About Mrs. Cameron's Classes
Hello Parents and Students!
Practice is important, and it is recorded in the grade book, but it’s the assessments that really make up a student’s grade in my class. Students in Social Studies are being graded by their completion of the MN State Standards as they are broken up into "I Can" statements.
There is one "I Can" statement for the first assessment that students were made aware of from the first day of this unit. We processed, talked about, and gave numerous examples of this in class but it's also their first time dealing with this. Some have done great with this, but there are those who are still in the process of understanding it.
Here's a guide to help you and your child understand their scores. The scores are on a 4-point scale, but we have made it so the scores correlate to the following percentages:
4.0 = 100% Exemplary.
3.5 = 95%
3.0 = 90% Proficient, meets the standard.
2.5 = 80%
2.0 = 70% Basic understanding.
1.5 = 65%
1.0 = 50% Needs work, needs detail.
0.5 = 25%
0 is still 0% Hasn’t attempted to do at all. "M" for missing may also be listed in the gradebook, which gives a score of 0 as well.
You will only see those kinds of scores with the “I Can” statements. We will be assessing student learning with these using projects and tests. Other work like classwork, quizzes, and homework are made to prepare students for those assessments and give them a chance to try it without negatively impacting their grade. It also lets us see who is mastering it early, who is “getting it” on schedule, and who needs some more practice/teaching.
That doesn’t mean students don’t need to do those assignments or that they aren’t important. One could argue that this system makes those assignments even MORE important, but that it won’t “punish” them if they make mistakes. The good news is that it does a better job telling you, the student, and us, how they are demonstrating learning related to the standards.
Students are always made aware of the “I Can” statements ahead of time and so they see that what they are doing is important, leading them to try to prove that they have acquired that learning.
Practice is important, and it is recorded in the grade book, but it’s the assessments that really make up a student’s grade in my class. Students in Social Studies are being graded by their completion of the MN State Standards as they are broken up into "I Can" statements.
There is one "I Can" statement for the first assessment that students were made aware of from the first day of this unit. We processed, talked about, and gave numerous examples of this in class but it's also their first time dealing with this. Some have done great with this, but there are those who are still in the process of understanding it.
Here's a guide to help you and your child understand their scores. The scores are on a 4-point scale, but we have made it so the scores correlate to the following percentages:
4.0 = 100% Exemplary.
3.5 = 95%
3.0 = 90% Proficient, meets the standard.
2.5 = 80%
2.0 = 70% Basic understanding.
1.5 = 65%
1.0 = 50% Needs work, needs detail.
0.5 = 25%
0 is still 0% Hasn’t attempted to do at all. "M" for missing may also be listed in the gradebook, which gives a score of 0 as well.
You will only see those kinds of scores with the “I Can” statements. We will be assessing student learning with these using projects and tests. Other work like classwork, quizzes, and homework are made to prepare students for those assessments and give them a chance to try it without negatively impacting their grade. It also lets us see who is mastering it early, who is “getting it” on schedule, and who needs some more practice/teaching.
That doesn’t mean students don’t need to do those assignments or that they aren’t important. One could argue that this system makes those assignments even MORE important, but that it won’t “punish” them if they make mistakes. The good news is that it does a better job telling you, the student, and us, how they are demonstrating learning related to the standards.
Students are always made aware of the “I Can” statements ahead of time and so they see that what they are doing is important, leading them to try to prove that they have acquired that learning.