Rubrics in the "Gradeless" classroom

The students have reacted positively to the "no grades" learning environment this year. The students have been given much more choice in their learning experiences in the class this year as well. The students have been able to spend more time on video or audio production and some prefer to do a mixture of each. The new direction and organization of the class has allowed the students to do that. The district does require a number grade for each progress report and report card to be entered for each student and sent home. The student conferences have been an excellent tool for the student to reflect on their learning and assess their effort in the class. The challenge I have had was how to keep track of each student who may be working on completely different projects at any given time. The challenge and new delivery of instruction is exciting to me.

I began the year with keeping an ongoing online discussion between the student and I with a SE2R feedback log. The feedback log was setup as a Schoology discussion that was individually assigned to each student. The individual student and I were the only ones who could read the discussions that were about them unless their parent/guardian also had a Schoology account. The students were reminded to interact with me on the SE2R feedback log throughout the year. The feedback log posts would have a bold type title about each assignment or project the student completed. The student would respond to each of my posts which created a focused conversation about each project. The students would read my feedback and they would respond when they revised their work and what the revision was, and then I would respond again and so on. These conversations would continue until they reached mastery of the project/assignment. The students would also be able to see how their work grew and improved over time which is a real-world scenario in the industry. The SE2R model would help students identify the importance of feedback and the revision process. The issue that was bothering me was that in the ungraded classroom, I had hundreds of assignments turned in that are "ungraded" according to the LMS. I realized I had to create something that would clean up my gradebook in the LMS while keeping the class environment as a gradeless one. I created a rubric based on the SE2R model.

The rubric would be more of a checklist than used for a traditional grade. The rubric would be able to be used for any assignment or project. The rubric is titled "SE2R Rubric" and was created in the Schoology grade setup section. The rubric had one row which was titled "Evidence." Evidence would refer to what was completed (project assignment, etc.).  The grading scale portion of the rubric had four (4) sections: Mastery Achieved, Revision(s) Submitted, Evidence Submitted, and No Evidence Submitted. This rubric will allow the student and I to quickly look at what was completed and see if they took advantage of the SE2R feedback loop to improve their projects and learning. The 3rd quarter has been very short due to losing a week to a winter storm and another week of low attendance for winter state testing. The rubric will be formally introduced after we get back from mid-winter break which is February 19th - February 22nd. A picture of the simple SE2R rubric is below.

Recently I also came across this blog post about Learning Maps which could be a great tool to help students align their learning to the ISTE standards for students. The upcoming break will be an excellent opportunity to look at ways to roll out the learning maps and SE2R rubric to the class when we return.

The Project Workflow

My students are given a lot of choices when it comes to projects in the class. The students who are in the course usually have a definite interest in either video or audio production. I felt that giving them the freedom to choose what they would be working on would help them achieve a better class experience and also provide them with an individualized learning experience. The students would also be accountable for their learning and progress in the class.

A list of projects has been provided to the students to choose from and included both video and audio production projects. Projects were also categorized within the video and audio production project choices. The categories are promotional, informational, entertainment video, music production, MIDI, video post-production, audio post-production, software certification, emerging technologies, and course-related projects. The emerging technologies projects included 360 video and course-related projects included game design, theatrical lighting design, and mobile device production. The students would be required to choose one from the list and could also be an individual project or a small group project. The student would then have to submit to me a project proposal.

A project proposal is an online form that was created in Google Forms. The proposal asked for the student name, project title, whether or not the project was individual or group, and who was in the group. The students were also asked to identify what new skills they will be learning with the project and identify which ISTE standards would be aligned to the project. The students would need to identify what equipment would be used, materials needed, length of time to complete the project and also a target date for completion. The final question on the proposal was to list or discuss what assistance from the instructor would be needed to successfully complete the project. The student would be allowed to start the project once the proposal was received and given the "green light."

I noticed during the first semester that the students would be very engaged in the work but had challenges staying on task at times and would procrastinate. I decided to check on their work more frequently during the second semester and would be checking on their projects every Wednesday and Friday. The students would need to show progress on their projects at each check-in.