Student Grades

Grade Book

The Whaley Grade Book: Have you given any thought about grading? I use a point system and a special grade book which makes grading a whole lot easier than the traditional method. If you get the Wong book (First Days of School) he talks about the Whaley grade book. It is wonderful. My wife, a teacher of 21 years, was skeptical when I got her one six years ago but now she swears by it.

Here's how it works: Let's say you have a test, two short homework assignments and a written assignment. In a traditional grade book all of these grades would be entered as percents of 100 making them equal although sometimes teachers double (or weight) the test grade. Another way many teachers handle this is to not put grades for small assignments in the grade book. With the Whaley method it is real easy. I can assign the two homework assignments 10 points each, the written assignment 40 points and the test 100 points for a total of 160 points. You then multiply the total points, in this case 160, by the percentage for each grade. In my school 94% is an A so every student with 150 points or more gets an A. The grade book allows you to keep a running total so grades at midterm and quarter are done in a flash while other teachers calculate for hours. It's quick and easy and gives the teacher a lot of flexibility in how many points you want to assign any one assignment. It also makes averaging extra credit work and missed grades much easier.

If you are looking for a software program that will let you do the same thing, I strongly recommend Easy Grade Pro. One advantage of this program is that you can buy a separate Palm version to use in your PDA.