Taking Grades for Teachers is the result of a very long wish list that began during my career as a middle school language arts teacher.

Textbooks were the cornerstone instructional resources back then, but they provided very little supplementary materials. My colleagues and I dealt with a huge void when we made daily lesson plans. Good commercial teaching resources that would grab and hold the interest of our students was either difficult to find or non-existent.

My wish list started on day one, and writing my own materials began shortly thereafter. Year after year, hours of my personal time, including summer breaks, were delegated to composing worksheets, puzzles, games, and full study units for my students. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and the results. Still, the time restraints of full-time teaching left me perpetually frustrated. My file drawer was stuffed with materials that weren’t as polished or as complete as I wanted. My ever-expanding wish list was still growing when I retired from teaching.

The list, however, refused to retire! With a foundation of thirty years’ experience, a desire to write, and time on my hands, I decided to readdress the resource desert problem from a commercial stand point. At that time, novels were slowly edging out reading texts, but instructional materials predictably lagged far behind. Novel study guides had occupied the #1 spot on my wish list for some time. I had my starting point.

I wrote objective tests for ten middle school titles and handed them to local teachers for field testing. Armed with positive feedback, I founded Taking Grades and began selling hard copies of my novel studies by mail.

My encore career had begun! I concentrated on two goals:
• Provide comprehensive, classroom-ready language arts materials to support busy teachers.
• Create motivating materials designed specifically for middle school students.

Teachers from all over the U.S. were soon sharing their personal wish lists. They wanted more diverse activities for novel studies. They needed resources for other language arts topic. As a result, Taking Grades for Teachers grew into an international website with electronic downloads for a wide range of language arts resources.

Today, a visit to Taking Grades for Teachers opens the door to more than 400 kid-friendly, no-prep resources that represent 25 years of learning and growing. Go shopping and check a few things off your list.

Margaret Whisnant, Owner/Author
Taking Grades for Teachers

How Taking Grades Got Its Name

How many times have you handed out a worksheet or made an assignment only to have THAT STUDENT raise a hand and ask, “Are you taking grades?”

Geeze! Now you have no choice.

Take note that Taking Grades material typically features a precise number of items (5, 10, 20, 25, 33, 50) which makes it easy to calculate a percentage grade.

Though we provide lots of creative, open-ended resources, the bulk of our products require a specific, correct answer so that grading is quick and accurate.

With so many opportunities for taking grades built into our products, teachers can confidently present sufficient documentation when a parent shows up shortly after progress reports are issued.

Hence the name Taking Grades for Teachers.

THAT STUDENT doesn’t need to know anything about this.