School is Better Without Grades + Simon Sarris
This is a post to regain momentum.
I allowed four and a half months to slip by without composing a newsletter. Apologies to my past self who set a goal for regularity. Time to revive that intention.
Simon Sarris
I enjoy reading when the ideas are new to me or when they are conveyed in beautiful, fresh language. Simon Sarris’s writing does both of these things. I set out to read all of his posts, and I have about 3 left. Allow me to share some of my favorite quotes (and their associated posts):
Read slowly. There is a kind of marinating that happens with very good works, they are always more than their story. The goal is not to digest information, but to layer over your reality with a fresh coat of moss.
…
He who has no poetry in himself will find poetry in nothing. A person that reads no stories is unready for life. A person that reads many stories will be open to yet more stories. The appetite grows by what it feeds on. Dine as best you can.
To love a place is to allow ourselves to contribute beyond expectations of material return. To dwell poetically is to live as if even a simple apartment was your home forever. Once you are able to cast off the feeling that wherever you are living is somehow temporary, wherever you are living will begin to feel like home. To do this requires a kind of love.
When complexities are quickly grasped by experience, we call this intuition. It is our empirical (of the senses)—not our rational—insights that lead us towards good intuition.
Words softly tread upon our minds, making their marks. Some repetition is beneficial, it is after all the basis of ritual. But successful ritual requires repetition and attention—If we are careless, we risk imprinting unworthy grooves in our language and thought. The words and concepts we see repeated the most might become our intellectual borders. Deep grooves become ruts, and we may forget how to think clearly, on our own, and with our own voice. The world is covered with this film of inertia.
Thoughts on Ungrading After One Year
I am pleased to report that the first year of ungrading was primarily successful. It is an ongoing experiment, one that I am encouraged to continue to improve in the upcoming school year.
Why did I like ungrading so much?
Students asked better questions.
Instead of students asking about points/grades, they tended to ask about the concepts we were learning.
I felt unshackled when assessing work.
Rather than trying to distill a student’s work into a letter grade/percentage, I simply focused on seeing if they’d passed it off to the level it should be at. If not I could provide feedback and support so they could improve.
Grading seemed to take less time most of the time.
I don’t know if it actually did or didn’t but that’s the way it felt.
It forced me to improve my rationale for assignments/units.
I couldn’t leverage “points” to compel students to do work. I had to help them see the inherent value in the thing itself (aka: I had to make sure classwork was actually valuable).
What did students have to say about it?
“I love how this class is run, I just have to worry about learning and not my grade.”
“I feel like the way he does the grading and stuff makes me actually feel like the work I do is appreciated, and I actually learn things. In some of my other classes I’ve stopped trying as hard, and I just do like the bare minimum to get an A because I realized I often get the same grade as someone who barely tries. But in this class I actually do my best because I know it’s actually worth something, and he actually cares about my learning and potential.”
“I like the way you made it about learning and not about grades. It made it less stressful in your class and made learning better.”
“The fact that our letter grade was dependent on what we felt we deserved was interesting and made me think deeper about what I was actually doing in class that helped me get to the grade I wanted and not about how well I can remember basic information. It also challenged me because I had to make sure I was actually putting in the work to get everything turned in so I could get an A.”
“He makes it so there’s no stress about learning, I can actually learn and not have to worry about a grade attached to everything.”
“The way he grades has helped me a lot. I think that it makes the classroom experience much less stressful for me because I don’t have extremely tight deadlines. When doing the reflection, I get to really think about if I learned or if I was deciding to use my time ineffectively. I like the way he runs the class, it is a fun learning environment.”
“It wasn’t focused on the grade but the learning which was challenging in a good way because I had to actually use my brain and learn more than just what a stupid assignment says.”
Anecdotal data is important and valuable. I am looking forward to this next year of teaching where I plan to be more thorough in gathering other types of data to synthesize with things students have said to more thoroughly evaluate the effect ungrading has on learning.
Current Questions:
How can I integrate more student choice?
Should I continue marking assignments as either passed-off/needs work or have a more nuanced scale? Something like a 1-4 proficiency scale to help students see how close they are to passing something off?
How can I encourage students to push themselves more than they are inclined to?
Photography
Park; Friends’ Band; Jacob Collier Concert
From School
Student: “You know, Mr. Merrill, if you ever didn’t do the teaching thing, I could see you as a Bill Nye kind of guy.”
Student: “Mr. Merrill! I have a birthday present for you. So... I made you a Tinder profile, and: you have a match!!”
(I talked to this student later and they hadn’t actually made a profile. I mostly believe them.)
Student: “Your class really makes me feel inspired and motivated to do my best, so I wanted to say thank you.”
A student I knew but never taught: “I heard you’ve gotten worse...”
Student: “Your class was the only thing that brought me to school on B days last year.”
Student: “When I graduate would we be able to hang out? Or would that be like weird? Or not allowed?”
Student has his arms fully extended with a pencil in each hand and swings them together trying to have the erasers touch: “See look, I’m sober.”
Student: “Your hair looks weird. Did you do something to it?”
Me: “I got a haircut.”
Student: “I figured out how to spell arson on my calculator. See look!”
Shows me: 4r50π
Student: “Mr. Merrill, would you rather have a girlfriend or a Bugatti? One can bring you love. But the other can bring you love and joy.”
(The love and joy being provided by the Bugatti…)
Student: “Mr. Merrill, your handwriting bothers me.”
Me: “What, is it the way I write the letter a?”
Student: “No, like your handwriting itself looks good. Looking at it doesn’t bother me. But like the way you write. Like how your hand looks and when you write on the board? I just can’t stand it.”
Student: “Cody Simpson aged like fine wine.”
Student: “I hate you Merrill! Why would you suggest a book like that to me?? How could you recommend that to a child??”
Me: “It’s sad, isn’t it?”
Student: “It’s terrible! What have you done! I’m never talking to you again. I don’t know you anymore.”
(The student honestly loved the book and he came by my class at the end of the day after he’d had time to think through the ending, and we had a good conversation.)
Student: “I’m only fifteen, so I can’t read your like old-person handwriting.”
My question of the day for students: “If you found out you were going to die a year from now, what would you change about the way you’re living?”
Student A: “I wouldn’t come to school.”
Student B: “I didn’t say this, my friend said this, but: lose my virginity.”
Goodies
Wyoming by Elijah Fox ☞ I’ve been listening to this album a lot.
A Beautiful Day ☞ How can you not be a bit happier when listening to this?
Airborne at Low Elevation ☞ If only I could write an essay this beautiful. Some day.
Readwise ☞ I was hesitant to pay for this for so long. I regret not purchasing it sooner.
Cheers!
p.s. I have a teacher website that I think is pretty rad.
Are you familiar with the Oxbridge system of learning/grading? Sounds like you are successfully doing something very similar and I think you’d be interested in looking at what they do. Since they are both some of the most successful universities in the world, it could be inspiring to see it there too.
All those responses from your students must be really encouraging!