I’m a no-grades cheater.

“You can’t just declare that you have a growth mindset,” said Dweck. “Growth mindset is hard. Many educators are trying to skip the journey.”

To do it right, Dweck says that many teachers have to change how they teach, offering more critical feedback and giving students opportunities to revise their work (Barshay).

I am now half way through the second quarter of my “no-grades” classroom. While a few teachers in my school are minimizing grades with me, the majority of teachers is still calculating learning with grades.

I teach seventh grade ELA: three composition classes and three reading/literature classes. The weeks between midterm reports and end-of-term report cards are glorious with lots of conversations about learning, but inevitably, the school whispers of “gpa’s” and “failing” and “catch up on missing work” and “honor role” come to a crescendo because, well, this is the measurement discourse students hear on the announcements at school,  in other classes, and at home from parents and siblings. The crescendo overcomes and almost undoes my efforts to focus on revision for the sake of learning.

As part of my pilot, I do not have to assign grades at midterm but I do at the end of each term. I wrote about how I felt like a failure when I assigned end-of-term grades for the first quarter, but I am staying with my plan to silence the measurement discourse in between marking periods (don’t want to “skip the journey”) and continuing to reflect on the process, sharing what insights I can with you.

Narrative Feedback

When students submit an artifact — blog, essay, slides, presentation — I write narrative feedback or give verbal feedback based on standards and the larger purpose of the artifact during daily conference time (which they write in their notebooks). Students typically revise some aspect of their work during class, at home, or at my academic support time (after school on Thursdays).  Learning is an ongoing conversation of, as Dweck suggests, critical feedback and revision.  When students are struggling with a standard or concept or missing the purpose, we talk about what they are doing, how they are approaching the work. We talk about specific strategies and moves they are making in their writing and thinking.  We talk about how learning is about stretching and taking risks then look for places to go beyond the standards making process and product their own. The process of feedback and revision is messy, complex, and ongoing. To assign a “grade” ends this conversation (or at minimum changes it).

However, not every student attends to my feedback or uses the process to grow. Some just do the assignment and are, well,  finished. For them, it is about task completion, and I have not done a good job showing them how learning is a process rather than a product.  And, there are some students who have not yet entered the conversation at all, i.e.,  avoidance, refusal, apathy.

No-Grades Cheater

Now, here is where I hit a snag and feel like a no-grades cheater.  Part of the deal with my principal to pilot this no-grades classroom was to use our school attendance-grading platform (SIS) to communicate to parents, admin, and students the standards and assignments. This program does not have a place for me to write narrative feedback and only accepts numeric data.

I decided to use the system to track the standards and developed a simple code that would be fairly compatible with my feedback.  For example, I will have several columns in the composition “gradebook” this quarter for the informative essay: W.7.2.A-F (introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow through provide a concluding statement or section).  I don’t put a “grade” in those columns (at least in my mind it’s not a grade).  I enter a 2 for “revision complete”; a 1 for “waiting revision”; and a “missing” if the artifact/assignment is missing.  I communicate the meaning of this code in the assignment description, to parents in emails and Remind texts, and to students (over and over). And this works fairly well because the students who are not used to reading my feedback look at the “grades” for other classes, see the low percentage in our class, notice the 1 or 0 and then read my feedback and revise. On one hand, this may mean that the student is motivated to revise in order to raise the grade, but on the other hand, it may mean that the student wants to know or understand what approach did not work so well, what he/she missed, and how he/she can improve.

Still, I have students coming to me in a panic asking: “How can I raise my grade?” I can see their fear. One student said, “I know it’s not my grade, but the ‘1’ is freaking me out. When can you update SIS with a ‘2’ to show I revised?”  And that is critical feedback for me, an alert to me to revise my approach (though I am not sure how yet).

I’d like to do away with this gradebook system. It is confusing me especially because the numbers quantify what I am trying to disrupt and nuance in my feedback. I don’t want to put a number on the biographical sketch that Alexa wrote about Carlos and his family crossing the border, for example. That said, at minimum many of my 180 students are engaging in the process of seeking feedback to improve, and this means they are entering the conversation with me and others about their learning.  We are not even half-way through this school year, so I think that if I stay the course, the process and the conversation will be as cherished by the students as it is for me. That said, I have to listen to student feedback (and yours) and revise my approaches as I work through this no grades journey.

Opportunities to Revisit and Revise

I wrote about the midterm letters in my post Dear Mom and shared a few with you then. I have revised that process a bit to make time for a midterm and end-of-term letter to parents, which summarizes with evidence what student learned and are learning for the quarter. I think this works as a portfolio and even a beautiful story of their learning. The letters capture more than evidence of learning standards. I hope you will notice (below) that students are discovering who they are as writers and readers and members of a community.

The process of composing these letters open up fissures to explore. For example, this assignment asks students to look through their paper notebooks and online blogs for evidence of learning. Some discover a note I had written to them a week prior with a suggestion for revisions, so, at last, they make that revision or call me over to talk about their lead, their conclusion, how to revise a claim or use in-text citation. This letter writing occurs in class for a day or so but then continues at home; later,  I email or mail the letters to parents. I will use these letters to inform our daily conferences,to celebrate effective strategies,  and to  make a few challenges to students who are ready to go beyond.

Here are a few examples of letters students wrote. You can read them in full and a few others (all are revealing) on our composition and reading blogs:

Composition 

Assignment: Write a letter to your parents/guardian about our class that summarizes and gives evidence of your learning this quarter. (I will send these to your families, so I encourage you to keep your audience in mind and translate if needed.)

• biographical sketch (narrative): who you interviewed, what memories you exchanged, what was the process, how did it feel to write someone’s story, what revisions did Dr. Donovan suggest;
• grammar (conventions): what topic you researched, who was your partner, how did it go if you already taught; what have you learned so far from your peer-teachers give examples; 
• compose for 7s (daily writing): are these getting longer, more detailed, with more grammar, sensory language, dialogue, creativity, taking risks;
• describe the Winston Community Story Project: tell who you’d like to interview for The Winston Community Story Project;
• overall, how are you doing in class, what is the best part, what is challenging, what am I trying to teach you, what are you learning about yourself as a writer, other comments.

Here are a few excerpts, but you can read more here:

Maya

Natalia:

Reading/Literature 

Assignment: Write a letter to your parents/guardian about our class that describes your experiences with evidence of learning. ( I will send these to your families, so keep your audience in mind and translate if needed) . :

• independent reading : what books have you read; what are they about; what types of characters were they; what were some themes or ideas about humanity in those books; which was your favorite, why; how are you taking risks and stretching your experiences;
• blogs: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 (claim, textual evidence)  – what claims have you made, what does it mean to make a claim, how do you support those claims, what feedback are you getting from your teacher, how are you using that feedback to improve, stretch;
• poems (form and meaning): what poem did you read, what was it about, if you read with a partner did you agree on the meaning, why is it helpful to read with other people; how does feedback work with peers;
• book groups (coming prepared for discussion): how were the groups made, what does it meant to be in a book group, did you come prepared, why does that matter, what do enjoy about the group, how is it helping you understand/deepen/stretch your thinking about the text
• overall, how are you doing in class; what is the best part, what is challenging, what am I trying to teach you, what are you learning about yourself as a reader, other comments.

Here are a few excerpts, but you can read more here:

Alan:

 

Harmany:

Accepting that I am a Cheater

I do think that I am a no-grades cheater for now. I think I am using the online grade program as a path to finding (and reading) my narrative feedback. I think the numbers are starting to signal an invitation to revision. I think students are seeing learning as a process.  But there are some students who really do “get” that through conversation we are doing something good, something closer to learning.

Here is one parent’s feedback to me, that I share with her permission:

I just wanted to take a moment to express how happy I am that K. has you as her reading and writing teacher this year.  K. has enjoyed reading especially, and writing, from a very young age.  I remember specific teachers in elementary school that did a nice job fostering this, however, as she got older, it was challenging to find material that interested her, was appropriate for her age, and was at her reading level.  I feel as though you have rekindled that love of reading for her, and it could not be more refreshing to see her excited about this once again.  It’s always something that I’ve seen as special about K., and it was hard when I wasn’t regularly seeing her get lost in a book as I had so many times before.  She also likes to share her writing with us, and loves the feedback you give her.

I think this is an excellent approach!  Letter grades don’t always reflect what the student has learned or absorbed. The dialogue between the two of you is great!  In fact, it was this exchange that made me think, “Wow! This is really challenging her to stretch her thinking!”

It’s wonderful to see her challenged, inspired, and growing again!  My sincerest thanks for all you do!

And this is with me cheating. I can only imagine the potential of a grades-free learning community.  Of course, I imagine there are some parents who would like to see more grades, but I have not heard from them yet.

Are you trying a no-grades approach? How is it going? Are you shifting your practice to allow for more critical feedback and revision? How so? Please share.