When I was in high school, my friend and I would stop in to visit our favorite teacher. She could always be relied upon for some good ice cream and a nice chat, and she could almost always be found sprawled out on her living room floor surrounded by quizzes. She was dedicated, and she spent hours grading. When I chose to homeschool, I never thought, "oh I hope that I can spend hours grading on the floor too". Chances are, you didn't either.
- What is grading? and
- Is it necessary?
Like most other aspects of homeschooling, your grading techniques rely on your homeschool vision. What is your homeschool vision and mission for your family? Some parents bring their children home for school to do just that, school at home. In this instance, grading seems to fit. Other parents bring their children home to be outside more. In this instance, grading may not fit.
In the classroom, grades are used to compare students to each other. For colleges and administrators to quickly survey the abilities of the students and know instantly who mastered the material more or less they need some tool to compare students. That tool is the grade.
Whether it's a four or hundred point scale or letters, grading serves a single purpose: comparison. Which leads to: 'is grading necessary'? It is if you need to compare your student with another.
If your student needs to apply for a college or have a completed transcript to graduate from high school, then your student needs grades.
Honestly, I'd rather show grades that reflect mastery. Every grade that I assign answers the question, 'did this student master the material?' Unfortunately, colleges don't know the specifics of the material I covered, and while I grade for mastery, I understand that colleges will be using my sons' grades as comparison tools.
How do you clarify what you graded and why?
- Document your home school vision and mission*
- Assemble your high school plan*
- Complete course descriptions for each course*
- Describe your grading policy*
- Grade your student's work based on your policy
- Enter grades into your student's transcript*
That's not so bad right? Lucky for you, we have document templates, examples, and tools to help you complete all of this. Find the tools you need to produce well thought out grades in our educator's toolbox.
Did you catch the answers to the questions:
- grading is a tool used to compare students.
- grading is necessary when we need to compare students quickly, ex. college applications, scholarships
*items found in our toolbox
p.s. did you notice the non necessity of grades for elementary students? I did too.