Where To Start?: A Beginner’s Guide to Alternative Assessment & Ungrading

Where To Start?: A Beginner’s Guide to Alternative Assessment & Ungrading

About this Workshop: 

Many of us find grading to be among the most unpleasant aspects of our teaching, and yet we often feel overwhelmed when we try to imagine other ways of assessing student learning.This workshop will introduce a spectrum of alternative modes of assessment, ranging from simple practices—e.g., changing the way you grade participation—to a wholesale “ungrading” overhaul of your course design. In this low-stakes, conversational setting, we will discuss multiple approaches, such as community-based assessment, self-evaluation, contract grading, and specifications grading. Facilitators will share and reflect on their own experiences implementing alternative assessment strategies before inviting conversation and exploration around how we might incorporate ungrading into our own diverse teaching contexts.

About the Facilitators: 

Carter Moulton is a Graduate Teaching Consultant at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning & Teaching and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at Northwestern University. He is passionate about researching, imagining, and organizing around critical pedagogy. His article about fostering student belonging is forthcoming in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies Teaching Dossier.

Robin Pokorski is a PhD candidate in History. Her dissertation research examines Dominican nuns, community identity, and church reform in late medieval Germany. Robin has acted as a Graduate Teaching Mentor for the Searle Teaching Certificate Program, led Graduate Student Teaching Conference workshops, and participated in other Searle programming. She has taught the medieval and early modern European history survey course, is currently teaching a class on medieval England at Loyola University, and has TA’ed for a wide variety of other history courses.