I am overweight. I know I am. I also know that me just saying, "I'm going to eat less and lose weight," just won't cut it. I need a plan.
Students are the same about their grades. I've also notice that many, especially the lower levels, struggle with understanding how grades actually work. Let's blame the math teachers on that (one of the pers of being an English teacher, after all).
One thing I have done that works well is I give them this grade calculator.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CTYHEEzfn3DcWjRJs5IhOmnijTM4unQt/copy
Many students don't understand that an average of two quarters means the middle. The math is just for every point your Q3 grade is below your desired grade, you need to be that many points above your desired grade for your Q4 grade, or conversely, for every point over your desired grade, you can go that many points below.
This is based on a semester-long course. It factors out what grade they need to make before the exam.
How this helps students - well, if you keep your grade book up to date (and we know all extreme teachers do), students will know what their magic number is (the grade they need to make for Q4) and can watch the grade book. When it dips below that magic number, they need to act fast.
What about exams? Well, they are really not as important as they seem. At my school, the exam is worth 20%, which makes it by far the most weighted single grade in the course; however, the two quarters combined are worth 80%. They have so much ore weight. If a student goes into a state test or teacher-made final exam and try their best, they should probably make close to what they are making in the class, plus or minus ten points. If your district is like mine and uses a 40-40-20, then the exam only impacts the final grade 1 point for every 5 points it strays from the Q3/Q4 average. In other words, if a kid has a 77 for his average, he will need to make 15 + 77 (92) on the exam in order to move it 3 points to an 80 to get that B. Conversely, he would need his exam grade to be 35 points lower than a 77 in order to drop it to a 70 - 40 points lower to break into the D category.
Do the math. It works! Give this chart to your kids and help them to find the magic number. Go further and have them analyze what they are going to do differently to bring that grade up. Help them find their goal!