I wrote the other day about grades and grading and how I hate them. Then I came across this post by Marilla Svinicki that talks about orientation of goals – how there are various ways of approaching learning from both the teaching side and the learning side. 

No question I teach in the mastery/learning orientation and, I hope, after a few weeks in my class the students move away from the traditional performance approach. I’m a week away from the first actual “grades” going out in the intro class, the email responses will tell me who’s on my page and who’s on their own.