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You’re in this course because you have to be— it’s a required part of the Core and necessary to graduate from BC. But what if it weren’t? Imagine for a moment that you signed up for this course as a writing workshop after hearing about it on a podcast, from a friend, or simply because you’re curious. The course itself would run the same— we would spend time creating in community, giving and receiving feedback, and supporting each other’s growth. You wouldn’t, however, receive a grade. How would that change things? Would you simply not learn anything? Of course not! In fact, you might find yourself feeling a sense of freedom— to take creative risks, ask questions, or try something outside of your comfort zone. Why might this happen?
The Interaction Between Grades and Learning
The Interaction Between Grades and Learning
A growing body of research in several fields, including education, writing studies, and psychology, demonstrates that instead of motivating and clearly communicating information about student learning, grades actually do the opposite. As Alfie Kohn says in “The Case Against Grades”
Extrinsic motivation, which includes a desire to get better grades, is not only different from, but often undermines, intrinsic motivation, a desire to learn for its own sake. (1)
Instead of inspiring students to want to learn for the sheer pleasure of learning and creating, grades actually undermine this process.
In “The Trouble with Rubrics,” Kohn continues to share the detrimental effects of grading on student learning saying:
Research shows three reliable effects when students are graded: They tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself. (2)
Peter Elbow, agrees, advocating in “Ranking, Evaluating, Liking: Sorting Out Three Forms of Judgement” for teachers to
do as little ranking and grading as we can. (3)
It Wasn’t Always Like This
It Wasn’t Always Like This
In “How to Ungrade,” Jesse Stommel gives a brief history of how our current system of assessment came to be saying:
In “Teaching More by Grading Less,” Jeffrey Schinske and Kimberly Tanner cite the first “official record” of a grading system from Yale in 1785. (4) The A-F system appears to have emerged in 1898 (with the “E” not disappearing until the 1930s) and the 100-point or percentage scale became common in the early 1900s. According to Schinske and Tanner, even by 1971, only 67% of primary and secondary schools in the U.S. were using letter grades. The desire for uniformity across institutions was the primary motivator for the spread of these systems. (5)
However, learning is not a uniform process. It’s idiosyncratic, as unique as each of the individuals in any given learning community. In an attempt to honor your own unique story, brain, and learning journey, I’ve developed the following grading policy:
Assessment≠ Grading ≠ Feedback
Assessment≠ Grading ≠ Feedback
This course contains multiple assessments on your work, both written and verbal. Please know that I will review everything you create and shape our classroom activities around your work. However, you will not receive grades from me. You might not always receive direct comments on your work, except for when we use and discuss that work in class.
One of my goals for you in this course is for you to grow in your creative process so that instead of always looking to an "expert" or "professional" for evaluation and approval, you instead turn inward, to yourself and to your community for feedback and areas of growth.
👉 The Default Grade for the Course is a "B."
👉 The Default Grade for the Course is a "B."
A "B" Grade
A "B" Grade
Engagement & Collaboration
Engagement & Collaboration
Participate with good faith and generosity in all classroom discussions and exercises. (Please note: COVID-19 has fundamentally changed education's approach to attendance policies (mainly, in my opinion, for the better). Please do not attend class if you are feeling ill. Take care of yourself. Please also remember that our classroom ecology is simply not the same without your presence. If you are missing class, I trust that it is for a good reason, and I have faith that you will complete the necessary labor to remain on track with your course goals). If you will miss class, please submit the Course Absence Report form.
Complete all Metacognitive Letters with sincere self-reflection and thorough familiarity with course readings and discussions.
Participate in feedback sessions and discussions following the criteria outlined in "Engaged Feedback: A Guide."
Deadlines
Deadlines
Late work will receive a 5% deduction per day. Additionally, I will only provide feedback to work that is submitted by the deadline. You can still receive feedback for late work by making an appointment with me during office hours.
Keeping Track of Your Labor
Keeping Track of Your Labor
To help make the labor of this course more visible, I’ve put together the following charts. I’ve drawn on research from labor-based grading and specifications grading to do this work. In short, if you meet the requirements of any particular assignment (the “specifications” for that work), then you receive the points affiliated with that assignment. If you do not meet the specifications of that assignment, then you do not receive the points. These points will be tracked in Canvas, so you can see what your grade is at any given point during the course.
Assessment
Points Breakdown
Potential Total Points
Notion or Google Page (5 pts)
Situation Poem (5 pts)
Zine (5 pts)
Reflection (5 pts)
Presentation (5 pts)
25 points
Engagement & Metacognition
See the deliverable Metacognitive Letters and Engagement activities (below) for more information.
15 pts
Total
85 Points
Grade
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D
F
Points
93+
90-92
86-89
85
80-84
77-79
73-76
70-72
65-69
64≥
Grades Higher Than a "B"
Grades Higher Than a "B"
In order to receive an "A" grade, you must do more labor that helps or supports the class in its mutual learning. To do this, you may complete as many of the following items of labor as you would like. It is your responsibility to keep track of your engagement activities, including evidence of each activity (8).
What You Can Expect from Me - All Feedback, No Grades
What You Can Expect from Me - All Feedback, No Grades
Instead of receiving individual grades on your work for this class, you will receive feedback on your work— from both me and your peers. You can expect to receive questions and comments that engage your work. Some of this feedback will be shared verbally in class or during conferences in lieu of written comments.
Why Am I Doing This?
Why Am I Doing This?
As a teacher, my goal is to support your learning, creating opportunities for you rather than constructing barriers or closing down opportunities for growth. I have no interest in ranking you, but a profound interest in helping you to succeed and grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you doing this because you don't want to do any work?
No. Giving feedback, particularly the sort of feedback that you will receive in this course takes time— far more time than circling criteria on a rubric would take. However, I strongly believe that the additional time and effort this takes is worth it. My goal is to help you develop and time spent towards achieving that goal is well-spent.
How will I know how my progress compares with others' in the course?
You won’t. I wholeheartedly agree with Jesse Strommel’s reasons against grading on a curve: In brief, it pits students against each other, discourages collaboration, and privileges the students who our educational system has already privileged.
How will you know that we will try our best?
I don't, but I'm trusting you.
How will I know where I "stand" at any given point in the class?
You can see how many points you have for the class in the Canvas gradebook.
Aren't grades to communicate learning?
I quote here directly from Asao B. Inoue because I can't think of a better way to put this response than what he has already written:
For some, the purpose of grades may be to communicate learning, but that is not what they primarily do, and they don't communicate learning very well in a language classroom. Again, grades are not learning. Say you are a student. You get an A in my First-year Writing course at ASU. What does that tell you about your writing? I mean, what does it really communicate to you?
What about objectivity? Aren't grades objective?
Simply, no they are not. I also question whether striving for objectivity is a goal that we are striving for given that the act of learning and the identity of each of you is multifaceted and complex. It’s not equitable to apply a single standard to everyone under the guise of objectivity. In fact, it can deepen pre-existing systemic injustices in education.
Each of you comes to this classroom with unique life histories and different relationships to writing. Your areas of strength and growth are profoundly personal and as unique as you are. Attempting to squash your individuality into boxes on a rubric or points on a scale detracts from focusing on what matters- the specific nuances of your writing skill and how best to further strengthen those areas.
What about mastery-based grading? Isn’t that a better option?
I taught at a school for six years that used mastery-based grading and I found that this system contained the issues with grading that I point out above. Additionally, a focus on “mastery” privileges knowing over the state that is infinitely more useful to learning— comfortably not knowing.
🏫 Boston College’s Grading Policy
🏫 Boston College’s Grading Policy
The grading system at Boston College consists of 12 categories: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, and F. A is excellent; B is good; C is satisfactory; D is passing but unsatisfactory; F is failure.
In computing grade point averages, the following numerical equivalents for the 12 letter grades are used:
A
4.00
A-
3.67
B+
3.33
B
3.00
B-
2.67
C+
2.33
C
2.00
C-
1.67
D+
1.33
D
1.00
D-
0.67
F
0.00
- Kohn, Alfie. “The Case Against Grades.” Alfie Kohn, 2 Nov. 2011, https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/.
- --. “The Trouble with Rubrics.” Alfie Kohn, 3 Mar. 2006, https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/trouble-rubrics/.
- Elbow, Peter. “Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking: Sorting out Three Forms of Judgment.” College English, vol. 55, no. 2, Feb. 1993, p. 187. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2307/378503.
- Schinske, Jeffrey, and Kimberly Tanner. “Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently).” CBE—Life Sciences Education, vol. 13, no. 2, June 2014, pp. 159–66. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.cbe-14-03-0054.
- Stommel, Jesse. “How to Ungrade.” Jesse Stommel, 11 Mar. 2018, https://www.jessestommel.com/how-to-ungrade/.
- Parts of this policy adapted from Miriam Posner's Contract Grading in the course "Selfies, Snapchat, & Cyberbullies: Coming of Age Online."
- Inoue, Asao B. Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado, 2019. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2019.0216.0; Stommel, Jesse. “Why I Don’t Grade.” Jesse Stommel, 26 Oct. 2017, https://www.jessestommel.com/why-i-dont-grade/.
- The “Engagement Activities” section of this policy is adapted from Sarah Swofford’s work presented at 4C22.
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