To be eligible to move on to the next level, students must have submitted all homework and the final exam by the last class day, and earned a cumulative grade of 80% or higher on homework and the final exam.
In addition to the percentage grade, I have detailed a set of skills that I have found to be essential before moving to Level 2 or Level 3. I assess the students on these skills throughout the year, and my assessment is included on the semester report cards, along with the cumulative percentage grades. Although these skills do not affect the students’ calculated percentage grade and the credits they receive, I do use them at the end of the year to determine whether a student is ready to move on to the next level of writing classes. A student who is “Struggling” or “Developing” in these skills generally is not ready to progress to the next level. Parents should use the following information to work on these areas throughout the year.
I use the following SKILLS SCALE for each of the skills:
- Struggling: Student often has difficulty implementing the skill;
- Developing: Student has difficulty but is making progress in implementing the skill;
- Proficient: Student is usually successful in implementing the skill;
- Outstanding: Student implements the skill correctly and with excellence.
Here are the SKILLS I assess:
- Class Participation: Answers questions and shares writing, voluntarily or if called on. Has assignment accessible to be shared.
- Online classroom behavior (online students only): Keeps mic open/video on without having to be asked, in order to facilitate participation; avoids use of phone/computer except for classroom activities.
- Focus: Stays focused and engaged in class discussion and avoids distracting self and others with extraneous activity and discussion.
- Attention to detail, following directions, and conscientious effort: An attitude of careful attention to detail and to all directions on the assignment sheets and composition checklists is evident in the quality of the student’s work.
- Submitting homework: Correctly submits homework on time and in the correct form with all KWOs, rough drafts, and final drafts in the correct order (and correct file types for online students).
- MLA: Correctly implements MLA guidelines for formatting (and citation of sources when required in a research paper).
- Structure and Style Skills: Able to implement all structure and style skills for student’s level.
- Grammar Rules and Usage: Generally correct sentence construction, punctuation, and language.