TT0303: Going Almost Gradeless with SBG

What do grades tell us about our students? Do they tell us that they are extremely motivated and hard-working? Or do they tell us that they are able to achieve anything we throw at them? Maybe it’s something in between, or many possible different combinations of characteristics. We are at the beginning of the new school year, which means there is an opportunity to frame grades a little differently this year. If you listened in to the last couple seasons, you may have heard us talk about our convoluted grading system, which was trying (unsuccessfully, in my opinion) to blend a traditional grading system with a standards based grading system. I tried multiple ways to make it work, and I don’t think it was successful in any iteration. Many students weren’t motivated to do the work to improve. They blamed the grading system and used it as a crutch. Despite the retake system and other supports in place, students felt defeated. This summer, I spent some time listening to other education podcasts. One of my favorites is Cult of Pedagogy, and she did an episode where she spoke with a teacher named Starr Sackstein, who was working to eliminate grades altogether. She teaches journalism classes and as the students work through projects, they have frequent conversations. Students are taught to self-assess and self-reflect regularly, as well as giving each other feedback and becoming feedback experts. I was really intrigued by this idea and thought it seemed like a powerful way to get students more engaged in their own learning. It turns out that there is a whole movement of “Teachers Throwing out Grades.” There is a Facebook group, a Twitter hashtag, and probably even more. There’s even a book for the Hack Learning Series, called Hacking Assessment. I’ve been digging into some of these groups and started reading the book. I became determined to try some version of going gradeless in my classes this year, despite not feeling entirely confident that I know what I’m doing. Here, I’ll give you a breakdown of the things that I think are important to put into place for this to be successful. As we continue through the year, I’ll get some experts in and keep you updated as to the results. All of this is a work in progress, but here are some of the things I’m implementing this year with these goals in mind. Norm setting around grades and what they mean (change of vocabulary)At my school, we already have language around mastery, but we still needed to discuss how it ties to grades, or rather, how it should tie to grades. We had a discussion around the following questions: What does it mean to get an A? B? C? D? Is it possible for people to get the same grade with vastly different abilities and efforts? Is that fair? What does it mean to master a standard? Is everyone capable of mastering the standards? How do you know if you’ve mastered something? What should you do if you haven’t mastered something? The goal here was to come to a common agreement about the characteristics, behaviors and accomplishments that lead to a student deserving each grade. I also wanted to again touch on the idea that everyone is capable and that there are systems in place to support them. They just need to recognize when they need them and then take advantage of them. After this, we discussed how they react when they receive an assessment that has been graded. Most admitted that they look at the grade and put it or throw it away, never to be seen again. They all knew that they should look at each problem to try to understand what they did wrong and fix it, but only a few were in the habit of doing that. I asked them how their actions would change if there was no grade, but specific feedback instead. Focus on feedback, not gradeIf there’s no grade on a student’s assessment, they need some other form of information to let them know if they’ve achieved what was necessary. Ultimately, students are always going to care about their grade, but a good grade should follow if they are truly focusing on learning. To be honest, I haven’t fully figured out how feedback is going to be structured yet. Mark Barnes has a model called SE2R, which stands for Summarize, Explain, Redirect, Resubmit. I will probably use something similar. What I proposed to my students was one section with feedback on things that they did well, and another on things they need to improve in order to achieve mastery. I will keep you updated on what I end up doing and how it works! Electronic PortfoliosOne of the ways SBG has been presented to kids at our school is as 100% summative, which makes the task of getting an A seem overwhelming to students. It sends the message that summative tests or tasks are the only thing that matter. I’m staying away from that language, but they can’t unhear it. Since homework doesn’t count as “a grade” and the emphasis is on performing well on assessments, students don’t see the value in practice. My plan to combat this mindset is to have the students keep electronic portfolios which will be where they keep track of all of their evidence of learning and working. Formative assessments, practice, corrections, and anything else. We did several activities in the first week to get at the importance of keeping track of previous mistakes and attempts, communicating, and being open to different ways of thinking about problems. I also presented the purpose of the portfolios to them as a way to communicate evidence of their learning, both to me and their parents. If there are no grades in the system, we need a way to inform the parents about their child’s progress. Electronic portfolios can be shared with the parents and are easily accessible. I also wanted to take the pressure off of the summative score, so the portfolio is another way they can demonstrate their mastery, or at least contribute to the overall conversation about what kind of grade they think they deserve. If they don’t have evidence to back up their argument, then the summative performance will have to carry more weight. Students were offered the options of sharing a folder in Google Drive with me, or creating an account in Seesaw and sharing that way. Again, we’ll see how it goes. TrackersWe encourage students to keep track of their own progress. In order to encourage that, we give them a tracker as a tool. It has evolved over the years, but it essentially lays out the standards required for each unit. Within each standard, there are some sub-skills that help guide the student to achieving the overall standard. Essentially, the tracker is a spreadsheet with those standards and sub-skills, as well as spaces for them to mark what they’ve completed towards mastering that standard and when. Like the portfolio, this is intended to help keep them organized and aware of their own progress. Additionally, it can help them plan what they still need to focus on moving forward. RubricsWe have relied heavily on rubrics in the past in order to ensure we were grading consistently across classes. They were also shared with the student in some way so that they would know what was expected of them in order to earn the highest grade. I’m torn about whether and where rubrics will fit in this new model. I’m concerned that they might just be a new “grade” for students to follow. Ability to retake/reviseI still believe it’s important for students to understand that an assessment is not the end all, be all. Just because they don’t perform well one day does not mean they can’t achieve mastery. If they have a full portfolio of evidence and are reflective about their work, there is no reason they can’t try again. They said it themselves, “Mastery means you can do it well multiple times, apply it to different situations, and explain your process.” Assessment almost has to be iterative in order to meet that definition. What do you think about the throwing out grades movement? Did I miss anything important? I’d love to hear your experiences! Also, if you know anyone who does this really well, send them my way. I’m looking for experts to be on the podcast. The post TT0303: Going Almost Gradeless with SBG appeared first on Teacher Tribes.