How do you, as a teacher, weigh grades?

Question

What do you have your weights set for?

Answer 1

I have begun to only grade items I truly feel reflect the student's knowledge and ability. If the work is practice, and in all actuality a formative assessment, I don't feel it should be reflected in their grade.

I teach biology so my grades are based on labs (performance assessments), exams and quizzes, science journal entries, and projects. Formative work is for learning; I correct it and provide feedback or we go over it in class. My final grades are comprised of summative forms of assessment that address various learning styles.

Labs 30
Tests and Quizzes 30
Projects 30
Journal 10

Answer 2

I'm a 2nd language HS teacher. I operated on a "total pts" system until five years ago, a year after the advent of our district's online grading program. Some students quickly figured out that, with total points, they could "opt out" of a project and still maintain the same letter grade if everything else was done. Since then, I've set up the following weighed categories:

15% Classwork
35% Tests & quizzes
20% Class participation (speaking in the target language)
15% Projects
15% Homework (includes online practice on the publisher site and at quia.com)

I tweak the scale a little for the upper levels who also do journaling in the language, as well as more speaking.
BTW, I instituted weighed grades because each component is important in learning a language, not as a punitive measure.

Answer 3

I have three categories:

1. Major grades (test, essays, projects, presentations) ~ 70%
2. Class work ~ 15%
3. Homework ~15%

I do not think homework should be more than 15% and here is why...

Homework, if done correctly, should be a failry short assignment designed to reinforce something that has ALREADY been taught. Homework should NOT be used to teach new material (it is not a correspondence course :) )

Also, every student's home life is different...the playing field is not level. Granted that is not a valid excuse for not doing the homework, but certainly something to keep in mind.

And, it is often difficult to determine who the student is doing the homework with or if they are simply copying answers from a buddy.

Therefore, if homeowrk is used to reinforce previously taught material and since you can't control the student's homework environment, I think it is important to keep the homework weight at or below 15%

--Adam

Answer 4

I simply have three categories. Tests, classwork and homework.

I sometimes add a fourth category if students have a large project. classwork is defined as anything we start in class - so lab reports, writing, warmups...etc

I only rate homework as ten percent. My thinking on this is....what grade does a child deserve if they do not do their homework? I struggle with this.. so what I did is set it so that a student who does not do homework drops one grade. This seems to work perfectly, for the most part my students complete their homework. But it really pushes the students who are earning just average grades, if they do not complete it, they are now "D" students.

I split the other categories evenly, or in the case of a project set that at the amount of time we spent on it relative to the semester.

I consider changing this every year, but I still have not heard from other teachers justification as to why I should fail a student because they did not finish homework. If it is that important, why are we not spending class time to work on it>?

debateable im sure, I look forward to reading the other teachers comments.

Answer 5

Don't weigh grades. It is very unfair to the student. If you do your Honor student might start failing and all because of the a couple weighed assignments. I think all assignments should be equal

Answer 6

I teach elementary school, and I don't do a lot of weighting. I generally only grade assignments that I feel are assessing what has been taught, which is why I don't weigh the grades much.

Answer 7

I weigh grades differently depending on the subject. In math, I weigh homework at 50% because a large portion of their work is done as homework. * I only rate homework on a rubric. (0- undone 1- Late/poor 2-Satisfactory 3-Excellent) Test and quizzes count equally in math. (50%)
Lang Arts - 25% homework 25% participation in seminars/discussions 50% Papers and quizzes.
Science Social Studies - Straight Averages.

Answer 8

I simply work on a "total points" system. Each assignment is given a point value based on the effort needed to do well on it (ie, a quick journal assignment may be 10 pts and a research paper may come out to 200 pts). That way my students know that everything they do counts and it is easy for them to keep track of their own grades.

I keep wanting to change this though. This is a great question and I look forward to reading the other answers.

Answer 9

25% Overall attitude, teamwork & Desire
10% Class Testing
15% Class Presentation
20% Projects
20% Classwork
10% Homework

Whithin each level there are smaller levels you can make up. Be consistant.