| Grading Periods |
|
The page is where Admins define grading periods and grade columns needed for grade reports for the whole school. (For teachers to start a new Grading Period, see Gradebooks.) Setting up the grading periods can be tricky for some schools, so please contact us to describe your grading periods and report card grade columns, and we'll be happy to set it up for you. It's much easier to start the year with a correct schedule than to try to reorganize it later. To update your own grading periods, the "Templates" button is the easiest way to configure almost any schedule, including semesters, trimesters, quarters, and progress reporting periods. First select how often teachers should start a new gradebook, then select any cumulative totals, exams, and other grades like effort or citizenship that you may need for report cards. Examples of common schedules: Select "Quarter" for a simple schedule like: 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter Or "Semester" for: 1st Semester 2nd Semester To divide semesters into separate gradebooks each 6 weeks, select "6 weeks" and "Semesters": 1st six weeks 2nd six weeks 3rd six weeks 1st Semester 4th six weeks 5th six weeks 6th six weeks 2nd Semester Select "Quarter", "Semesters", "Year Average", and "Final Exams" for a schedule like: 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter Final Exam 1 1st Semester 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter Final Exam 2 2nd Semester Year Average Select "Quarter", "Year Average", and "Final Exams" for a schedule like: 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter Final Exam Year Average Once you have a basic template, you can further customize the schedule. The template includes estimated end dates, but you should set the exact dates for your school so SnapGrades knows when each grading period really starts and ends. Exact dates are important, otherwise everyone will be confused when changing grading periods. Teachers may weight these grading periods on the page — e.g., to make each quarter 20% and each exam 10% of the total grade. WARNINGS:
• Changing the grading periods may reorganize all teachers gradebooks, so when you change the grading periods, everyone at your school will be forcibly logged out, losing any changes on the page they are currently viewing. For this reason you should announce to your staff in advance before you edit the Setup Grading Periods page.
You may define up to four different schedules, in case different students at your school have different grading periods — e.g., for a multi-track year, or a K-8 school where K-5 is on quarters and 6-8 is on cumulative semesters, etc. Teachers can choose which schedule to use when they create a gradebook (so if they teach on more than one schedule, they must have separate gradebooks for each). Whenever you start a new year or summer school, it automatically copies your schedule from the previous year. It also promotes all students one grade level, so you only need to adjust those students who are held back.
Note: If your school is on a year-round schedule, simply ignore the "Summer" options and use the regular school year instead. |
