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If the grading and course descriptions were just finished for the World History Guide, how did you know how to grade for it while you were using it? I'm going to be using the new American History guide and would like some guidelines as we go along as to what I should be looking for. Will these be available? Or will it be obvious to figure out?

Ann,

This is a good question. With the detailed way that I have chosen to do the grading and course descriptions, I am unable to write these until after the entire course for the year is written. This means that families who use the guides down the road will have the benefit of well-planned and well thought -out grading and course descriptions. It also means that those who use the course as it comes out in installments will not have these things available to them until after the year is complete.

While this definitely is not the way I would like it to be, it is the way it must be. Honestly, I couldn't write the course descriptions and grading portion and keep up with the writing of the plans too. So, for the last few guides coming out, we have decided to offer to families what they are most in need of, which from our perspective is the daily plans. We considered not offering the guide to anyone until it is complete, but this would mean that families who have used HOD for high school thus far and who wish to continue with it would be without a guide for this coming year. So, with this in mind, we are offering the plans in installments, hoping it will be of benefit to many. I know that I was so thankful to have the plans for World History for my second oldest son this past year, in spite of not having the grading and course descriptions in hand. The grading at least is something families can figure out how to do, while the planning and coordinating of all of the subject areas on a daily basis can be much more overwhelming at the high school level. I know I am amazed at how long it takes me to write daily plans at this level!

As far as grading goes, families using the new guide do have the benefit of seeing how the grading was set up in both previous Heart of Dakota high school guides. This is a big help as you plan how you desire to keep grades for the American History Guide. Here is a link to the grading for the World Geography Guide: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/wg-overview.pdf

Here is a link to the grading for the World History Guide: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/World- ... uction.pdf


Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks for answering Carrie! I am very grateful you are releasing the guide while you are writing it! We did use the World Geography guide 2 years ago, so I do know in general what you are aiming for. I just seem to panic when I think about grading. I was looking at my WG guide and you've done a wonderful job of breaking it all down so well. We have used HOD with all the guides except the World History and we love it!!

We just finished the WH guide, and we did it in installments. We didn't have the grading helps that we had with the WG guide, but it really did work out just fine. I looked at the WG guide to understand Carrie's thoughts with grading, and just applied the principles to the new guide. Science and math are easy, you just grade the sheets and average them up. Bible and history, I just gave an A, because my son did his work everyday, he did it well, and I was pleased with his progress. For me, there wasn't a need to quantify it. For English, I looked at his overall progress, graded his research paper, graded the assignments form R&S, and evaluated that way. Its really not that hard, just give a grade that you deem fair. Lee Binz actually talks about giving A's if the child was diligent, did the work, and made progress. I was a little more strict, because my son is not a great test taker, and I don't want to award him straight A's and have SATs that don't match. So, for English, he got a B.