Grading can be one of the most emotional things to talk about with teachers. Here are some of the things I've heard from colleagues over the years about grades: Grades should reward the hard-working students (and, by implication, punish the lazy ones); g rades should should reflect a student's growth over the grading period; g rades should only reflect knowledge of the content standards and nothing else; g rades should reflect 21st century skills (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity) not just content;a n F will motivate a student to worker harder;s tudents who don't turn anything in should get a 0;t he lowest grade a student should receive on an assignment should be a 50% All of these conversations miss the larger question: what should grades reflect? Susan Burchart (2013) says getting bogged down in the details about grading leads to lack of progress being made. I've experienced this first hand as I've heard colleagues passionately...
Perpetually in Beta: A Teacher Innovates with His Students