Whatever his/her feeling about grades, nearly every teacher must give them. That's the rationale behind this straightforward new text—helping prospective teachers understand grading and learn to do it. Throughout the material, the focus is on explaining how grades function in schools and schooling, and on developing skills in grading work and creating report cards. Based on current research and informed by the author's experience, the text is replete with detailed explanations, stories and illustrations, student work samples, sample report cards, and other school artifacts. After an introduction to the historical, social, legal, and psychological contexts of grading, chapters cover grading individual units of student work, followed by coverage of techniques for turning discrete grades into report-card marks. Self-reflection is encouraged at the onset and throughout, while numerous references lead the reader onward.