Semester Grades

My student teaching experiences were never around the end of semesters. As a new teacher, I'm a little confused on how to factor the semester grade. I know some teachers just average the two quarters, while others have the final worth 20%. I assume they average the 2 quarters for 80%? What do most teachers do? And how do you do that in an electronic gradebook?

Thanks again.

 

This is something you need to ask your school. They should have it laid out in your teacher handbook. Each school is different.

Do you have a mentor? This is a good question for him/her.

 

The grading policy for semester grades is standardized at our school:
Term 1: 40%, Term 2: 40%, Exam: 20%

If the class is full-year, the two semester grades are averaged and then that becomes the final grade. (In other words, the term grades comprise 80% of the final grade, midterm exam 10%, and final exam 10%).

 

This is our policy as well. We don't have year-long classes; everything is based on single semesters.

In the past under a different admin we had a different formula where the final exam was worth only 10% of the semester grade.

This will depend entirely on your school site. Ask your mentor teacher or supervising administrator.

 

same at mine: the school has it set up as 40% each quarter, 20% the semester exam.

 

Interesting... at my school, even though the students get progress reports, grades don't start over at the end of quarters. The semester grade is just the total of all the grades (tests 30%, quizzes 15%, CW 20%, Alternative Assessments 10%, Homework 10%, Final Exam 15%). It'd be nice for the kids to be able to "start over" each quarter.

 

Thank you for all of the replies. My district leaves grading up to the teachers, so I am free to do whatever I want. I was wondering if it is a good idea to include the final in with the test/quizzes category and just make the point value higher? I never thought of this before, but it would make figuring out grades easier. What are your thoughts on this?

 

I believe that a final exam is special and should be calculated as its own category.

 

The program we use to enter our scores for the report cards calculates the semester grade for us as well as the final grade of the year. It is cumulative over the year.