Grading is something that I had trouble wrapping my head around. I felt like I couldn’t really figure out how to properly track grades in a way that was authentic, and easy to refer back to when reporting time came.
I would have some grades or checks, but I needed a place where I could track notes as well. These notes would become the foundation of my report writing practices as well.
Google Sheets Grade Book
The first thing I do is start with a blank Google Sheet. I use the plus buttons to add different sheets within the sheets. I made the titles the subjects that I’m teaching. I seperate them into terms as well, because I found that I needed more space this year. I guess I took a lot of notes!
I also want to note that I made two sheets per subject- one for just grades, and one for anecdotal observations. The anecdotal observations become the basis to my report writing at the end of each term. I end up having so many notes that report writing becomes a breeze- and most importantly- very differentiated!!
The next thing that I do is set up my notes. I tend to go based on lessons. I have a smaller class size because of my special education role, so I am able to do a quick check in with each kid during each lesson. On the vertical bar of this sheet would be each kid’s name. I’m able to take some notes about their understanding- which would guy my lesson planning in the future. Due to the fact that I’m a little neurotic, I have this colour coded as well!!
The sheet page that has the final ‘grades’ and tasks look something like this. I always have three parts to my final assessments- this way students are able to show their learning in different ways. We do something called “Triangulation of Assessment” in our district. I think I’ll dive deeper into that in another blog post!
This is where you would see the final quantified grade or average. I get the final mark information from here. Using ALL this tracked data, which is a lot- plus SELF ASSESSMENTS I have a pretty good picture of where each student is at with their understanding and learning.
It’s definitely not a perfect system, but I do find it to work!
Now on to differentiated instructions through modified lesson planning 🙂