Today, I’m showing you how to grade a homeschool unit study for an older child. Also, look at my free Homeschool Planner page for more forms.
I didn’t choose to do homeschool unit studies because I felt I was creative or liked flying by the seat of pants.
What I do like about homeschool unit studies is the unbridled time for learning topics that interests my kids. Later on I would learn that is called mastery learning.
Choosing to move away from laid out curriculum to mastery learning can bring a unique set of challenges for an older child.
And doing homeschool unit studies, with an older child looks very different than the themed learning I did with my boys in prek and Kindergarten. That is another topic to tell you about.
Today, I am sharing with you what I have been working on for several months; it is a unit study assessment for an older child and it works for high school too.
Grade a Homeschool Unit Study
I wished I have done it sooner, but you know I’m always slow about my homeschool forms because I need them to work.
It took me a while to wrap my mind around how to do an assessment as I was writing my notes for my older two sons.
The bottom line is that I won’t give up our passion for mastery learning so that I can put grades on a transcript.
However, knowing in high school, that you do need more conformity, I created my own unique assessment.
Now with son number three, I have been able to put on one page what I’m looking for when doing a unit study with an older child, even a high school teen.
Let’s just face it, too. There is a lot out there for younger kids, but not a lot of specifics for older kids.
And because I deal in specifics and know generalities won’t help you or me either one, I prepared a detailed unit study assessment.
3 Smart Tips for Assessing Work for an Older Student
I will share the specifics about the assessment in a minute, but look at these other ways to record keep, grade and assess.
- Keep in mind this is mastery learning or project-oriented type of learning. Think about assessing each part of the unit study using general marks like Distinguished, Satisfactory and Fair. Don’t get hung up on grades during the year because you can still assess one at the end of the year or unit study.
- When it comes to language arts use a simple column method. I listed books and other sources my kids read, topics they wrote about and things they learned in grammar. Those things fall easily under the category of English in high school. I gave an assessment on those areas like Distinguished, Satisfactory and Fair when I graded them, but on the transcript I made them an A or B. We followed different writing programs through the years and I used the concepts they were teaching, but took the topics from the current unit study. Having a few teacher’s notes from the writing program gave me guidance on grading their writing, but I didn’t let it consume me.
- Also,I wrote down the subtopics we studied. Even though we don’t have to record keep in Texas, I wanted to keep them for high school. However, if you’re in a an area that requires record keeping, then writing down what you have done is a perfectly acceptable way to show progress.
Another reason to record keep is that normally an older child needs feedback. I wanted my sons to know what I thought of their work.
It’s not only important to self-evaluate for an older child, but they need to learn how to handle feedback from me. This is part of adult life when others evaluate you.
About this DETAILED Unit Study Assessment
Look at how I created this unit study assessment, which can be used for an older child or high school.
- It is a general evaluation of mastery.
- Because there is no way I could cover every objective I have on my unit study unless I prepared an assessment for each one, I wanted one assessment that was unique. It is not about all grades and no benchmarks and vice versa. It has both a grade and assessments like I mentioned earlier.
- I took each subject and highlighted two general benchmarks that I’m looking for at the high school level.
- Also, unlike high school assessments, I created part of this assessment like a vocation adult mastery class because unit studies are about mastery. It’s important to treat my older children like they will be in the adult world of college and career. Each part of the assessment does not fit perfectly into a canned grading system. I’m not looking to fit each benchmark in my unit studies, but to have a general rule of thumb when grading.
- The first section is the most important part to me because it deals with motivation and attitude, which are of more value to me.
- The rest of the sections are about aptitude because there has to be some way to grade or assess older kids in each subject.
- The last section is also of value to me because it is the very heart of mastery learning, which are projects. Projects are really self-evaluations for students because they demonstrate what they know and students will pick projects that fit their learning style.
- Lastly, I can assign a grade at the very bottom if I need to. By not putting a grading scale, you can use your own.
DETAILED Unit Study Assessment
Creating something unique that is both a mastery learning assessment and a grading system, I am excited to put this to good use.
Also, I love it because it makes a great add to my Ultimate Unit Study Planner.
I think it’s true when they say three times is a charm because with my third highschooler, I now have a super unique way to assess his efforts.
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