Trying to ungrade? Try UPGRADE
“Welcome to a new year, students,” Mr. Ruff1said. “Let’s take a few seconds to login…ok…three absences total. Let me call out your names for a voice recording. Please correct my pronunciation if I make a mistake. I can learn, I assure you.”
Mr. Ruff teaches English at a broad access public high school in an urban area of the Midwest. Like many high schools across the country, Mr. Ruff’s school is staggering into the 2024-25 academic year under the burden of Artificial Intelligence, which has polarized the faculty. Many teachers believe permitting students to use AI during homework or classroom work is asking for trouble. So far the official policy is unclear, though the mood is predominantly opposed to AI.
Mr. Ruff finds himself in the minority. Two of his department members take his position, but the English Department chair is a high profile voice warning of dystopian consequences. Plagiarism is a top concern, though not the whole concern. Fears that AI will replace SparkNotes in both convenience and effectiveness run rampant; students will never have to read literature again. Across all of the departments, though many teachers are interested in using AI to evaluate student work and to automate certain attendance and grading protocols, concerns about fake learning fill conversations in the lunch room.
Operating under the radar without consulting his fellow English teachers, Mr. Ruff decided over the summer that his obligation to his students made it imperative for him to teach about AI, a language machine, in his language classes. He’d been using language bots in the shadows himself since their debut around Thanksgiving, 2022, reading about how they do what they do, gradually understanding their potential to change teaching and learning for good or bad. Ignoring or forbidden the bot wasn’t a realistic option.
Several teachers in the English Department had become converts to the ungrading movement, an organized group of teachers who began small and gained numbers large enough to host a conference the past few years. Others had been introduced to the work of Joe Feldman, author of the book Grading for Equity. Mr. Ruff resonated to the following comment Feldman made in a podcast where he discussed the negative effects of letter grades on learning:
“From the student, it adds to my cognitive load. I not only have to understand the content and try and perform at high levels of the content, but now I also have to navigate a grading structure that may not be totally transparent, and may be different for every teacher, and particularly for students who are historically underserved and have less education background, and fewer resources and sort of understanding of how to navigate those really foreign systems to a lot of our students, it places those additional burdens on them, which we shouldn't do” (Joe Feldman).
Feldman relies on cognitive load theory from the work of John Sweller, a heuristic helpful in instructional design. Challenging learning situations place intense cognitive load on students. Intrinsic load is task-related work involving demands on prior knowledge, linguistic resources, and access to external resources. Designing instruction to help reduce intrinsic cognitive load often means design feature that mitigate extraneous cognitive load—complex requirements regarding how one can provide proof of understanding to the teacher, engaging in the work of blocking out distractions, and worrying about the grade you might get on a test.
*****
“I’m going to spend some time making sure you understand my classroom grading system. The power of a letter grade by itself is small, but when letter grades accumulate over time as they do in high school, they form what we call a GPA. Does anyone know your current GPA?” Mr. Ruff asks.
As the class discusses what GPA is and what it can mean, Mr. Ruff emphasizes one idea: “At the end of every semester, every teacher in this school is obligated to record a letter grade for each of you in your permanent file. In some schools teachers must report a tentative midterm grade, but that’s not required here. Some teachers use the school’s website to keep a current letter grade for parents to view anytime. I don’t do that. Listen to this: The only time I or any other teacher is required to give you a letter grade is at the end. How would you feel about taking a course and getting graded on the last day?”
If Mr. Ruff’s students are verbal, this question might lead to a bigger question. How would you feel about it if you were ungraded in this class? If Mr. Ruff’s students wonder how they would know whether they are learning what they should be learning if they didn’t get grades, he might ask for examples apart from school. Maybe the time has come to begin to pay attention to learning, not to wait for someone to report back to you?
“How do you know if you’re getting better at basketball? What about singing or acting? Anyone into cooking or baking? Video or audio production? What about troubleshooting computer problems? How do you know when you are learning?”
He explains the importance of self-discipline and self-awareness in the world in order to grow and develop. The word he uses, which he wants them to remember, is self-assessment—“knowing when and what you know, knowing what you need to work on.”
“In this class one of the learning outcomes is self-assessment. I realize this is an English class and there are things I want to teach you—how to improve your writing, for example. But when it comes time for me to give you a final grade, one thing I will look for in addition to your writing is how much you have grown in your ability to self-assess your own learning.”
He explains to them that he will help them with self-assessments. For example, the class will be doing a lot of reading. He asks them to find a section of their binder and label it “reading self-assessment.” Then he asks each student to respond in writing to each question:
Name someone you know or know about whom you believe to be a strong reader and explain why you think so.
Are you a strong reader? Why or why not? What would you like to learn to read that you are interested in working on, perhaps part of a job you hope to have as an adult?
Discussing these questions first in small informal groups and then as a whole class could lead to other practical examples.
How much do I know about writing argumentative essays?
How much do I know about uses of AI in school and what types of experiences have I had?
He explains that self-assessment strategies and techniques can be learned and that he will teach these techniques and will expect students to use them in the class. Their effort and thoughtful use of self-assessments to help them learn will be part of the final grade decision.
Mr. Ruff asks them to take notes on a brief lecture. There will be a quiz following the lecture, and students will be free to use their notes.
*****
“There are lots of reasons high school students give when they are asked to explain their motivations for how they perform in classes. The most intense motivation for most students is called ‘advancement.’ Students exert effort to learn in class because they believe it will raise them to a higher level of opportunity. Getting a solid grade in a course accepted as college credit is a means of advancing one’s levels of future opportunities. Usually, advancement is part of course credit and grades. How many of you are willing to work for credit and grades?
“In this class you will be getting a final grade. I will give you quizzes and tests, and you will get feedback from me on right or wrong, reasonable or unreasonable. But there will be no letter grade. Instead you will write a self-assessment. It’s possible you did horrible on the test and you understand that you just didn’t work hard enough to memorize and identify the different types of transitional elements in essay writing. We can discuss what you did and give you another try at the test.
“A second reason students give for exerting efforts to learn is satisfaction. There is something intrinsically pleasant about learning new things, about gaining expertise. We feel more powerful, more capable, more ready and willing to take on even harder learning tasks. Though satisfaction usually isn’t as intense as advancement, it lasts a lot longer. Students who experience satisfaction from learning and growing stronger often find self-assessment exciting because they can see themselves getting better without being told by someone else. If I as a teacher put a grade or a point value on everything you do, I’m basically taking the opportunity for self-assessment from you.
“A third reason students give for exerting effort is for approval. Young children often seek approval for their efforts in part because they aren’t used to any type of formal self-assessment, teacher assessment, or teacher evaluation. Over time the advancement and satisfaction motives grow.
“Advancement can be a powerful motivator, especially important when a learner isn’t terribly excited about the content of the course or even about the teacher. Exerting effort to learn for a grade is safer for future possibilities than slacking off. A problem for lifelong learning comes into play if you stop trying to build on the expertise you’ve built once the grades stop.
“Approval is a weaker motive as well. Once the approval is won, it’s possible to cease exertion of effort. In performance areas like piano or ballet, however, approval can be powerful. The most long lasting, durable motive for learning is satisfaction, which is why you want to self-assess in high school to discover where your strengths and passions are.”
*****
Mr. Ruff asks them to pair up a discuss their motivation to learn in his English class in terms of advancement, satisfaction, and approval. He ends by assigning them to self-assess their motives on this day at this time and to write at least one thing they can do to strengthen their intentions to learn as much as possible from the course. This would be a great time to ask for sharing.
Mr. Ruff is a composite figure, a speculative figure conjured from what I surmise is going on in high schools around the country. Although he is not intended to represent a real teacher, he is not completely imaginary either. View him as a mouthpiece speaking as a representative of a possible teacher.