point values and grading scale
updated March 7, 2004

The Secondary Block is a professional preparation course that leads toward certification to teach at the Secondary level (grades 7-12). Therefore, the course is not organized like typical courses at Hope College. You will be actively involved throughout the semester in assignments, class activities, uses of technology and field placement participation that will require you to show what you are learning and the skills that you are developing through "reading, writing, speaking, listening, and visually representing." These are the dimensions of Literacy that Michigan requires all Secondary teachers to promote in their own classrooms.

The Block is also designed around Michigan Certication Standards: Entry-Level Teaching, Secondary Reading, and Technology.

We will work together to create the evaluation criteria, or rubrics, for the following: participation, writing, and speaking. From these criteria we will create scoring rubrics to be used in providing feedback on the results of your efforts to completed assignments. We will use the evaluation categories--"Quality Criteria"--that are consistent throughout the Education program: "Excellent," "Proficient," "Developing Proficiency," and "Unsatisfactory."

Rubrics are intended to set quality performance standards, thereby allowing you to know in advance what you have to do to achieve the desired level of evaluation. Rubrics clarify expectations and help you know how to do a careful job in your response to assignments. This provides you with both personal and professional opportunities to take responsibility for your own learning.

Final grades in the course will be the same for all three courses (EDUC 285, 286, 287) and will be determined from the total of numerical points earned over the semester. The following percentage scale will be used on the total points to determine the grade in the BLOCK courses. The total number of points for all possible assignments is 814. Given the choice options in the course, you will be able to earn an A with 611 points or above. This represents 75% of the total possible!

Please note: As of December 2000 the Education Department adopted a policy that any student who received below a C+ grade in an Education course would not be allowed to continue in the sequence toward certification.