Many new
homeschoolers want to know how they should decide on what grades to
award their children. There are many different schools of thought
on this subject. While there is certainly a place in a school
setting for grading, is there a place for grading in a home
setting? In a school setting, how else would one teacher for every
20 or so children be able to assess what their students do and do
not understand? In
homeschooling, you have 24/7 contact with your child, and no one
knows better than you how your child is progressing.
Some parents choose to stick to
a more traditional approach to grading. Some parents believe that homeschooling is
about knowledge and not about a letter grade and do not grade their
students at all and concentrate more on making sure their child
knows the material thoroughly. Whatever your school of thought is
on this subject, there is no right or wrong answer to this
question. It is simply a matter of opinion.
The following information is for those who choose to
award grades:
What kind of grades
should you award?
Some
parents choose to grade simply by using a pass/fail system.
Some parents choose to award letter grades such as those awarded in
a school system. Usually a letter grade is awarded on the following
scale or something similar:
A 90 - 100
B 80 - 89
C 70 -79
D 60 - 69
F 59 or below
How do you get these
grades?
You can
determine grades by effort, written seat work, tests, worksheets,
projects, oral recitation, time spent, or any combination of these
as you see fitting.
How do you
find a letter/number grade average?
Simply divide the number of problems correct by the total number of
problems. For example, if the page has 14 problems and your child
got 12 correct, divide 12 by 14 to get .857 or
86%.
You would get a final grade using the same method. Simply add
together all of your grades from tests, worksheets, and projects
and divide by the total number possible. This will give you the
final grade.
That's
all there is to it! I hope this info helps!