Mike Smith:
It’s hard to follow the classroom model of grading since most homeschool families approach learning differently. My guest this week is Lesha Myers; she wrote a book called Making the Grade. Thank you for joining me on Home School Heartbeat, Lesha!

Lesha Myers:
Thank you, Mike. It’s a pleasure to be here!

Mike:
Lesha, what would you tell parents who might be asking, “So what’s so important about grading, anyway?”

Lesha:
Well, there are a lot of things, but let me share just one: it helps our students to learn more. I remember a friend of mine telling me what happened when she started grading. Things were going okay for her, but she wanted the quality of her children’s work to improve—she wanted to move them to a higher level. So, she sat down, thought about what she wanted her children to actually do, explained those thoughts to her children—how she was going to grade them—and she was absolutely amazed at the change. Her children rose to the occasion and started producing vastly superior work. They just needed a bit of direction to understand what their mother wanted. So, if I could use an archery analogy, they needed a target to hit; they needed an evaluation to determine how close to the bull’s-eye they got, and then they excelled. Mom was happy, and so were the children.

Mike:
Well, that’s great, Lesha! I look forward to talking to you more about this next time. And until then, I’m Mike Smith.