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Alfie has a point but I feel we need to strike balance between grades and motivating student learning.

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The worst is when students compare their tests to one another..... "what did you get?" as if the grade said something about the person's character and worth.

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grades remove the joys of learning. I had a student who asked me if he got the highest grade in the class, which i think was so sad. Grades should not be the driving force for coming to school.

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While I think he was a little hard on teachers, I agree with him that grades cause students to lose something, or not gain anything from it. I think it's important to have discussions with our students about grades. We should enforce the idea that grades are not the goal, but learning is! Grades can help us see where we are at, but they don't define us. They are just guides. I do think grades caused me to work harder in school because I wanted to impress my parents and friends. But they did cause me unnecessary stress, and I never remembered all of what I was studying for.

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Are we still focusing on grades when we create success criteria as well?

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I see your point too though, Lisa. When the system is so entrenched in the way it is, putting the responsibility solely with the teacher would be tricky. I found in my own experience that the competetive nature of grades took more away from my learning experience, an this was corroborated by a lot of my friends at the time.

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I fully agree with Alfie.  I've experienced a lot of the same things he mentioned myself, as a learner.  I would LOVE to teach without grades.

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I agree that grades shouldn't exist because it slowly takes away from a student's sense of wonder and reprograms their end goal to be the grade, not what they have learned.

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I can understand why grades exist, from a reporting and accountability point of view. However, it isn't in the best interest of students. It encourages students to aim for a better mark rather than pursue their learning interests to their full abillities.

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I do agree as well with what Alfie is saying. Sometimes we get too caught up on a grade and forget what we are actually learning about. However I do think we need to measure students learning in some way, maybe there is another idea than having grades?

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I love what Alfie says and agree that it would be so nice to not feel like we are ‘coercing’ students to do the work and get the grades that we need them to. However I do feel like we are bound by the school boards and do not have the freedom to eliminate grading. In a perfect world where we had more freedom and could teach however we wanted to, I would use grading much less.

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I like what Alfie has to say. It makes a lot of sense because I can remember myself in school (and this year) trying to get the best grade and then cutting corners to try to get the grades the easiest way possible. The only thing I can think of is applying to universities/colleges. Being admitted to a program of choice is 99% based on your GPA- Laura H.

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Can use this to relate to the real world more. Answer bigger questions instead of memorizing and copying.

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Grades divert students away from the main goal...which is learning!

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I think we need to focus on developing intrinsic motivation and engaging our students in their passions.

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I always did better and retained more information when the goal was to learn something new rather than "this is going to be on a test"

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I agree with Alfie theoretically, and in a perfect world this is how school would be done. I think it's very doable in primary/junior and for our conversation. However, when students are trying to go onto bigger things in university sometimes they need to work for that A. Getting an A is a skill that you have to learn. Maybe the problem is with the bigger system? I don't have a solution but these are my thoughts. There are definitely better ways to judge someone's merit but it becomes more subjective and harder to measure.

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I think in order for this to work, there will have to be a whole overhaul of the education system. I love the idea, though! I think it would do wonders for students creativity, confidence, and overall comfort in the real world.

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I think it makes a lot of sense.   I notice it with myself.   Sometimes you feel so focused on getting a good grade that you do tend to focus on just the activities that are for marks

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i think its a good idea so students can focus on the actual material and learn. Grades make students memorize material

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I agree with him that grades should not be the only measurements for students' performance. Grades are good for report cards, and/or sth tangible for parents to know how their kids are doing in class.

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I agree with Alfie, I think grades push students away from being intrinsically motivated to learn and do well. However, there needs to be some sort of standard and I think it's unrealistic to get rid of grades altogether.

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I think there would be less anxiety about being "perfect" and more room to be curious and take chances

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I love his ideas but how do you get rid of the bad teachers? How do you compensate for or identify bad teaching without grades? I'm also curious about how students from high schools who don't have grades apply for further education?

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I never learned/retained anything when it was forced for grade

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It allows students to look past the number or letter of a grade and look deeper into the meaning behind the material

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I agree with what Alfie says! When we focus too much on getting an A, the enjoyment of learning disappears

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I think Alfie is right on. But he is a bit hard on teachers. Teachers, for the most part, have been raised in this system of grades too. And there is pressure. But we can work to change it, and we do have the power to work with our students on the messages  around grades.