Hey Susan. I didn't get a chance to read the article, I don't have access to a stable computer setup so I am doing everything between classes. Here are my answers, slightly late.
1) What are your "student bird" and "teacher bird" thoughts about assigning percentages or letter grades in the assessment of student work? What do the grades indicate? How are they arrived at? Whose purposes do they serve? What are positive and negative aspects to giving grades? to be assigned grades by an instructor?As a student I found percentages really encouraging and I had a way to see how I was doing relative to my peers. I never had any particular talents other than mathematics so being able to reach perfection was a nice inflation for my ego. I recall getting 100 in pretty much every math course since Grade 9. From a student perspective I would say most people aim to do the bare minimum to pass and are pretty satisfied with anything in the mid-range. This was my attitude, anyways, for subjects other than mathematics. I think for most people they find grades do not accurately assess their aptitudes or perhaps do not feel a need to prove this qualities that they possess with often time arbitrary numbers. Grades indicate a lot if they are praise in some way... perhaps a lot less if they do not seem to act fairly.
From a teacher stand-point I think precise number grades in mathematics are detrimental to the goals of deep abstract understanding, complex problem solving, and exercising technical cognition. In mathematics when the emphasis is on how many multiple choice out of 100 one can answer correctly we are putting a number on a student's ability to be a very quick and precise human calculator. I think if we genuinely focus on the wide spectrum of skills mathematics can give we need to have grades which fall within a range as opposed to a precise number. Assessments should be designed not to bring down a student, but rather give opportunity to illustrate and explain how they use mathematics to think about a posed problem. It's hard to stick a number on that... it doesn't seem to encourage the continued use and exploration of students' ideas.
2) What are some of the unintended side effects of grading? How do grades and marks in themselves format the social relations and learning situations in a classroom, a school, a district?
A huge hurdle for teachers is the fact that you are really being used for the ruling class. Time and time again we see backlash from highly influential people surrounding the idea of adjusting school such that people who are disadvantaged can also prosper. When a parent is concerned for their child, most times this concern is genuine and well-founded, bu they are striving to allow their child to have the same or more economic freedom as they do. The problem is, these students with supportive parents are already substantially more likely to obtain that irregardless of what we teach at schools. Some students this is not the case, and I think marks harm those people.
3) Could you imagine teaching math and/or science without giving grades? How could a teacher encourage learning without having an emphasis on grading
