An #Ungrading Journey

My ungrading journey began in the Spring 2019 semester – although at the time I did not fully appreciate that I was ungrading. I considered what I was doing conference grading. After that first iteration I cycled through another iteration of conference grading before moving into reflection grading when I realized I had been ungrading all along (even if my process was still making too much work for everyone involved during those first iterations). During the pandemic I was inspired by Laura Gibbs to combine self-assessment declaration quizzes to my unit reflections and I felt that I had finally arrived at an ungrading format that fit my teaching style.

This might be the most important decision when you embark on ungrading in your own classroom: finding the flavor of ungrading that fits your unique teaching context and style. I believe Laura was all in on her weekly quizzes and others, like Jesse Stommel, are all in on reflection. I did really like conference style grading and I might move to a version that incorporates that back into my ungrading process if there is ever life after the pandemic, but the weekly reflections that are now part of my process do give me a lot of the same benefits with even lower stakes. Maybe my point is actually that the ungrading journey is just as messy and complicated as any other human endeavor – especially one that involves learning. If education was easy we would have solved it long ago.

In my classes this pandemic Fall of 2021 semester, ungrading will combine self-assessment quizzes and reflection. I am teaching a mix of upper and lower level undergraduate writing classes which will also include a generous dollop of high school students taking college classes. My classes are also a mix of online and face-to-face modalities – although my face-to-face classes are built on a solid foundation of asynchronous online work supported by hyperdocs. This has always been true because I am a fan of mixing my modalities, but this flexibility is essential while teaching during a pandemic.

I teach my writing classes in a workshop format that limits the amount of direct writing instruction and focuses on writing, drafting, and shaping that work with the support of the community we build. Writing in my classes is always focused on the process and not the product. I traditionally divide the work of each class into four units as that seems to work well with the length of our semesters and my writing plan. Within each unit we follow the same process and each week we focus on the work, the community, and the reflection.

After students have completed the work of the week, which includes supporting the community, they then self-assess whether or not they have:

• Completed the work of the week
• Provided support for the community
• Completed the weekly reflection

I use a true-false self-grading quiz in Blackboard for these self-assessments. There is a lot that I like about the simple self-assessment quiz. First and foremost, it gives students agency over their own learning process and the points awarded match my values and priorities for the class: writing (including thinking, brainstorming, researching, drafting, rewriting); giving and receiving feedback; and reflecting. The weekly reflection that accompanies this quiz gives students the opportunity to share the challenges and successes of the week as well as explain how they made a good faith effort to complete the work of the week even if it does not exactly match my original plan. I repeatedly stress for my students that good faith efforts will never be punished and that my focus is on the journey rather than the destination. Ungrading is this philosophy in action.

I typically give students a two-week penalty-free window to complete the work of each week and even after the two weeks have passed all hope is not lost but the student must work out a new plan with me. The quizzes free me from grading and monitoring student behavior. Instead I can spend my time observing the student work-in-progress (because HyperDocs make so much visible to me) and crafting class letters or mini lessons to address just-in-time concerns. The weekly reflections also offer the opportunity to give each student individual feedback on their work or simply address their concerns. I love these coaching conversations so much. Cannot emphasize this enough.

However, the real joy comes at the end of the unit when students write a longer reflection about the work of the unit and the deliverable that resulted. Focusing on the journey pays serious dividends where it counts – with the writer. We can discuss the deliverable and what the writer can learn from it as well as the process of creating it without the worry and distraction of its grade. The writers in my classes are more willing to take risks with their writing because they are only risking a writing flop – not their grade. The writers in my classes learn to examine their writing process and deliverable for lessons that can be applied in the future. We are creating writers not disposable writing assignments. Students who take the journey of growing as a writer seriously can easily earn an A in my classes and isn’t that the way it should be? While I don’t have the power to eliminate grades entirely and destroying America’s toxic relationship with punishment is a worthy mission, I can match my philosophy and values with the ways that grades are used in my classes.

Image by Thomas Hendele from Pixabay.