What difference do grades make to middle school students?

Teachers are used to giving out grades to kids. But what do those grades mean when they land on the desk of a student in grades 6, 7, and 8? Do they illuminate how students are doing, or humiliate them for daring to try? Do they inspire students, or destroy their motivation? Do they communicate with parents, or cause misunderstandings about how their children are doing? Do they even mean what they say?

“It should be private. It’s my information, my information only. I’ll share it with you if you really want to know, but why should you know?” —Carmela

“At my school, teachers say stuff when it’s not true. Like they say you’re good at math just because you try, even though you just got a bad grade. So people don’t really listen to what the teachers say now, ’cause it’s not true.” —Edward

In 2006, WKCD asked Kathleen Cushman and Laura Rogers, Ed.D. to make sense of the complicated and often turbulent world of middle school students. That work, made possible by MetLife Foundation, appears in Fires in the Middle School Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from Middle Schoolers (New Press, 2008), in which many of the following passages appear.

How Do I Grade? An Exercise for Teachers »

How Grades Affect Us

As students approach the end of the middle school years, they may begin to understand the ways teachers use grades both to assess their work and to encourage them to do better.

“When you get a bad grade and teachers say you’re trying, I think they’re just trying to motivate you to maybe study next time, and try harder to get that A or B that you want.” —Daniel

“A kid can be good at math and get a C. That’s still possible. And the teachers, they’ll say that to encourage you to do better, ’cause the teachers know what you can do and what you can’t, and the teachers want to make you learn.” —Carmela

But many students will experience a teacher’s encouragement as contradicting the grade you assign—and when that happens, they listen to the grade.

“At my school, teachers say stuff when it’s not true. Like they say you’re good at math just because you try, even though you just got a bad grade. So people don’t really listen to what the teachers say now, ’cause it’s not true.” —Edward

“They don’t always try to help us on everything. They try to criticize us as we go do our work, and as we get a low grade… like, ‘Why did you get a low grade? Did you study?’ And we be like, ‘Yes, I did study’—but we don’t always get the problems, or whatever.” —Shaniece
Students are very sensitive to how they stand compared to other students in their class.

“I think the teacher should [give criticism] privately, ’cause kids make fun of you when you don’t do good—they call you dumb and stupid. I usually go check my grade after school, so I’m by myself and no one’s going to hear it or anything.” —Edward

“I don’t like people getting in my case. If I get A’s and they get D’s, I don’t really care if I get made fun of, but it’s just annoying. Or if I get a C they’ll be like ‘You got a C? Oh my god, the smartest person got a C!’ or something like that. And then they’ll be like spreading it around. It should be private. It’s my information, my information only. I’ll share it with you if you really want to know, but why should you know?” —Carmela

A teacher may want to give feedback on how the whole class did, as a way of encouraging students to do better. But take care not to reveal a student’s grade, which is private information.

“Instead of reading down a list, ‘This person got 90 percent,’ a teacher could say a quick general thing: ‘Some people did excellent, some people did well, some people didn’t do so well.’ So the people who didn’t do so well will try harder next time.” —Gabe

Grades may matter to students’ parents in ways you never intended. They may believe that a good student always gets a top grade. They may reward or punish children for their grades. Whatever the situation, students will have to mediate between their parents’ concerns, their own, and yours.

“I’m always trying to get A’s, trying to please my mom because I know she has a lot on her mind, and if I get bad grades, then it’s just another problem for her to deal with. So my first-quarter report card [in sixth grade] was all A’s, and I wanted to keep that up. Then [later] my science grade was a B, and ‘No, I have to get an A, is there anything I can do to bring that up?’ My sixth-grade teacher was really nice. She was like ‘Okay, we can do something.’ So we had to do a project for the science fair and that’s what brought my grade up to an A. And I really appreciate it, because not all teachers would let you bring your grade up even though it was already good.” —Genesis

 

How I Grade? An Exercise for Teachers »

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