Today’s FALCoN session was entitled “Ungrading: Alternatives to Traditional Grading” and led by Dr. Jenni Momsen, North Dakota State University. Momsen started by asking why we grade and what feelings grading creates. The participants shared in the chat reasons, including grades being required and grades to motivate or share feedback. In breakout rooms, we talked about why we grade and what is our favorite course we teach… Momsen talked about how grades can be very personal and “connected to students.” Momsen shared a video about a skateboarder who kept on trying, and our task was to grade them. In my breakout room, we wondered if we were grading effort and the learning objective. Was the objective mastery? How do we grade “style”? Was the video what we were grading or the person?
Back in the main room, Momsen asked: what does a grade represent. Citing Feldman 2019, Momsen mentioned that “traditional grading systems harm learning” because grading systems are “inaccurate, biased, [and] demotivating.” For inaccuracy, Momsen asked are assessments valid and reliable and does a grade represent more than just knowledge? Momsen reminded us that we all have implicit biases and tend to grade everything. Class participation was the example Momsen gave of our own cultural lens for being an engaged learner. I love this way of thinking about this! Finally, Momsen explained that grades encourage performance and avoid risk and thus can be demotivating. For ‘big projects,’ students often want to know precisely what the professor wants. Momsen acknowledged that ungrading is a movement to eliminate grades entirely and emphasized: “refocus the classroom on learning, not ranking/grades/points, etc.” Ungrading embraces flexibility by letting students lead the learning process. Momsen encouraged us to “collaborate with students to discuss their progress on meeting their learning goals.” To help us collaborate with students to identify a grade, Momsen suggests reflective assignments such as self-evaluations. Momsen uses these reflections to engage students: students submit their assignments and self-evaluate based on a rubric. Momsen also suggested reconsidering strict deadlines.
Ungrading requires building trust, and Momsen spoke about sharing your philosophy and rationale with students. Momsen mentioned, “talking a ton about the why” and the reasoning behind each assignment/assessment. Momsen warned that students may not believe us until they get their first assessment and encouraged us to trust students and assume they are trying their best.
The last piece of ungrading that Momsen spoke about was centering descriptive feedback. Citing Hattie 2009, Momsen stated that “feedback is one of the most powerful instructional tools.” However, we often don’t allow students “to unpack the feedback with the expert” and “ask questions and do something with the feedback.” Momsen mentioned that decoupling descriptive feedback from evaluative feedback promotes learning. Momsen shared several ways of providing feedback.
Standards-based grading was mentioned as “taking your learning objectives and pumping them full of steroids,” which I loved. For an equitable grading structure, Momsen encourages clearly defining goals and criteria for success. The example Momsen shared was a course syllabus with the big idea (learning objective) and exactly how students will reach that standard. Momsen also “articulates a plan for how student learning will be assessed, and course grades determined.” The language Momsen uses is very motivating and encourages trying again. Momsen discussed prioritizing the “relational nature of learning over the transactional nature of grades” and using evenly distributed grading scales. Students earn a D as soon as they meet one standard! Students can re-test and not get penalized. Momsen suggested the Grading for Equity book by Feldman that I have now added to my list. In Momsen’s course, the structure promotes a growth mindset: students read text/watch video, do a knowledge check and self-reflection, do a class activity, follow-up activity if needed, problem set, problem set… and obtain feedback at every stage. Momsen ended by encouraging small changes like including self-reflections. The discussion continued with great questions from the audience. One question was: do you guide reflections by rubrics or guidelines, which made me think. How much structure do I want to provide?
Resources Shared by Dr. Momsen!
