy in this department and has been asking for grades. I guess he wants to know where he stands on everything.

 

Our state requirements are only 180 days of attendance so for that reason, I'm reluctant to create more work for myself.

 

Would you keep grades if you didn't have to? For any reason?

Edited February 21, 2009 by hsingscrapper

[myfatherslily]

I didn't vote cause I'm not required by the state to do anything at all yet:) Nor do I have anything to keep anyway! BUT, I think it would be wise to keep grades at LEAST throughout high school, for college purposes.

 

Your son probably would like to know how his work stacks up to kids in "real school" :) You, as his mom and teacher, can see his progress better than he probably can. If that is what he needs, then I would do it, for his sake. For example, say he struggles with math. But you know he's learning. He could end up feeling like he's dumb, whereas if he saw that he was getting B's, or even A's, he'd feel better about himself.

 

Anyway, those are just my thoughts:) I say those things more from the perspective of being homeschooled myself than from any experience yet as a teacher. I had those grades to tell me that I was doing as well as my peers, even if I was having a hard time!

[Plucky]

I said other. I don't keep grades until high school.

[Tree House Academy]

I am not sure what you mean by required. My umbrella school requires semester grade reporting and day totals, but I am not required to grade individual materials. I mostly come up with the grades on my own based on how hard I think they are trying, how much improvement they have made, etc. I base it on my perception of how they are doing - and I am pretty sure most teachers do the same thing. They "take grades" sure...but my son never made below an A in ps even thoug he had some lower grades on this and that through the year. The teacher knew he was smart, tried hard, and "got it" and I think that played as much a role in the grade card as anything.

 

Besides...aren't grades mostly for teachers to let the PARENTS know how the kids are doing in school? I know how my kids are doing. ;) But I do give them a grade card once a semester with the grades I report to the umbrella school just so they know how they are doing and what to work harder on.

[hsingscrapper]

I am not sure what you mean by required. My umbrella school requires semester grade reporting and day totals, but I am not required to grade individual materials.

 

What I mean by required is when your state specifically says that you must keep grades for whatever your child does.

[joannqn]

I grade my kids' daily work in language arts and math. My kids do their LA and math independently so by grading it weekly, I can see what they've covered that week, what they missed, and what I need to explain further. It also makes it easy to give the kids a good guess as to what their overall grade would be if I were to actually enter it into a record keeping program to tally the average grade. They like to know. I don't grade anything that is subjective yet.

 

I have a record keeping program but haven't gotten into the habit of entering the grades yet. I would like to though. I want to get into the habit of entering grades before I need to for high school transcripts.