I like this post a lot and to a large degree it reflects my own attitudes about grading (namely, that I have no time for it because it's artificial and arbitrary). 'Ungrading', though, isn't just ther practice of not using grades. You can't simply stop grading; it's tied into your whole approach to learning and teaching. It is at the centre of a pedagogy of care, suggests Sean Michael Morris, and is supportive of an approach to education in which there are no 'participation points' or standardized text and which "permitted an individualized relationship to quality." Just one thing bothers me - at a certain point he writes, "These letters formed the backbone of their final grade for the term." Which sort of suggests that he does use grades. But to me that simply shows how difficult it is to separate the practice of grading from the practice of teaching at an institution.
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