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Classroom Policies and Explanations
Contents:80% of your grade each quarter will be based on approximately 2 to 4 summative tests (grouped chapter tests and course final), and 1 to 3 summative lab exercises and lab reports. The other 20% of your quarter's grade will be from a Content Standards assessment.
Summative assessments will test what you have mastered in my class and count toward your grade.
Formative assessments will be used as practice and guides, and will not affect your grade.
Formative assessments and exercises will occur weekly, if not daily, and be used solely to guide your mastery of the class material and the Ohio Content Standards for Physical Science.
More Detailed Description at this Link
These are given out in the middle of the quarter and they can be very skewed when there are very few grades to report.
Only summative grades count for your class grade but your progress report will also include formative grades as well to show how you are progressing in class.
So if your grade looks surprisingly bad or good, check it against the itemized class progress report that I give all my students. This will be a better picture of how you are doing regardless of your grade. Most grades at progress report time are skewed one way or another and will become more accurate as the grading period goes on.
With the new grading policy in place, progress reports also becomes the place where I record formative assessments to track a students work and effort in my class. I expect these reports to be shown to their parents for a signature. Summative assessments recorded will be what their final grade will be based on, but a student's formative progress in class should be a good predictor of their success in class.
Late work will be considered a behavior issue and be treated as such with Study Lunch assignments, Saturday school, or referral for discipline. There will be limits to how long I will accept late work, but it is negotiable.
Poor student organizational skills are not my problem and I will automatically assume that the responsibility for missing work is the student's alone. Keep an organized notebook.
That being said, I always have a few students that maintain they turned in some work and in 99.99% of these cases, the students usually finds it in their notebooks, their lab partner’s notebook or they turned it in to another class’s box and it is found when I grade the other class. If you place your work on my desk, then it is often not graded until after I grade everything else in the class folders. Don't do it--put it in the class box. Once your paper gets in the correct class box, it will not get lost.
When the rare work goes 'missing', the most common situation occurs when a student hands in a lab or worksheet that is incomplete or obviously incorrect and I immediately hand it back to them to complete. They only remember that they handed it in, but not that I gave it back to them to correct or finish. It is usually in their notebook.
Do your part:
Still, it is easier to blame the teacher first--I can confidently say that I can count cases of me actually losing a student’s work on one hand, with no cases in recent memory.
I repeat: Poor student organizational skills are not my problem and I will not automatically assume any responsibility for missing work.
All Summative Grades are essential for credit in my class. We have very few of them and they all count. My policy is that I will not give a grade for work I do not have. They will have to redo the work on their own time.
If it turns out that I was responsible for any missing work (extremely unlikely), I have no problem changing grades for the better. If I made the mistake I will fix it.
Your grade in my class for each quarter will be based on the following
Summative assessments will test what you have mastered in my class and count toward your final grade.
Formative assessments will be used as practice and guides, and will not affect your final grade.
Formative assessments and exercises will occur weekly, if not daily, and be used solely to guide your mastery of the class material and Ohio Content Standards.
Making up a Failed Summative Test:
Students will have to do all the work to make arrangements with me to make up a test. I will not often require students to make up a test because of a poor grade. This is normally their choice.
If you choose to make up a test grade, it must be done quickly. Retests will be given the following week after you learn your score. The makeup test may be different and appear more difficult.
Process During Extra Help (Other times may be arranged)
Scores: Your final score for that make up assessment will most often be the best score that have received for the tests taken. You will be required to successfully complete some remedial work on the information to be tested before a make up test will be offered.
Course Finals will not be eligible for retests and there will be no makeup of any summative tests after the grading period ends.
Content Standards Assessment will not be eligible for retests.
If you are in the classroom at the time of the test, you take the test. No exceptions.
Those coming back from a long absence will have the opportunity to make up the test. I feel that it is beneficial for students to see what the test is covering to aid in their studying.
A single day absence is not grounds for being offered a retest. Summative tests are announced a week or more in advance and may cover weeks long topics.
Your science books should be at home in order to always have access to your text book for studying purposes. We have a class set when we use our books in school and you can borrow a book for study halls any time you want.
I expect you to read each chapter we work on. If you don't have any assigned homework, you can always be reading the current chapter. Reading confusing passages in the chapter more than once is good practice.
I also have Guided Reading CDs in MP3 format for each chapter in the 9th grade textbook. If a student wants to borrow it, they are welcome. Copy the files to your MP3 player and open your book. It follows the text exactly. This can help a reluctant reader or kick start a study session. I think I can also make a regular audio cd if it is needed.
Our school's adopted grading policy does not have extra credit.
I consider it your responsibility to get caught up. I will not do this for you or chase you down. I can help, but it is your ultimately your own responsibility.
There is no good way to make up for not being in class, but you can do the following to make the absence less damaging to your progress in class.
While you are out
When you get back
Notes on Class Discipline Referring to Formative Class work
Even though formative class work will not directly affect your grade, it is still required work for my class. Refusing to do this formative class work, or choosing not to start the work in a timely fashion, is a behavior issue. Refusing work will result in immediate referral for discipline.
Not being prepared for class or wasting class time will be referred to the administration for discipline, which is usually a detention--Usually after 3 minor incidences. This is similar and inline with the school's tardy policy.
Study Lunch
If you are missing a summative assignment, you will be assigned to Study Lunch until you have completed your work. Students will report to Study Lunch and sign in within 10 minutes of the start of their lunch period. They will eat and finish their work. If you have finished the work and can't find me to check it, you must still go to Study Lunch or risk referral for discipline. Students will continue going to study lunch for up to a week for each missing assignments. If the work is not handed in with in that week of when it was due, the student will assigned to a Saturday School.
Current policy (subject to change) for not turning in summative work: Study Lunch to provide school time to finish the work (school administration is not involved), if study lunch is skipped or if there are problems, then it's lunch detention (School administration becomes involved). Continual infractions lead to after school detentions and Saturday school assignment. If the work is not handed in within a week of when it was due, the student will assigned to a Saturday School to give them time to finish it.
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