Pinnacle Q & A

How to remove semester grades that have been overwritten

Here is the procedure for removing semester grades that have been overwritten. 

1.  Go to view on the menu bar and choose "marking period."

2.  Select the score for which you wish to remove the overwritten grade.

3.  Go to Edit on the menu bar and choose "clear marking period."

4.  click "okay"

(submitted by Casey Meehan)

I give only 1-2-3-4 for effort. How do I set up my gradebook? (Winnequah)

For each of your classes:

1) Make sure you are in the correct Marking Period (Select --> Quarter)

2) Set the Effort category to calculate properly (Define --> Categories --> Effort --> Edit --> Method of Grading: Averaging

3) Set up the 4-point scale so that it is correct (Define --> Letter Grades --> 4-Point Scale --> Edit). The scale should be:

Letter   Value

  4           4

  3          3

  2          2

1           1

If the scale does not match this, you should revise the numbers in the "Value" column to match what's above.

I can't see the kind of information (grades, attendance, etc) that I'm looking for in Pinnacle

You can view different screen types by doing the following:

Click on View on the top toolbar

Click Attendance if you want to view attendance on the class you are in.

To change to a different view screen you choose View on the toolbar

Choose another screen view by selecting anything from Assignments to Categories 

I want to see student schedules

Click Pinnacle on the top toolbar

Click Student Schedules (This file contains schedules for the whole student body)

Select the student you want to see a schedule for.

Students who have left are still in my roster, or students who have joined my class aren't in my roster

Open the class where students need to be removed or added

Click Pinnacle on the top toolbar

Locate and select Update Roster

A process will run to remove or add students.

I can't tell when students have left my class, or been added to it

When you open your class you may receive student update boxes for your Pinnacle grade book.  These are updates for roster changes and attendance updates.  If a student is removed from your class, the date the student is removed is indicated on the bottom line of update box.  If you click "Next" you will see the information on individual students.  If you click "Update All" you will only see the change for the student listed in the first box.

When a student changes classes, what happens to his/her grades?

Answer from Support:  The Retrieve Summary Grades option is designed to allow teachers to have a student’s previous marking period grade(s) automatically brought into the gradebook.  If this question is coming from the high school, because their semester grade is cumulative there is no marking period grade that could be automatically transferred to the new class.  Homework assignments are not transferred automatically.  If a student transfers from Teacher A’s 1^st hour Algebra 1 class to Teacher A’s 2^nd hour Algebra 1 class, and if Teacher A has the exact same assignments defined in both classes, Teacher A could export that student’s grades and then import them into the 2^nd hour class.  The Utilities Export and Utilities Import options would be used in this case.  In summary, if a student transfers to another teacher’s class, the teachers need to communicate so the new teacher knows where the student was at when they left the class.  If they need to include that grade in the new class somehow, they could create a single assignment worth the total number of points possible to date from the old class, and enter the total points earned by the student in that one assignment column, then using the “X” grade to exempt all of the other students in the class for that assignment.

I can't see attendance, or grades for all the students in my class

If you find you can't see attendance for all students in a class you probably have the Show Students Only selected.  Follow the directions below to correct the problem.

1.  Click Options on the top toolbar

2.  Locate and Click - Show Student Only   

You will now see the attendance for all students.

I can't access my gradebook from home

For this you use "Webgrader;" you have to set yourself up from school.

1. If you don't have a Webgrader password, open a class in Pinnacle at school.  Choose Pinnacle --> WGBA Password from the menubar on top.  Leave the "old password" field blank, and enter the password you want to use from home.

2.  From home, go to www.mononagrove.org/wgba.  Click on "Web Gradebook" and then log on.  Your school number is 060 for MGHS and 100 for Winnequah.  Your User ID is the same as at school, and your password is the one you assigned in step 1.

I can't enter grades at all

If you have already entered at least one assignment for the class you're having trouble with, choose View --> Assignments from the menubar on top.   

If you have not yet created any assignments, create your first assignment by choosing Define --> Assignments from the menubar on top.  (The configuration screen has a lot in it, but to define a typical assignment you just need to name it, choose a category for it (K & S or effort) and define the number of points possible.)  Once you've created at least one assignment, you will be able to choose View --> Assignments.