Should we Give Grades to Our Middle and High School Homeschooled Kids

It made perfect sense to me because I was modeling a public school by grading papers.  I thought grades were needed then. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips

My thinking has changed and been tweaked quite a bit since my start up in homeschooling.

I had to rethink the whole purpose of grades and grading. Why was I just following what public school did?

Who were the grades for anyway?

Homeschool Grading versus Homeschool Grades.

Mr. Senior 2013 was wanting some way to measure his understanding of the papers and that is very normal.

Too, he wanted my approval and to know that he was doing things correct.  Again, that makes sense and it is a natural way to make progress.

Taking a closer look at my feelings and experience so far, I understood then that there is a fine, but significant difference between grading and giving a grade.  The two concepts have to be separated.

For example, in elementary grades, I would mark the papers with how many answers were correct.

If there were 20 math questions, and Mr. Senior 2013 got 3 wrong, I would mark 17/20. He would know he got 3 wrong and would look to correct those answers.

This method very much satisfied his need for wanting to be sure things were right and gave us an informal way of grading.

Too, it fit the purpose of what I think grading is all about in the early grades, which is making progress and having quality work.

When the boys started the middle school years, grades became more important.

They were interested in how they measured up against others who were doing the same thing.

As homeschool parents we know we are not comparing our kids to each other, but kids want to know how they would measure up in a formal setting to others their same age.

Realizing too that if I wanted to start seeing more independence at this age, my sons needed some way to chart what they knew versus what needed to be improved.

I came up with yet another system during the middle school time.

I just graded math, quizzes, tests and essays.

This system was not only doable, but it gave my boys something to measure by so they could improve their skills. At this point, they wanted a letter grade.

Too, I realized there was no need to give grades daily because I expected them to check their work each day against the teacher’s manual.

The quizzes, tests, reviews and essays were all done without the answers keys or teacher’s manual. Too, I do oral evaluations with them and this is part of my grading system.

This is much like narration. If they can’t tell me back what they know without looking in the book did they really learn it?

As the high school years crept in, I had to think again about the importance of letter grades because high school is a time to prepare my kids for more formal learning.

After wrestling with many different systems, when the boys entered high school, grade keeping was easier but still needed to be finely tuned.

When Mr. Senior 2013 entered high school, I started off grading all assignments. It made me flash back to my early days of grading in elementary school.

Soon, I realized that there was no way I could keep this pace up as I had other children to teach and I realize it was my fear of homeschooling high school that made me go a bit overboard.

Again, I had to rethink why I was grading each day.  I knew high school was the important stage to keep grades for his transcript, but again, I had to come up with another system.

I started grading weekly instead of daily for three reasons:

• It saved time because there was no need to grade daily work that he was learning;
• It gave me a better look at what he was doing for the week by glancing at it for a week because then I was able to judge mastery more critically; and
• It was a much better and simpler way to record keep in high school when I only had 4 grades (4 weeks) to average and give him a grade for the month instead of 30 grades (30 days).

Pretty easy uh?

When homeschooling high school, you don’t want record keeping or grading to get away from you and I have learned it is much better to keep up with as you plod along.

I know some homeschoolers who scrambled for grades for their high schooler at the end of four years, but I can’t imagine that would be easier or even accurate.

The key is developing a system for the needs of your kids, your needs and what your children will need in the future.

How to Reassess A Homeschool Grading System EACH Year.

Look at these questions that will help you determine an easy system for charting progress at whatever level you are at in your homeschool journey.

1.  At this time do I just need grading or grades?
2. After my child has had time to decompress from being at public school, is he the the type of child that needs some feedback? If he needs feedback, what form is best for him? According to his age, will a smiley face suffice? Will an E for Excellent, S for Satisfied and N for Needs improvement be sufficient? Does he need a letter grade for accurate measuring?
3. What is my reason for grades?
4. Do I want to reward for good grades or just expect my kids to do their best?
5. How do my children view grades? Do they stress out on a quiz or test knowing that I will grade it?
6. Do my kids understand that there is no way we can accurately gauge everything we know but that grades are measuring sticks only?

What do you give grades for in homeschool and in which grade do you start keeping grades?

Hugs and love ya,