September 6, 2007

Grading Tapestry of Grace

I feel like all I have been doing this week is sitting in front of my computer going over  assignments and scheduling schoolwork. Well, I guess that's probably because that is about all I've been doing this week.

A couple of my children asked for grades at the end of last year, so I decided I would try to figure out how I want to grade different subjects in Tapestry of Grace. This will be good practice for me for next year, when Nathan begins high school, so I am working hard at it. I know it will be much easier for me to assign credits next year if I "practice" it this year (weird, I know, but that's how I work best). I looked over the high school credit chart for TOG Year 2 to guide my "courses" for the year. I use Homeschool Tracker Plus, which is wonderful! I decided to enter lesson plans for each course because I can reuse them each year. This isn't a big deal for lower and upper grammar, but I know it will be helpful to have lesson plans already available for my future dialectic level students.

I decided on a point system for various activities (the points are pretty arbitrary - I just wanted to start somewhere). I'm not doing any weighted grading right now. Each student will earn points for activities, and grades will be determined by total number of points earned divided by total number of points possible for each course. I am including my point system, but I am an amateur at this grading stuff - I welcome input. I linked to the sample pages from TOG's Ancient Egypt Mini-Unit if anyone is interested.

History (history readings, discussion, timeline, map work)
• 20 points for each weekly history reading assignment
• 10 points for each accountability & thinking question - dialectic level only (some will be written and some will be oral - # of questions vary weekly - these are found in the dialectic and rhetoric levels of the student activity pages)
• 50 points for history discussion - dialectic students only (points earned to be determined by preparation, participation and attitude - also found in the student activity pages - the teacher's notes include the discussion outline guide for me)
• 50 points for map work (scheduled map work by level is found in the student activity pages)
• 25 points for timeline work - dialectic students only (dates are found in the weekly overview)
• 25-50 points for group supplements when scheduled (This Far By Faith Vol. I, What in the World's Going on Here Part 2, That's Why They Call it Grace)

English (literature reading, literature worksheet, grammar, spelling, vocabulary and writing)

• 50 points for the weekly literature reading assignment
• 10 points for each question on the literature worksheet (these are found in the student activity pages - high students advance to literary analysis instead of worksheets, so this will be graded differently next year)
• 20 points for each grammar page done during the week - these will be scheduled as needed for writing assignments (from Easy Grammar)
• 50 points for weekly copywork, dictation, spelling or vocabulary work (copywork for Kathryn, Spelling Wisdom and dictation for Allyson & Jordan, Wordly Wise for Nathan)
• points for writing will be determined for individual writing assignments (I do have WritingAids, and I love it)

Church History (Year 2)

• 50 points for the weekly reading assignment
• 25 points for group discussion

Fine Arts

• 50 points for each weekly reading assignment
• 50 points for hands-on activity

That covers the basics for Tapestry of Grace subjects this year. I welcome any input on grading, as this is new to me. I am guessing that it will change as the year progresses. Hopefully, I'll have it pretty much mastered by next year.

Please note that many Tapestry of Grace links on my blog go through my Lampstand Affiliate link. I get credit for some purchases referred through my links. My affiliate username is andijean (case sensitive). Please consider giving me credit if you purchase TOG curriculum. If you are interested in TOG's Affiliate program, go here to learn more.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Andrea...
    I am looking in TOG and one of my concerns was how to assign grades. How is this working for you? Would love some personal feedback. I too have used HST Plus but just recently switched to HST online. Did you make your Lesson plans publicly accessible on the site?

    duzerfamily@gmail.com

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  2. Thanks for your comment. The grading worked well when I used it. With HST, it was fairly easy to schedule assignments, assign points, and then enter the points earned for each child. The lesson plans aren't available online because of copyright infringements.

    I'm sorry to say that I really didn't stick with the grading system that year. :-) I did use it in subsequent years with fewer divisions of points now, such as combining reading and discussions.

    At the time this post was written, I was only grading my two boys, who were doing the Dialectic level of TOG. I made one lesson plan entitled TOG Y2 Dialectic in HST and entered everything for the first quarter into that lesson plan. I made separate assignments for mapwork, reading assignments, questions, discussions, etc. That part was kind of cumbersome, but it was nice once it was finished. I used the repeated copy (36 copies) for anything that had the same resource and filled in the details later.

    I tend to prefer more of a Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling, and I ended up making quite a few adjustments when my oldest got into high school the following year. I believe we used TOG for about 6-7 years with more adjustments as we progressed. The blog post you read was written at the beginning of our third year using the program. I really tried to do way too much academically that year.

    I sent you an e-mail with more details, but I thought I should comment here in case anyone else has questions.

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