Students are in the midst of a long-term writing project. They’ve turned in the first third of the project, and I have evaluated and returned the work. I used the work as a baseline for creating a final rubric, but then I used that rubric to evaluate the turned-in portion of the project. This will give students an idea of what kind of grade their final project would earn if they were to complete the project using the same methods used for the first portion.

Unfortunately, because students didn’t have a chance to see the rubric before turning in the first portion of the paper, the grades are significantly lower than students expected. Add to this the fact that it is a major grade and it’s easy to see why the grades will drop a little when I enter this grade. The good news, though, is that this is not the final grade. Once students complete their final draft, I will raise the initial grade to whatever they earn on the final draft if they have demonstrated improvement over the first draft (that which was returned today). So please understand that this lowered grade is only temporary — provided your child works hard to correct the mistakes in the final draft.