Reference sheet prepared by Jolene M. Morris, District Technology Director, Grand Co. School District
The following is a quote from the manual accompanying Excelsior grade2:
Congratulations, and welcome to grade2! grade2 allows you to organize and maintain all types of personal information about your students. You can keep all types of letter, numeric and mastery grades by term, by semester, by category and by subject. It also tracks student progress, conducts statistical analyses, imports and exports data to other software, and prints reports for your students, parents, and administrators as well as for your files.
It is important that you view grade2 as a management tool. There are many, many ways to use grade2 for organizing and reporting student achievement. Keep in mind that in the beginning, you do not have to use all of the features and capabilities of grade2.
Start slowly and progress at your own pace. Do things the way you feel comfortable doing them, and learn new features as your needs, curiosity and capabilities grow.
Your building sysop will have a copy of the documentation manual for grade2. This reference sheet is only a summary of the commands and procedures you'll need to use grade2.
Getting started
Before you run grade2 for the first time, it will be helpful to write down the answers to these questions:
1. What type of grades do you keep? homework? tests? daily work? labs? projects? extra credit?
2. How many subjects do you teach? List them.
3. How many semesters are in your classes? (A semester is called an interval in grade2.)
4. How many quarters in each semester? (A quarter is called a grading period in grade2. Careful not to confuse a grading period with your classes such as 1st period and 2nd period which are called sections in grade2.)
5. How do you calculate your grades? by averaging? summation? raw scores? percentages? your own formula?
Creating a class file
You will want to create a class file for each class you teach. Decide on a filename for your file -- a filename is a set of 8 (or less) alphanumeric characters containing no spaces. Examples of filenames are MATH3 (for 3rd section math), ALGEBRA6 (for 6th section algebra), and ENGLISH1 (for 1st section English).
After you decide on a filename for your class file, you should start grade2 running on your computer:
If the "Open grade2 Class File" window is open, press the ESC key (or select cancel by pressing the letter-C).
If you have a class file already loaded, pull down the file menu by holding down the ALT key and pressing the letter-F. Then highlight NEW and press the Enter key.
Enter general information
After you have created the class file, fill out the general information about the class. Follow these 5 steps:
1. Pull down the Define menu by holding down the ALT key and pressing the letter-D.
2. Select General InFormation by pressing the letter-F.
3. Select Edit by pressing the letter-E.
4. Type the information requested. Use the backspace key to correct while you are typing. Remember the grade2 meanings of the words section and period.
5. When the information you entered is correct and complete, hold down the CTRL key and press the letter-O for OK.
Enter your students' names
These next steps to setting up your grade book is to enter your students' names and ID numbers into your new class file. Follow these 8 steps:
1. Pull down the Edit menu by holding down the ALT key and pressing the letter-E.
2. Select Students by pressing the letter-S.
3. Press the letter-A to Add a new student.
4. Type in at least the first student's name and ID number.
5. Hold down the CTRL key and press the letter-A to Add the next student. Then type in that student's information.
6. Repeat step 5 until you have entered all of the students' information correctly.
7. Hold down the CTRL key and press the letter-O
8. You are in the Students List Window. Press the letter-O (for OK) to save the students information in your working Class File.
Enter assignments/tests
The next step in using grade2 is to enter the assignments and tests (or any other grade categories you use). You can always add more grade categories and assignments as the grading term progresses -- most teachers do not know which tests and assignments will be given when they are first setting up their grade books. Follow these 14 steps:
ADD A CATEGORY
1. Pull down the Define menu by holding down the ALT key and pressing the letter-D.
2. Select Categories by pressing the letter-C.
3. Select Edit by pressing the letter-E. (Later, if you want another category, press the letter-A to Add.)
4. Type in the name of the category (such as homework, test, project, classwork, lab, extra credit.)
NOTE: If you use a simple grading system where you total all tests and assignments together with no special weighting on tests, just use one category in step #4 such as "scores".
5. Hold down the CTRL key and press the letter-O. Then press the letter-O again.
ADD A GRADE ASSIGNMENT
6. Pull down the Define menu by holding down the ALT key and pressing the letter-D.
7. Select Grades by pressing the letter-G.
8. Select Add by pressing the letter-A.
9. Type in the description of your grade (such as odd-numb. probs on pg 45).
10. Move the highlight bar down to Due Date with the down arrow key and type in the due date.
11. Move the highlight bar down to First Category with the down arrow key. If necessary, use the right arrow key to choose your category.
12. Move the highlight bar down to Maximum Value with the down arrow key. Then type in the highest possible grade for this assignment.
13. Hold down the CTRL key and press the letter-O.
14. Press the letter-O again.
If you want to enter another test or assignment, repeat steps 6-14. If you want to add another category, repeat steps 1-5 using Add in step 3.
Entering students' grades
Entering grades into a grade2 class file is really easy. Follow these 5 steps:
1. Move the highlight square to the first student in column 1.
2. Type in the first student's grade with the numeric keys. (If you make a mistake, use the backspace key.)
3. Press the Enter key.
4. Type in the next students grade and press the Enter key.
5. Repeat step 4 until you have all of the students' grades entered.
You can move the highlight to the top of column 2 to enter your second assignment grades. You can leave a student's grade blank if he/she has not turned in the assignment -- just press the Enter key without typing anything or use the down arrow key to skip the student.
You can go back and delete a grade that was mis-typed or you can re-grade an assignment.
Printing a report
Follow these 8 steps:
1. Pull down the File menu by holding down the ALT key and pressing the letter-F.
2. Press the letter-P for Print.
3. Move the highlight bar to the report title you want. There are more reports not showing in the window.
4. Press the letter-O for OK
5. Press the letter-E to Edit.
6. Change the Destination to Screen or to Printer using the right or left arrow keys.
7. Hold down the CTRL key and press the letter-O for OK.
8. Follow the directions at the bottom of your screen.
Saving your work
You should always save your work. You should always make two copies of your grade2 records -- one on the network and one on a floppy disk (just in case the network goes down or in case you want to work on your grades at home). Follow these 5 steps:
1. Pull down the File menu by pressing ALT-F.
2. Press the letter-S for Save.
3. Press the letter-N for New if this is the first time you've saved the file. Press the letter-R for Replace if you are just adding to the gradebook.
4. Type in the filename you selected for this Class File (such as ENGLISH1 or MATH3).
5. Press CTRL-O for OK.
