Mr. Reimer's Parents' Page
What’s a Parent / Guardian to Do?
My Detailed Progress Reports, Report Cards
Guess what, you can not learn for your child; no matter how hard you try, you cannot do it for them. Ultimately it is your children who must take the necessary effort and learn for themselves. It will be their achievement. It will be their success. But what you can do is set the right environment and guide them through this part of their lives. In effect you are a project director (that analogy is for all you business people and members of charitable organizations). You set the environment to support learning: make sure they have a quiet place to study. But more important, you provide values, beliefs, goals and expectations that you demonstrated and taught your children. These serve as guiding lights for them. Remind them of these and act according.
You have provided them other skills throughout the years: responsibility, organization, achievement, prioritization, work ethic. You will not likely be the subject matter expert, but as project director, you can check to see that they are doing the above effectively. If they are struggling, help guide them to the resources which will help them overcome whatever problem they are having. Check in with them to see just how they are studying or working. We want them to be not just effective, but also efficient. One tenet I repeat in my classroom is “Work Smart, Not Hard”. Periodically I do follow-up and say that sometimes you must work both smart and hard, but that is better than working very very very hard.
Continuing with the analogy, your children themselves are their own project managers; the project's result being the grade they earn and information they learn from the course. Periodically everyone should check to see how they are doing in progressing toward a goal. For any goal, if you are on track, then you keep doing what has worked. However, if you are not on track, you must change something. I do a skit early in the year about this; it makes most students laugh, but it is an important point. Since they may not yet be good project managers, you could periodically check in with them. Let them do the legwork if possible. They know their grades, they know their goals, and they know if they are on track. You can help advise them on solutions as needed.
One of the hard things in the above is to find the balance in letting them be responsible. If you hover, you will not be effective. If you ignore, you will not be effective. But each child is different. Each child may be different with different subjects. Each child may be different at various times of the year. A good project director monitors, but only intercedes when needed. Easier said than done.
Finally, be a cheerleader. Motivate! Be positive. Celebrate success. Celebrate improvement. Success is not measured as being the best or earning straight A’s. Remember, for a student who previously earned Ds, a C is a success.
| Trigonometry & Algebra III | Exploring Algebra & Geometry I | |
| Tests | 40% | 40% |
| Quizzes | 30% | 30% |
| Homework | 15% | 15% |
| Classroom Achievement | 15% | 15% |
Report cards are released four times a year at the close of a marking period. School progress reports are released about half way through each marking period. Please see your parent guide for details and dates. These are provided to each student.
I find these reports have minimal information. That might be sufficient for you, but I like to provide you with a Detailed Progress Report around the time of each School progress report. That way you can decide just how much information you want to use. By the way, if you have never seen one of these, you need to speak with someone who is not handing it to you. I get them back with signatures. I can only assume it is your signature.
At some point in time, the school may provide you access to our online grade books. I like the idea. It would allow you access to the details you see in my Detailed Progress Reports at times meeting your needs. When will this occur? I have no idea. I am sure there are many complex and sensitive issues surrounding the decision. However, if parents do not ask, it may be later rather than sooner.
FYI I have offered every student a worksheet packet that focuses on good study habits. Although these worksheets are not Math specific, they provide ideas on improving performance (thru high school, college and beyond). You could ask your student if they took advantage of this opportunity to sharpen their study skills.
Students earn their homework grade by doing every homework problem assigned and showing work. Homework serves many purposes, some of which are identified on the High School website. One key aspect of homework is to facilitate going beyond being able to follow a problem into learning a concept. If you do not see nearly all 100s, you see an opportunity for improved performance.
Grading for homework is simple in my class. I periodically check homework for the homework assignment that was assigned the night before. Students are unaware which days I check, except that I check at least once per week (sometimes four times). What I look for is the following: 1) they completed all problems, 2) they showed work on the problems. If both criteria are met they get a 100%. If at least a moderate amount is shown to me and meets the criteria, then they get a 50%. If not, a 0%. I average these 0, 50, 100's for the week to derive the homework grade. The mathematics of probability and statistics show this approach works.
It is true that teachers can never tell if a student did his/her homework, all we can tell is if students show us their homework. However, students are expected to be prepared and bring their homework each day. Thus I help them build organization skills, responsibility, as well as math skills. I want them to stay current, so homework is due on the due date. If anyone falls behind, the student only hurts themselves because we keep building upon prior lessons. Ultimately the homework grade represents a good faith effort made outside the classroom to master the skills needed to succeed.
Every student starts out at 70%; earning additional points for classroom participation, questions and volunteering. Downward earning of points occurs when a student disrupts the classroom, distracts others or is disrespectful to anyone in the class. In general, students who are focused and actively involved in the classroom learn better.
Quizzes are checkpoints in the learning the concepts of a unit and tests cover concepts learned throughout the entire unit. Some quizzes are very short; others are mini-tests. Quizzes identify if students are keeping up with their learning, or if they try to “cram” all learning for a unit test. “Cramming” often does not result in the longer term learning of concepts, which is necessary for Math, since new Math concepts build upon the foundation of previously learned skills. If you see low quiz grades and a higher test grade, study habits may need to be altered. If you see a “0” that means a quiz/test was never taken. Test and quiz zeros averaged into grades have dramatic effects. Students are expected to make up missed quizzes/tests within a week.
I create an information only section of my detailed progress report to identify information that HAS NO DIRECT IMPACT ON THE GRADE because it IS NOT AVERAGED INTO THE GRADE. I save this information because it helps to provide details supporting an overall picture of student performance and effort. Examples of information I save are 1) an early assessment on prerequisite skills students are expected to have brought into the classroom, 2) an indicator whether the rare extra credit opportunity was taken and 3) an indicator showing if a student took advantage of a retake policy (I keep the original score - see below).
Currently I offer students the opportunity of a one-week window to retake a similar unit test. This provides students an additional opportunity to study, learn concepts and do well. However, I do restrict this opportunity to students who have shown past effort (a Homework grade of at least 80% for CP level classes, 75% for modified level classes). I retain this information to track students taking advantage of this opportunity. If there is little or no change in the score, then the student may forfeit this privilege. I expect students will study hard for these, and thus make significant improvement.
In general I do not offer extra credit. Learning is about knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of concepts. It is not about doing some book report to make up for the lack of the above. However, I effectively do offer an extra credit opportunity that far exceeds most. If a student has applied himself/herself, as evidenced by a high homework completion average, then they have the ability to retake tests. Of course, it is not the same test, but a test on the same concepts. And the retake must occur within one week of receiving back the original test (unless we are at the very end of a marking period, where there is insufficient time for retakes). What this provides is a second chance opportunity. Say your child did not effectively study for the original test. They have a second chance to learn the material, and use the original test a one additional resource, and prove that they have learned the concepts. I throw away the first test grade and use the second. Think of this, a student earning a 20% has the opportunity of gaining 80 extra credit points on that test.
However, there is one caveat. If a student does not do better, I reserve the right to eliminate this benefit, (it is not a right) for the future. This is my method of making sure students do not just take the retake and hope that they do better. They must do better. I will not spend my time grading if they have not put in an honest and successful effort to learn the concepts.
