"Ungrading" an Elective Class

Published: 2024-02-06 2:08 PM

Category: Assessment | Tags: grading, testing, scores, demonstration, knowledge

In my elective class (environmental science), I've moved toward using "concept checks" at the end of each unit in favor of a traditional test. I have a Google Doc template with several prompts (usually 6-8) related to the concepts we've been working on in class. At the bottom of the test, students reflect on the learnin objectives set at the start of the unit and then grade their own understanding.

I like this method because it asks students to verbalize what they know and apply concepts in more detail than we normally do in class. As I read, I leave comments in the doc, prompting with followup questions or asking them to provide more detail on claims they make in writing. After the feedback stage, I send it back and students are able to make revisions.

While it has worked well, I don't think I'm doing a good job of preparing students for the depth of response I would like to see. They're able to use their notes and resources to form their responses, but many times, it turns into a definition word salad and I don't see application or justification of ideas. My feedback step pushes them to justify more, but I would love to see that happen on the first attempt.

Ideally, I would be able to give a single grade at the end of the semester representing their growth as science consumers and communicators. I'm not 100% sure how to do that along with tracking progress across individual units of study. I don't know if that's important or if it is my own perception of what should be shown in the gradebook. I just know that grades are something that trouble me and I'm trying to find a way to play both sides of the line.