My experience at the West Chester University Scholarship of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (SoTLA) Conference, held on January 18, 2019, in the Sykes Student Union.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend as many sessions as I would have liked since it was the last business day before the Spring semester began and we had a deluge of last-minute requests from faculty who were preparing their courses.
Today I’ll be live-tweeting from the @WCUofPA Scholarship of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment conference. The keynote presentation is “Why I Don’t Grade” by @Jessifer https://t.co/HmfkdUL30f #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
And the blog posts upon which this work is based: https://t.co/ifXOFcQC2P #wcuSOTLA
— Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer) January 18, 2019
And: https://t.co/QCVpgyLGlw #wcuSOTLA
— Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer) January 18, 2019
Much of what @Jessifer is discussing in his keynote is available in his book “An Urgency of Teachers” which is available in multiple formats (including open access) at https://t.co/dd47XUMdBO #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
"Much of what we do in the classroom is determined by the assessment structure we work under" – Peter Elbow from "Ranking, Evaluting, and Liking: Sorting Out Three Forms of Judgement" shared by @Jessifer at #wcuSOTLA
— Tom Pantazes (@TomPantazes) January 18, 2019
A brief history of grading from @jessifer in his talk “Why I Don’t Grade.” The “E” grade disappeared in the 1930s and only 67% of schools used the A-F system in the 1970s. Now it’s standard, as is “the culture of assessment.” #WCUSoTLA
— Janneken Smucker (@JannekenSmucker) January 18, 2019
.@jessifer discovered that the word most associated with teaching new instructors how to grade: “efficiency” #WCUSoTLA
— Janneken Smucker (@JannekenSmucker) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer says grades have been naturalized in education to the point that new teachers don’t feel they can safely explore alternative approaches to assessment. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
"We fail to recognize that the students themselves are often the best experts in their own learning" @Jessifer #wcuSOTLA
— Tom Pantazes (@TomPantazes) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer asks why we don’t have students building rubrics? Why aren’t we asking them what makes a good essay (or other assignment)? #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
Book recommendation from @jessifer at #wcusotla. How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College T… https://t.co/T08jprlN90
— Janneken Smucker (@JannekenSmucker) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer is showing us a visual representation of a Twitter conversation that was created with the tool TAGSExplorer. Note to self: look into this. https://t.co/j1QCQC8ck0 #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer says learning management systems have reduced the instructor’s view of students and their work into rows and columns in a spreadsheet. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer has forgone grading on individual assignments and primarily relies an self-assessment (and has found the students’ grades generally match what he would give them). Students are asked on multiple occasions to reflect on their learning throughout the course. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
Part of @Jessifer’s syllabus statement on assessment reads “consider this a busy-work free zone” #WCUSoTLA
— Janneken Smucker (@JannekenSmucker) January 18, 2019
The easiest things to assess are the least innovative things we do in our classrooms, reminds @Jessifer #WCUSoTLA
— Janneken Smucker (@JannekenSmucker) January 18, 2019
When asked what his students think about his approach to grading, @Jessifer says he gets some resistance at first, but it helps to wait to discuss it until after they get more comfortable with him and the course (instead of the first day). #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
Breakout Session 1
Next session: “Notorious Pedagogues: Documenting Student Learning, Our Teaching, and Scholarship through Podcasting” by @mjkrugerross and @DrPSchmidt #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
Using Podcasting to teach – @WCUofPA Co-Teachers Matthew Kruger- Ross and Pauline Schmidt laying down the knowledge #wcuSOTLA pic.twitter.com/GqUPWYFbGC
— MKTProfTomElmer (@MbaElmer) January 18, 2019
.@mjkrugerross and @DrPSchmidt co-teach WRH 325 – Technology and the English Classroom, which teaches secondary English teachers about integrating technology into their classes. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
WRH 325 students became part of a book club where they read a “classic” and more recent Young Adult books (e.g. “Animal Farm” and “The Chocolate War”), then were asked to create a podcast where they would talk to their peers about teaching the books. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
This Spring, the WRH 325 project is changing the format in that there will be consistent hosts and additional episodes that explain the assignment and how it works. They are planning for 20-25 minute episodes. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
.@mjkrugerross and @DrPSchmidt will be presenting an update to their student Podcasting project at #ISTE19 this summer. If you’re going, add it to your list! #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
Lunch Workshop
Next is a workshop “How to Ungrade” led by @Jessifer #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
Resources for the workshop are available at https://t.co/us6NY68vB2 #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
@Jessifer says he doesn't think he has ever heard someone say on social media, "I am so excited to start grading." #wcuSOTLA
— Tom Pantazes (@TomPantazes) January 18, 2019
One of topics being discussed is the stress and anxiety related to grading – e.g. the amount of time required to grade, having to give students bad grades, having to defend why a particular grade was given, etc. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
I agree. Grading is the worst part of this job for many reasons. https://t.co/UR8KfzMBNk
— Julie B. Wiest (@jbwiest) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer offered his opinion on “blind” grading: he’s not a fan because it’s impersonal. We should take into account individual situations, backgrounds, differences, etc. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
.@jessifer uses daycare study example https://t.co/UsGi0rlBbI. When daycare fined parents for late pick-ups parents became MORE late not less. Similarly, students are willing to "pay" when graded rather than adhere to social contract or rely on intrinsic motivation. #WCUSoTLA
— Janneken Smucker (@JannekenSmucker) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer never has his students turn in their assignments directly to him. He has them make their assignments available for their peers to see and benefit from. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
Another book recommendation from @Jessifer Syllabus by Lynda Barry https://t.co/AZHoPDY2rw #wcusotla
— Janneken Smucker (@JannekenSmucker) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer has noticed that, when peer reviewing, students tend to forget a lot of what they’ve learned about grading and end up grading very traditionally. However, he does think it’s a good learning experience for them to have. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
.@Jessifer likes the idea of collaborative exams – the students might all get a high grade, but they also learn a lot from each other in the process. #wcuSOTLA
— Marc Drumm (@marcdrumm) January 18, 2019
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