How alternative grading helps me support struggling students

Clarity, organization, and support

Photo by Valentin Lacoste on Unsplash

Before today’s post begins, Robert and I want to thank you all for your overwhelming response to our call for guest posts. We’re closing the form for now so that we can review your 54 55 58 (!) submissions which cover an amazing range of practice, philosophy, and advice. If you submitted a proposal, we’re hoping to be in touch by some time in April.

We’ve just finished week 10 of 14 at GVSU. At this point in the semester, things are starting to get real for some students. I have a few students who disappeared for a week or two, who had health struggles, family emergencies, or just got overwhelmed by a full semester. Some stopped submitting work, or the quality of their work took a real nosedive.

In a traditionally graded class, these students might be mathematically eliminated from passing the class. Alternative grading instead gives them a chance to come back, to show what they know, and to earn a grade that corresponds to their actual level of understanding.

Today, I’ll reflect on how alternative grading helps me – the instructor – as I work to support these students.

Intervening

Early in the semester, I spend a fair amount of time talking to my classes as a whole about how grades work, how to use the resources I provide, and reminding them about things like marks and reassessments. I also make it a point to check in with students who look like they need a reminder to reassess, or who missed an assignment. But these check-ins are often fairly mild, really just quick reminders, with a goal of letting them know that I’m paying attention and want them to succeed.

As the semester progresses, I’ll start to notice students who need a stronger intervention, such as those who’ve missed several classes or assignments, have consistently avoided reassessments, or aren’t showing progress even with reassessments.¹ When I decide that I need to intervene, I aim to talk with the student in person, often during an office hour. Nothing beats a real face-to-face conversation, if it’s possible. A student who hasn’t been responding to emails often does take action if I ask them in class to come to my next office hour.²

When I do meet with a student, I focus on being empathetic but also clear. I set the stage by explaining what I’m concerned about, and ask how they’re doing. They are rarely surprised by this, but an empathetic approach usually opens up a conversation about what’s going on.

While I don’t pry, students often volunteer information that helps me understand what will be helpful to them. Are they feeling overwhelmed by a full semester of work? Do they have health problems? Are they working 30 hours a week? Are childcare or other family obligations demanding their time? All of these help me figure out a more useful response, and sometimes the response is that we don’t need to talk about their grades – I need to connect them with other resources. Health and safety come first.

Updating the grade tracker

But usually, we come to a point where we have to start talking about what a student can do to “catch up”. Here is where alternative grading really starts to shine.

I begin by asking the student if their grade tracker is up to date. I use these in all of my classes, even those where I don’t use grades at all (here I call them a “progress tracker”), because they help students stay organized and focused. Often, the answer is no: The student hasn’t been keeping the grade tracker up to date or perhaps they are confused about how to use it. This naturally leads to conversations about how grades work as I help them update their grade tracker.

Another part of updating the grade tracker is identifying what has been possible up to this point. That is, which specific assignments or standards did the student even have a chance to complete, and which are still in the future?

While I have my own records and gradebook, I find that it’s much more productive to focus on the student’s grade tracker. This helps show that they are in charge of their learning, and the importance of keeping up with that information. It also ensures that they have an accurate record to take back home, and illustrates how to use this tool to make their own decisions in the future.

An updated grade tracker lets us see what is missing, and this provides a roadmap for catching up. At this point I pull out a piece of paper and make a complete list of the work that is missing or needs to be reassessed. This can move a frustrated or overwhelmed student into a more productive and action-focused mindset. It relieves some of a student’s anxiety about an unknown or ill-defined amount of work looming over their head and turns it into something concrete and specific.

Making a plan

Next, we make a concrete plan for what the student will do, when, and why. To support this, I ask students what grade they would like to aim for. They’re sometimes surprised by this question, since in traditionally graded classes the answer is usually “the best I can get, based on how many points are left”. But that’s not a useful or actionable answer.

Here’s another place where alternative grading pays dividends. Since final grades are determined in terms of specific criteria – typically standards or assignments that illustrate certain criteria – students can know exactly what is required to earn their desired grade. Then they can focus their efforts on completing only the tasks required for that grade. So by choosing a “target grade”, we can determine exactly what the student needs to do.

This is often one of the hardest parts of the conversation, and may require some gentle but firm advice from me about what is feasible within the confines of the semester. How I handle this discussion depends on many factors, and I try to bring my own experience to bear in this discussion: “In my experience, trying to complete one extra Portfolio Problem per week is manageable, but not more than that. I want to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success and not for getting farther behind.”

Once a grade is chosen, we take a look at that grade’s requirements in the syllabus (or on the grade tracker) and see what they’ve completed so far. We can identify exactly what they need to do – and what they can ignore, because it isn’t required for that grade.

For example, if a student decides that they simply want to pass with a C, we can refer to the grade requirements and see that they need to complete a total of 12 learning targets and 5 portfolio problems. Comparing that to their updated grade tracker, perhaps they’ve already finished 4 targets and 2 portfolios. So now we know: In the rest of the semester, they need to pick 8 more targets and 3 more portfolios, and focus only on them. Some of those may be in the future, while others can be made up from past missing or unsatisfactory work. This is much more manageable than trying to do everything going forward and hoping that some of it works out.

Based on this, we make a schedule for what the student needs to do, when it is due, and what they don’t need to do. I give them advice on when to reassess past work, and when to focus on future work, based on my experience and understanding of where we’re headed in class. For example:

3/26, Quiz 8: attempt targets S.1 and N.1 only.

By 3/28, revise Portfolio Problem #4.

4/4, Quiz 9: attempt targets N.2 and N.3 only.

By 4/5, submit Portfolio Problem #5.

By 4/8, expect to revise Portfolio Problem #5.

If there are specific assignments that the student doesn’t need to complete, I make a list of those too.

I usually throw out any existing deadlines for past work and simply make up a new schedule.³ This relieves some anxiety for the student, makes more sense given their context, and often results in higher quality work since they aren’t in as much of a rush.

Students may be surprised at this point. Am I really saying they can just ignore some parts of a quiz, or not hand in an assignment? Yes, that’s exactly the case, because those items aren’t necessary for their desired grade. If I judge that this sort of thing will be helpful, I emphasize that they are committing to a course of action, and that it is their choice and also their responsibility to follow through with it. And I always clarify that in order to earn this desired grade, they must stick with our newly made schedule, because it has little wiggle room left.

Another thing I often do is to suggest a specific “check-in” schedule to help keep the student on track. For example, we may agree for a student to come to one specific office hour every week and commit that time to working on one of the items on their schedule. Or they might need to email me on specific days, letting me know that they’ve submitted some specific work on our LMS. The goal is to provide a “commitment device” and a natural opportunity for us to talk about any questions that come up.

At the end of our meeting, I send students away with a copy of the specific plan we’ve made (and keep one for myself), with a reminder of the very first thing they’re committing to doing.

Common situations

The process I’ve outlined above generally works well for me. It’s not perfect, because students are, well, humans. They often have the best intentions to learn, but circumstances get in the way, and my class is just one small part of their lives. I can provide the best support possible to help them learn, but that’s not always enough.

But in my experience, alternative grading actively helps students get back on track, and also helps me find the best way to help them.

Here are a few special cases that I run into when working with students who’ve fallen behind:

• The eternal optimist: When I first introduce students to my alternative grading setup, I like to emphasize that there will be lots of chances to show what students know. The eternal optimist has caught on to that idea and thinks they’ll always have another chance to catch up on work – later! The result can be a student who disappears for weeks and then appears, eager to start up again, in my office. With this student, making concrete recommendations about what’s realistic helps them focus. I try to be firm and realistic, and to make clear that I have experience with their situation. “In my experience, it’s not feasible to redo all of your missed work and still keep up with new things. Students in a similar situation are able to earn a C if they are focused and do not miss any more assignments.”

• The overwhelmed: This student looks at the hole they’re in and just feels anxiety, and can’t see a way out. Making a list of missing assignments on its own can just be more overwhelming. But following it up with a specific plan, including dates and times and specific instructions, helps begin to relieve their anxiety. Celebrate milestones and small victories as this student makes progress.

• The confused or unaware: A student who just hasn’t paid attention to their progress, often putting a blank grade record sheet in the back of their notebook and never looking at it again, perhaps not even really engaging with the class’s grading system. Filling out the grade record can be really helpful here, because it forces engagement with how grades work. That on its own can generate an understanding of what the student needs to do next. I’ve had more than one student in this case say “Oh, that’s all I have to do? That makes so much more sense now!”

• The student who just had a bad week, illness, or something else short-term: Meeting with this student gives me a way to let them know that I’m in their corner, and that they aren’t sunk because of one bad week. A student in this situation can often fully catch up – with no penalty, thanks to the fourth pillar! – and then get back to normal.

One final thought: When meeting with a struggling student, nothing is more important than empathy. They undoubtedly know that they are struggling. They don’t need a reminder of that. But they do often need someone to provide structure, organization, and a clear explanation of what they need to do next – and a kind reminder that you know they can succeed in this plan.

1. In an alternatively graded class, I’m generally not worried about a student who fails on initial attempts but then demonstrates learning on a reassessment. That’s the purpose of reassessments without penalty. This way of thinking can be quite different from a traditionally graded class! But a student who isn’t taking advantage of reassessments at all – or who is, but isn’t improving – needs more of my attention.

2. Partly for this reason, I often schedule office hours right after classes. That makes it even easier to catch a student at the end of class and say “can you come to my office hours right now?”

3. Generally those deadlines are long past anyway. I want to focus on what a student knows rather than making them feel even more guilty about being unable to follow that a long-gone schedule. Working on older work can help a student be better prepared for later topics too. I try to emphasize the importance of keeping up with the schedule for future work, and arrange the new deadlines to give students time to keep up with that new work. But as always, do what makes sense in your situation, and don’t let yourself get buried under a reassessment avalanche.