OP here, yes, the assignments themselves are bad, and they are receiving grades that therefore seem unfair. For example, a math test comes home and has a picture of seven fish - 3 in the first row, and then 4 in a second row below that. The question is: Write the math sentence that is represented in the picture. There is nothing else but the fish in the picture. DC writes/guesses "3+4" and it's marked wrong. In a writing assignment, students are asked to write about what they did over a holiday, and DC writes that he can't remember but then tells about what he did over the summer instead. Grade of "2" given because he didn't answer the question. None of this is appropriate from an instructional or assessment point of view. I have been ignoring it up until now, but I feel like the increased "grades" on papers lately is because she plans to give him low grades for his report card and wants to justify it. I don't know if I should care or not, since it's only 2nd grade.

Anonymous wrote:My second grader gets grades too.
I'm not sure I understand your concern OP. Is it because other kids might be cheating on their homework? That's true, of course, and a real issue of equity for kids without involved parents. But that's going to be true from now until college graduation. Also, homework is probably not a significant percentage of his report card grade, so it might not be significant grade wise.

To me, second grade seems like the right time to start recording real grades. It doesn't matter at all long term, but they start getting meaningful feedback and need to start taking school work seriously.

If your concern is about *bad* homework assignments, than that's a totally different and teacher dependent issue. Nothing you said suggests that it's a terribly bad assignment - even no-fiction books have "high points" and learning how to decipher that is an important second grade skill to learn.

Um, I teach high school English and no, non-fiction books don't have "high points" of the "story." That doesn't make any sense.

My second grader gets grades too.
I'm not sure I understand your concern OP. Is it because other kids might be cheating on their homework? That's true, of course, and a real issue of equity for kids without involved parents. But that's going to be true from now until college graduation. Also, homework is probably not a significant percentage of his report card grade, so it might not be significant grade wise.

To me, second grade seems like the right time to start recording real grades. It doesn't matter at all long term, but they start getting meaningful feedback and need to start taking school work seriously.

If your concern is about *bad* homework assignments, than that's a totally different and teacher dependent issue. Nothing you said suggests that it's a terribly bad assignment - even no-fiction books have "high points" and learning how to decipher that is an important second grade skill to learn.

My DD got percentages on her 2nd grade school work, or fractions like 11 right out of 15, for example.

i wouldn't worry about report cards. Just work with him on being more mindful of his sentences, spelling and handwriting. That's what my other DD's first grade teacher asked me to do with her.

Well, we're in MCPS, so we're seeing P or ES on work. This is the first year we've seen that on schoolwork rather than just report cards.

I'm suprised to see percentages and number grades coming home in second grade. DC's child is not great - I am a teacher and know this for a fact - but it worries me that she is actually recording grades on some of the assignments that didn't look right to begin with. For example, she sends home a "book report" type sheet for them to fill out each week based on whatever they are reading at home. Unfortunately, the worksheet questions were things like "Who was the main character?" and "What was the high point of the story?" and DC mostly wants to read about dinosaurs and big trucks. Since he's a reluctant reader to begin with, I'm hardly going to force him to read fairy tales so we can fill out the worksheet. He does his best with it, but his answers obviously aren't "accurate." Then it comes home with a grade of 1 or 2 (out of 4) on it. It bothers me that this grade is recorded because, obviously, I could fill that thing out for him, and I'm sure many parents do. I'm not sure if I should complain about the grading or not. It's 2nd grade, so I'm not sure it matters that much anyway, but in K and 1 he got all 3's and 4's on his report card, so this is the first time we're seeing low grades and it doesn't seem to reflect his actual abilities.