HSLDA Heart Beat: Grading

Why is Grading so Important?
Volume 82, Program 165/19/2008
How can parents evaluate their own children’s homework? On this week’s Home School Heartbeat, host Mike Smith and his guest Lesha Myers will discuss why grading is so important.

Mike Smith: It’s hard to follow the classroom model of grading since most homeschool families approach learning differently. My guest this week is Lesha Myers; she wrote a book called Making the Grade. Thank you for joining me on Home School Heartbeat, Lesha!

Lesha Myers:Thank you, Mike. It’s a pleasure to be here!

Mike:Lesha, what would you tell parents who might be asking, “So what’s so important about grading, anyway?”

Lesha:Well, there are a lot of things, but let me share just one: it helps our students to learn more. I remember a friend of mine telling me what happened when she started grading. Things were going okay for her, but she wanted the quality of her children’s work to improve—she wanted to move them to a higher level. So, she sat down, thought about what she wanted her children to actually do, explained those thoughts to her children—how she was going to grade them—and she was absolutely amazed at the change. Her children rose to the occasion and started producing vastly superior work. They just needed a bit of direction to understand what their mother wanted. So, if I could use an archery analogy, they needed a target to hit; they needed an evaluation to determine how close to the bull’s-eye they got, and then they excelled. Mom was happy, and so were the children.

Does Grading Need to be Hard Work?
Volume 82, Program 175/20/2008
Ever wonder if you’re grading too nicely, or if you should have your child redo an assignment? Lesha Myers, author of the book Making the Grade, will address these questions on today’s Home School Heartbeat with host Mike Smith.

Mike Smith:Lesha, in your book you talk about the difficulty some parents have evaluating their own children’s schoolwork. How did you overcome these feelings of inadequacy, yourself?

Lesha Myers: I have to be honest with you, Mike, and admit I never completely did; I always considered myself a work in progress. But, the first thing I did is I gave myself permission to experiment, and that way, I didn’t need to be “the expert.” I also could unhitch my mind to the idea that my grading methods had to be the same as the methods that my teachers used for me. Some classroom models work really well in the homeschool setting and others don’t. So, I needed to try out different methods until I found one that worked for me, for my children, and the subject. And one of the things that I realized about the way that I tend to grade is that I did it way too soon. I didn’t give my children time to learn a lesson before I evaluated them. Sometimes I had to throw out the bad grade, re-teach, and try again. But finally, I had to come to the realization that my confidence comes from the Lord. Ultimately, it’s His school, it’s His children, it’s His plan, and I don’t have to worry, because He is completely adequate, even if I am not.

Take the Mystery out of Grading!
Volume 82, Program 185/21/2008
Facing a pile of book reports? Grading might seem like an impossible task, but author and homeschool mom Lesha Myers says it doesn’t have to be so hard. We’ll hear more about this topic on today’s Home School Heartbeat with Mike Smith.

Mike Smith:Part of the homeschool journey is grading. I’m sure there are parents who grade their children’s schoolwork and then question whether they did it right or not. Lesha, is there any right way or wrong way to grade?

Lesha Myers:There’s no wrong way to grade. Absolutely none. There are so many different options, and that is a good thing. Sometimes, we feel like we have to grade a certain way, usually the way we were evaluated when we were in school, and that’s an option, but it’s only one option. There are as many different ways to evaluate our children as there are teaching methods and curriculum. I get this question all the time, and sometimes parents explain how they plan to grade their children, and then come to me and say, “Is that okay?” And so, let me answer right now: yes, it’s completely okay. Any plan that lets your children know what you want them to do, what you want them to learn, is totally fine. As to when to grade, I think that grades are beneficial by upper elementary, but they are essential by high school. Colleges, vocational schools, even insurance companies, for that Good Drivers discount—they all want to see transcripts. And grading takes our unique homeschooling experience and translates it into a format that others are familiar with. So, if we don’t have them, if we don’t have the transcripts, we may be limiting our children’s post-homeschooling options.

A Biblical Perspective on Grading
Volume 82, Program 195/22/2008
Does the Bible provide a perspective on grading schoolwork? On today’s Home School Heartbeat Mike Smith will talk more about this topic with Lesha Myers, homeschool mom and author of the book Making the Grade.

Mike Smith:Lesha, are there are any biblical principles we can apply to grading and testing?

Lesha Myers:You know, Mike, there really are! I was surprised because I had thought that
grading was a secular concept, but it’s not! A while back, I was reading Kings and Chronicles for my devotions, and I noticed a recurring phrase that summed up the reign of each king of Judah in Israel It was either, “and he did right in the sight of the Lord, like his father, David,” or “and he did evil in the sight of the Lord,” or something in between. And I realized that God was grading the king! He set a standard, the life of David, and then He evaluated each king according to the standard, and He summed up His evaluation—gave a grade, if you will—in a phrase. The Bible also says quite a bit about testing. For example, Jesus Christ tested His disciples as part of their training. Before He fed the 5,000, Jesus asked Phillip to provide bread for the multitude, and in John 6:5 it says “He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do.” The test was for Philip’s benefit, so that he would grow in his faith and trust in the Lord. Grading is a very biblical concept. There are quite a few principles we can glean from the Bible’s pages.

Discover Your Family's Grading Philosophy
Volume 82, Program 205/23/2008
Should I have a grading philosophy for my homeschool? On today’s Home School Heartbeat with Mike Smith, we’ll hear more about this topic from Lesha Myers, author of the book Making the Grade.

Mike Smith:Lesha, how did you discover your family’s grading philosophy? Why is this important for homeschoolers?

Lesha Myers:Let me answer the second question first. It’s important because families have a wide variety of educational philosophies—some are rigorous, some are relaxed, some are structured, others more flexible—and since we have so many teaching approaches, it makes sense to use a wide variety of grading methods. I developed my own personal philosophy slowly, over the course of several years. First, I looked at my children’s gifts and interests and that helped me to determine what it was I wanted them to master, and what I wanted them just to be exposed to. My daughter’s a writer; she needs to master concepts related to language. My son is good with tools and design, so he needed to master math and science principles. Neither of them showed a specific music talent, but still I wanted them to appreciate all kinds of music, so I exposed them to a variety of concerts and programs. I was pretty subjective when evaluating the music, but I was more specific with the areas that would prepare them for their careers. The combination of the simple and the complex really worked for us.

Mike:Lesha, thank you so much for joining us this week, and I’m sure this has been of tremendous benefit to our listeners. So, until next time, I’m Mike Smith.

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