'Ungrading': How one Ontario teacher is changing her approach to report cards
An Ontario high school teacher plans to continue with an alternative method of grading her students in the new school year after an experiment last semester.
Stacie Oliver teaches at A.B. Lucas Secondary School in London, Ont. and recently began a new method of determining her students’ midterm and final grades.
Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron, Oliver said she and her students work together on grades twice a year, at midterms and at the end of the semester.
“The students propose their own grade at those two points and then they have to justify and prove to me that they have earned that grade,” Oliver explained.
“We have digital portfolios that they create throughout the semester that showcases not only their best work, but also all of the attempts they made along the way to get to that ‘showcase piece’, which is what they deem to be the best representation of their learning.”
Oliver says students must prove their work meets the expectations in the provincial curriculum.
“They understand the curriculum document very well and can speak to how their work meets and/or much of the time exceeds those expectations,” she said.
Known as “ungrading,” Oliver said the method is about changing the understanding of how to measure success in learning.
“There is lots of evidence that suggests that grades are very subjective,” she said. “It’s difficult to be able to objectively say, ‘This number is the number that truly captures the learning.’ What that might be in my classroom -- is that the same across another department, another subject area, another school?”
But the bigger aspect, Oliver says, is how students tie self-worth and identity to their grade number.
“What ends up happening is they don’t feel that everything is futile because they can continue to do it—whether it’s a task or practice a skill—they can continue to practice it until they’re satisfied that they’ve met that. I think that that’s really important and it does fuel students because they then want to learn and they want to get better,” she said.
Oliver said students in every classroom have differing attitudes on grades. She says the ungrading experiment allows students across that spectrum to take ownership of their learning.
“What ends up happening is they don’t feel that everything is futile because they can continue to do it—whether it’s a task or practice a skill—they can continue to practice it until they’re satisfied that they’ve met that. I think that that’s really important and it does fuel students because they then want to learn and they want to get better,” she said.
Oliver said she retains the authority, as teacher, to tell a student they haven’t justified the grade they may be arguing for, but says most students’ evaluations of their work are pretty close to her own.
“If I did have to change a grade, which was not a lot of the time, I was raising grades. I’ve had students tell me they don’t want to seem arrogant or think too highly of themselves, so they give themselves a lower grade than they might otherwise have done,” she said.
Oliver says her principal and school board approve of the grading scheme, and she plans to continue it in the fall.
“My principal has a strong interest in this thing we’re calling ‘ungrading’ and so he’s been very supportive right from the very beginning, as has the board, so it’s been great.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Humboldt Broncos crash victims and families react to decision to deport truck driver
The family of one of the victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018 says they are 'thankful' for a decision by a Calgary immigration board to deport the driver of the truck involved.
Fatal plane crash reported near Squamish, B.C.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has confirmed it is working with local Mounties and the BC Coroners Service after a plane crash near Squamish, B.C. Friday night.
'God forgives but we don’t': Loud outburst from stabbing victim’s family during sentencing hearing
An emotional outburst in a London, Ont. courtroom Friday disrupted the sentencing hearing of a woman who pleaded guilty for her part in the death of 29-year-old Mohammed Abdallah.
Three dead after vehicle plunged down a 100-foot embankment in Shediac, N.B.
Three people have died after a vehicle veered off the road in Shediac N.B., Friday morning.
Appeal denied for Edmonton soldier accused of trying to kill her 3 children
An Edmonton woman found guilty of trying to kill her three children has been denied an appeal.