How will my students know what they are doing well or what they need to improve?

(distinguish grades from feedback)

The nature of our feedback matters.

student voice: "To me it felt like a good way to build up your students while also giving them positive feedback on how they can improve their work. "

What will keep my students from doing the minimum amount of work, or worse, plagiarizing their work?

(trust their integrity, let go of the rest)

student voices: "It relieves a lot of stress off of the assignments and makes them more fun, causing you to want to put more effort into them. "

“I have never taken a class with labor based grading, and now I don’t want to take one without it. It has definitely made me pay more attention to the material, and actually be more interested in the content, rather than caring about what percentage I will get on the assignment based on a subjective view.”

 “I think that the labor-based grading system is a lot less stressful than other grading systems.  It calms anxieties about grammar mistakes or little errors in writing and focuses more on the ability to analyze or put deep thinking into words.  This is super helpful because it brings joy back into writing and makes work for this class a lot more fun.  I find that I produce better work that I am proud of in this type of class environment instead of turning in writing assignments identical to those of my classmates and that lack individual perspective."

"To be honest, I kept forgetting that my work wasn’t necessarily being graded on its quality, but that didn’t stop me from putting in my best effort on every assignment. It has given me more freedom in assignments, and I don’t feel as much stress or pressure to get every single detail perfect. It has helped me to focus more on the importance of what we are learning, rather than the objective quality of my writing… "  

What will happen if everyone gets an A?

(everyone's scholarship will be validated and life will be rad)

student voice: 

“I think it is a great way to fairly assess our work, because it emphasizes dedication and effort over skill level, which is important because everybody comes from different backgrounds.”

"I like the labor based grading system, because it gives all students an opportunity even if they are slower workers, or are learners in a different way than me. It has made space for errors in my work, but that allows me to find my mistakes and fix them." 

Won't this leave students underprepared to succeed in future academic rigors?

“Our students need us… to propose, develop, and implement innovative disruptions to pathological educational practices and policies predicated on white supremacy, anti-Blackness, deficit-model thinking… community colleges hold the potential to function as a kind of disruptive technology.”

  Sims, Minding the Obligation Gap (2020), p.1-2

student voice: 

"In the real-world people want work done based on completeness and timeliness, so having that as a grading system can help prepare students for the rules and expectations in jobs."

"If there was more weight placed on different performances I might have been able to prioritize different amounts of effort to put into different assignments to maximize my grade in the time I had, but I don’t think I would’ve learned as much applicable information and that’s what the class is about for me."

"I feel better prepared for what future courses will look like and even if this system is not used at least, I had this class to prepare me for workload and college writing."

"Looking back at my recent reflections I've noticed that I have written more for myself than the assignment… I think the labor based grading system is more than fair. It has made space for growth and shut down bad habits."

Won't this delegitamize my own academic integrity?

integrity over fidelity, there are so many ways to do this -- just trying something means you are willing to learn and grow and that's an alternative definition of academic integrity (as opposed to authority). Call it what you need to call it to make it your own --which rules of which system we adopt matters less than the intention and good faith action to invte more students into the conversation and increase more students chance of succss.

culturally reponsive teaching is the most legitamte teaching

just because its uncoforatble doesn't mean it's wrong