STAR Gradebook
Getting Started
The STAR Gradebook
portal is similar to the old Horizon Classworks Gradebook. The basic principals still apply. You have to choose what type of assignments
you will be giving during the school year.
These “Types” of assignments are considered categories (in Classworks
you had Groups). You must setup the
categories before you can enter Assignments.
After setting up categories, you go to the assignment screen and add
assignments. Don’t forget to look at what Marking Period
you are working in at the top of the screen before you start! Now you can refresh the Gradebook screen and
your assignments will appear. That’s the
basics J
Categories
You can have as many categories as you would
like. Each category can be set up as a
“percentage” type grade or a “total points” type grade. Most teachers will use the “Percentage” type
grading scale. If you use percentage,
all of your categories should add up to 100%. Example: Test would be a percentage grade, worth 50%,
Homework would be a percentage and could be worth 20%, Classwork could be a
percentage and be worth 15% and Quizzes could be a percentage and be worth
10%. You can add extra points to the
final average at the end of the six/nine weeks, which is discussed later in this
document. You can also add an assignment
as Extra Credit. You can “Copy” the
categories to all of the marking periods as well as to all of the other classes
that you are teaching if they use the same categories. Be careful when using this option, as it will
overwrite any special categories you may have created in any other classes
and/or marking periods.
Assignments
You are now ready
to start giving assignments. The
assignments page has several options.
First, pick the Marking Period type in the date the assignment was
given/due, and type in how many points they can possibly earn. If you allow extra points, say at the end of
a spelling test you give them “extra credit” words to spell worth 5 extra
points, then the total possible points for that test
should still only be 100. You can type
in a grade above 100 for a student’s grade, say 105. It will notify you that the “grade is higher
than the maximum points for this assignment”, just click ok. In the description, column type in a
description for the assignment. This
description will print out on the Progress Report, so make sure the Parents
will understand the assignment. You can
add more than one assignment (up to 10) at a time on the assignment
screen. Just go to the next line and
type in the next assignment. Once you
are done typing in the assignments for that class or run out of lines, click
Submit Gradebook Assignments. At the bottom of the assignments screen,
you have a couple of options. You can
“autofill” the assignments with a grade.
If you tell it to autofill an assignment with 100, then all the students
will get a 100 posted in the gradebook for that assignment. Then you can go back and edit the ones that
did not make a 100. Be careful, this
will overwrite grades that have been posted to the gradebook for that
assignment. Use this option
cautiously. The other option is the Copy
Assignment option. You can choose to
copy all the assignment you just created to your other classes if those classes
will also be doing the exact same assignment on the same day. DO NOT copy all assignments to all
classes unless you teach the same subjects all day. If you teach Reading 4 times a day and Math 1
time a day, your math class would get READING Assignments if you choose the
copy All Assignments to All Classes option.
In most cases, you will just click in the Copy Assignment and choose All
Assignments, and in the “to” field, you will select the individual class to
copy these assignments to. You will have
to copy All Assignments to each class individually.
Entering Grades
Now that the
assignments are in, you are ready to enter in grades. The assignments will show up on the main
“Teacher Gradebook” page that lists your students. You will see the assignments listed beside
each child. All the assignments are
listed on this page by date with the most recent assignment first. The
assignments go from left to right. If you do not see the assignments that you
just entered, click on Refresh on the Toolbar up top. You cannot change the way the assignments are
listed (date is the only option at this time)
Note:
The above is just a basic overview, continue
reading to get more details
Using the
Gradebook:
Logging in
To log in to the gradebook, go to https://ssms.state.tn.us Once you go to the
Gradebook Portal page, click on the “Click Here to Log in” button. Your username will be D521-yourusername ( My username to
get in to gradebook would be D521-lunab).
Type in your password (see your Principal/Technology Dept. if you do not
know what it is). Look below to see a
picture of the login screen.
Once you have
logged in, you will see the following screen.
Notice the little
“File Folder” tabs that say Welcome and Teacher. To continue on to the gradebook, click
Teacher. Once you click on teacher, you
should get the following screen.
While using the
gradebook, we will only be using 2 items on this page, Gradebook and
Roster. To look at a student list, click
Roster, to enter or view grades in the gradebook, click Gradebook. The Grades and Interims will not be
used. Notice in the picture above,
period 04 is darker than the rest. The
gradebook knows which class should be your current class during the school day
and it makes it Bold.
After clicking on
Gradebook a new Internet Explorer window will appear. It should look similar to the following
screen.
To add or change
your “Categories” click on the Pie Chart (Categories). To add or change Assignments, Click on the
Books (Assignments). You should not have
to change anything in the Valid Grades area.
The most confusing
part of the gradebook is the MP AVG and MP Grade columns. The MP AVG Column is the TRUE average of all
the assignments. The MP Grade column is
calculated when the Marking Period Posting Dates are open. This might not be the true average. Confusing?
Sure it is. The Gradebook does
not immediately accept grades into the “STAR” database for report cards. We will allow grades to be “posted” to STAR
at the end of the marking period only.
Here’s what to look for at the END of the marking period when the
“Posting Window” is open.
When all grades/assignments have been
entered for this marking period and are ready for report cards, the MP Grade
column should be GRAY with the following exception.
If you are manually changing the final average for a single student, you
may type the MANUAL grade in the MP Grade column and click
submit. After Clicking submit,
the Box for that student will
be YELLOW. If any of the boxes are
Green, or you have boxes that are yellow and you didn’t manually change the
grade, click the ReCalc button. All
boxes will turn GRAY. The LAST THING YOU
SHOULD DO before you are ready for report cards is manually change the MP Grade
if needed and click submit. All Boxes should be GRAY unless you have
changed the final average for a student!
What do the color’s mean? Well, Green means there is NO GRADE for the
report card in STAR. Yellow means that
the MP Grade for the Report Card and the “TRUE” average are different (you have
manually changed the Grade or you haven’t clicked recalc). Gray means the “TRUE” average and the MP
Grade (Report Card Average) are the same. You will likely have to Recalc EVERY TIME at the
end of the marking period to make the yellow go away. THE
ONLY GRADE that is used for REPORT CARDS is the MP GRADE!
Reports
At the bottom of
the assignments page is the reports. You
can print out an entire class grade list for you to keep for your records
(gradebook style report). The next
report is the Progress Reports. A new
report for us this year is the Missing Assignment report. This report will print out each student that
is missing an assignment (grades that are still blank). Use this to verify that all grades have been
entered and that no grades have been left blank.
Looking at the different Screens
Look below for a
look at the Categories screen.
Look Below for a
look at the Assignments screen.
Here’s a look at
what the screen would look like at the end of a marking period with a manual
grade for the MP Grade Column.
