TG2Chat LIVE!: Recent Episodes
Teachers Going Gradeless
This is the podcast of Teachers Going Gradeless. Each episode we speak to educators who are transforming teaching and learning by grading less. Tune in and learn with us!
Carissa McCray is a member of Research, Advocacy, Collaboration, and Empowerment Mentoring program, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the American Educational Research Association. She has presented across the United States on topics ranging from implementing social-emotional strategies in the classroom to culturally responsive teaching techniques through the lens of critical race theory. Her ongoing scholarship and practitioner-based work are driven by creating equitable learning opportunities through the inclusion of multicultural literature, media, and curricula.
Topics include:
- How an equitable, inclusive, culturally competent classroom is a departure from the status quo
- Why an equitable, inclusive education is important in our global society
- What role assessment plays in fostering an equitable learning environment
- How we can use data to better serve our students
- Why the “story” told by standardized testing data misses the mark
- How deemphasizing grades can align with the goals of equitable instruction
- Why we should assess students holistically, realizing that “everything is assessment”
Resources
- Everything is Assessment (TG2 blog post)
- Equitable Instruction, Empowered Students: A Teacher’s Guide to Inclusive and Culturally Competent Classrooms (book by Dr. Carissa McCray)
- Mirrors and windows: Using the five senses and more to plan culturally responsive instruction (interview for the Yes and Know podcast)
- Five things we need to stop saying about our students (interview for the Leading Equity podcast)
- Multicultural Literature as Critical Literature: Redefine the Trajectory for Students of Color (chapter in the anthology Research Anthology on Racial Equity, Identity, and Privilege)
Fabiola "Fabi" Torres is an online Ethnic Studies professor and Certified Faculty Developer at Glendale Community College. During the pandemic, she has led nationwide workshops and courses on applying equity-minded methods such as culturally responsive teaching in the online environment, humanizing online teaching and learning as well as ungrading practices.
With dual M.A. degrees in Chicana/o Studies and Learning Technology, Fabi was featured at InstructureCon 2019 for her work in humanizing online education. In 2020, she received the Online Learning Consortium Advocate Award for Diversity and Inclusion and the Distinguished Faculty Award at Glendale Community College. In the summer of 2023, Fabi was named one of the top 30 education technology influencers for EdTech Magazine.
Fabiola is a fur-mommy of Luke, Leia and Wookie.
Topics include
- What inspired Fabiola to become a community college professor
- How current events influenced Fabi to stop ‘policing’ her students by moving toward ungrading
- How Fabi used the summer of 2020 to develop and design her own approach to ungrading
- How ungrading caused Fabi’s curriculum and assignments to change
- Why Fabi believes grades “detonate” in the souls of our students, and how her form of ungrading eliminates or at least buffers students from this experience
- How Fabi’s students use her REDO process—Reflect, Edit, Discover and Observe—to articulate their own learning patterns and strategies, as well as identify obstacles
- How technology supports—and, in some cases, impedes—teaching and learning
- How AI is currently influencing teaching and learning in Fabi’s classes and where she thinks it’s all headed
Other resources
- Discovering The Spark Of Teaching & Learning Through Equitable Grading (article for California Virtual Campus Online Network of Educators)
- Grades Suck: Fabi’s video representing her core beliefs about learning and the problems with grades. The implementation of UnGrading will be provided in the Orientation Module is Canvas.
- UnGrading In Ethnic Studies 121: Fabi’s webpage for explaining ungrading to her students.
Jesse Stommel is a faculty member in the Writing Program at University of Denver. He is also co-founder of Hybrid Pedagogy: the journal of critical digital pedagogy and Digital Pedagogy Lab. He has a PhD from University of Colorado Boulder. He is co-author of An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy.
Jesse is a documentary filmmaker and teaches courses about pedagogy, film, digital studies, and composition. Jesse experiments relentlessly with learning interfaces, both digital and analog, and his research focuses on higher education pedagogy, critical digital pedagogy, and assessment. He’s got a rascal pup, Emily, a clever cat, Loki, and a badass daughter, Hazel.
Originally aired as a live Community Gathering, where Vanessa Ellis interviewed Jesse on his book, Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop, and then opened the floor to questions for participants.
Topics include
- Do we need the word 'ungrading'? Why can this term be problematic?
- What ungrading has looked like throughout Jesse’s career
- How the work of scholars like bell hooks, Kevin Gannon, and Paulo Freire have influenced Jesse’s ungrading philosophy
- Why ungrading is not ideologically neutral work
- How ungrading can empower students and support their agency
- Why ungrading is less about shifting policies and more about building community
- The "necessary practices" educators must implement to make teaching and learning more equitable
Other resources
Blog posts included in Jesse’s book:
- An Introduction to Ungrading
- Toward a Cointentional Approach to Assessment
- Ungrading for Equity
Mike Flanagan is the CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC), a growing group of high schools creating a digital high school transcript that opens up opportunity for each and every student—from all backgrounds, locations, and types of schools—to have their unique strengths, abilities, interests, and histories fostered, understood, and celebrated.
Mike oversaw the design and development of Mastery Transcript software products, connecting with members and advisors to manage the MTC product roadmap until May 2021. He is an experienced education technology executive, most recently having served as CEO of the Services Division at the National Association of Independent Schools, where he led a complete redesign and relaunch of their School and Student Services financial aid platforms.
Topics include
- How Mike’s background in education and technology influenced his interest and involvement in the Mastery Transcript Consortium
- The genesis and history of the Mastery Transcript, as well as some of the troubling statistics behind the traditional measures of grades, GPA, and test scores
- What the Mastery Transcript is and what schools in the Mastery Transcript Consortium have in common
- What mastery learning is and how it accelerates and enhances equity
- How schools or districts might know if they are ready to work with MTC
- What colleges, admissions offices, and admissions officers have to say about the Mastery Transcript
Other resources
- What We Do: Key principles, features, and benefits of the Mastery Transcript
- MTC Community Talkback: Competency-based Credentials: This topical, cross-sector discussion features insights from representatives of America Succeeds, CAPS Network, Education Reimagined, Envision Learning Partners and Jobs for the Future.
- Mastery Transcript Tour: Susie Bell, Senior Director of Member School Engagement, explains Mastery Learning and how the Mastery Transcript facilitates and propels it.
Alex Shevrin Venet is an educator, author, and professional development facilitator based in Vermont. She teaches community college and graduate teacher education. Previously, she was a teacher and leader at an alternative therapeutic school. She is the co-founder of the Nurturing the Nurturers collective, a healing community for educators. Her first book, Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, is a bestseller at W.W. Norton. She is also a long-time ungrader!
Topics include:
- How Alex’s personal background and professional experiences led to her interest in trauma-informed education
- How Alex defines trauma in the context of her work in schools
- How centering four “proactive priorities” can help schools move toward more equitable and trauma-informed systems and decisions
- How the proactive priorities can be used to make ungrading more equitable, inclusive, and trauma informed
- How teachers can collectively work to make change at all levels of the system at the same time
- Why grades can be a barrier to unconditional acceptance
Other resources:
- Alex’s book: Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education
- Alex’s website: unconditionallearning.org
Nate Bowling teaches Social Studies at a US Embassy School in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He is a past Washington State Teacher of the Year and National Teacher of the Year Finalist. He and his wife blog about living and teaching overseas at BowlingsAbroad.com and he is the host of the Nerd Farmer Podcast on the Channel 253 Podcast Network. He writes a weekly newsletter called Takes & Typos on Substack and you can find him on Mastodon’s Scholar.Social as @natebowling.
Topics include:
- Nate’s changing perspective, from urging equitable access to AP classes to calling for an end to schools’ partnership with the College Board
- Why Nate thinks states and state universities can serve the same purposes of—and do a better job than—the College Board
- How the pandemic changed some of Nate’s thoughts and practices around grading
- How Nate’s narrative transcript from Evergreen State College in Washington informed his thinking about assessment and evaluation
- The best and worst things that Disney has done with the Star Wars franchise
Other resources:
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On Teachers Going Gradeless:
- We Don’t Need the College Board
- Taking Unneeded Anxiety Out of Assessment
- Testing, COVID-19, and the College Board (TG2Chat LIVE! Episode 17, April 20, 2020)
- An open letter to the College Board about online, at-home AP tests (April 22, 2020)
Dr. Juuso Nieminen is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong and a Banting Fellow at Ontario Tech University, Canada. He studies the social, cultural, and political aspects of assessment. Why do we assess the way we do? Dr. Nieminen’s research focuses on the student perspective in assessment. He is particularly interested in how assessment shapes students’ identities in higher education and beyond. Dr Nieminen has also examined the matters of disability inclusion and accessibility in assessment.
Other resources:
- Toward assessment utopias! A call for educational activism to address the issues of power in grading (blog post co-written with Chris Dite)
- Assessment for Inclusion: rethinking inclusive assessment in higher education (Journal of Higher Education)
- www.juusonieminen.com
- On Twitter @JuusoNieminen
Vanessa Ellis is an 8th-grade social studies teacher at Veterans Memorial Middle School in Columbus, Georgia. In 2017, Vanessa was named a Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year, and in 2018, she was selected as a Harvard Fellow to study research-based practices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2022, she was honored as Teacher of the Year for her school and for the Muscogee County School District. This year, she officially joined our team here at TG2 and is currently one of ten finalists for Georgia Teacher of the Year. She resides in Midland, Georgia, with her husband and three children.
Other resources
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Blog posts on Teachers Going Gradeless:
- Not Yet Gradeless, but Grading Less
- Where Do We Go From Here?
- Different is Not Deficient
- Avoiding Quit Point
-
Vanessa on the web:
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On Instagram: heymrsellis
- On Twitter: @heymrsellis
- On Linktree: @heymrsellis
- YouTube Channel
TG2 team member, Michelle Cottrell-Williams, interviews Jan McArthur, Senior Lecturer in Education and Social Justice in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK. Jan’s research focuses on the nature and purposes of higher education and how these relate to practices of teaching, learning, and assessment. Jan McArthur coauthored the piece, A Womanist Approach to Care-Full Feedback, with Ameena L. Payne, which received an overwhelmingly positive reception.
Professor McArthur has a particular interest in critical theory and in her published work explores the ideas of Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Axel Honneth, applying these to higher education. Her book, Rethinking Knowledge in Higher Education, explores how Adorno’s critical theory can inform our understanding of, and engagement with, knowledge in higher education for the purposes of greater social justice. Her second book, Assessment for Social Justice, uses Honneth's conceptualization of mutual recognition to rethink the nature of assessment in higher education.
Liz Norell is passionate about great teaching and student success. As a political scientist (well, really, a political psychologist), she's motivated to understand how/why we develop the political beliefs we do...and how to have more productive dialogue across differences. As a faculty member and mentor, she loves brainstorming ways to make classrooms more inclusive, engaging, exciting, relevant, and welcoming spaces for learning. She embraces pedagogies of equity and care, including the full spectrum of ungrading. She loves to talk with other teachers about teaching. You can follow her musings at her blog, www.liznorell.com, and on Twitter @liznorell.
Mike Rutherford is a lifelong teacher and learner. Eight years ago, he returned to the classroom as a middle school English and Social Studies teacher after many years in the education private sector with Blackboard and Just ASK Publications & Professional Development. Prior to his time in the private sector, Mike was a middle school teacher and technology training specialist in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, and an EdTech Director for the City of Manassas Public Schools. Mike created gotLearning as a classroom teacher to manage the constant barrage of student learning data coming from so many different sources. Mike lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania with his educator wife, Elizabeth, and two dogs, Luna and Bella, who are two of gotLearning's four official office dogs.
Because ungrading is essentially an emancipatory practice, it cannot be held to one formula or singular standard. Instead, ungrading relies on a robust community of educators to circulate, celebrate, and elevate the practice in its various forms. Lisa Wennerth, welcomes four trailblazing educators—Liz Leininger, Rita Shah, Firas Moosvi, and Taylor Vivanco—whose article “Why There Isn’t One ‘Right Way’ to Practice Ungrading” posits ungrading as a fundamentally open, welcoming, and responsive practice for all—not just the elite few. This podcast originates from an earlier Special Community Gathering, where Lisa first facilitated a discussion with our guests and then opened the floor to questions from participants.
Miriam Plotinsky is an author and instructional specialist who addresses challenges in both teaching and leading across schools with a wide range of differentiated needs. A strong advocate for student-centered learning, she provides coaching and professional development for teachers and administrators. She is the author of Teach More, Hover Less: How to Stop Micromanaging Your Secondary Classroom and Lead Like a Teacher: How to Elevate Expertise in Your School (Norton Books in Education, 2022 & 2023). Miriam is widely published in Education Week, Edutopia, ASCD Express, Middleweb, The Teaching Channel, EdSurge, K-12 Talk, and Education World. She is also a National Board-Certified Teacher with additional certification in administration and supervision.
Jay Percell, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University, an author of several academic essays, and a TEDx presenter. Michelle Cottrell-Williams hosts as Jay shares his reasons for moving away from traditional grades and toward a classroom where learning, improvement, and growth is the focus. Resources:
Jay's TEDx Talk: "Make Grading Point-less: Eliminating Points to Foster Student Motivation" Essentially Point-Less: The Influence Of Alternative, Non PointsBased Grading On Teachers' Instructional Practices (Article)
Sarah M. Zerwin teaches Senior Language Arts and AP Lit at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, and author of the book Point-Less: An English Teacher’s Guide to More. You can follow her blog The Paper Graders and on twitter at @SarahMZerwin
Topics include:
- What led to the idea that points get in the way of learning.
- How to identify learning targets and communicate them to students.
- How to establish a culture of feedback and maintain it throughout the year.
- How to report a final grade at the end of a term.
Resources:
- Sarah’s book Point-Less: An English Teacher’s Guide to More.
- Sarah’s blog The Paper Graders
This episode is the continuation of my conversation with college educators Maha Bali, Jesse Stommel, and Asao B. Inoue (you can listen to the first half here). As college institutions struggle with the implications of COVID-19, it’s important for them to place equity and access at the center of considerations about ways in which college can resume. As Professor Inoue pointed out, however, we also have an opportunity to fundamentally revolutionize the academy and the way we identify and support student success.
Topics include:
- How we can co-create intentionally equitable, hospitable spaces in our institutions
- What troubling practices emerged as institutions pivoted to remote education
- What does “access” mean, and what is being accessed when we say we are providing more access
- How the pandemic has problematized the practice of grading
- How institutions must empower and give agency to faculty as they reimagine education within the pandemic
In this episode, I sit down with three college educators known for their commitment to creating inclusive, humane educational spaces—both in the classroom and online. All three of them have experimented with different forms of going gradeless as part of this commitment. All three have given considerable thought about teaching under the current pandemic. You can check out Part 2 of this interview here.
Maha Bali is associate professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. She is also the co-founder and co-director of Virtually Connecting, a grassroots movement that organizes hybrid hallway conversations at conferences for virtual participants, and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound, an equity-focused intercultural curriculum for teaching digital literacies. You can find more of Maha’s writing at her blog Reflecting Allowed and follow her on Twitter at @Bali_Maha.
Asao B. Inoue is Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University. He is the 2019 Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. He has published a co-edited collection, Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and The Advancement of Opportunity, and a book, Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. You can find more of Asao’s writing at his blog Asao B. Inoue's Infrequent Words and follow him on Twitter at @AsaoBInoue.
Jesse Stommel is a Digital Learning Fellow and Senior Lecturer of Digital Studies at University of Mary Washington. He is co-founder of Digital Pedagogy Lab and Hybrid Pedagogy: the journal of critical digital pedagogy. He is co-author of An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy. Jesse is a documentary filmmaker and teaches courses about pedagogy, film, and new media. Jesse experiments relentlessly with learning interfaces, both digital and analog, and his research focuses on higher education pedagogy, critical digital pedagogy, and assessment. You can find more of Jesse’s writing at jessestommel.com and follow him on Twitter at @jessifer.
Sheldon L. Eakins, Ph.D. is the founder of the Leading Equity Center and host of the Leading Equity Podcast. With over 11 years in education, he has served as a teacher, principal, and Director of Special Education. Dr. Eakins has a passion for helping educators accomplish equitable practices in their schools. You can follow him on Twitter at @sheldoneakins.
Topics include:
- What is equity and how we make sure it maintains that urgency and doesn’t become another buzzword or checklist
- What elements of equity have been most endangered under COVID-19
- How to examine distance learning practices from the standpoint of equity
- How COVID-19 may have removed certain barriers to equity
- How grades undermine efforts toward more equitable, culturally sustaining practices
- How educators should respond to ongoing racial injustice and violence
As the school year draws to a close and final grades are calculated, it is becoming clear that traditional grading is inequitable. Some students are able to remain engaged while others, for various reasons, cannot. Schools need to provide some form of summative reporting. The question is, “How can we move forward?”
Jay Percell, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University, an author of several academic essays, and a TEDx presenter. In this episode, Jay discusses the problems with traditional grades and how the pandemic can help push us toward practices that are more accurate, equitable, and humane.
Resources:
- Jay’s blog post Grading in the New Normal: Seizing Hope in a Time of Crisis
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TG2Chat: Grading in the New Normal - May 24, 2020
- Jay's TEDx Talk: "Make Grading Point-less: Eliminating Points to Foster Student Motivation"
This episode explores "Do No Harm" grading as a response to distance learning in the midst of COVID-19. Educators across the country are experiencing first hand how online distance learning exacerbates inequities in education. Students are struggling with more than access to proper technology and internet connectivity. There are inequities in supports, environments, and time constraints.
On April 22nd, Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, released a video announcing its Do No Harm grading policy. The State’s policy was written to ensure that students were not punished for a situation outside of their control that could impact future opportunities. The policy states that high schools will only give letter grades of A-D, no student can receive an F, and student grades cannot be negatively impacted—they can only improve.
This episode explores three perspectives on grading during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monte Syrie Monte is an English teacher in Chaney, Washington. He is a 2013 Washington State Teacher of the Year finalist, Adjunct professor at Eastern Washington University, and the author of the blog Project 180.
Let's Change Education Blog
Dr. Manuel Rustin Dr. Manuel Rustin. Manuel is a high school history teacher in Pasadena California. He is the co-host of the show All of the Above, authors a blog on Medium, where he published his piece, Give them All A’s and the recipient of the Milken Educator Award in 2011.
Dr. Rustin's Blog on Medium
All of the Above Podcast
Ken O’Connor Ken O’Connor is an education consultant, speaker, and author. Ken’s books include 15 Fixes for Broken Gradesand How to Grade for Learning,
O'Connor Grading
Joe Feldman is the author of Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms (Corwin). Joe has worked in education as a teacher, principal, district administrator, and is now founder of Crescendo Education Group, which since 2013 has supported schools in adopting assessment, grading, and reporting practices that improve equity outcomes in schools.
Topics include:
- How Joe came to see equity as the central issue in grading practice
- Common grading practices are most susceptible to implicit bias and inequity
- How grading policies for remote learning during COVID-19 can mitigate or exacerbate inequities
- What we can take from the COVID-19 crisis that could lead to more equitable outcomes in the future
Resources:
- gradingforequity.org
- Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms
- Grading for Equity Online Course
-
TG2Chat: Grading for Equity During COVID-19 - April 26, 2020
- Panel Discussion on Grading/Crediting Policies During COVID-19: Joe is joined by Denise Pope, Ph.D., Stanford Lecturer and Co-Founder of Challenge Success; Stacy Caldwell, M.A., M.B.A., Executive Director or Mastery Transcript Consortium; and Randall Booker, Superintendent of Piedmont Unified School District.
- Open Letter to the College Board on Plan for Online Testing During COVID-19
Make sure to join Joe as he moderates #TG2Chat this Sunday, April 26, at 9 pm EDT/6 pm PDT!
Nate Bowling an AP social studies teacher and emigrant to the United Arab Emirates. In his teaching, writing, and advocacy, Nate challenges the politics and policies that impact his students, his classroom, and society at large.
Topics include:
- What prompted Nate to leave Tacoma and take up teaching in the UAE
- Why the job of teaching and learning in a low-income schools in the United States as currently constructed is unsustainable
- Why the College Board’s plan to test during the COVID-19 crisis is inequitable and flawed
- Whether the College Board’s reductive focus effectively prevents teachers from being responsive in the way this political moment demands
- Why Nate is not entirely opposed to standardization and testing
- How Nate really feels about the Star Wars prequel and sequel trilogies
Resources:
- natebowling.com
- Teachers United
- Nate’s Twitter thread on 2016 Teachers of the Year Finalists
- Nate’s testimony to the Washington State Board of Education
- Nerd Farmer Podcast
- Open Letter to the College Board about Testing During COVID-19
Eric is a principal at Hall Middle School in Larkspur, CA. Eric is the co-founder of Global School Play Day which is dedicated to promoting the idea that kids learn more when they play.
In this episode of TG2Cast Chris and I discuss Progressive Education, what is it, and how teachers interested in Progressive Education can get started.
Topics include:
- Eric’s philosophy of leadership
- Concerns about teacher insularity
- How to break the cycle of teacher insularity
- How going gradeless impacted his school
Resources:
- Blog
- Golbal School Play Day
Chris is a Social Studies teacher at Global Impact Stem Academy in Springfield, Ohio. Chris is the founder of The Human Restoration Project which is dedicated to promoting Progressive Education.
In this episode of TG2Cast Chris and I discuss Progressive Education, what is it, and how teachers interested in Progressive Education can get started.
Topics include:
- The Human Restoration Project.
- What is Grassroots Activism and its role in education.
- What is Progressive Education.
- How to implement Progressive Education.
- Why teachers should consider Progressive Education.
Resources:
- The Human Restoration Project Website
Skylar is a co-lead teacher and advisor at High Marq Environmental Charter School, the treasurer for Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, and a fellow of the Greater Madison Writing Project. His teaching practice is grounded in Project-Based Learning that allows education to be used as a tool to connect youth with their community and become environmentally conscious citizens.
In this episode of TG2Cast Skylar and I discuss how Project Based and Environmental Learning create authentic learning experiences for students.
Topics include:
- What is Environmental Education and how does it fit with Project Based Learning?
- The philosophy behind Project Based and Environmental Learning.
- How parents and students perceive Project Based Learning.
- Why Project Based Learning and gradeless pedagogy go hand in hand.
- How Project Based Learning and gradeless students perform beyond high school.
Resources:
- Skylar’s Blog on Medium
- Skylar’s Blog on Teachers Going Gradeless
- PBL Works Website
- List of articles about Project Based Learning on Edutopia
- North American Association for Environmental Education
- Green Schools National Network
Jeff is an English Language Arts teacher at Hillcrest High School in Riverside, California. Over his 14 years in teaching, he has taught at 3 high schools, chaired two departments, and served on several different committees. Recently, Jeff decided to use summative conferencing in his class and learned a lot about his students.
In this episode of TG2Cast Jeff and I discuss the impact of grades from the perspective of one of his students.
Topics include:
- How students see themselves through the lens of grades.
- How grades impact the student/teacher relationship.
- How grades shape the identity of a student.
- Why teachers need to take the time to talk to students in order to understand their perspective.
Resources:
- "1 Week, 170 Conferences"
- "In Her Words" (Full interview with Soleil)
- Jeff's Blog Site
As a teacher/activist, Julia Torres's work is grounded in empowering students to use the Language Arts to fuel resistance and positive social transformation. Ms. Torres facilitates workshops and professional conversations about anti-racist education, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogies. She writes about these and other topics at at juliaetorres.blog.
Topics include:
- How Julia uses side-by-side teaching, expert groups, and culturally relevant texts to shift traditional power dynamics in her classroom
- How grades foster attitudes of competition, compliance, and insecurity in students of color, dividing them and pitting them against one another
- How Julia helps students "unlearn" disempowering attitudes from past experiences
- Why implementing progressive practices like going gradeless can be extremely difficult in urban school settings
- Why teachers from non-urban settings should visit and learn from teachers in urban settings
Resources mentioned:
- Julia's Twitter thread on grades
- Going Gradeless in Urban Ed (Teachers Going Gradeless)
- On Reading...and Grading (juliaetorres.blog)
- Building Bridges (juliaetorres.blog)
This episode features an interview with high school student, Bennette Jester, founder of #mygradingstory and author of the website My Grading Story, and advocate of student voice in learning.
Topics include:
-
MyGradingStory
- Montessori Education
- Student voice in learning
- How to motivate students
This episode features an interview with Andrew Burnett, middle school math teacher, author of the website BurnettMath, and advocate of The Thinking Classroom.
Topics include:
- Choosing learning targets
- Providing feedback
- Reporting learning to parents without grades
- Building student metacognition
This episode features an interview with Dan Scratch, high school social studies teacher, author of the website Teaching for Equity and Social Justice, and advocate of teaching for social justice.
Topics include:
- Why it is important for students to engage in social justice
- Building relationships as a foundation for social justice
- How social justice impacts classroom management
- Applying social justice education in STEM disciplines
Countless educators, including many in Teachers Going Gradeless, consider Ken O'Connor one of the first to introduce them to the idea that traditional grades are “broken” and that a better approach is possible. Ken is an independent consultant and author of the book A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades. Just recently, Ken published the fourth edition of his seminal book How to Grade for Learning. I believe I speak for many of us in expressing gratitude to Ken for the profound impact he has had on so many of our teaching practices.
Topics include:
- How Ken's experiences as teacher, curriculum coordinator, and field hockey coach informed his ideas around assessment and grading
- Why we should shift our grading practices
- Reasons for optimism regarding shifting grading practices in schools
- Why going gradeless and standards-based learning are "in the same chapter if not on the same page"
- Highlights from the new edition of How to Grade for Learning
This episode, I interview Mariana Morales Lobo, who taught high school in Madrid and Barcelona for 15 years, and who now works as a consultant in education, training teachers and helping school leaders implement innovation. One of her main areas of interest is “reinventing playground” spaces, considering the ways these supposedly neutral spaces can be made more equitable. Her writing can be found on the international platform of Práctica Reflexiva.
Topics include:
- The landscape of grading and testing in Spain
- Personalization vs. humanization in schools
- What teachers going gradeless can learn from playground reform
- Why playgrounds are not automatically neutral or equitable spaces
- How schools can create more equitable spaces and involve the voices of children
This episode features an interview with Alfie Kohn, author of the books Punished by Rewards, The Schools Our Children Deserve, The Homework Myth, and his latest, Schooling Beyond Measure.
Topics include:
- The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
- How teachers can leverage extrinsic motivation
- Rethinking reluctant learners
- "Doing with" rather than "doing to"
This episode features an interview with Benjamin Doxtdator, a middle school language arts teacher at an international school in Brussels, Belgium. Benjamin is probably best known for his essays on his blog Longview on Education at longviewoneducation.org.
Topics include:
- How deemphasizing grades reflects Benjamin's commitments as a teacher
- The potential pitfalls of a more gradeless future
- The rhetoric of education reform, educational technology, and futurism
- How tapping into and cultivating community can help us our voice as educators
This episode features an interview with Starr Sackstein, author of the book Peer Feedback in the Classroom and Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School.
Topics include:
- What are peer experts?
- Why use peer experts?
- How to implement peer experts in the classroom
- How to maximize the effectiveness of peer experts
This episode features an interview with Joy Kirr, author of the book Shift This! How to Implement Gradual Changes for MASSIVE Impact in Your Classroom.
Topics include:
- Why Joy decided to write the book
- How to create a positive classroom culture
- Dilemmas of grading and reporting learning
- How to implement Genius Hour
- Other shifts Joy is making after publishing the book
This episode features an interview with Jesse Stommel, Executive Director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies at University of Mary Washington. He is Co-founder of Digital Pedagogy Lab and Hybrid Pedagogy: a digital journal of learning, teaching, and technology. In addition to his focus on digital and critical pedagogy, Jesse has been a gradeless educator for his entire career, as he recounts in his blog post "Why I Don't Grade."
Topics include:
- Why grades are "the biggest and most insidious obstacle to education”
- How de-emphasizing grades coincides with a pedagogy of equity and social justice
- Why a gradeless space will not automatically be an equitable one
- How seemingly neutral platforms can flatten differences and influence pedagogies
- How we need to think about going gradeless in order it to be liberatory, transformative, an act of resistance
This episode features an interview with Patty McGee, author of the book Feedback That Moves Writers Forward.
Topics include:
- How to use the "Power of Three" in feedback.
- Strategies to help the stuck and reluctant writers
- The importance of setting writing goals
- How and when to introduce grammar
- How feedback works at the middle, secondary, and college levels
