I am a firm believer in only doing work that will help, and not hinder, my students. I will be assigning homework from time to time, but it will be graded on whether it was completed or not instead of if it is correct or not. The purpose of homework is to continue practicing what was learned in class so that the concept can become more concrete to the students. I will go over anything and everything that I assign, because I want my students to have the opportunity to ask me questions that may not have come up in class when the lesson was being taught, but may have as they were doing the homework. This will allow me to see if everyone fully understood what was being taught, and if it seems to me that there is any confusion, I will spend more class time working with the class before moving on. I will not give your child “busywork,” and I will try my best to not have homework over the weekend.
All of the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers have decided to follow the same basic outline for grading, because it goes along with how your student will be graded in both middle and high school.
A- 90-100%
B- 80-89%
C- 70-79%
D- 60-69%
F- 0-59%
I believe that a child should be graded on more than just how they do on homework, quizzes, and tests, which is why I will also be giving each student a participation grade. These should be easy points to earn, as long as the student is actively listening, working with his/ her classmates when appropriate (such as when we do shared reading), and participating in class discussions. These points are meant to encourage being a member of our classroom team, and I am sure encouragement from home will only help your child as well.
I know that it is always helpful to be able to track your student’s progress and monitor his/ her grades, which is why I will be utilizing the website: www.mygradebook.com. This will allow me to enter in all of the assignments that we will be doing, and it will show you your child’s current grade. I will give each student a username and password in class by the end of this week. I think this website will help everyone, because it will show you the assignments that have and have not been turned in to me, so we will be on the same page when it comes to knowing what can be done to help your child. I will make it my priority to enter in each assignment as soon as possible after I give it to your child. If there are ever any problems with the website, or if you want to talk about a certain assignment or grade please do not hesitate to call or e-mail me, or we can set up a time for us to talk in person before or after school.