Learning About Grades from an Emerging Failure and Special Guest Emily Donahoe

Emily Pitts Donahoe shares what we can learn about grades from an “emerging failure” on episode 588 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

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Quotes from the episode

They introduced a framework that attempts to identify the common features of alternative grading for growth systems that are meant to prioritize student growth and student learning over just grades and performance.

-Emily Donahoe

Those four pillars are marks that indicate progress, reattempts without penalty, clearly defined standards, and helpful feedback.

-Emily Donahoe

One of the most important functions of grades or marks given on individual assignments is to communicate to students about how they’re progressing in a certain subject. Traditional grades don’t serve this communicative function very well.

-Emily Donahoe

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Resources

• Unmaking the Grade, Emily Pitts Donahoe’s blog and reflective journal chronicling one educator’s experiences with ungrading and other progressive teaching practices (emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com)

• Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices That Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education, by Robert Talbert & David Clark (bookshop.org/a/79174/9781642673814)

• Grading for Growth (gradingforgrowth.com)

• How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories Behind Effective College Teaching, By Joshua R. Eyler (bookshop.org/a/79174/9781946684646)

• Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students and What We Can Do About It, by Joshua R. Eyler (press.jhu.edu/books/title/53857/failing-our-fu…)

• Harry Potter Wizards of Baking (imdb.com/title/tt32374361)

• Sarah Rose Cavanagh (sarahrosecav.com)

• Japanese restaurant at Irvine Spectrum all four of the Stachowiak family members like: Robata Wasa (robatawasa.com)

• Wicked (imdb.com/title/tt1262426)

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (bookshop.org/a/79174/9780439136358)

• More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, by Adam Becker (bookshop.org/a/79174/9781541619593)

• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (bookshop.org/a/79174/9781571313560)

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