If you took a break before starting this lesson, be sure to start the right stack before continuing: double-click on the "GM.AmLit4" icon, click the "Start Work," "Return to Grade Book," and "down-arrow" buttons.
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Entering More Grades
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1. In order to see how GradeMaster's other features work, you'll
want to enter a few more grades. Start by clicking at the
second blank rectangle and enter the next grade name, a
[RETURN] and its weight: Q9/9 [RETURN] 4 (in the system I
use, the "4" indicates the weight of an announced quiz).
Here are some grades to use: 97, 69, 77, 82, 50, 81, 100,
94, 81, 95
2. Enter a third set of grades for a Test given on 9/11; its
weight is 8. These are the grades: 80, 82, 85, 71, 82, 70,
75, 100, (leave a blank line here), 80
[If a student has been absent for an assignment, you may
leave a blank line as shown above. Averages will be
calculated with no penalty for missing work unless you
enter a zero after time has expired for making up the missed
assignment.
3. Enter a fourth set of grades, for another pop quiz, given 9/13,
weight 2: 75, 70, 68, 77, 70, 54, 72, 80, 84, 58 (not so good
this time around, eh?)
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Averaging the Scores
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Now that you've entered enough scores to make it worthwhile, let's average them. It's simple -- just click the "Update Averages" button at the right of your screen. The familiar "spinning beachball" will keep you abreast of progress (It doesn't take long) and let you know with two beeps when the averages are complete. Averages for each assignment are shown just below the last student name. Individual student averages appear at the far right of the last page of the gradebook (Use the right-arrow button three times to go there and check it. Be sure to return to the first page before continuing, though).
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Curving the Scores
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You may decide that this last set of scores is out of line, and you want to curve them. GradeMaster makes the process easy for you, using a "curving" system that lets you specify a new high and low grade. (Always be sure you have updated averages before curving scores.)
1. Click on the button that is labelled "Curve Scores." The
columns of grades are now numbered, and you are asked to
select the column you want to curve. Type a 4 (for the low pop
quiz) and press [RETURN].
2. The student names and scores for this assignment appear on
a new page, along with the data for the low score, high score,
and class average on this assignment.
3. You'll find the cursor located in a box to the right of a request
for you enter a new minimum grade. Type in 65 and press
return.
4. Now the cursor is in a box asking for a new maximum grade.
Let's make that 90.
5. Now click on the box labelled "Proceed with Curve by Low
Score." In a couple seconds, new scores begin appearing in
the right-hand column after the students' names. If we had
more students than we do, you might want to use the down-
arrow button to look at the rest of the changes. You'll also
see that new stats for this set of grades appears just below
the old stats.
6. Next, click on the "Return to Gradebook" button. You will then
be presented with three choices: "Accept," "Return," or
"Try Again."
7. Let's assume you aren't satisfied with the results of the last
curve, and you'd like the student grades to be even higher.
Click "Try Again."
8. We're back at Step 3. This time, enter 70 for the new low
score and 95 for the new high score. Click the "Proceed"
button again.
9. Now click the "Return to Gradebook" button again, but this
time click "Accept" in response to the prompt. The new
scores are automatically entered into the proper column of
your gradebook!
10. Now click "Update Averages" again.
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Updating Student Cards
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1. Now that we have some data, we're ready to create the
individual student reports. From the first page of the
gradebook, click the button marked "Update Cards."
2. Again, you'll see the spinning beach ball, and you'll hear three
beeps when the process is complete, but you won't see any
student cards unless you want to.
3. Before we look at any student cards, though, let's add a
general comment for all the cards. Click on the "Comment"
button at the left.
4. The box where your heading appeared has gone blank. The
cursor appears in this box. Type in the following comment:
Welcome back to school! Have a great year!
5. Now click the special button just below the box which says
"Click here to add..." Now that comment appears on all the
individual reports. You may wish to add individual comments
later.
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Examining Student Cards
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1. Now let's take a look at some student cards. First, click the
button on the left side of your gradebook that is labelled
"Student."
2. A dialog box appears, asking you for the name of the student
whose report you wish to see. Type in the name of Dan
Edgarton and press [RETURN].
3. Now you're looking at Dan's report. Take some time to look
over the format of the information. You can use the left-
and right-arrow keys of your keyboard to browse back and
forth through the student cards (but these keys do not
function elsewhere in the stack).
4. When you're finished browsing through the student cards,
return to the gradebook by clicking in the "GradeMaster" box at
the bottom right of any one of them.
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Adding an Individual Comment
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1. Let's make one more trip to the student cards, to add a personal
comment to Brendalee Smith. From any page of the gradebook,
click on the "Student" button and type in her name.
2. You'll notice the comment we entered for all the cards appears
on Brendalee's card, too, just as we would expect. Now,
though, we want to add a personal note about the assignment
she has not completed. Position the I-beam cursor just to
the right of the exclamation point after "year." Click once
and then press [RETURN]. Type this:
You must make arrangements to complete the missing test
before the close of school this Friday.
3. Now return to the gradebook. (Remember the secret button?)
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Printing Reports
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When you have mailed in your $30 registration fee, I will send you your personal code for unlocking the printing capabilities of the program. This arrangement is fair to both of us: the program is of little practical use without the ability to print out reports, but you have had a fair chance to find out how it works and determine whether you would like to use it. Here is a brief preview of the printing features of GradeMaster:
§ You can print out the pages of the gradebook which
contain data (the program will automatically filter
out the blank ones).
§ You can print out copies of all the student reports,
two to a page.
§ You can print out selected student reports, up to twelve
