Changing the culture of traditional grading practices

By Mark Heintz

Last week, I celebrated my attempts to minimize the value placed on grades in order to focus on learning. In my previous post, I triumphed over my progress and stated, “So far, I have never felt better about finalized grades.  Some student anxiety has been alleviated and I don’t feel that I have as many students point-grubbing.  I feel that students are learning. The grade is an afterthought.  They know they can argue to make a change.  They know they have a voice in the process other than just the assessments I use.  It has become a partnership.  Something it should always be.”

I wish it was always this easy.

Minimizing grades is a process, and what I hope to do in writing these blog posts is to be as transparent as possible in hopes others see what I do and are willing to try it as well. I hope to not just present a perfect picture of the process of going to gradeless.  I have encountered many bumps in the road because it’s hard to move away from relying on coercive grading methods, which, if we were to be honest with ourselves, grades are.  It is even harder for students not to feel under the thumb of those practices. I firmly believe in order for me to make larger shifts in going gradeless it will require more people making the effort.  Joy Kirr has curated a lot of educators attempts and practices in going gradeless, and I hope to continue to contribute to that resource hub.



The day I posted that blog, I asked my students some additional questions.  As a class, writing is a focus, and I wanted more descriptive feedback.  In another Google form, I asked them how they felt they're doing and what they needed more help/time on in each of the following areas: making claims, using evidence, explaining that evidence, making connections between arguments, using prior knowledge to set the stage, and again what grade would they give themselves.

I am still incredibly happy with how this is going.  The feedback from the students was overall positive.  Their feedback was constructive and helpful for them and me.  However, I did receive a comment that is troubling me.  One of my students gave themselves an F and was very critical of themselves. I was confused by this reflection because the student has a clear voice, and they actively can do all of the things required of them.  They are a strong reader, and they naturally make connections between topics and disciplines.  If I were using traditional assessment metrics, this student would have an A.

When I conferenced with her, she said she needed the validation from me.  She wanted me to give her the grade.  She has been so accustomed to a teacher being the authority that without my grading her, she simply can’t do it.  I expressed my hope that she should know what she needs/wants, that “grading” yourself would lead to me helping where she need it.  I told her to go back and reevaluate what she put and why.  I got an email later that day asking me to give her a grade.  I again expressed my wishes, but I caved and said I would give her an A.  This was her response:

“You're the teacher. Ultimately, I have no say in what you do. Even with the illusion of us having a voice in anything, we don't. I'm sorry for challenging your beliefs about how you run your classroom, but it's justified by your control over the grade book”

This comment is hitting me in the reflection stomach.  Comments like these demonstrate just how much power a teacher has in determining grades.  Even as I am pushing the boundaries of what is possible in a school, I ultimately hold all of the power. As much as we’d like to think otherwise, using grades leads to a lack of motivation.  The kids are stripped of the agency that I want them to have--partially because I do have the authority, but also because these students are experiencing traditional grading practices throughout the rest of their day and have experienced this practice for most of their schooling.  I have spent this entire year minimizing grades, and I still get comments that reinforce traditional grading views.  Next year, this student will most likely go to classes that reinforce their beliefs.

The ultimate problem of having all of the authority is that students will learn less.  Grading causes a loss of intrinsic motivation.  Giving a grade lends to a mentality that there is an end to learning; The grade is more meaningful than the process and the outcome.  We use grades to get kids to be compliant, but we also see that they don’t take risks and often do required work to memorize what we are asking for the test and then forget it.  However, that is not what I want school to be.  I want them to have agency over their learning, and to do that, they need to have conditions that allow them to take risks, see that learning doesn’t have an end, and not feel threatened nor shamed to learn what we are asking them to learn.

I will continue to make shifts and share my journey in hopes that others do the same.

A special thanks to Kim Miklusak for feedback and edits on this post.  She continues to be the best English teacher I never had.

Learning: the struggle in going gradeless

by Mark Heintz

I struggle with grading.  Not keeping up with it, but rather assigning a grade as a measurement of learning.  Maybe the struggle comes from my own experience.  As a student, I was a grade manipulator.  I wasn’t a point-grubber, more of a...okay, I was a point-grubber.   In school, my goal was the grade.  As the teacher handed the syllabus to me on the first day of school, I combed through the categories to find out the most efficient way to get a 90.1%. I love a detailed syllabus. The more information the better.  It gave me the rules on how to earn the grade I wanted. The whole process became a game for me, and I enjoyed how to game the system.

Each teacher had their own rules, and my part to play was to earn points.  I played the game fairly well in high school, but things escalated beyond just manipulating a syllabus. Now, I could game the system even more because I could pick the teacher.  I asked, snooped, around to find out teacher reputations on their system before signing up for the class.  In this system, I knew the teacher held most of the power.  I know the teacher’s intention was for me to learn, but my objective was to get points.

Despite all of the manipulation, I loved to learn.  Grades and learning just didn’t go together for me.  That being said, I never tried to get out of anything. When I was assigned work, I would do it.  I just was efficient and completed it quickly in order to get to my interests.  One of the best parts of college was that the abundance of free time allowed me to explore what I wanted.  Each semester I read books, just not the ones in the syllabus.  I talked to people outside my major about their passions.  My utopia version of school would have been just going to different classes all day, simply talking to others and diving into things I was curious about.  I loved connecting with others and learning for the sake of learning. From that love, I became a teacher.

As a teacher

As a new teacher, and like most people new to a profession, I thought I would be different. I could make the grade book represent learning.  I knew the student tricks and throughout my first decade as a teacher, I changed grading practices in an attempt to have the grade book represent what a student had learned.  I tinkered with my categories, did grade replacement, allowed retakes, and only counted major exams  Ultimately though, I became part of the system I manipulated. No matter how much I shifted, I continued to create conditions just like my teachers had, that made me all-powerful in determining a student’s grade.  My ultimate power continued the trend of having most students playing a game to accumulate as many points as possible.  No matter how much I tinkered, I could only deemphasize the importance of the points, but it still remained the most important goal.  In the end, the goal wasn’t learning.

In my course, there was a mandatory curriculum.  To cover the material, I used a textbook.  Students struggled to understand what was important.  Some spent hours each night digesting the material and others gave up because the task was too daunting.  To help them I used reading guides, but then students copied each other or hunted for the information needed not really understand anything. For this course, I needed the students to get the information and what I was doing wasn’t working.  Either the kids gamed the system or it simply didn’t work for them.  I ditched the textbook.  I created videos and questions that students would complete after viewing.  I put these into Schoology checklists and made them required.  I emphasized that all students would need to complete each checklist. It was compulsory and efficient like my learning had been.  I told each student what they needed to know.  To ensure all kids would complete the work, each had to finish the checklist before they could take the exam. To move away from the point-grubbing, nothing went into the grade book if they completed it.  They simply got to take the test.  From this system, kids spent less time on their work, actually did it, and my scores improved.

Something's wrong

Yet, I knew something wasn’t right.  While the system worked for some, there were inherent flaws.  Some kids did all of the work the way it was intended and still struggled to pass. Others gamed the system by fast forwarding the videos and just taking the quizzes. I found that some of the kids who gamed the system earned the highest scores.  Neither one of those things should happen if the system was about learning.  Reflecting on the system I created, I realized that the system emphasized completion not learning.

Ultimately, having to assign a grade gets in the way of learning.  I understand that and the importance in the role a grade plays for a students future.  Despite that conflict, I continue to deemphasize the grade and have it be about the learning.   In that attempt, last year I made another change in order for the class to focus on learning.  I did this at the end of the year, before the final.  I made a simple Google form. There were three questions: What did you learn? What grade do you think you earned? Why do you think you earned it?  After reading through their responses, I only disagreed with a handful of students; Most of which judged themselves too harshly.  For the few others who I disagreed with, their reflection opened my mind to their experience.  Many students cited their effort as a validation of earning a grade, but others detailed how they collaborated, learned about themselves, changed habits, and just an overall changed in abilities. A lot of that reflection is difficult to easily compute into a grade or empirically assess with traditional metrics.  Asking them their thoughts allowed for their journey to be seen.

Students know their experience more than anyone.  The purpose of the class is for them.  As I continued to want the importance of the grade to drop, I realized I needed the students to be viewed as a partner in determining the grade.  I don’t want them to game the system as I had.  I wanted it to be a journey where they are learning, not just grabbing at points to get the A. The problem with last year: I did it at the end of the year.  It wasn’t a partnership.  It was an afterthought.  Even though I did value their responses, the students didn’t know how much I valued it.  I learned that I need to be transparent in the value I placed in their responses. The process can’t just be lip service; Another thing that they do, but ultimately has no influence.

The present

Which gets to this year.  I asked my students the same three questions every time I have had to formally submit a grade, with two additional ones: What are you proud of? What would you do differently if you could go back in time and redo the time that has passed in this semester?  Again, I learned about their journey.  The two additional questions revealed more about who they were. Anyone that I disagreed with or needed more information, I held a conference with them.  I got clarification on the points they made or what happened in class. After that, I submitted the grade.  So far, I have never felt better about finalized grades.  Some student anxiety has been alleviated and I don’t feel that I have as many students point-grubbing.  I feel that students are learning. The grade is an afterthought.  They know they can argue to make a change.  They know they have a voice in the process other than just the assessments I use.  It has become a partnership.  Something it should always be.


A special thanks to Kim Miklusak for feedback and edits on this post.  She is the best English teacher I never had.

Looking to make changes in your classroom? Book rec: Shift This!

By Kim Miklusak

Are you looking for a way to shake up your classroom space or instructional practices?  Are you a mid-career or veteran teacher who is looking for a new way to accomplish your classroom goals?  Are you a new teacher looking for a way to start off your practice in a new way?  Pick up the book Shift This by Joy Kirr!

I first "met" Joy when I attended the ISTE Conference in Atlanta...except Joy wasn't even there that year!  I went to a session on #GeniusHour, another name for a very similar practice of the 20% Time Project that I was hoping to implement for a unit in our American Literature course.  I connected with Joy via Twitter and found out that quite by chance she teaches in a district right near mine.  She was only too happy to meet, share her resources on her Live Binder site, and connect me with others who were doing similar projects.  This one shift in one of my units has influenced my teaching over the past few years as elements of it have seeped into more of my courses.

Image used with permission of the author

But that wasn't the only lesson I picked up from interacting with Joy on Twitter.  She has systematically moved to make her classroom space more student-centered, getting rid of her desk, having student working stations, and even broadcasting student voice and work on Twitter.  I made little steps: I moved my desk to the side, I opened my closet for students to take their own supplies...and eventually I moved to getting rid of my desk.  These little changes over the years have made such a difference.

Most recently I have picked up from Joy the importance of #First5Days.  What we do in the first week of our classroom sets the stage for our year.  Do we review rules?  Or do we jump right into getting to know students or starting our learning.  Every little shift makes the difference.

Book Review

Image used with permission of the author

The best thing about all of this is that Joy then went and put all of her excellent and practical ideas into her book.  Each chapter centers on a different area: classroom environment, homework, grading, student-directed learning, and more.  She shares her stories in her own voice and describes the processes she went through to change.  She acknowledges it isn't always easy but stresses that we don't all have to shift at once or even shift in every area.

But what she does do is start each chapter with questions that we as teachers may have that we hope to consider and resolve.  She then provides very clear examples of how she has done this in her classroom (including some photos!), external resources for more information, and note taking sections for us to reflect on our own practices.

Next Steps

If you're interested in more information, I would begin by following Joy on Twitter.  And if you'd like to do more of a book study with a virtual learning cohort, please reach out to the CollabLab as we will be doing a book study and chat with Joy and peers over three weeks starting in April.

Back to Basics: Connecting with Parents/Guardians in the New Semester

By Kim Miklusak 

For many schools the new semester is upon us or rapidly approaching.  For some this means all new classes; for others it means possibly some new students.  Either way it makes me think about the importance of connecting with parents and guardians throughout the year--not just during the opening days.

It's easy to get bogged down with the hustle of the new semester.  At the beginning of the year, we make our agendas and materials available to students through our LMS or by other means.  We may hand out syllabi or send home welcome letters.  But what do we do mid-year?  Do we make regular contact with parents/guardians just to keep everyone up-to-date?

One parent's perspective: 
Although we may not always hear back from parents, or we may be frustrated if we receive "Undeliverable" emails, many parents do receive the message and are grateful for it!  One parent, who has a current senior student and one graduated student from our school, responded:

"I truly appreciate communication from the teachers through Infinite Campus.  Even though my daughter was very organized and very few assignments were completed last minute, I felt it was beneficial for us knowing about the big projects or reports coming due so we had an idea of the stresses she would be under and to encourage her to make the right choice when other social opportunities arose that would take time away from working on her assignments.   I realize she should be responsible for her work, but it helps parent encourage and teach their children how to time manage."

One teacher's perspective: 
In order to reach out to parents and guardians of students who are missing assignments--and to reach out again to remind students of their own work--Psychology teacher Melissa Curtis uses the "Message Center" screen on Infinite Campus to send form emails to students, parents, and guardians two weeks before the end of the quarter to fill everyone in on missing work!

Once she has the template saved, it is easy for her to send out messages to students who have any assignments that are marked as missing in the grade book.  The automated email fills in the blanks below with the students' names, the names of missing assignments, and directs them to the portal for more information!

If any teachers would like more information on sending out templated emails like this one, be sure to contact us, and we can show you how and connect you with other teachers who are doing the same!   Or if you have other ways you reach out to parents and guardians throughout the year, leave us a comment below!

Student Involvement in Assessment (Part 2)

By: Rachel Barry

This is the second post in a series focusing on involving students in the assessment process.  For the first post, click here.

In continuing to include students in the assessment process, I am exploring methods of self-reflection and peer editing, as well as open to suggestions that I hope other educators will share with me.  For our second quiz, I had my regular Algebra II students edit their own quizzes.  First, I had them take the quiz as they normally would, and I made marks (in blue) only if the problem was incorrect.  I gave no scores.  Then, the next day I handed back the quizzes, along with a green pen, to each student.  Students corrected the problems that they got wrong in the green pen. 

 

The conversations were awesome!  The topic is simplifying radicals, so it is common for students to make silly mistakes or make the same mistake throughout all problems.  Many students quickly realized what they did incorrectly and were able to make the necessary adjustments to their work.  For the students who struggled on this topic more than others, I was able to give them more one-on-one instruction to better understand this topic.

I loved this activity, and I'd rather not call it an assessment.  I feel that the students learned so much from being given a "second chance."  The struggle that I have is that I am obligated to report something in the gradebook.  This year, I am only reporting summative unit test scores towards students grades, so all quizzes are going in the formative assessment category in the gradebook (a 0% category).  Because of this, I had some flexibility on how to report this to be as informative as I wanted.  For the score, I averaged the two scores, and in the comments section, I reported both the original score and their edited score (as seen to the right).  I LOVE the comments section!

I'm continuing to explore new methods to build a positive learning experience and student self-reflection from the assessment process.  I would love to hear any ideas that you have as well, so comment here, tweet at me, or stop down in the Collab Lab!

Effective Communication in the Gradebook - Part 2 (Science)

By Quinn Loch

Seventh post in a series from our staff-led Institute Day.  This is part II of a two-part blog post, with the first post reflecting on the math component, while this second post focuses on the science component.

Rachel Barry (Math) and Quinn Loch (Science) presented this session, which focused on these two questions:
     1.  How can I show formative feedback in the gradebook?
     2.  How can I communicate progress in the gradebook?

SCIENCE

One of my biggest struggles has been how to record and report progress to students efficiently in the gradebook. I want to have formative feedback that doesn't "hurt" their grade and I also want to show student progress - all without cluttering up the gradebook with countless grades and having to need two separate gradebooks. Below are my current working solutions to these hurdles.

Question: How can I include formative data in the gradebook?

My solution: A "zero-weight" category allows me to communicate understanding during the learning process without penalizing the student. I call this category the "in-progress" category. This is where I post standard-based scores on what I call "progress quizzes." These progress quizzes are closely aligned to our learning targets and act as checkpoints along the way to our summative.

Snapshot of a progress quiz that gets scored 0-4.

Sample Learning Targets

Question: How can I show progress in the gradebook?

My solution: Entering multiple scores within one standard. I report feedback to students from a standards based scale of 0-4. If a student demonstrates an understanding level of "1" and then later demonstrates an understanding of "3", then I'll enter it as 3.1 in the gradebook.

Using decimals to enter multiple scores for the same standard

Question: How can I get students to use this information to close gaps and how can I hold them accountable for their learning?

My solution: Pre-Test Reflections. Here in an example of one that I use in class.

Pre-Test Reflection. Students do not take the summative if they have a 0 on any standard.

I try to do this reflection a couple days before a test so students have time to dedicate practice to, or remediate on, the specific things that they may be struggling with. I have yet to get the question "What should I study?" this year.

Effective Communication in the Gradebook - Part 1 (Math)

Seventh post in a series from our staff-led Institute Day.  This will be a two-part blog post, with the first post reflecting on the math component, while the second post focuses on the science component and the teacher take-aways from the session.

Rachel Barry (Math) and Quinn Loch (Science) presented this session, which focused on these two questions:
     1.  How can I show formative feedback in the gradebook?
     2.  How can I communicate progress in the gradebook?

MATH

To begin, it is important to note that these ideas and implementations are constantly evolving.  I am constantly discussing alternatives with my colleagues to determine what is the best way of giving feedback and communicating a student's progress.  I am in my seventh year of teaching, and I have yet to maintain the same grading system and gradebook set-up in two consecutive years.

- Formative Feedback is reported in the gradebook using a 0% Category.
All grades not on a summative quiz or unit test go in the 0% category. This helps students and parents see progress, without affecting a students grade.

- Use comments in Infinite Campus to display student progress on a math standard.
Shows multiple attempts on same math standard.

Teacher View:

Student View:

- Students reflect at the end of a unit on their effort and performance.
At the end of each unit, students reflect on their effort and performance using the Reflection document below.  The Checklist grades are in the formative category of the gradebook, while the quizzes and unit tests are both summative categories.  They log in to Infinite Campus to fill this out themselves.  Then, they answer the following two questions on the back:

1.  What are you most proud of from this unit?

2.  What are you going to change to improve in the next unit?

The purpose of this document is for students to realize that if they complete the work in class (through a Schoology Checklist), they will be successful on the quiz.  Also, if they go through the reassessment process, they better their performance on topic.  Most of the time, when they have completed a retake, they also score better later on the unit test.  

Check in tomorrow for Part 2, focusing in Science!

So just now I was thinking... about implementing standards based grading. Woo!

by jessica maciejewski

Midway through our "EG Lead Learners Team" meeting today, my brain was afire with big-picture ideas. Now I'm the kind of person who is critical of ideas (my own included), but once I'm excited and have done basic research about something, I want to run with it. Give it a "trial by fire," persay, and see how it goes, reworking along the way.

So this summer I had the privilege of attending the Pearson Assessment Training Conference in Portland, Oregon, on grading practices. While I am skeptical about Pearson's actual interest in improving education versus making cash monies and maintaining ranking as a top institute merely for the value added to their brand, based on my own experiences with standardized tests and trainings as well as the awesome John Oliver's exposé in regards to standardized testing (holy crap this sentence is already "wordy"),



I left the conference with an educator crush on Myron Dueck and feeling intrigued by a 4- or 6-point grading scale based on below basic, basic, proficient, and mastery levels.

After viewing a bunch of different teachers' grade books (one from 1946, then the rest modern & online), I didn't see any I thought were effectively communicating student progress or fairly assigning grades. Then I looked at my own. I didn't like that one either (though I did like it a lot more than the others at least?). So I set some goals for my 2nd quarter:

(AND THEN THE WORLD): 

Soooooo my current grades are feast or famine. Which is maybe encouraging(?) because if a kid turned stuff in (at ALL), they're at a B. If s/he didn't... it's F City. Ugh, it feels intimate to share this:



Now, by the end of the term, that "grades are real!" hustle will kick in and I'll get more essays and etc. But is that fair? Am I doing this right? If a kid has not turned in aaaaaanything, I can't assess them, so it's listed as missing (which counts as a zero). They can make this up whenever. The sooner the better. Yep, made phone calls home. Yep, conferences with kids. Yep, referred them to the tutoring center. If I didn't do the Missing/0 thing, that kid would think they were passing and then ::SURPRISE, YOU FAILED!:: would happen the last week of the quarter. :/ Should they be passing at all if they have done zero work? E1 FD is Essay 1 First Draft, then E1 R is the revised version. Vocab is mastery oriented (vocabulary.com), self-paced, and falls under reading skills as does IR (independent reading). The grammar tests are self-paced. SAT is multiplied by zero and is not a score, just a baseline "fyi" for kids from our first SAT Writing in class test.

So here are my big idea steps/goals for Q2:

• break down skills based on the Illinois grades 9-12 ELA Common Core (<that was ridiculously tedious to actually get to)
• create descriptors of each level of ability in each skill
• redesign rubrics based on skills
• update gradebook for quarter 2 with all skills; include related assignments in comments section (Haiku Learning seems like it would be a fantastic standards based grading system, though I just discovered it and have never used it)

Ooookay. Sounds like I have enough for right now. I'm not even sure I can do this for Writing/Grammar, Reading/Vocab, and Speaking by next term. Ideas and *constructive* feedback welcome!

Want to know more about Habits of Work? Check out my post: HoW & Character