Grading is only one way to use assessment. Teachers assess student progress informally throughout the lesson as they watch them work, listen to their questions, and interact with each other. Formal assessment for grading is only a small, though important part of the whole assessment picture. Especially when students are being introduced to particular concepts and skills, it may not be the best choice to grade every piece of work that groups and group members do. This is because when students are first learning concepts or skills in a subject area, their understanding is likely to be at an early stage. Thus, it may be best to wait and give them a chance, alone and in groups, to grow familiar with particular areas for a while before giving grades. In such cases, an alternative is for teachers and peers to provide formative feedback and for students to do self-assessment.

Formative assessment is feedback that students and teachers use to guide what a class does next. In contrast, summative assessment is often done at the end of a term or unit. For example, in formative assessment if student groups had trouble with a task, rather than going on to a different task, it might be better to do a similar task, after students and teachers have had time to understand what went wrong on the earlier task. In summative assessment, there will seldom be opportunities to redo. Instead, students will go on to the next unit or the curriculum for the next term.

Reducing the use of grades may lower students’ stress and encourage them to take risks and be more intrinsically motivated, learning for the fun and challenge of learning and due to their interest in what they are learning.

In contrast, grades are probably the strongest form of extrinsic motivation in schools. However, in some contexts, students and teachers may not have much freedom to choose whether or not to use grades. Sometimes assigning grades is important for tracking and reporting student progress. In the following sections, we will go through four options for grading when students work in cooperative groups.