Grading Breakdown

Hey everyone,
I am wondering what kind of grading Breakdown you all use for your courses. So Far I have a Classwork/Homework/Journal Category and a Test/Quizzes/Project Category. Should I separate these more? What percentages should I give to each category? Am I missing anything?

I was also thinking of doing a Practice Explore as a Midterm. What do you guys think? Do you give midterms and finals? I might not officially count it as a midterm but have them do it during midterm time and count it as its own grading category.

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@lcescocancian Thanks for posting this question. This is a topic that lots of teachers inquire about. For my classroom the percentages are determined by my School Board. I recommend following the weighting your administration suggests. Your categories are fine and many teacher use a practice explore as a Mid-term. You can use one of the unit assessments as a midterm and Unit 5 chapter 3 Assessment as a Final Exam. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Hi @lcescocancian,

Here’s a bit about the grading system I’ve used (as it pertains to standards/mastery-based grading): Grading Policies / Creating Student Grades

My categories were similar to yours. I think it’s fine to keep them lumped together like you’re currently doing unless there’s a compelling reason to break them down more. Keeping them lumped allows you a bit more flexibility. When you start getting a feel for how things are working out, then you’ll likely feel more comfortable breaking down the categories more.

As for percentages, I think that’s more dependent on factors such as school/district policy like Terence mentioned, and your own grading philosophy.

I think I’ve heard of other teachers giving a practice Explore as a midterm or final assessment. I used the Unit 3 project (digital scene) as my first semester final project.

Your breakdown makes sense to me! I could also see a little more granular:

  • Activities/Classwork
  • Journal/Writing
  • Assessments
  • Projects

This would break the classwork and journals up a little because the AP is focused a little more on writing, so you could create a category that is specific to writing feedback. Breaking up Assessments and Projects gives separate categories for feedback on performance task style things and multiple choice style. Realistically though, as long as you’re giving feedback on the individual item you probably don’t need to break up the categories. I agree with Frank that its helpful to get weights from your school. That will help balance the day to day with assessments in a similar fashion to other classes students take.