Grading Rubric

 I do not give an official grade for this course, that is up to your parents.  They know best the amount of time and effort you have put forth and are hopefully able to gauge your learning by the thoughtful conversations this course should inspire.  To help your parents, I do keep a record of all assignments and how they scored on the following rubrics.  Familiarize yourself with these and you will easily know what is expected of you. These points will be listed in the grade book with the number of points earned over number of points possible.

Weekly Readings, Videos and Quizlets will be assigned through weekly blog posts.  You are expected to keep up with these at home.  To help gauge how well you are doing that there will be a short five question content quiz at the start of each class over key points you should have picked up.  I know that just because you dont know one or more of these five questions doesn't necessarily mean you didn't do the work, but it should be a helpful indicator for your parents.
 1-5pts will be recorded based on your correct responses

Summaries, Paragraphs, and Essays will be assigned throughout the course.  I am not an English teacher and will not be grading your paper on the finer points of grammar, writing style etc.  I will look for the following:

• Turned in on time. (1pt)
• In MLA format and contains citations when applicable. (1pt)
• Paper is the assigned length and on topic. (1pt)
• Evidence of proof reading for basic grammar. Ex capitalization, periods,                         complete sentences. (1pt)
• Paper shows a thoughtful response. (1pt) 

Country Fact Sheets will be turned in for each unit of study.  You must include two facts for each country. These facts can be funny, trivia, or serious as long as you find them INTERESTING. Ex Wales has more castles than any country in Europe. Ice cream was invented in China. Points will be awarded for the following:

• Turned in on time. (1pt)
• Facts are written in complete sentences. (1pt)
• Assignment is complete with two facts listed for each country. (3pt)

Passion Projects will be presented for each unit. Details on what these projects should look like can be found on the Passion Projects Idea page at the top of the blog.  You will have lots of freedom here, but you will also have weeks to put together your project. I expect your project to evidence time and effort and not to have been put together the weekend or night before class. Every project should be something you would be proud to show off at the open house.

• Turned in on time (5pts)
• Appears rehearsed and falls within the 4-8 minute guidelines (5pts)
• Includes a Power Point or Google Slides presentation (5pts)
• Includes background information on the country and why you chose your topic. (5pts)
• Slides include pictures, graphics, sound bites, etc to make the slides engaging and understandable,  and to reinforce what you are talking about. Slides should not be filled with lots of words. (10pts)
• Includes a tangible expression of your learning to share with the class. Ex: something you made, a dish you cooked, a performance, a video of a tour you took, an excerpt of a book you read etc.(10pts)

Map Quizzes will be held during the second to last class period for each unit.This will be the week before your passion projects are due  You will have no more than 15 minutes for this task. You will be expected to correctly label all assigned countries for that unit along with cumulative map quizzes for the regions we have previously studied.  I will not count an answer wrong based on spelling as long as I can reasonably understand what you intended to say and that is correct. Each region has a different number of countries to memorize. 

• One point for each country that is correctly labeled.