Grades, Scores, and Percentages Clarification

Greetings!

I've had an e-mail from a parent with a great question about the percentages and scores. I would guess that some of you have the same or similar question, so I thought I would do my best to clarify how the scores and percentages are figured.

For the past two years I've been using Engrade, an online grade book.  With this program, I can assign a category to each assignment, for example, Writing, Literature, Grammar, Assignments (in-class work.)  Engrade figures percentages for total scores and for scores within each of these categories. 

However, the four categories used for Writing 1 and Writing 2 did not have the same number of assignments, so a straight averaging of the scores does not give an accurate total percentage/grade.  For example, the Assignments category had 19 scores, and 17 of them were small, 5-point Quick Writes.  Writing section had fewer assignments, but the scores were higher per assignment.

Though the categories are not exactly even, I feel that dividing the scores like this is helpful because it helps parent, students, and teacher have a better picture of the work done in the semester.  For example, if a student scores 100% on this Assignments section, I know that he showed up and participated well in class.  A low score in the Literature section is most likely a sign of a significant number of missing assignments.  Likewise, a low score in grammar could be because assignments were not handed in, or it could be a lack of knowledge in this area. As it is with all homework assignments for any subject area, the scores reflect a mix of quantity and quality. 

I hope I haven't further confused the grading for this class.  Working with students to help them develop into first-rate thinkers and writers is my  primary goal.  Points, scores, percentages, and grades are only small parts in the learning process.

Have a very Merry Christmas!  My house is filling up with family; it's loud, active, and completely delightful! 

Be blessed,

Tammy Prichard

Thoughts about Grades

Dear CHAT Writing 2 Students & Parents,

I've just finished calculating the grades for this first semester, and you should find them in your inbox.  As tutors, these are suggested grades for you as homeschooling families to consider.

For those who are new to my classes, let me share my thoughts on grades.  As I homeschooled, I didn't give my children grades.  I felt that grades were far too subjective.  I taught my own children for mastery.  We didn't proceed with a topic until they were ready no matter how long that took. 

Letter grades are a funny thing.  For some students, it becomes the only motivation for doing well.  For some, it becomes a measure of their worth as a person or as an academic learner.  I personally don't like these "side effects" of the grading system.  On the other hand, grades can be a valid reward for working hard, being diligent, and understanding the materials.

When teaching students to be good writers, I give a lot of consideration for growth and improvement. Each student has a starting place; over time I look for him or her to learn the mechanics of grammar, good writing techniques, and analytical thinking skills.

For this class, I gave points for attendance, participation, short assignments and longer essays.  We did a few grammar exercises and a “quiz.”  I tend to be an "easy grader" and like to see my students encouraged to do their best.

Each student (and parents) has received an e-mail with percentages and suggested grades for this semester.   As I mentioned in the e-mail, the writing portion of the class is of primary importance.  I’ve seen each student improve with each paper.  Good Work!

Blessings,

Tammy Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 11)

Greetings!

Our last day of the semester!  We’ve done some great reading and writing as a class these past 15 weeks.

Our Quick Write, meant as a reflection on our work, answered two questions:  1) What did you learn this semester? and 2) What would you like/need to learn?  We had a great discussion as I heard answers from the students.  With this great group of students, I’m looking forward to working with them next semester as they learn more about writing style, grammar, and literature.

I had two “reader’s theater” opportunities for the class.  One was a Book-A-Minute version of AChristmas Carol, and the other was The Twelve Days of Christmas Vacation. 

Our final activity for the day was a Progressive Story exercise.  Below are instruction used for this game/writing activity: 

Pass around stories. Write three lines of notebook paper's worth of a story. Fold back the top two lines and pass to the right. (The next person can only see the last line). The next person continues the story with three additional lines and folds back the paper to leave the bottom line only. Each student begins a story so everyone is writing the whole time. When the student's story returns to themselves, they write a closing line (looking only at the last line written.). Then read the stories aloud. Most are quite funny.

Finally, the students handed in their Final Drafts of their Comparison/Contrast Essays along with any remaining homework.  I will go through the Final Drafts and hand everything back when we meet again in January.  Once I’ve graded the essays, I will send out grades to students and parents.  You’ll hear more from me and what I think of grades.

This week's blog

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Word of the Day -- Final Test

A.       Match the words from the Words of the Day list with its synonyms.

Hinder

Impious

Dolorous

Blatherskite

Malediction

Emaciated

Folderol

Timorous

Varlet

Gibberish

Fearful

Curse

Sorrowful

Puny

Wicked

Servant

Delay

Chatterbox

B.       Circle the correct answer to complete the sentence

1.        A sumptuous meal is  

a.       a scanty affair

b.       a specialty diet

c.        costly and rich

d.       a religious tradition

2.        An ambuscade  is

a.       a noodle dish with fruit

b.       an ambush

c.        an Austrian military personnel

d.       seasoned potato fritters

3.        An example of a mild oath or exclamation:   

a.       Objurgate!

b.       Usufruct!

c.        Vesuvius!

d.       Odsbodikins!

4.       If you are incognito,

a.       your presence is announced

b.       your true identity is kept secret

c.        your mother is traveling with you

d.       you make people sneeze

5.       A gossamer cloth is

a.       thin and airy

b.       camouflaged

c.        on sale

d.       made of metal

6.       A sabot is put on a person’s

a.       finger

b.       foot

c.        legs

d.       shoulders

7.       A cook will put this kind of sauce on his Eggs Benedict

a.       Hoi Polloi

b.       Gimcrack     

c.        Hollandaise

d.       Scrofulous    

8.       An inordinately greedy person is

a.       rapacious

b.       charitable

c.        benevolent

d.       obtuse

C.      Fill in the blank with the missing words of the sentence.

1.        A person who has told a short story or account has told a  _______________.

2.       A person who has become rigid and inflexible in her attitude has become _____________________.

3.       His parents were shocked at the ____________________ of his grades due to his extremely low scores.

4.       She was ________________ and didn’t believe the alien’s story.

5.       They celebrated their team’s victory with many exuberant ______________________.

Anecdote               Ossifying               Declivity                Dubious Shindies

D.       True or False

________  1.  A gulag is a castle for an African prince. 

________  2.  When a cowboy says “Howdy Hombre,” he’s talking to his horse.

________  3.  Raj is a Hindi title for rulership.

________  4.  A person who has a swag of possessions lives in poverty.

________  5.  A Crusader was a fighter who was part of the crusades in the early Middle Ages.

E.       Match the words with their word origins.

Alacrity

Picket

Objurgate

Swag

Hoc loco

Augmentation

Sepulchral

Latin, augmentare, to increase

Latin sepilire, to bury

French piquet, pointed staff

Norwegian , svagga to sway, rock 

Latin. alacritas, lively

Latin, objugare, to reproach

Latin, hoc loco, in this place

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (December 4)

Greetings!

This week's class was a word-focused time, which shouldn't be surprising since this is a writing class.  Our Quick Write for the day was spent coming up with sentences for contronyms, or Janus words.  (See this link for 75 Contronyms)  These are words that have opposite meanings.  Or, in other words, are their own antonyms.  For example, to clip something means to connect (as with a paper clip) and to separate (as in clipping the hedges.)  Or garnish means to add (as with food preparation) or to take away (as in garnishing wages.)  The students were to write sentences using both meanings of a contronym.

As was promised, this week we had our Word of the Day quiz/test.  I intentionally did not make it a hard test.  If I were testing specific vocabulary for a content area, the test would have been more difficult since knowing the vocabulary for a subject area is significant in understanding the subject.  Having our weekly Words of the Day, on the other hand, was intended to show that words are interesting and fun.  Expanding the students's vocabulary and, as on said, their horizons.  Therefore, the quiz was fairly easy.

I handed back the rough drafts of their Comparison/Contrast essays.  My general practice is to discuss common writing and grammar mistakes that were in the papers.  I changed it up a bit this time.  I divided the class into 5 groups in order to discuss their papers in a small group and to look for themselves to find common mistakes.  They then came up to the white board and wrote what they felt were the top 5 mistakes/errors.  Using their lists, I covered some points of writing and grammar for them to consider when correcting and revising their papers.

The Final Drafts of their essays are due next week.  When they hand in their final draft, along with the rough draft, I would also like them to include either at the bottom of their final draft or on a separate piece of paper the following information:  1) the thesis statement, and 2) their top 3 mistakes.

Their only other homework for next week is to brainstorm their answers to these questions:

1.  What have I learned this semester about writing?

2.  How would I like to see my writing improve?

These questions will be the subject of our Quick Write next week.

I usually take the final week of this first semester to do some fun "stuff." I'll bring some Christmas cookies, and students may bring any treats if they want.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Final Draft of the Comparison/Contrast essay

-- Thesis statement and list of Top 3 Mistakes

-- Brainstorm about what you've learned and how you'd like to improve

-- Christmas treats (optional)

This week's links:

Class Notes

Word of the Day "Test"

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Fall Semester Vocabulary Words

Week	Word	Root	Definition
Week 2	Hinder	fr. Old English hindrian to hold back	to pause or interrupt
	Timorous	fr.  Latin, timor, fear	fearful, timid
	Malediction	fr.  Latin male-, evil + dictus, spoken/said	a curse, imprecation
	Odsbodikins	Origin unknown	a mild oath, exclamation
Week 3	Blatherskite	fr. a 1650 Scottish song	a person given talking too much nonsense and empty talk
	Objurgate	fr. L, objugare, to reproach	to denounce or scold harshly
	Swag	fr. Norwegian , svagga to sway, rock)	a large number, amount, or variety
	Anecdote	fr. Greek, anekdota, to give out, publish	a short story or account of an event
Week 4	Usufruct	fr. Latin usus, use, n + fructus, fruit,n	the right to enjoy the use of something that belongs to someone
	Undulatory	fr. undulatus, wave	having the appearance or effect of waves
	Vesuvius		the volcano in SW Italy the erupted and destroyed Pompeii
	Rapacious	fr. Latin rapere, to seize	inordinately greedy
Week 5	Ossifying	fr. Latin, ossis, bone	to become rigid or inflexible in habits, opinions, attitudes, etc.
	Declivity	fr. Latin, de + clivitas, down + slope	a downward slope, as of ground
	Dolorous	fr. Latin, dolor, grief, pain	feeling or expressing great sorrow, pain or distress
	Impious	fr. Latin impius, without reverence	not pious or religious, lacking reverence for God
Week 6	Incognito	fr. Latin in + cognoscere, to	with your true identity kept secret
	Scrofulous	fr. Latin scrofula, the lymph glands, a tuberculosis of the lymph glands	having a diseased, run-down appearance
	Slovenliness	fr. ME sloveyn, careless	careless, loose, disorderly
Week 7	Varlet	fr. ME, valette, fr. OF vaslet, valet, fr LL. vassellitus, vassal, slave	a menial servant
	Emaciated	fr. L. emaciatus, wasted away	thin, puny, gaunt, haggard
	Alacrity	fr. L. alacritas, lively	cheerful readiness, prompt, eager
Week 8	Augmentation	fr. Latin, augmentare, to increase	to make larger, enlarge in size, number, strength
	Dubious	fr. Latin dubius; wavering	doubtful
	Sumptuousness	fr. Latin, sumptus, expensiveness	costly, rich, or luxurious
	Gimcrack	origin unknown	a showy, useless trifle
Week 9	Sepulchral	fr. Latin sepilire, to bury	N.  a tomb; Adj. gloomy, dismal
	Gossamer	fr. ME gosesomer, referring to late autumn	a fine, filmy cobweb; a thin airy fabric
	Folderol	late 17th century nonsense refrain in a song	mere nonsense, foolish talk; gimcrack, gew-gaw
	Clandestine	fr. Latin, clandestinus, secretly	characterized by secrecy and concealment
Week 10	Shindies	origin unknown	a row, noisy party of people, shindig
	Ambuscade	fr. M. French, embuscade, ambush	an ambush
	Crusader	fr. Latin crux, cross	a fighter, normally someone who was a part of the crusades held by Christians in the early Middle Ages
	Picket	fr. French piquet, fr. M. English pik, pointed staff	a post or stake
Week 12	Hoc loco	fr. Latin, hoc loco, in this place	In this place
	Hoi polloi	fr. Greek, hoi polloi, the many	the general populace
	Hollandaise	fr. French, hollandaise, Dutch sauce	a rich sauce of butter, eggs, lemon sauce, and vinegar/wine
	Hombre	fr. Spanish, hombre, man; Latin homo, man	man, fellow, guy
Week 13	Gulag	Russian; an acronym from  Glavnoe upravlenieispravitel'no trudovykh lagerei; the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps	a systems of labor camps in the Soviet Union
	Raj	fr. Hindu; raj, rule	a title for rulership
	Sabot	fr, French, cabot, old shoe	a traditional wooden shoe