Skip to main content

Skyward Tech Tip: Entering an Event (Elementary Assignments)

As you all know, at the elementary level we have switched to standards-based grading. What this means is that we are no longer grading assignments. We are grading whether a child has met a particular skill/standard. This means that a single assignment may be evaluating one skill, or it could be looking at multiple skills. If an assignment covers multiple skills, each skill must be evaluated independently. If multiple skills are lumped together for a single grade, it creates an inaccurate assessment of the child’s performance on each of the individual skills.

Below you will find directions on how you enter an event (assignment) into the Skyward gradebook. These events will roll up to give you information on how a student is performing on a particular standard/skill and in turn, these standards will roll up to show you the report card score for that group of skills.

For the printer-friendly version, click here.

Entering a Single Skill Event

Step 1: Click on the subject for which you wish to enter an assignment/event.

Step 2: Hover your mouse over the word Events at the top of the screen and click on Add Event.


Step 3: Select the subject/report concept you are assessing from the Subject drop down box.

Step 4: Select the Common Core State Standard (for Reading, Writing and Math) from the Skills drop down box.  For Social Studies, Science and Learner behaviors, this will be the same as the Subject/Report Card area.


Step 5: Enter in a short description in the Description box. This is what appears at the top of your gradebook grid. Enter in a more lengthy description in the Detailed Description box (this is optional).


Step 6: Enter in the dates.
  • Entered Date: The day you are entering the assignment.
  • Assign Date: The day you assigned the assignment to the students.
  • Proposed Due Date: The date the assignment was turned in.
  • Actual Due Date (optional): Don’t worry about this at all.


Step 7: If you want to grade with M, P and L you do not need to check anything. If you want to grade using points, check the “Use points to score this event” box and then enter the Max Points for the skill you entered above.


Step 8: Make sure the boxes for Post to Family Access and Post to Student Access are selected.

Step 9: Now you need to save the event. You have three choices for saving.


  • Save and Back: Will save and take you back to the gradebook grid.
  • Save and Add Another: Will save and take you to a new Add Event screen to add another event.
  • Save and Score: Will save and take you to the scoring screen.

Entering Multiple Skill Events

Follow steps 1 - 8 from Entering Single Skill Events above.

Step 9: Under Skill Options select the other skill you want to assess. If you are grading with points, you will need to set the points for that skill.





Step 10: Now you need to save the event. You have three choices for saving.

  • Save and Back: Will save and take you back to the gradebook grid.
  • Save and Add Another: Will save and take you to a new Add Event screen to add another event.
  • Save and Score: Will save and take you to the scoring screen. If you want to enter all the skills at one time, this is your best option.

Entering Scores

Step 1: Enter your grades in the Score column by clicking the * in the box.



Step 2: If you want an assignment to not count for a student, click the no count box.
Step 3: If you want the assignment to show up as missing check the Missing box.
Step 4: Add comments, if desired
Step 5: Click Save

Mass Assign Tools

Mass Assign Grades: If you would like to mass assign the scores, you do this by clicking the “Assign All Scores” button and selecting the score you want to mass assign. If you want to overwrite scores you already have, make sure you select the “Overwrite scores” box. Then, click Apply.

Mass Assign No Count: If you would like to mass set an assignment as no count (ex: Pretest), you do this by clicking “Set All to No Count”. Then, click Apply.

Popular posts from this blog

Google Docs: Fonts for Early Elementary

Sample of search results from fonts.google.com A couple weeks ago, I was sitting in a training with a bunch of my favorite lower elementary teacher friends, and several of them were lamenting the fact that it is hard to find "good" Google fonts for the little people they work with on a daily basis.  Specifically, it is a challenge to find the single story lower case a and the open 4 .  This conversation, of course, sent me out on a mission to remedy this for these fantastic people.  So, the next day I put on my headphones, turned up the tunes on Spotify, and dived into the website fonts.google.com .  This website lists all the Google fonts available.  It also allows you to type in your own letters and numbers and see them in all the various fonts.  For my purpose, I typed in "abckgy 1234 This is the font."  From here I could see all 877 fonts, and look specifically for the a   and the 4.  It was quite an adventure, and I came across a lot of really awesome font

It's time to change your password!

There are several times a year when it is important to change your password.  Your password will expire every 90 days. When your windows computer informs you that your password will be expiring soon, CHANGE IT THEN! It is also always a good idea to change your password before going on break so that you do not get locked out of your computer, email or gradebook.  Here is how you change your password from the school windows computers. On your Windows desktop/TEC computer , press the Alt, Ctrl and Delete buttons at the same time. Click on "Change a Password" on the menu below: Enter your username, if needed, and follow the directions on screen. If you are off site or working solely on a Chromebook , you can use the VDI (Virtual Desktop) to change your password.   Simply go to vdi.portageps.org.  Click "VMware Horizon HTML Access."  Click "Accept."  Login with your portage username (leave off the @portageps.org) and password.  Click "Login."  Cli

Skyward Tech Tip: Student Birthday List

Would you like to get a list of your students' birthdays from Skyward? This can be done in just a few clicks. Step 1: Login to Skyward and select the blue gradebook for the class you want to print usernames and passwords for - elementary staff, you can just select any of your gradebooks. Step 2: Go to the reports menu at the top of the screen and select Class Roster. Step 3: Choose Student Name & Student Info, then select Clone Template. Step 4: Give your new template a name, such as Birthdays. Click Save. Step 5: Select how you want the Names to Display, then UNCHECK all the boxes. Now only check Birth Date. Click Save. Step 6: Now you can select the template you just created. Click Print. Step 7: A PDF preview will open. From here you can choose to save or print. You do this by placing your curser in the bottom right corner of the screen and clicking on the picture of the disc (save) or the printer (print). This is what the report would look like: