I appreciate this extensive discussion about how you give feedback and the positive outcomes. Maybe I missed this earlier, but I'm curious to know how many courses you teach and/or how many were 'ungraded.' I'm also curious about midway approaches that might be easier first/second steps for people teaching, say, 3-5 classes a semester.
I outlined my teaching context in the first post: https://emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com/p/answering-the-call-an-ungrading-journal. I'm in a very privileged position! I work full-time in a teaching center, and as part of my role can teach up to one course per semester. While I have many other responsibilities, I have some flexibility in how much time I can devote to my courses.
While I have seen instructors employ ungrading at scale, most people who are teaching many students find it easier to take small steps. Michelle Miller's piece in the Chronicle has some good tips for "ungrading light" (https://www.chronicle.com/article/ungrading-light-4-simple-ways-to-ease-the-spotlight-off-points.) In general, I recommend thinking about how to ungrade or simplify grading systems for a few assignments; provide limited opportunities for students to revise or reattempt some of their work; and build in a few opportunities for student self-reflection / self-assessment / metacognition.
And if that's still too much: just have some conversations with students about grades and how grades affect their learning. These exchanges, I've found, can be transformative for both teachers and students.
I fully agree with all of this--it's one of the many reasons I'm still so excited about ungrading, even when it's challenging!
I appreciate this extensive discussion about how you give feedback and the positive outcomes. Maybe I missed this earlier, but I'm curious to know how many courses you teach and/or how many were 'ungraded.' I'm also curious about midway approaches that might be easier first/second steps for people teaching, say, 3-5 classes a semester.
I outlined my teaching context in the first post: https://emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com/p/answering-the-call-an-ungrading-journal. I'm in a very privileged position! I work full-time in a teaching center, and as part of my role can teach up to one course per semester. While I have many other responsibilities, I have some flexibility in how much time I can devote to my courses.
While I have seen instructors employ ungrading at scale, most people who are teaching many students find it easier to take small steps. Michelle Miller's piece in the Chronicle has some good tips for "ungrading light" (https://www.chronicle.com/article/ungrading-light-4-simple-ways-to-ease-the-spotlight-off-points.) In general, I recommend thinking about how to ungrade or simplify grading systems for a few assignments; provide limited opportunities for students to revise or reattempt some of their work; and build in a few opportunities for student self-reflection / self-assessment / metacognition.
And if that's still too much: just have some conversations with students about grades and how grades affect their learning. These exchanges, I've found, can be transformative for both teachers and students.