Grade Your Beef, Not Our Worth

Art education is supposed to cultivate and spur the seeds of creativity, not water them down with subjective evaluations of your worth.

Learning Maps: Empowering Students to Chart Their Course

My school recently implemented a feedback-based assessment model (a version of gradeless) for all its incoming grade-nine students. Prior to that, some of us teachers volunteered to “pilot” it across departments to work out the kinks of implementation before we tried it school-wide. From my experience, implementing this version of gradeless requires a plan for …

Grades Are Not the Whole Equation

In my years as a math anxiety specialist, I have found two main things to be helpful: written feedback and parents and teachers who are supportive and work as a team.

Improve Understanding with Video Feedback

The feedback from the students has been very positive.  The most often heard comment was that video helped them better understand the mistakes they had made.

Self Assessment: Empowering students in their own learning.

Although we tout strong education theories like “inquiry-based learning” or having a “student-centered curriculum,” the reality is that students slowly lose their agency or any sense of control over their learning as they move through the ranks.

Fail Forward: Are we getting it wrong?

Ask a teacher why they teach, or what they hope for their students, and they will share some powerful thoughts — “I believe all kids can succeed”, “I want students to be curious, ask questions, and enjoy learning new things”, and “As a teacher, I aim to cultivate society.”

Sesame: Collaborative Student Portfolios for Rich Feedback

I anticipate a day when a student submits work that is assessed against not just the standards of the subject they are in, but other subjects in their grade.

Averageless: Setting a higher standard

I made a simple but effective change to my explanation of the system: I started referring to these courses as averageless instead of gradeless.

Making Conferences Work

The process of building a portfolio and reflecting on one’s work teaches students important metacognitive skills needed to improve self-regulation. The conference allows students to demonstrate their best work and participate in the evaluation process...

Diving into Portfolios in a Gradeless Biology Classroom

While I had grown accustomed to Standards-based Grading in my old school, going gradeless was a split-second decision I made at the beginning of the school year, without really knowing what it meant. Luckily, the shoe fit.