Ungrading


December 7  7:00pm - 8:30pm EST

 

Part A: 7:00-7:45 Eastern   The Different Flavors

Part B: 7:45-8:30 Eastern   The Barriers



 

Zoom Information

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Facilitator(s)

Cynthia Woodbridge

Why?

The purpose of this workshop is to challenge academia’s reliance on grades. It is fair to say that most faculty have received end-of-term emails and grade appeals from students asking to be rounded up to (at least) the next letter grade. Most of us have become frustrated after spending hours providing feedback finding our work in the trash can outside the classroom. What if there is a different way? The intended outcome of the workshop is to plant some ungrading seeds in your gardens and see what happens.

Plan

Before the session:

  1. Please take time to read Ungrading by Jesse Stommel: https://www.jessestommel.com/ungrading-an-introduction. (Note that other blogs at the end are very good reading too!)
  2. Answer these Exploration Questions on the forum for the session before the session begins.
    1. Dr. Stommel states that during the pandemic, grades measured how well students were able to pivot online and adapt to online learning. Please comment on how well this does or does not overlap with your experience.

    2. In his foundational questions about assessments, Dr. Stommell makes a statement that we are evaluators (judgers) of student work. What percentage of your grading is assessment versus evaluation?
  3. Review the plans for Part A and Part B of the session, and prepare to contribute to discussion  and play one or more team roles noted below.

Part A (The Different Flavors)

During the session:

  1. Welcome (2 mins)
  2. Roles to invite (2 mins)
    • Recorder: to document session learning and insights
    • Reflector: to track group performance and make suggestions for improvement
    • Captain: for session timing and maintaining accountability for group performance
    • and possibly a Session Assessor to provide and SII report (strengths, improvements, insights)
  3. Learn about the flavors of ungrading in Cynthia’s classes (chemistry and environmental toxicity context) (8 mins)
  4. Breakout #1 (roles = Spokesperson/Recorder, Captain, Critical Thinker, Optimist) (20 mins)
  5. Teams should discuss and answer the Critical Thinking Questions (Recorders, please add your team's answers to the appropriate forum topic, Part A: Critical Thinking Questions.)
    1. How excited are you to adopt some ungrading practices?
    2. How might adopting ungrading practices in your classroom increase student equity and inclusion?
  6. Reports from each team (10 mins)
  7. Closure: Wrap-up potentially including a 2-minute assessment report from assessor (3 mins)

Part B (The Barriers)

During the session:

  1. Re-welcome, intro to activity, new roles if participants change (2 mins)
  2. Breakout #2 (roles = Spokesperson/Recorder, Captain, Critical Thinker, Optimist)  (15 mins)
  3. Teams should discuss the following prompt (Recorders, please add your team's answers to the appropriate forum topic: Part B: Barriers.)
    • Prompt: What barriers (personal, institutional, student) can you see to pivoting to ungrading?
  4. Re-convene: Report out barriers in round robin fashion (One barrier per team; only new barriers) (5 mins)
  5. Synthesis of the prior conversation: Whole group round-robin (The Session Recorder should capture practices in real time on the forum topic, Part B: Synthesis.)
    • Prompt: What is one practice you might implement in your classes regarding ungrading and why? (Only report one new item per person, please.) (15 mins)
  6. Closure: Resources to share and wrap-up potentially including a 2-minute assessment report from assessor
  7. Group assessment of the session using the session assessment feedback form

    8. I'm ready to Assess the Workshop!