I was going to write the same thing about not giving
lower grades for motor skills and so I'm glad to know
that I'm not alone in my opinion. I work with a S
(Satisfactory) N (needs improvement) and U
(unsatisfactory) grading system and I rarely grade the
actual work, but I have given N's for
non-participation and/or totally unruly behavior.
I teach in a very poor rural area where many of my
students have at least one parent in jail - mostly
drugs (the kind you can make in your bathtub) and
many of these children have severe emotional problems
- one child ( a 2nd grade boy) will run away from me
when I ask him why he's not working and then curls up
in a ball by the front door refusing to speak for the
rest of the class period. He might be bi-polar but
hasn't been diagnosed yet. This kid has an S in my
class, but the ones who are wild and don't respect art
supplies or anyone in the room get N's.
I haven't been grading much of the work simply because
it seemed impossible to keep track of everything - I
see about 700 kids per week. I love some of the ideas
that were suggested - the seating chart with boxes for
grades sounds really good - but I often move seats to
try to cut down on the noise factor and so I REALLY
love the idea that someone had with the clear
protectors and wash off markers - I'm going to
implement that this week. I think I'll just make
copies every week before I erase them and then I won't
even have to copy them over to a grade book.
I'm so glad that someone brought this topic up!
chris massingill
Central Arkansas
--- Woody Duncan <woodyduncan@comcast.net> wrote:
> M. Austin wrote:
> > We use O (Outstanding), S (Satisfactory), I
> (Improvement Shown), N
> > (Needs Improvement). The N's are good for helping
> diagnose those
> > children who are developmentally delayed, have
> learning disabilities,
> > etc. And the I shows that the student is making
> progress, but still not
> > performing at grade level.
>
> Michal,
> I have one concern with your districts 4 part grade
> system. While
> I have no problem giving a 2nd grader an "N" for
> lack of participation
> or fooling around, I would hate to give that mark to
> a child who has
> learning disabilities or who is developmentally
> delayed. If the child
> is doing the best they can I would prefer a grade of
> "S". If we spot
> children who need intervention we can refer them for
> evaluation rather
> than using grades as an identifier. On a students
> IDP, I always indicate
> if the grade given was based any special criteria or
> on my normal
> grading system. Our IDP forms usually had a box to
> check indicating
> this. All in all I find the 4 level grading much
> better than just
> S or N.
> Woody
>
> --
> Woody, Retired in Albuquerque
> mailto:woodyduncan@comcast.net
>
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