I wanted to provide an update on Standards-Based Learning and some tips and tricks for you as you are trying to determine your child’s grades. Our teachers have been working very hard to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge on standards and have been recording them in the grade book.
For Elementary Parents
You can review your student’s progress on MasteryConnect by following the link that was emailed to you in September. You will be asked to set up an account linking you to your child’s courses and their MasteryTracker. If you did not receive that email to set up your account, please email your child’s teacher so they can get that emailed to you.
You can switch from subject to subject to see your student’s mastery and to determine areas for growth. These are great conversation starters for you and your child. Most elementary school classrooms have students set goals using their MasteryTracker. Be sure to ask your student to share their progress with you.
For Secondary Parents
Here are some tips on how to view your child’s grades:
- Become an observer of your child in Canvas. This will allow you to view grades, get announcements, and receive emails. Below is a video on how to become an observer.
- When you click on grades, you will see that it says “no grades.” This is because the averaging feature has been turned off. You must click on the course to view your child’s grades.
- A tip shared with me by a parent is to choose one-two subject each night to look at so students can plan what they need to complete and/or redo.
- Grades
- In the second video below, I show how to access grades, how to determine what your child needs to work on, and how to calculate your child’s final grade in each course.
- If a student has a 2, 1, or — (which means missing), they need to work with the teacher to resubmit this assignment.
- Teachers will send out emails through the canvas to parents once assignments have been graded if the student has a 2, 1, or is missing the assignment. You will ONLY receive this email if you are observing your child in canvas.
- Middle School students will do grade checks during study hall and will complete a Google Form listing the assignments that they need to complete or redo.
- Resubmissions
- It is important to be an observer of your student on canvas so that you are receiving the teacher announcements. Deadlines for resubmission, and requirements, will be communicated on Canvas announcements.
In each unit, the teacher will determine which standard or standards they are assessing and then will provide feedback to students along the way. Teachers will collect assignments and assessments throughout the unit demonstrating knowledge of the standard and enter them into the Canvas grade book. Students should monitor their grade book for feedback and to see their demonstration of knowledge grade.
Please have grace with our teachers while they are learning our new grading systems, as there might be a few hiccups along the way. We ask students to politely email their teachers with grading questions and clarification. If you have any questions about grading or Standards-Based Learning, please check out our website at www.stemk12.org, and click on student support, academics, and Standards-Based Learning.
Thank you,
Michelle Gasser, Director of Professional Development