This post is a follow-up to the post entitled, “Is your grade book set up properly”. Checking (or doing) the three items that I’m going to address in this post will ensure that your final grades will be calculated correctly.
You should check these three items for yourself, and if possible, check your neighbors as well.
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1. Check your Term Weights – The screenshot at right provides instructions for setting the Term Weights for S1 (the first semester). It’s important to note that the values in the screen shot (40 for Q1, 40 for Q2, and 20 for E1) may not be the values that you use. For instance, if you only want your 1st semester exam to count as 10% of your first semester average, you would set your values to 45 for Q1, 45 for Q2, and 10 for E1. Most importantly, verify that you set your S1 Term Weights for ALL of your classes separately.
2. Enter your 1st Quarter Averages - The screenshot at right 
provides instructions for creating an assignment into which you can place your 1st quarter averages (the grades you entered or imported into ClassXP at the end of October). It is very important that you set the ‘Date Due’ in the assignment you create to 10/20/2009. That tells the program that the average you’re entering belongs in Q1.
Additionally, it doesn’t matter what type of category you use for the assignment because this will be the only assignment you enter for the Q1 reporting term. You must enter your first quarter averages so that the program has a value for Q1 when it calculates the students final grade. The “weight” of Q1 was set in the previous step.
Again, it is most important that you verify that you’ve entered this assignment into ALL of your classes. This is slightly easier than setting the term weights because you can copy one assignment into multiple classes. To do that, simply right click the assignment you created in this step, select ‘Copy Assignment’ and check the boxes that corresponded to your other classes in the window that pops up.
3. Enter your exam grades – The screenshot at right provides instructions for entering your exam grade. Regardless of the date on which you give the exam, you must set the ‘Date Due’ to either 12/17/2009 or 12/18/2009. If you do not set the exam to either of those dates, it will not go into the E1 reporting period and your grade calculation will be wrong!
As with the previous step, you can copy the Exam assignment you create into your other classes by right clicking on the assignment once you’ve saved it.
Other Useful Tips
- To see your students final average, set the ‘Reporting Term’ drop box to S1 on the ‘Scoresheet’ window.
- To see grades for students that have been removed from your class, highlight “Inactive Students” in the Student Group pane on the left side of the grade book screen and select “Filter Selected” from the drop down box.
..:: Questions? Please use the Comment box below. Thanks! ::..
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When looking at the screenshot for S1, I’m seeing the “assignment” from Q1(ave) and ALL of my assignments from Q2 and the exam. Is this what I should be seeing?
I expected to see the AVERAGES from Q1 and Q2 with the exam grade…
I am having trouble setting the term weights for 2 of my 9th grade classes. I teach 4 classes and they have all been set up the same. In my 7/8th grade classes and one of my 9th I was able to go into Grade Set up, select S1, and set terms weights at the bottom. Q1, Q2, and E1 were all bolded in the bottom and I was able to enter 45% Q1, 45% Q2, and 10% E1. However, in 2 of my 9th grade sections when I select S1 at the top and term weights only Q1 is bolded. Q2 and E1 seem to be in the background and it does not allow me to click in their field and set their weight. This is concerning because these classes will not be configured correctly and is set for the S1 grade to be made up of 100% Q1. Any ideas what is wrong here?
I FIGURED IT OUT!!!
If you have a similar problem here is what you need to do…
From Grade Set-Up select on S1 at the top.
In the bottom select total points, then category weights, then term weights. Then for some reason it fixes itself and you will be able to access all terms at the bottom.