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Why Do We grade? Critical Approaches to Grading

What do we grade, and for what purpose? Grading can be a painful experience – for both students and professors alike. This workshop will explore critical approaches to grading and feedback that can foster student agency, transparency, and engagement in learning, including contract grading and ungrading. In these approaches, grading becomes less top-down and more of a conversation between student and professor, which has the potential to deepen relationships and increase transparency about why we grade.

This workshop took place via Zoom as an online, synchronous workshop in the Fall 2024 semester. The workshop and materials were developed by Jennifer Queenan.

Materials 

All materials on this page and in the linked google folder are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

This folder contains: workshop slides and a resource handout: “Why do we grade?” Materials Folder

Workshop Agenda

4-4:10: Welcome/introductions: name, pronouns if you want, what you’re teaching this semester (if you are), why you’re here

4:10-4:30: Poll on mentimeter 

  • Word Cloud (one word response): What feelings or emotions do you experience when grading?
  • Bubbles (short answer): Why do you grade? What do you want grading to do (or not do) in your classes (whether as students or teachers)?
  • Discuss in breakouts: What trends did you notice? What does this make you think about your own grading practices? 

4:30-4:40: Presentation on critical approaches to grading

4:40-4:50: Time to individually look through resource sheet

4:50-5:20: In breakout rooms, reflect on how you want to amend your syllabus to reflect the grading practices we just looked at. Consider:

  • What does success look like in your class? 
  • What is the grade breakdown of your course? What’s flexible? What’s scaffold-able?
  • Think about schedule: How is the student work and grading labor dispersed throughout the course?
  • How do/can you create transparency around grades and grading?
  • What is the students’ collective role in constructing the course?

5:20-5:30: Questions and closing in the chat: one thing you want to try in a course you’re teaching or going to teach