Prepare, Lock, & Submit Sub-Marking Period Grades
For this final Marking Period in the Semester, you will only be confirming or overriding the student’s final course grade. Report Card comments should be omitted as they will be entered in the Semester Mark Grades section (S1 or S2).
Please note that there is no harm in entering Marking Period comments here if you wish, but these comments will not appear on the student’s Semester report card.
Review Final Marking Period Gradebook
Before you can confirm the semester-end report card grades, you must confirm the final student grades from the last Marking Period in the semester just as you did for the Marking Periods prior.
Please note that when you complete this activity, the system will lock your gradebook for this last Marking Period so that the gradebook becomes read-only and cannot be further edited. It is therefore critical that you do a careful review of your gradebook to make sure that nothing is wrong or missing before you begin confirming student report card grades.
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Pro Tip: In the gradebook, if you use “EX” in place of leaving the grade cell blank for coursework when a student is excused from handing in an assignment, it makes it easier to tell if your gradebook is complete. Assignments with “EX” are excluded from the student’s grade calculation. If you use “EX,” there should be zero blank grade cells in your gradebook because even excused assignments have an enumerator.
Mark Grades for Final Marking Period
When you have confirmed that your gradebook is complete and error-free for the final marking period in the semester, go to the Mark Grades section using the left-navigation menu.
You will have to do this activity for every course you have that is included on the student report card.
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Choose a Course from the green boxes at the top of the screen by clicking on it.
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Make sure that the correct Marking Period is selected in the Marking Period drop-down menu at the top of the screen.
Note: The deadline for report card grade submission is noted next to the Marking Period drop-down menu. You must submit your grades before the deadline.
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Report Card grade preparation begins as soon as the Marking Period ends. Make sure that it isn’t too soon to Mark Grades by scrolling to the bottom of the screen. If the Save and Save and Lock Grades buttons are grayed out, it’s too soon to prepare your report card grades.
If the Marking Period is over and the buttons are still grayed out, make sure you have submitted all prior marking periods and if still grayed out, contact an Administrator for help.
Confirm Each Student’s Final Marking Period Grade or Override It
Each of the students enrolled in the course have their own section on the Mark Grades page. In each student’s section, find the Marking Period in the grid and review the Report Card Grade. The grade listed is the grade calculated by the system from the student’s coursework grades in your gradebook. If you agree with the system calculated grade, continue to the next student.
If you want to change a student’s calculated grade for any reason you can (e.g. the system calculated the student’s grade to be a B+ but you know the student really pushed hard to get the grade and you want to reward them for the extra effort so you want to give them an A). To change the grade, simply select a different grade from the drop-down menu.
This is the Report Card Grade calculated by the system. You can override it by choosing a different grade.
Save Your Work as You Go
It is important to save your work frequently as you work through the review of each student on the page. It’s particularly important if you have many students in the course. Losing your work, for instance if your computer crashes, will be very frustrating.
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Note: Also note that you do not have to complete your report card preparation review activities all in one sitting. If you want to do part of your review, save your work, and then return to finish at a later time you can.
To save your work, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save button.
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Note: DO NOT click the “Save and Lock Grades” button until you are completely done with entering test scores, reviewing and overriding grades, and entering comments for all students for the whole course.
Doing so will lock you’re your grades so that you can no longer edit them, and will submit your grades to the Report Card Administrator, notifying them that you are ready for him or her to print report cards.
No Need to Enter Final Marking Period Comments
As was stated earlier in this section, there is a major difference between marking grades for the final marking period in the semester and marking grades in prior marking periods: For this final Marking Period in the Semester, report Card comments should be omitted as they will be entered in the Semester Mark Grades section (S1 or S2).
Again, there is no harm in entering Marking Period comments here if you wish, but these comments will not appear on the student’s Semester report card.
Lock Final Marking Period Gradebook
Make sure that you have finished reviewing report card content for all students for the whole course, including (if applicable):
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Marking Period Report Card Grades Are All Correct / Overridden
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Report Card Comments that you want to see on the Report Card are left out because they will be entered in the semester section for this marking period.
If you are ready to lock the Marking Period gradebook, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the Save and Lock Grades button.
Repeat Steps Above for all Final Marking Period Mark Grades for All Courses
Continue to Next Step: Prepare, Lock, & Submit Summary / Aggregate Marking Period Grades