Teaching Resilience and a Growth Mindset Through “Specifications Grading” and Tutorials

What Is "Specs Grading"?

In specifications grading, students must fulfill all rubric requirements (the “specs”) for an assignment in order to receive any credit for it.

However, this does not mean that an assignment is “sink or swim”, but rather that students must revise an assignment until it meets all the rubric requirements.

What Are the Benefits of Specs Grading?

Specifications grading teaches students that it’s okay to not be able to do everything perfectly the first time and that they can improve their skills if they try.

It also instills a much stronger work ethic than traditional grading does - instead of teaching students that it’s okay to skate by with a D, it shows them how to work thoroughly and carefully.

How Does Specs Grading Work with Tutorials?

I pair specifications grading with tutorials (one-with-one meetings) to get the maximum value out of both.

Students prepare their papers in a Google Doc, which is shared with me. To “hand in” their paper, students come to my office (real or virtual) for a tutorial and read their paper out loud to me. Reading aloud is an essential part of this process, in my view. It helps students take a more objective view of their own writing and hear where it can be improved - and it also forces them to acknowledge ownership of their work, good or bad.

While students are reading, I listen and write comments in the shared Google Doc. When they’re done, I review my comments with them and we spend about twenty minutes discussing the paper. This format means that we have a true dialogue instead of a one-sided “here’s what the professor says about your paper and that’s the law”.

If the student fulfills all the rubric criteria (i.e. if I can answer “yes” to every question) right away, terrific - they’re done! They earn all the points for the assignment and leave my office happy.

If I can’t yet (the operative word!!!) answer “yes” to every question on the rubric, students will need to revise. (They earn the right to do so by coming to the tutorial with at least all the objective criteria fulfilled. This demonstrates that they have taken the assignment seriously.)

If the student earns the right to revise, they can resubmit the assignment as many times as they need to (up until the end of the semester or some other deadline). To prevent trivial or half-hearted revisions, I warn students that it will take me 72 hours to grade each revision they submit, and that they shouldn’t leave things to the last minute.

How Do Students React to Specs Grading?

Strong students love this system because it’s time-efficient - if they nail it in one go, they’re done. Students who are motivated but struggle with writing also love it, because it lets them work their way toward the A’s that often elude them in traditional grading schemes.

Students who want to coast by with merely passing work, however, are often deeply frustrated by specs grading, and that’s the essential learning for them: they need to know that coasting is not a viable strategy for genuine success and achievement.

Students who lack confidence are often daunted by specs grading at first, which is one reason why I find that it pairs so well with the tutorials. I work hard to make my tutorials positive experiences and to reassure students that they can do it if they keep at it! There is often a low point of frustration along the way, but when students come out the other side they feel a real sense of pride in their own resilience and ability to persist in the face of difficulties. They also often say things like “I never knew I could write so well!” That increases their confidence in their ability to tackle future assignments.

What Are Some Logistical Considerations to Keep in Mind with Specs Grading and Tutorials?

I’ve had to shorten the papers I assign to make this system work. I agree that there’s value in having students research and present longer and more involved arguments, but within a 4-4 teaching load, the reality is that it’s almost impossible to assign a paper that is both extensive and iterative. I have prioritized the latter because I think it’s a better way to teach writing at this level.

You have to tinker a bit to turn rubrics into simple yes/no questions, but it’s doable. Also, to prevent students from thinking they’ll earn partial credit for a partially completed assignment, I use tiny fractions of points (0.5 or even 0.01) for each rubric criterion except for the last one: “Have you fulfilled all the requirements for this assignment?”. That is the criterion with nearly all the points for the assignment.

Do Tutorials Take a Lot of Time?

I swear, and I am not making this up, that doing half-hour tutorials to grade papers is only marginally more time-consuming than somehow figuring out how to write a coherent response to a crappy paper clearly written in the middle of the night in a Red-Bull-fueled frenzy. The simplicity of the specs grading rubrics definitely helps, too - no more dithering over whether a student should earn, say, 4 or 5 points for a given rubric criterion: it's just yes or no.

Also, tutorials are infinitely more satisfying: I’m teaching instead of merely grading, and my feedback has real value for students because they have to act on it.

Most importantly, students love and really appreciate the personal attention, connection, and care that they get during the tutorials.