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I have to admit, as a student I responded much more to comments/information from my teacher than a grade. I liked the attention. Though I did cry the first time I got a frowny face on a paper.

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I remember in Middle school when I received my first failing Math grade and it really made me feel sad. I remember going to the teacher to understand why I got the grade and she wasn't very nice about it. I remember dreading that class for the rest of the year.

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Grades were never  much of a thought or concern until college. I was always  of the mindset passing with a C is not all that much different than passing with an A...right!? It really wasn't until I began teaching that I realized how much kids care about their grades! I guess I missed the memo when growing up!

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When I finished my last big portfolio project for my master's that I had spent a lot of time on and didn't get any feedback, it sort of killed me

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I had very personal sense of competitiveness with grades. They were extrinsic results of my intrinsic drive.

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When I learned that there was something called an honor roll after my first semester  in junior high I set a goal to push myself to get put on it.  After achieving that goal I then set goals to get on the higher honor roll.  I worked with my teachers to figure out the grading systems and what I needed to do to get better grades.

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I had written a mediocre summary of Frindle for my 4th grade teacher. I got the paper back... with a C at the top. It meant 2 things for me, 1) I was bitter and never particularly cared for this teacher, but 2) I had to do more than just show up if I wanted to be an A kid. He was never my favorite, but is tough grading pushed me hard, and to this day I am grateful.

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Math was definitely my weakness in middle school. I would always get bad grades in the class, but the teacher would never do check-ins to talk about why or provide opportunities for improvement. It was the same with a lot of my classmates who were also getting poor grades. As a result, I just gave up in her class.
On the positive side, my science teacher would base part of our grades on class/group discussions and that was a lot more effective for me.

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Specific feedback was given about a project I worked on in college, but no letter grade was given. The comments were constructive, thought provoking, and encouraging.  An opposite example is, during my masters (which I'm still currently working on), I only received a final letter grade on a 20+ page paper that I poured my efforts into, and I was extremely disappointed to not receive any feedback whatsoever.  Bottom line, I appreciate feedback more than grades.

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Portfolios to showcase learning. Especially if you are weird.

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Hardly Nuanced
I received this as feedback on a college paper I wrote.  I had to ask my room
mate what it meant.

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Vandiver                                     My daughter just made Dean's list at CSUP. She's in the nursing program. Super proud papa!

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Vandiver                                     My daughter just made Dean's list at CSUP. She's in the nursing program. Super proud papa!

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My teaching portfolio was intense! Student data, personal data and so much more had to be included in my 50 pages....I ended up passing with flying colors!! I was a proud graduate. 😊

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In 6th grade, we did a project on Canada for Social Studies. I worked so hard researching, drawing maps, finding pictures of explorers and putting together my final binder. When the teacher gave it back to me the grade said 120/100. He had given me 20 extra points for going above and beyond. He even wrote a little note sharing how much he enjoyed reading my project. It meant so much to me that he recognized all of my effort.

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🤗 A good grade makes me smile.

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I was in a high school english class and my teacher made the decision to not give out grades in the class. I thought this was great because I did not have to worry about passing or failing the class and I could focus on improving my work based on the frequent feedback I got from that teacher.

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High School. AP Poly Sci. 
I made a B- on an exam. My teacher grabbed me by the collar and knocked over my chair while dragging me into the hallway. Shoving me into the lockers he proceeded to scream an inch away from my face. Today, I could only guess at what exactly it was that he was screaming at me. However, the message was received. I had an understanding of what it meant to waste potential. These tactics would obviously not be permissible today. Yet, this one B- and my teachers “tough love” truly woke me up and helped change the trajectory of my life - not toward perfect grades, rather toward the meaningful application of my abilities. 

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This is the first year that my daughter is beginning to understand grades. As she begins to connect grades to her work, I have observed how it is changing her attitudes towards the content. What a difference from primary grades when a student is encouraged to explore and receives feedback that is not attached to numerical scores and letter grades.

She has to take weekly Friday spelling tests. After receiving 11/20 on a spelling test, leading up to the next week's test involved tears and anxiety. She started doubting herself that she can spell. We rephrased the "failing grade" to being proud about mastering 11 new words. I am being very aware of how I talk about grades with her. I don't want her equating an "A" or a "100%" to her self worth and ability to learn. From both my experience as a learner and a teacher, I see how subjective grades are depending on which teacher you have. Also, continuing to emphasize showing "A's" to demonstrate learning leads to unhealthy habits of perfectionism and discourages risk taking.

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One of my more memorable grading stories was in 8th grade math. My teacher refused to grade homework - it was a way for us to practice the skills that she taught in class. However, that meant that our whole grade was based on tests and presentations. If we did not get a grade that we liked on a test we could show her our completed homework assignments and she would allow us to retake the assessment.
It didn't take me long to realize that I needed to complete the homework to learn the skill.

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I experience a lot of anxiety when I have to write papers. In college I was asked to write a paper comparing two pieces of literature. I was a wreck. Totally lost it. In the end, I received an A on the paper and bit more (not total) confidence in my writing and analysis skills.

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My freshman year in high school, I made varsity on the football team. The problem was that I was nearly ineligible. Algebra 1 grade was suffering after two weeks as a freshman athlete. My teacher, Mr. Butacahn was also a coach, and very understanding. He notified my coaches and my parents that I was failing before just letting me fail. He set up a time after school for 15 minutes every day before football practice for me to catch up and understand my math assignments. His understanding of where my motivation was, was very important in being able to help me. I didn't care about the letter of grade at that time.. I just wanted to play sports. He taught me the algorithms and helped me navigate through math successfully enough in order to be successful where I wanted success.

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I had zero confidence with math when I was in school. I tried really hard every day, but I never seemed to fully grasp it. I had a teacher in high school who really put a lot of her energy into helping me, and she offered extra credit you could attach to tests if you did well on homeworks. I added some of my extra credit to a test, and when she handed it back, she said in a mockingly (to be clear, she was joking), "Hi, my name is Allie and I'm bad at maaaaaath." I got 112% on the test. It really made me question the narrative I had been telling myself for years that math was just something other people could do, but not me.

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My daughter has a high school algebra teacher who gives students points for each step of the problem they did correctly, rather than just marking answers right or wrong. It has for sure helped my daughter's overall math grades, and it gives immediate feedback bc students can easily see errors and where they might need more help. It credits them for, at the very minimum, trying.

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When I was a freshman in college I took a math class that I really struggled in. My teacher was wonderful and I got help from him every week. We made a deal if I passed the  final he would pass me for the class. I passed the final. Later I learned I have a learning disability called dyscalculia  which is number dyslexia.