The Weekly Newsletter's Size and Scope Doesn't Always Afford the Space I'd Like to Let

December 18, 2013

Hello Parents,

The weekly newsletter's size and scope doesn't always afford the space I'd like to let you know what's going on in math class. Welcome to the first edition of Numerical News. Today I'm going to focus on getting the most out of your student's Progressbook (PB) page. Please feel free to submit suggestions for future postings.

If you check PB regularly you are familiar with the basic layout of the grades section. Here is an example of how a math PB page looks:

There are two main areas, Assessments and Classwork/Homework. The Classwork/Homework section makes up 30% of your student's grade. Most of the time student's receive a grade based on the proportion of homework completed based on the guidelines given in class without regard to accuracy.

The Assessments section is worth 70% of your student's grade. The Assessment section can provide you and your student additional value. Assessments are taken after topic completion. If your student has a comment next to his grade like "See me for help", you can ask your student if he came to see me. If your student scores above a 90%, you can feel reasonably confident that your student mastered the concepts taught in class. If your student scores above an 80%, it's likely your student needs to brush up on some of the concepts taught in class. If your student scores below an 80%, then it is likely your student needs help in mastering the concepts and might need to spend additional time at home working on previous material. You might wonder why an 85% grade requires additional help. Isn't that a B? This is because your student earns partial credit for showing her work. If your student has a 20 question quiz, the quiz is generally worth 40 points. If your student misses 5 questions, she still earns partial credit and an 87.5% grade. However your student missed 25% of the questions. So what can you do?

Look at the comments section to see if I've asked your student to come by. Then ask them, when they are going to get help. Ask to see your student's quiz. If he missed a lot of questions, but still earned a "good" grade, have him use the wiki to brush up on skills or see me for help.

As always please feel free to contact me with questions. Please let me know any other topics you'd like me to cover in Numerical News.

Have a nice break with your student.