Students reaction to ungrading
Ungrading as a teaching practice
I am not sure what the end result will be, but if the response from the first two days of classes is any indication, it will be positive. Ungrading is a practice where the instructor does not give grades to the assignments, papers, etc. In fact, you can go far enough that you can ungrade the entire course, and require the learners in the course to have a sit down discussion with the instructor on the final grade!
Guess what version of this I did? LOL.
Of course I went all the way. I explained where I got this idea from in my previous post. The Ungrading idea is really interesting. All too often, learners simply look at the final grade on an assignment, and call it good. Some will complain if they get a lower grade than they expected, but the majority of learners just take the grade they get and move on.
In fact, when I brought up the question of whether learners actually read the comments on assignments most of them said “no, they just look at the grade.” When I asked, “the why should the instructor give any comments if the majority of learners don’t read them?” they had no answer.
The end result then is to ONLY give comments, and not grades. Break the chain.
So far in the first week, almost all learners were receptive and positive. There were a couple of learners who were still freaked out, and I asked them to talk to me privately and we will address their concerns.
So far. So good. We will see though!