Hello Tricia
Go to the forum documentation and scroll down to "Grading Forums" or click on this link http://docs.moodle.org/en/Forum_module#Grading_forums.
The 'normal' way for grading forums is not in a response to the post, there is a grade field. The grade you allocate here is private and not seen by anyone else but the teacher and the student concerned.
Greetings
Marius
Forum
Grading a Forum
This discussion has been locked so you can no longer reply to it.