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Max and Koty are Jack's kids...I had the pleasure of teaching their creative and brilliant minds in my program.

I am glad that you brought up extra credit.  I think that your points are valid and I suppose a more appropriate label would be an "enrichment activity."  At this point in the lesson, I would be satisfied if students could show me in a mode of their choice that they understood what they have done in the scaling activity.  The goal of my lesson, in grade 7 would be to map out scale and perhaps to transfer their understanding of scale to an example that is meaningful (and concrete?) to them.  Being able to apply their learning to a drop of water is an excellent assessment of their understanding that surpasses the goal.  Leading to the question of how high do we set our expectations for our kids.  Different grade levels should have to demostrate different levels of mastery...

I was reading your reactions to "A, B, C, D.... = 1,2,3,4" in terms of assigning grades and I agree with you wholeheartedly.  In the book "The Skillful Teacher," authors Saphier and Gower suggest that the only grades that make sense are "A," "B," and "Not yet" (provided the criteria has been clearly mapped out in terms of attaining mastery).  This is interesting to me, as we are in such a grade-driven society.  The program that I teach, "Communique" started off as nongraded so the focus could stay on the learning process rather than the letter grade.  Everyone was excited about this notion until parents and students realized they would not be eligible for honor roll.  So, the program (d?)evolved into O, S, or U with antecdotal recommendations for students to achieve mastery.  Assignments received many comments along with a "check, check plus, or check minus" (*yet another way to say "A,B,C,D...potato/potAto?) to act as a snapshot of where they were on the road to mastery.   That worked well for about ten years until Powergrade came onto the scene.  Parents loved the portfolio assessment and the parent/student/teacher written reflections on their child's progress each quarter but where was the "hard data" on Powergrade that they could access at anytime.   And so, about three years ago we started assigning number grades to assignments in a way that would allow for breathing room (assessed a large variety of their progress including assigning "extra points" to those who brought in many "Communique Challenges" on a daily basis.  We start each day with Communique Challenges...this is where students bring in something from "their" real world that connects with what we are learning in school. ). 

Ok, it is Friday night at 10...time to say good night and happy weekend:)