We know that one of the biggest transitions your child will face this year is receiving letter grades for the first time. We hope to make the grading process as transparent, informative, and painless as possible!We believe that all students can succeed, with effective effort on their part and appropriate support from us. To that end, we focus the first quarter on learning what effective effort is, and building the academic skills students will need to succeed in middle school. Although your student will receive letter grades on some assignments this quarter, the first term progress report will be a "Development Report," evaluating mastery of essential academic skills. Students will be assessed as "Proficient" or "Still Working" in these four areas:
- Work Habits: Stays on-task, completes work and uses class time wisely.
- Organization/Preparedness: Brings required materials to class, meets team expectations for binder/folder organization, uses assignment notebook, follows established classroom routines, such as locker times and bathroom procedures.
- Homework completion: Completes homework assignments on time, with care.
- Conduct: Shows respect and kindness to teachers and peers.
Students will receive a report card with letter grades at the end of term 1. For terms 2, 3, and 4, students will receive traditional letter grades on both progress reports and end-of-term report cards.
What do letter grades mean, anyway?
A grade on an assignment is a snapshot in time of what the student knows and is able to do on a particular topic. It lets students and teachers know how much of the material the student has mastered, and where there is room for improvement.Specifically, the letter grades indicate:
A: The student went above and beyond -- showed great care and detail, original thinking, and/or creativity beyond the requirements of the assignment.
B, C: The student is Proficient --answered many questions correctly and met all, or most of, the requirements of the assignment. They did most of the work independently, but needed some support from the teacher.
C- and below: The student is Still Working -- may have answered some questions correctly and met some of the requirements, but is not yet able to complete the work with accuracy and independence.
