I truly believe that the classroom can be a transformative place of learning, one where we, educators, witness students grow into critical readers, writers, and thinkers. But traditional assessment practices often get in the way of the magical things that can happen in the classroom. Grades have long been problematic in educational spaces, from k-12 and higher education, as they destroy students’ motivation to learn, cause harm to students’ identities (especially students of color and multilingual students), and create a cheating environment. This, unfortunately, only scratches the surface of all of the issues they cause. The research on the harm that grades engender is well documented, so I won’t touch on that here.
Instead, I’ll focus on sharing some of the positive outcomes that can occur if educators choose to move away from traditional grading practices towards alternative grading practices (also referred to as ungrading). What is ungrading? Broadly defined, it’s the practice of not centering points and grades in the classroom and focusing instead on providing written or oral feedback. There are many different ungrading approaches, from standards-based grading, to portfolio based-grading, and labor-based grading, to name a few.
In my own courses—first-year writing at the college level—I’ve chosen to use labor-based grading, a method of assessment that only provides a final course grade as opposed to grades on individual assignments. Students, on their essays and other assignments, only receive written feedback to understand how well they did. Grades are almost entirely out of the picture.
Below, I’d like to share 3 positive outcomes (though there are many more) from my own classrooms that have occurred as a result of moving away from traditional grading practices. I hope these concrete examples help illustrate just how wonderful a classroom can be as a learning environment once grades are removed. Let’s get into it.
Positive Student-Teacher Relationships
In my classes, after labor-based grading is introduced, I often tell students that they can experiment with their writing and try new writerly moves. It was time for my first conference of the semester, and I was wondering if my words would be taken to heart by anyone or if they would care about grades as they did in traditional systems. 10 minutes before the student walked in, I braced myself. I was thinking back to my high school experiences: negative, disappointing—with most conversations focused on grades. I must have looked at my watch about 5 times within those 10 minutes. The time seemed to drag on, as if taunting me for the inevitable. The student arrived, and one of the first things he said was, “I’m trying this new approach with my writing in this section. Do you think it works well for this piece?”
My teacher-writer heart screamed with happiness! A writing conference that was actually focused on writing? Could this be real? Maybe this one session was a fluke. Though not as tense, I still was anxious for the other conferences. Those would, surely, move towards conversations around grades.
But they didn’t.
Instead, we talked about how to make strong arguments, how to insert personal voice into their writing, how to structure their papers, and much more. We also, perhaps more importantly, built productive teacher-student relationships. Because grades were no longer in the picture, my role shifted from The Sage to a mentor, one who could engage in meaningful conversations with students. Typically, these conferences would end with students having to begrudgingly do as I say because I hold all the power with grades. But in this case, they were able, like real writers, to consider the feedback they were receiving and think about where they wanted to go next. That first conference allowed me to understand that students and myself were going to build powerful working relationships.
The Opportunity to Make Mistakes
Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process. If we want students to grow as writers, they need to be given conditions in which it’s okay to stumble and fall, knowing, also, that they can stand back up to improve.
Labor-based grading seemed to set up these types of conditions in my classrooms for students. And not just for students who had historically struggled, but also for the ones who had always been “good” learners. That is, students who were always rewarded for getting good grades by following the guidelines of school, for staying inside the predetermined parameters. I argue that these students need to also be allowed to make mistakes so they can experiment and try new things.
One student, in particular, took advantage of the fact that he wasn’t going to receive a harsh label or judgment on his work even if he tried to move outside his usual comfort zone. In an end of semester survey, he noted that labor-based grading allowed him to experiment with his writing. With the third writing assignment, he stated that he “made this essay extra hard” on himself because he tried a “different writing style than normal which proved to be rather difficult.” He used this assessment system to challenge himself, not to do the same thing he had always done with his writing. In turn, he was able to “care more about the work.” I feel like this is a powerful statement from this student. Most people try to make things as easy as possible for themselves in school, mostly because they can’t risk getting a bad grade on something. However, in this case, this student challenged himself and really pushed his thinking. Though not all students took this approach on this level, I firmly believe that they took the opportunity not to be perfect as a benefit, not a detriment.
Fostering Equity and Space for Varied Voices
Our educational system is set up so as to favor certain language practices over others. That one language practice—standard English—needs to be followed in classrooms or students risk getting a bad grade. But some students—like students of color and multilingual students—sometimes have language practices that differ from this set standard. And they aren’t allowed to bring that diverse language usage into the classroom.
Because I used labor-based grading, I let students know that their varied language practices were accepted in the classroom. Not only that, but they were encouraged, if they wanted to, to write in those forms on their academic essays. This made a positive impact on my students. I’ll share an example from one student whose words stick with me to this day.
In my thesis—“Student Perceptions of Labor-Based Grading”—this student noted that professors will often tell students that they have freedom to write in their own voice. Yet, when students do write in a voice that is authentic to them, they get marked down. Really, as this student remarked, what those professors want is for students to sound just like them. And, in most cases, “them” equals that dominant discourse. However, in this class, he remarked that he was able to express himself in ways that were authentic for him, something he hadn’t experienced before in all his years of schooling. I try as best as I can to be equitable in my class and to celebrate the varied language practices that students have. This student’s words give me hope in the fact that I am moving closer and closer towards an equitable classroom, a place that embraces all voices.
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Created with images by ittipol - "Man helping to climb the rock" • patpitchaya - "Learn From Mistake" • Tierney - "Education concept with hand pressing a button"