If you use Sonlight, Winterpromise, or similar and want a transcript with a grade

[MamaSheep]

How do you assign grades for a literature based program like this? We'll be starting 7th grade in the fall with ds and I want to start giving grades and keeping a transcript--partly because I think it would be motivating for him, and partly because it'll give me practice before we hit high school. Math is easy--what percentage of the assigned problems did he get correct? There ya go--GRADE. But I'm looking at using Sonlight for history, geography, and language arts, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around how to come up with a grade for reading and discussing things...

 

Any thoughts from people who have BTDT?

[Mandy in TN]

BTDT. My vote would be- if this is a grade that you give instead of something that someone outside your home grades, then assign him whatever you think he has earned. :D

 

On a practical note, look at the reading contract for Where the Brook and the River Meet. In this unit studies curriculum, the author suggests that you sit down with the child and sign grading contracts for each subject. For SL you could have a contract for history, geography, and language arts. Figure out what you expect. Discuss it with ds. Put it in writing and have him sign it. With SL I may would move some of the LA composition over to History so that there is written documentation other than a book list.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[MamaSheep]

BTDT. My vote would be- if this is a grade that you give instead of something that someone outside your home grades, then assign him whatever you think he has earned. :D

 

On a practical note, look at the reading contract for Where the Brook and the River Meet. In this unit studies curriculum, the author suggests that you sit down with the child and sign grading contracts for each subject. For SL you could have a contract for history, geography, and language arts. Figure out what you expect. Discuss it with ds. Put it in writing and have him sign it. With SL I may would move some of the LA composition over to History so that there is written documentation other than a book list.

 

HTH-

Mandy

 

Thanks, I'll definitely check that link out.

 

I know we're going to have to have some kind of spelled-out criteria that ds and I can both look at and say, well ya did that pretty good, you really blew it on this other thing, you gave this a good effort even though it didn't turn out well, and that part was really excellent...and all that adds up to...a B-. Or whatever. Because if ds thinks I'm just assigning arbitrary grades based on some whimsy in my head, or because I'm having a bad day, or he didn't eat his lunch, or I like his sister better, or whatever, there WILL be trouble. There needs to be something objective I can point to and say on THIS assignment, you did THIS well. But I'm completely drawing a blank as to what kinds of criteria there should be--or CAN be. Maybe your link will help me out. Maybe I'm just tired and if I leave it alone for a week and come back less sleep-deprived it'll suddenly make sense.

[KristineinKS]

Here's the criteria on a "Monitoring & Assessment Matrix" that I got from a similar history curriculum. This particular curriculum was designed to be used by public middle schools, so you'll find the matrix a bit unneccessarily complicated! I use a combo of WinterPromise & Sonlight and loosely use this to assign grades for my kids - picking & choosing what I deem most important from the list.

 

While it doesn't translate exactly, it's a somewhat helpful guide. For section 1 (below) the Teacher's Guide gives very pointed discussion questions for each category. For example, one part under Geographic Literacy says, "Discuss the interaction of people and environment in modifying and changing the Sumerian landscape. Also discuss the flooding of the rivers and its effects. This should include some of the ways in which the people responded to the flooding, such as using the water for irrigation." Under Economic Literacy, "Help students, when discussing the story, to gain insight into the basic economy of the Sumerian society and recognize the connection between the economics of the society and its geographical factors." Etc. So whichever category your discussion question falls under, you'd assign a grade for it & then move on to the next question.

1. Development of knowledge and cultural understanding.

1a. Historical Literacy

1b. Ethical Literacy

1c. Cultural Literacy

1d. Geographic Literacy

1e. Economic Literacy

1f. Sociopolitical Literacy

 

2. Skills of Social Participation

2a. Personal Skills

2b. Group Interaction Skills

3. Analytic & Critical Thinking Skills

3a. Analyze given information

3b. Define and clarify problems

3c. Judging information

3d. Solve problems & draw conclusions

 

4. Basic study skills

 

5. Linguistic skills

Reading

5a. Literal comprehension

5b. Critical comprehension

5c. Creative comprehension

 

Writing

5d. Functional

5e. Creative

5f. Interpretive

5g. Speaking

5h. Listening

 

For comprehension, it says "When discussing the story, ensure that the students are able to: 1) Select the main concepts. 2) Generalize from given story content."

 

Ack, okay, I probably just made that way too complicated & I'm not explaining it well! I personally look for how much they seem to have paid attention to the story as evidenced by how they answer my questions about it. I don't always bother to categorize the questions - too much work! And sometimes, to make it easier - I simply type up a worksheet for them, asking my own questions - then when everyone's done with it, we discuss it (but then I have four kids, for one or two that wouldn't be easier).

 

Here's a good basic rubric I just found for reading comprehension that would work well if you do narration. Lastly, here's another basic set of criteria I just found:

 

- Actively participates in the discussion

- Exhibits good discussion skills

- Ideas are clearly expressed with textual references

- Stays on task throughout the discussion

 

BTW, I do something completely different for language arts - grading it like I would any other subject (points off for mistakes, though I usually allow them 1 chance to make corrections). For geography, I fill in Sonlight's map & they do individual mapwork & again, it's points off for mistakes.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Well, we're using Sonlight Core 5, which has the Eastern Hemisphere Explorer as part of the curriculum. This is a unit study for the countries studied in Core 5. There are workbook style pages to do and Choose Your Adventure projects with proposed points. I grade each of these projects with the suggested point value as the target. Some projects have gotten fewer than suggested. A couple have gotten more (because the kid did far more than I think the project suggested). I could easily assign a grade to these projects.

[MamaSheep]

Here's the criteria on a "Monitoring & Assessment Matrix" that I got from a similar history curriculum. This particular curriculum was designed to be used by public middle schools, so you'll find the matrix a bit unneccessarily complicated! I use a combo of WinterPromise & Sonlight and loosely use this to assign grades for my kids - picking & choosing what I deem most important from the list.

 

While it doesn't translate exactly, it's a somewhat helpful guide. For section 1 (below) the Teacher's Guide gives very pointed discussion questions for each category. For example, one part under Geographic Literacy says, "Discuss the interaction of people and environment in modifying and changing the Sumerian landscape. Also discuss the flooding of the rivers and its effects. This should include some of the ways in which the people responded to the flooding, such as using the water for irrigation." Under Economic Literacy, "Help students, when discussing the story, to gain insight into the basic economy of the Sumerian society and recognize the connection between the economics of the society and its geographical factors." Etc. So whichever category your discussion question falls under, you'd assign a grade for it & then move on to the next question.

 

1. Development of knowledge and cultural understanding.

1a. Historical Literacy

1b. Ethical Literacy

1c. Cultural Literacy

1d. Geographic Literacy

1e. Economic Literacy

1f. Sociopolitical Literacy

 

2. Skills of Social Participation

2a. Personal Skills

2b. Group Interaction Skills

 

3. Analytic & Critical Thinking Skills

3a. Analyze given information

3b. Define and clarify problems

3c. Judging information

3d. Solve problems & draw conclusions

 

4. Basic study skills

 

5. Linguistic skills

Reading

5a. Literal comprehension

5b. Critical comprehension

5c. Creative comprehension

 

Writing

5d. Functional

5e. Creative

5f. Interpretive

5g. Speaking

5h. Listening

 

For comprehension, it says "When discussing the story, ensure that the students are able to: 1) Select the main concepts. 2) Generalize from given story content."

 

Ack, okay, I probably just made that way too complicated & I'm not explaining it well! I personally look for how much they seem to have paid attention to the story as evidenced by how they answer my questions about it. I don't always bother to categorize the questions - too much work! And sometimes, to make it easier - I simply type up a worksheet for them, asking my own questions - then when everyone's done with it, we discuss it (but then I have four kids, for one or two that wouldn't be easier).

 

Here's a good basic rubric I just found for reading comprehension that would work well if you do narration. Lastly, here's another basic set of criteria I just found:

 

- Actively participates in the discussion

- Exhibits good discussion skills

- Ideas are clearly expressed with textual references

- Stays on task throughout the discussion

 

BTW, I do something completely different for language arts - grading it like I would any other subject (points off for mistakes, though I usually allow them 1 chance to make corrections). For geography, I fill in Sonlight's map & they do individual mapwork & again, it's points off for mistakes.

 

Thank you, this definitely gives me some jumping off points.

[MamaSheep]

Well, we're using Sonlight Core 5, which has the Eastern Hemisphere Explorer as part of the curriculum. This is a unit study for the countries studied in Core 5. There are workbook style pages to do and Choose Your Adventure projects with proposed points. I grade each of these projects with the suggested point value as the target. Some projects have gotten fewer than suggested. A couple have gotten more (because the kid did far more than I think the project suggested). I could easily assign a grade to these projects.

 

This is good to know. I'm planning to use core 4, but I would guess there's something similar in it to... Maybe my problem is just that I haven't actually seen more than just the sample pages of the instructor manual. We used AAI from WP this year, and there was just really not a lot to "grade" in the traditional workbookey sense. It's actually a style that works well for ds since he has an extreme aversion to handwriting anything (I'm reasonably sure I'll be able to get him to type writing assignments next year...but it remains to be seen how much or how often. SL sounds flexible as far as that goes.) He has asked for MORE reading and LESS hands on, which is why I'm thinking SL is the way to proceed. But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself and grading will make sense in a SL context once I get the materials. It sounds like it has more in the way of lists of questions and whatnot than WP does, and if that's the case I can certainly assign points per question or something like that.

 

 

Thanks for helping me think this through.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I don't know if this is a unique feature of Core 5, since we haven't used Sonlight before. If your son is 7th grade, it would make sense to start working him toward more written responses, although you could probably make these a couple a month, depending on the project.

 

Do you know someone using Core 4 that could show you all the stuff in it?

[MamaSheep]

I don't know if this is a unique feature of Core 5, since we haven't used Sonlight before. If your son is 7th grade, it would make sense to start working him toward more written responses, although you could probably make these a couple a month, depending on the project.

 

Do you know someone using Core 4 that could show you all the stuff in it?

 

No, I don't. :( The people I "know" who use SL are all online buddies. Most of the homeschoolers I know IRL use TJEd, K12, or The Four-Year Plan.

[Colleen]

I'm planning to use core 4, but I would guess there's something similar in it to...

 

No, there's nothing similar (to the Core 5 Eastern Hemisphere Explorer) in Core 4. Also, as one who has used SL for 8+ years, I wouldn't recommend Core 4 for a 7th grader. Maybe ~ maybe ~ if the 7th grader is somewhat challenged and if s/he is studying along with a younger sibling. But generally speaking, Core 4 is very lightweight for the average 7th grader.

 

I don't know if this is a unique feature of Core 5, since we haven't used Sonlight before.

 

Yes, it's unique to Core 5. Core 5 is quite different from all other Sonlight levels in that it's essentially a series of cultural/geographic unit studies.

 

The people I "know" who use SL are all online buddies.

 

I recommend joining the Sonlight forums, since the WTM board likely won't generate a lot of feedback re SL. Sonlight's "Parents of High Schoolers" forum is a great place to research questions such as the one you've asked here.

Edited March 23, 2009 by Colleen