What my staff does to help with this is the following: instead of students starting the year with an "F" and watching the numerator slowly rise, they instead see the denominator slowly rise one week at a time. To accomplish this, we have all of our gradebook category aggregations set to "Natural" and we have 4 sub-categories within the main Course Toal category -- one for each quarter. Inside each quarter category, we have 10 additional sub-categories, one for each week. At the start of the year, we check the box for "Excludes work not yet submitted" in every single gradebook category's settings. This way, the gradebook is only counting work the student has submitted instead of counting everything.
Then, on Monday mornings, the teachers edit the gradebook category for the week that just passed and they "uncheck" that "Excludes work not yet submitted" setting. This way, the gradebook now counts the previous week against the student (plus any work submitted outside that week). As each week passes, the gradebook denominator slowly builds. At the start of the final week of the quarter, week 10, teachers "uncheck" that "Excludes..." setting for the "previous" week's category, the "current" week's category, and the "current Quarter" parent-category. This way, for the entire last week of the quarter, students see that 'all work' for the weeks 1 - 10 of that quarter now counts and the gradebook gives an accurate picture of the the final quarter grade if they were to 'stop' working that week.
Despite the weekly "prep work" for my staff, this has worked well for our students so I wanted to share.
Then, on Monday mornings, the teachers edit the gradebook category for the week that just passed and they "uncheck" that "Excludes work not yet submitted" setting. This way, the gradebook now counts the previous week against the student (plus any work submitted outside that week). As each week passes, the gradebook denominator slowly builds. At the start of the final week of the quarter, week 10, teachers "uncheck" that "Excludes..." setting for the "previous" week's category, the "current" week's category, and the "current Quarter" parent-category. This way, for the entire last week of the quarter, students see that 'all work' for the weeks 1 - 10 of that quarter now counts and the gradebook gives an accurate picture of the the final quarter grade if they were to 'stop' working that week.
Despite the weekly "prep work" for my staff, this has worked well for our students so I wanted to share.