This reminds me of an assignment my ds had recently. They were to create a 3D model of an animal cell and label each of the parts. DS worked on it for hours over a period of a day or two, and did a beautiful job. He was finished early (unlike my older ds who was always energized by waiting until the last minute). The teacher had the class first grade their own work and then each project was to be graded by a peer. Well, ds thought it would be "braggy" to give his project a perfect score so took a few random points off. And the peer that graded his project after followed suit. Gave him the same points off for the same "issues". The teacher recorded the grade. DS was upset. He felt he deserved a better grade.
Now regardless of how I feel about peers grading work in 5th grade, the biggest lesson for ds was to value his effort and work and that false modesty is not only unnecessary but also can bite you later.
DH is an art professor and ends each semester with an individual critique with each student in every class. As part of it he has them fill out some paperwork about the course, what they like best/least, what they did/didn't learn, etc. On that form he asks them what grade they think they deserve for the course. I think this is mostly to address the issue so many people have of "but HOW can you grade art?". Every semester he has stories about the students who skip class, don't turn in assignments or generally turn in work reflecting absolutely no effort - inevitably these student indicate that they "deserve" a grade several letters above what the actual course work should have earned. On the other hand there is a percentage of his "best" or "better" students who put down a lower grade than they actually earned.
I find this interesting since all assignments are graded and returned prior to the final critique. I've never been clear on how a stack of graded work with C's and D's can become "B+" in a student's mind. Somehow the modesty of a pile of A's with an occasional B becoming a "B" makes more sense to me. I think it has to do with the whole "over achiever" mind set. I wonder if this is a bigger problem with our kids than we know...
