Grading...

My grading policy has changed so many times throughout my ~15 years of teaching.  When I started out, fresh out of college, I graded everything.  Which, in hindsight, I find incredibly silly.  I thought to myself, if the kids were doing it, they deserved to have it seen and graded.  Wiser me now says, it just needs to be acknowledged.  How I've graded homework (just homework) in the past (in chronological order)

• Collected daily and graded
• Collected daily, √, √+, √- for completion
• Homework quizzes (one random question per assignment weekly).  Students would recreate their completed homework onto a homework quiz form.  
• Have students self-grade themselves for completeness, and collect it on test/quiz days (this was for high school though).
• Collect one assignment per week at random, grade for completeness or correctness.  Whatever strikes my fancy.

Last year, I implemented a cooperative team system, where teams get participation points if they all have their homework for the day completed.  This year, in addition to their team points,  I think I will be collecting a week's worth of homework, giving a complete/incomplete (all or none) point, and grading 3 random assignments per packet at five points each, for a total of 20 points.  There will be a template that they'll get on Monday, and turn in on Friday.  Here's to hope and cheers to change.

Standards-Based Grading.

My previous school insisted on standards-based grading, and resubmissions were the school norm.  They believed in standards-based grading so much that their online grading system only allowed teachers to input grades by standard.  It was brilliant, and made sense to the teachers and students.

I've been reflecting on how to handle students' resubmission of work at my new school.  It's a traditional, large-district middle school.  I've been meaning to do something similar to what my previous school had, within the parameters that I'm given.  So far, not too many students take me up on the offer (not at the systemized, large-scale that APEX did, at least), but for those that do, I would like for them to think about their learning process and what they've done to remediate.  I don't want them to waste their time, or most importantly, mine.  Telling the students that they can only submit an assignment three times total helps.  I grade in three different colors, first in green, then in purple, then in red.  Once they hit red, the assignment is done.  No excuses.

The problem is, there are still students who will resubmit an assignment cold.  I really liked Sarah Hagan's "Request to Retest", so I reformatted hers so it matched the rest of my classroom forms.