How do you grade middle school students to make them more accountable for their physical education grade besides just changing?

We use a couple of methods at the high school that i teach at, but should not be a problem to adjsut to ms. we have desinged a couple of simple rubrics that apply to our warm up as we begin class. we jog and use dynamic flexibiltiies before practicing some core strength and pushups. i said the rubrics are simple we give the students full particpation, partial particpation or no particpation. for each of those catigories threr is a point value assinged. now we just list each of our activities and or expectations for full, partial and no participation for example we use may use 12 laps around the gym running for full participation, 5 laps for partial participation and 4 and below for no participation. these nubmers are just examples but students figure out very quickly they have to do more then walk to reach full credit

@Mike,
I like what you are doing, grading the intial warmup with something fairly objective, and then letting the students know how to earn full credit or partial credit is a great method. Plus it gets the students focused right away that they have to earn their grade. We do something similar but it isnt nearly as spelled out as yours. Mind if I use??

Hi Kile,

We have always used a 5 point daily score. Students get 1 point for being dressed appropriatly. They also get a point for being on time both to the locker and to the gym floor for warmups. The other 3 points are based on participation. Full effort, good attitude and student receives a full 5 points. Anything less than full effort may result in a 4 or a 3 points earned. We also give written work or tests that compromise 25% of the grade.

Hope that helps.

-Brad

For my PE classes I do a daily participation grade. Each class gets 10 points every class. If the students are dressed, participate, have good sportsmanship, and behavior they get 10 points. If not, one point is taken away for each action. I also grade them on skills and fitness variables. It helps keeps the students accountable for their actions in class. I hope this helps!

Good luck!

We mostly use pedometers for grading: Here is a breakdown of how it works

NBE not best effort 1- 500 steps short on pedometer 8/10
PEF partial effort 501-1000 steps short 7/10
MEF minimal effort 1001-+ steps short 6/10

Behavioral program we use called "Make Your Day"
S1 step one (timeout) 80%
S2 step two 70%
NWU Walking warm-up 8/10
NEF no effort 5/10
LON loaned clothes 8/10%
PAR partial suit (no pe clothes but still participate 5/10
OPT opting out 0%
AB absence 0%
T tardy 80%
INC incomplete 0%

This is a topic that a lot of physical education programs are dealing with. At the HS I work at we are in the process of changing out grading rubric. Right now we take 10 points off for each unprepared. Then on top of that the students will get a score of 0, -1 or -2 depending on their participation, behavior and effort. We are starting to think about the 2nd half of this grading rubric, because it is not consistent throughout the department.

Each day students come to class they bring a sportfolio. The first page of the sportfolio is a Grade Rubric. All the expectation for the class are listed including, effort, participation, preparation, conduct, etc... Each class the student abides by all the expectations the teacher circles the star at the bottom of the column on their way into the locker room. Otherwise the teacher will mark the area that needs to be improves. If you receive 0 marks for the marking period= A, 1 mark for the marking period you get a B, 2 marks a C, 3 marks D, 4 = F

We also use a 5 point system. You get a one for being present. A one for changing. A one for getting out of the locker room on time. 4 and 5 are based of effort and participation. If you are not present you get a zero for the day. If it is a legal excuse you have the opportunity to make up the class by doing one of our web based assignments and worksheets which are found on the schools website. If you dont make up the assignment you get a zero for the class. It is the studnets responsiblilty to make up any work missed. The system seems to work and is fairly simple to use...we use e school plus for attendance and grading which once you set up keeps track for you and allows parents to view their childs grades from home.

We created a grading rubric that consists of five categories; preparation, participation, written assessments, skill assessments, and social & safety responsibility. From there, our department had decided to weigh each category differently. For example, we thought that it was more important to place more emphasis on participating and less on skill testing. Within each category, we also have a list of criteria that needs to be met on a regular basis in order to achieve the maximum amount of points in each category. The bottom line is that we wanted to create a grading rubric that was subjective as opposed to objective. We are always looking to improve our grading system, but thus far administrators, parents and students have a clear understanding of our grading rubric. If you would like a copy of it, send me an email and I will be more than happy to share it with you. I hope this helps.