SDL Grading

As far as grading is determined, SDL grades are no different from normal grades. Julia and her teacher will meet to determine what grade she will get on her report card.

While Julia feels bad about lowering her goals, her projects were all of excellent caliber. Her teacher believes that the grade should be an “A”, but Julia is less certain. After discussion, Julia realizes that she shot astronomically high and accepts the “A” she deserves. If she wanted, she could have taken the class for pass/fail, where she could have gotten a P or an F. Be cautious, though, some colleges prefer to see letter grades in certain subjects. In addition, if you are an athlete and want to participate in varsity sports in college, you should be careful to only take SDL electives and not substitute your core academic classes.

What are Independent Studies?

Independent studies are very similar to SDL’s. The definition is currently in the works at Steller, but the most commonly accepted one is that Independent Studies are done outside of a class period, while SDL’s are done in a SDL period. Since Independent Studies are done on a student’s own time, they are responsible for scheduling meetings with teachers. Usually, you have to be a little older to do an Independent Study, because they require students to be almost totally self directed, since there isn’t a “class”.

What was your favorite SDL?

My favorite was in 8th grade, when I did a semester on Alternative Education verses Traditional. I had gone to Optional schools all my life, and I wanted to learn about the differences. I interviewed students and visited the schools… it ended up being 150 pages long.
Sam, 12th

Science ….. we got science credit and made paper mache animals and wrote a ditty about them… only we made fimo animals so our whole project could fit in a shoebox…. it was pretty pathetic.
Sophie 10th and Analise 11th

I did rock climbing for P.E. credit, because I didn’t feel that the P.E. classes here were good choices.
Erin,9th

Movie making and movie making techniques because I learned a lot about making movies and had fun in the process.
Joe, 8th

My favorite was cinematography, it was fun.
Cale, 8th

The creation of this book was my favorite Independent Study - I learned a lot about deadlines, using computers, getting people to listen to me, arguing, formatting, being assertive, giving in, compromising, managing time, editing, and (oh yeah…) writing.
Sarah, 11th

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