Margarita Altidis EPSY 485 October 18, 2013 Grading Philosophy The Course This grading policy is for

a 10th grade literature class. While it is a literature course, the majority of the assignments are writing about texts. There will be three units: poetry, canonical novel, and choice novel. Each unit will conclude with a formal writing assignment. In this class, I value a students ability to make a claim and support their claim with textual evidence. As long as a student can support their claim with textual support, there is no correct answer. Students will learn throughout the semester the expectations and procedures for property citing text to make a claim. This will be the main purpose of the writing assignments. The purpose of this grading policy is not to evaluate if students have a right answer, but to allow students the opportunity to make their own conclusions and successfully support their claims. Assessment Methods The breakdown of grades is as follows: Poetry Explication Literary Analysis #1 Literary Analysis #2 Journal Completion 3 Check-Points Final Reflection 20% 20% 20% 15% 15% total 10%

The grades in this class will come from a variety of formative and summative assessments. Each day, students will arrive to class and complete a journal entry and class notes. Each week, journals will be turned-in or visually checked for completion and feedback. Each day will be worth 2 points: one point for completion and one point for quality notes. Quality notes means that the student clearly took note of the classs discussion and made a point to write the main objectives down. At the beginning of the semester, the teacher will ask

students to write how they prefer to take notes so that each student is allowed to take notes as they see fit. The object of grading this assignment is not to assign a point value for merit, but to award students for preparing and participating in discussion. The journals will also serve as a main source of feedback for the teacher on day-to-day understanding. Summative assessments will include a poetry explication and two literary analyses. Throughout the semester, students will also take three check-point formative assessments for points. These will be in the middle of each major unit of study and will be properly scaffolded through the journal topics and other class discussion. Students will have the opportunity to prepare for these assessments and use their class notes and journals. These assessments will take the place of a formal test, which is why they will each be worth 5% of the grade. The main portion of the students grade will come from their formal writing assignments. Each formal writing assignment will be process-based and involve multiple steps. Students will have ample time to complete the work both in and out of class, including peerrevision and teacher conferences. These assignments will all be worth the same because they are of the same type of assignment. They are also worth the most points because these assignments are designed to produce three very well done assignments to represent both progress and success in achieving the classs goal. The final assessment in this class is a reflection essay. At the end of the semester, all students will participate in a student-teacher conference to discuss their overall progress in the course. At the beginning of the semester, students will begin this assignment by setting writing and reading goals for themselves. In their final reflections, they will analyze their progress and define the methods for writing and reading that worked best for them. The purpose of this assignment is to leave the course knowing more about themselves as readers and writers so that they can apply the skills they learned in the course in future classes. This has been weighted less than a formal writing assignment because it is meant to be a self-reflection, not a measure of their academic merit. Attendance, tardiness, attitude, and effort will not be part of the grading policy. These are things that are expectations and should thus be followed. Students will gain their participation points through their journals that they turn-in for completion credit. Students who are absent will automatically lose one point from their journals. I dont believe that students should be given points for effort or attitude since they are also people; what I think is an appropriate level of effort or a good attitude may not align with their own learning methods or cultural ideals.