End of Year Adjustments - Finals? Projects? Grading?

[Melissa Chessler]

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend!  As the school year winds down, I've seen that adjustments are being made to the end-of-year requirements for my children's high school science courses (9th grade Biology, 10th grade chemistry).  For example, my son has a final project in place of a final exam.  My daughter had already been working on a final project since January, but will not have a final exam.

What adjustments have you (or your school) made to class requirements as a result of the switch to online learning?  

Are there any adjustments in how you and/or your school will handle final quarter and year-end grades? 

How have tests been adapted so they can be taken online, and how successful has that been?

What are your thoughts on adjusting assessments and/or grading in a remote context?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Melissa

[CarriEve Horna]

Hi Melissa,

For my school (Howell HS), final exams were cancelled. There has not been any communication on whether we should be doing a project in replace of it, but I am with my AP kids anyway. 

As for grading, I'm not allowed to give any zeros. Any missing work goes in as a blank, and any work that is inadequate is returned to students to earn credit back. This can be tough, because the motivation is so low, kids often hand in less that adequate work. I end up grading assignments at least twice for about half my kids. The 4th MP grades are either A+, A, D or Inc based on the whether the kids have handed in at least 60% of assignments. 

Tests have been hard, and I've tried to avoid testing if possible. I've used Google Forms and have used the based on answer go to a section feature to try and create different versions of a test or quiz. Its a lot of working creating them, and it doesn't even have any security functions unless the kids are taking them on Chromebooks from the school. 

Remote learning is the worst...yes, its nice to wake up a bit later and to be at home, but the connection between teacher and student is at least minimized or at the most gone. The other day, I spent a half hour on the phone with a student helping them go through an assignment, and it just made me miss being in a classroom.

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Sincerely,

CarriEve Horna

[Jacqueline McGuinness]

I have been using class marker on line testing for quizzes. We are allowed to fail a student if they haven't been showing up or haven't turned in work. The quality of work has ranged from the basic to extraordinary. No final exams. On line labs are tough, because not all students have the same kind or access to technology. I have had to be very flexible.