Learning Portfolio/Grading Narrative

The Learning Portfolio

Any assignments/projects that you complete in this course will not receive a letter grade. Rather, we will be implementing a feedback/revision model. For each assignment/project, you will receive feedback from me in the form of verbal (not written) comments and a face-to-face meeting. You are then encouraged to revise said assignment/project based on any notes and discussion. Again, you are encouraged; you are not required. Whatever you do revise, you should make note of in your self-reflective essay. You’ll include the original and revisions, along with a final reflective essay, in a learning portfolio which we will review together during finals week. At this time, a final grade for the course will be determined.

Final Self-Reflective Essay

As the course comes to a close, you will write an essay in which you reflect on your work this semester. Include the following

1. Discuss your process as a learner: evaluate your engagement with course content by reflecting on how you handled all aspects of this course. Use the elements articulated in the grading narrative in this document as a guideline. Consider how that process worked this semester and any adjustments you would like to make in the future.
2. Discuss the products you generated as evidence of your learning: evaluate your assignments using the grading narrative and the descriptions of each assignment in this syllabus.
3. What have you learned about yourself in this course? Are you satisfied with your work? Could you have worked at a higher level? If so, why do you think you didn’t reach that level this semester?
4. Use the grading narrative in this document to suggest a final letter grade for your work in this course.

Final Meeting

Instead of a final meeting for our class, I will be sending a final email regarding your self-reflective essay and any notes of encouragement and praise.

On Grading (or not)

“Going Gradeless” (Google it) is a growing educational movement that emphasizes the feedback and revision loop, and gives students space to self-regulate and self-evaluate without traditional evaluations based on numbers and letters. This course will operate with a gradeless model.

Here’s how it works: You will not receive letter grades from me for any of the individual assignments in this course. You will engage in self-reflection, revision, and self-evaluation, and you will receive my feedback on all of your work. During finals week, we will review all of your work for the course and determine your final letter grade together. (If I had my choice, we would not use grades in this course at all…)

Here’s why we’re doing it: I want an open, trusting relationship with you and your work. I want to provide you with a space to learn for learning’s sake, without the pressure or lure of grades. I want to help you develop and maintain a sense of freedom, bravery, curiosity, and enthusiasm for your work in this course. By “going gradeless,” my hope is that you leave this course feeling powerful in your learning and your accomplishments.

Grading Narrative

Letter grades will only be used at the conclusion of the course. Numeric grades will not be used. Students will collaborate with the professor to determine individual grades for this course.

A

Research Processes/Products

• Student is open to and integrates feedback, thereby demonstrating improvement
• Work is timely and thorough
• Projects demonstrate the student’s process of inquiry, including questioning, analysis, and synthesis
• Research utilizes source materials to incorporate and build on details of field-wide dialogues
• Assignments attend to details of language, writing, and citation

Citizenship

• Participation consistently demonstrates a commitment to professionalism and ethical conduct as outlined in the Expectations for Professional Approach and Ethical Conduct below
• Student consistently contributes to a supportive and productive classroom environment
• Student takes ownership and autonomy inside course processes

Meta-Cognition and Self-Awareness

• Student demonstrates the ability to evaluate their approach to and process of learning: how they undertook coursework.
• Student demonstrates the ability to evaluate the products of their learning: what they produced.
• Student demonstrates the ability to identify and articulate any changes they might make in the future to the learning process or products developed as part of this course.

A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D- [Disclosure: All grades for qualitative work are subjective.]

These letter grades represent degrees of distance from the “A” grade outlined above and the “F” grade outlined below. The student and professor, together, will determine any modifications to the “A” grade as needed, taking into consideration each student’s unique learning processes and products.

F

• Projects are missing or incomplete
• Attendance is irregular
• Student has not contacted professor regarding attendance or assignments
• Student has not contacted the office of Student Services/Counselor