https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut Short URL: https://UngradingUT.LauraGibbs.net en-us 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC 2023-03-07 20:14:47 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f33b.png laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307897 This is a Padlet for all the nice folks at the Center for Teaching and Learning at UT Austin. I hope the resources here can be of use! You can leave COMMENTS on any post with questions, ideas, etc., or you can contact me by EMAIL: laurakgibbs@gmail
You can also view this Padlet as a slideshow using the back-forward navigation buttons to move from one post to another.
(Padlet: so many kinds of padlets, and so many ways to share them — highly recommended! Learn more here: Padlets: A Fun and Powerful Writing Space for Teachers and Learners.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307897 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307898 The short URL for this Padlet is:
UngradingUT.LauraGibbs.net
That domain, LauraGibbs.net, is a domain I developed as part of the OUCreate project at the University of Oklahoma, and now there is UTCreates at UT. Both of these "Create" projects are powered by "Domain of One's Own" at Reclaim Hosting, which is web hosting specifically for educators.
Being able to have your own domain has MANY benefits, and being able to create your own handy-dandy short URLs is just one of them.  Find out more at UTCreates, or talk to Heather in the CTL about this great project! ]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307898 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307900 The #ungrading hashtag at Twitter is super-useful! You can use the latest search results to see what people are talking about, and you can use the people search to see who has #ungrading in their profile. You are not alone when you are ungrading at Twitter!]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307900 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307902 The Teachers Going Gradeless / TG2 network is a fantastic resource, and this year (2022-23), they have been holding Community Gatherings via Google Meet. If you want to get connected and be supported in your ungrading efforts, this is a great group to work with, both for higher ed and K-12. Here's their Twitter @TG2Chat and their website: Teachers Going Gradeless.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307902 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307903 I have learned so much from all the great people at the Human Restoration Project. You can find them at Twitter @HumResPro, and their website is full of support materials of all kinds: Human Restoration Project. Check out their Materials, including an Ungrading Handbook, all CC-licensed, just pay-what-you-can. Table of contents: The "Why" ~ Reflect, Connect, Inquire ~ The "How" ~ Ungrading Case Studies ~ Implementation ~ Additional Resources ~ My Learning Journey.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307903 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307906 David Buck is the organizer behind the Crowdsourcing Ungrading book published with Pressbooks. You'll find 15 book chapters here: 1. Rethinking How and Why We Grade Students… Again and Again and Again ~ 2. Ungrading in a Pandemic ~ 3. Balancing Ungrading Practices with Institutional Requirements ~ 4. Focus on Feedback: How I Stumbled into Ungrading Practices and Gave Students Agency over Their Writing ~ 5. Contract Grading and Peer Review ~ 6. Labor-Based Grading Contracts and the Opportunity for Failure ~ 7. Pedagogy for End Times: Ungrading and the Importance of Arson ~ 8. On Grading, Efficiency, and Contingency ~ 9. Ungrading in a General Education Science Course ~ 10. Neurodiversity and Ungrading ~ 11. The Real World: Stop me if you've heard this one ~ 12. The #Ungrading Memes ~ 13. The #Ungrading Presentations ~ 14. Curating Student Voices ~ 15. Ungrading Myths . . . and "What I wish I would've known"
Also, be sure to check out David Buck's Ungrading website which is the archive for various ungrading projects over the years (including the production of this Pressbook); you'll find lots to explore here.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307906 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307909 For me, Asao B. Inoue's work is essential, and you can read his books online:
Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom
and
Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future. 
His ideas about assessment and course design apply to all kinds of courses, not just writing courses! ]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307909 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307910 You can read Alfie Kohn's Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes at the Internet Archive. There is also a 25th anniversary edition with a new afterword by Kohn; highly recommended! Available at Better World Books and other booksellers.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307910 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307911 Although it's not directly about ungrading, I cannot say enough good things about this research study: The Meaningful Writing Project. Michele Eodice led OU's participation in this multi-campus study, and if you want to hear WHAT STUDENTS SAY about meaningful writing in college, then read this book. Sneak preview: it is not grades that make the writing experience meaningful.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307911 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307914 Click the image to access the PDF version of my chapter from Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), edited by Susan Blum. You can also find my chapter online: Ungrading.LauraGibbs.net.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307914 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307917 The most important factor for me in ungrading was what the students said: their endorsement was completely supportive. I collected every comment related to grading from the end-of-course evaluations over a 10-year period, starting from 2010 when OU's evaluations went digital. You can read every student comment here. I also collected student comments about creativity and about freedom. The reason I wanted to get rid of grades was to focus on learning, opening up spaces for creativity so that students had to freedom to explore and learn things that ere of importance to them. And........ it worked!]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307917 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307918 By getting rid of grades and opening up a space for real creative freedom, the students did amazing work. You can see the archive of student website projects here: Storybook Central. In my last year at OU, I finally learned about Pressbooks (I foolishly thought it would be hard to use, but it was so easy... I wish I had started using Pressbooks earlier), and the students in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 published anthologies of microfiction in addition to all their websites; you can see their books here: Tiny Tales from 2020-2021. (The ebooks are free to download, and there are also Amazon Kindles and paperbacks.)]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307918 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307921 I usually referred to my system as all-feedback-no-grades or completion-based grading (that term really resonated with the students). The key was using the LMS as a way for students to record their work: nothing to do with me; it's THEIR work that THEY record in the LMS on their own, using "quizzes" with a true-false question based on a checklist of minimum requirements for an assignment to be complete. Find out more in these blog posts: Gradebook Declarations. All the "grading" in my classes took place through Declarations, but you can also use Declarations for just some work in class, especially work that is easily labeled complete/incomplete.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307921 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307923 I worked hard over the years to creative a positive culture of feedback, both for how I worked together with the students to support them in their work, and also for how the students worked together and supported each other. I collected some resources here: Feedback Resources. Those resources are focused on feedback for creative writing projects, but the same basic idea applies to any kind of learning: finding ways for students to share what they've done/learned, and to get help and inspiration for their next steps going forward. The image above is from the Feedback Cats. :-)]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307923 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307924 Students got introduced to the "how" of ungrading in their first class assignment: Designing the Course: It's Your Choice. Then, the "why" came later in the week, when I introduced students to the idea of growth mindset: Growth Mindset: A Powerful Way to Learn. And be sure to check out the Growth Mindset Cats. I embedded random mindset cats in the course blog homepage, which was also the homepage in Canvas: Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics. (I can't log on to edit my courses anymore, but they're still up!) Thanks to the mindset cats randomizer, every time students logged in, they'd see a mindset cat at random. Students often then made their own mindset cats... and dogs... using pictures of their own pets. :-)]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307924 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307925 I was so honored to be part of this podcast at Human Restoration Project together with Abigail French and Susan Blum: Making the Switch to Ungrading.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307925 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307926 This was a fun webinar to do, and you can see the video plus check out a long list of links that go with all the different things we mentioned along the way (and there is all kinds of goodness at David Preston's website too!): Ungrading Webinar.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307926 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307928 I had so much fun in this convo with Chris Friend for "Teacher of the Ear" at Hybrid Pedagogy. It's all about FEEDBACK... which is exactly why we need to get rid of grades. That way we make room for feedback. Meaningful encouraging useful feedback! Teacher of the Ear: Feedback.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307928 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307929 When David Buck and I were thinking about what to talk about for his Ungrading Twitter Spaces, of course it had to be... FEEDBACK. You can listen to the Spaces recording here, and be sure to check the others too; David is a great Spaces host, turning it into something like a live podcast with audience: Let's Talk Ungrading: Feedback.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307929 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307931 And even though Bonni and I weren't *supposed* to talk about ungrading, of course we did! And Bonni's site is a treasure trove of educator podcasts, hundreds of them! All with transcripts too! Teaching in Higher Ed: How to Create Engaging Online Classes.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307931 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307932 And here's another fun podcast, this time with Aaron Blackwelder for Beyond the Curriculum: Let's Talk about Grading.]]> 2023-03-07 17:46:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507307932 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507343639 I was a keynote speaker for the OERxDomains conference in 2021, and the focus was all on student projects. You can view the presentation here: OERxDomains.LauraGibbs.net. There's a slidedeck, a video recording... and you can get your own bingo card if you want to play bingo during the presentation. I've embedded the video in the next post:]]> 2023-03-07 18:12:41 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507343639 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507345654 Here's the video recording of the presentation about student projects at OERxDomains; the video is at YouTube. That is the incomparable Jim Groom hosting the recording. :-)

]]> 2023-03-07 18:13:58 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507345654 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507350636 The "declarations" system worked well because each assignment was very focused and self-contained. The assignments interconnected into larger patterns and projects, but each specific assignment took no longer than an hour, and often less than that, hence the term "microassignments." I've written several blog posts explaining the advantages of microassignments as a course design principle, as well as being a foundation for ungrading.
I should also note that every assignment left a digital trail, either a blog post or a blog comment or a webpage. For more about how to run your class as a blog network, see these notes: Summer2020.LauraGibbs.net.]]> 2023-03-07 18:17:23 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507350636 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507355873 Another important feature of the course design was semester-long iteraction, with the same pattern of assignments each week: reading, storytelling, reading other students' stories, projects, reading other students' projects. You can see a typical week here: Week 4.
The screenshot shows the "extra" assignments each week which is how students were able to shift the activities in the class based on their own preferences (more reading, more writing, more commenting, more research, more reflection, etc.).]]> 2023-03-07 18:21:19 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507355873 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507364777 There were many aspects of my courses which were completely new to the students: ungrading, being fully online, being fully asynchronous and self-scheduled, creative writing, publishing a blog, publishing a project website, etc. So, I took a full week at the beginning of the semester for an Orientation Week. Thanks to that week-long orientation, students were eager and ready to go after that first week, firmly in control of their own semester going forward.]]> 2023-03-07 18:27:48 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507364777 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507461275 Please fill out this Google Form to let me know how I can make a feedback workshop useful to you!

]]> 2023-03-07 19:40:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507461275 laurakgibbs https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507464910 Here are just a few feedback tips and resources that I've shared at my blog:
Feedback Bootcamp. This is an overview of the five weeks' worth of work students do at the start of the semester to get ready for giving feedback on each other's projects for the rest of the semester.
Student to Student Advice. I asked students to suggest advice they would give to future students, and I turned that into a student-to-student widget in the class announcements.
Suggestion Box in Canvas. You can include a Suggestion Box in your Canvas menu so that students can leave you feedback about the class. We all need feedback! (It's just a simple Google Form that appears as a Canvas menu item.)

]]> 2023-03-07 19:43:58 UTC https://padlet.com/laurakgibbs/ungradingut/wish/2507464910