Going Gradeless at GMC

This semester, I am doing an experiment of going gradeless in my F2F class at GMC, and going grade-less in my online courses at the University at Albany. This is naked teaching at its finest!

What does this mean? For my GMC students:

"Instead of percentages or points, below are my expectations of a 'B' student. At the end of the semester, you will write a self-reflection of how you met these criteria, the learning/ELA outcomes for the course, and your own course goals, and we will have a conference to mutually determine a grade for you.

1. attend class regularly and on time—not missing more than a week's worth of classes (that means two). Being on time means arriving several minutes early. I will start class promptly at 2:30.
2. meet learning outcomes
3. take risks
4. engage/participate with texts/videos & classmates
5. write often, revise often, and develop engaging, cogent arguments based on evidence
6. encourage classmates in their ideas and writing
7. meet due dates

8. complete 90% of assignments, including a longer piece of writing (topic and genre to be determined by you.)

9. attend conferences with me to discuss writing and course progress

Grades higher than B, however, do rest on my judgment of writing quality. To earn higher grades you must produce writing that I judge to be exceptionally high quality."


Yup. This is it. This is what is important to me as an educator for student behavior and effort. I've realized that I can't really ask them to take risks without giving them some room for failure. This list of expectations is not predicated on their writing ability, though they do need to produce a longer piece of writing during the semester.

And what do I mean by 'longer'? I guess we will figure that out together. I want to get away from 8-10 pages, or 2-3 pages, double-spaced....etc., or anything that prescribes their final product. I want them to own it and work on it throughout the semester. Really embrace and develop a piece of writing that is deep, thoughtfully constructed, tangible, and evidence-based. I believe that this can be done in a number of ways beyond "the research paper."

This dream I have may fail, but I cannot help but hope for the best. One positive is that this class has only five students. It will have a seminar feel, with time spent writing (as thinking) and reading and writing (as thinking) and discussing writing and reading. We are in this together.

I leave you with this link about students as expert graders...