LE12

Welcome to Learning Event 12 (#LE12): 🎯

Decentering Grading Through Collaborative Rubrics 🌟

Learning Event 12 focuses on the use of collaborative rubrics to promote transparency, fairness, and shared responsibility in grading. This approach, rooted in ungrading principles, challenges traditional grading paradigms by involving students in the assessment process and decentering the educator’s authority.

Why It Matters

Traditional grading systems often obscure the criteria for success, creating power imbalances and focusing on outcomes rather than growth. By integrating collaborative rubrics and elements of ungrading, educators can:

• Empower students to take ownership of their learning.
• Provide clear and actionable feedback.
• Foster an equitable and inclusive learning environment.

Decentering the educator means shifting from an instructor-led evaluation model to one where students participate in defining and assessing quality work.

Focus

Collaborative Rubrics:
Rubrics co-created with students ensure transparency and relevance, aligning grading criteria with shared goals and values.

Key Concepts:

1. Components of an Effective Rubric:

   • Clear and measurable criteria.
   • Levels of performance with descriptive indicators.
   • Alignment with learning objectives.

2. Developing Rubrics Collaboratively:

   • Engage students in defining success.
   • Use rubrics as a tool for dialogue about learning.
   • Ensure the rubric reflects diverse perspectives.

3. Incorporating Ungrading Practices:

   • Focus on feedback over scores.
   • Use rubrics to guide reflection and self-assessment.
   • Center growth, not perfection, as the goal.

READ 📖

1. How to Ungrade – Jesse Stommel
   “Without much critical examination, teachers accept they have to grade, students accept they have to be graded, students are made to feel like they should care a great deal about grades, and teachers are told they shouldn't spend much time thinking about the why, when, and whether of grades.”

2. The Trouble With Rubrics – Alfie Kohn
   “Rubrics are, above all, a tool to promote standardization, to turn teachers into grading machines or at least allow them to pretend that what they’re doing is exact and objective..”

3. Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently) – Schinske & Tanner, 2014
   “A history of grading and a review of the literature regarding the purposes and impacts of grading.”

WATCH 🎥

1. What is Ungrading? (57:27)
2. Ungrading w/ Dr. Susan Blum: How Rating Students Undermines Learning (43:24)
3. Using Assessment Rubrics (8:41)

DISCUSS 💬

How can collaborative rubrics and ungrading practices shift the power dynamics of grading and promote deeper learning?

DO ✍️

Develop a Collaborative Rubric

Steps:

1. Identify a Learning Objective:
   Select a project or assignment for which you need a rubric.

2. Engage Students:
   Facilitate a discussion to identify criteria for success.

3. Build the Rubric Together:
   Draft levels of performance and descriptive indicators collaboratively.

4. Test and Reflect:
   Use the rubric for an assignment and gather student feedback to refine it.

Self-Check:

• Does the rubric reflect shared values and learning goals?
• Are the criteria clear and meaningful to students?
• How does the rubric facilitate growth and self-reflection?

Share Your Work!

We’d love to hear about the rubrics you co-created with students or how you integrated ungrading practices into your teaching. Email us at hello@digitallyliterate.net to share your experiences!