Spring break special
News on our audiobook, a call for guest authors, and what's coming soon
It’s Spring Break for David and me this week, even though in Michigan it’s still basically winter. So we’re going to take a week off from regular content. But we have three important things to share with you.
Listen up!
The first item to share is that the Grading For Growth book is now available as an audiobook!
Our publisher, Routledge Press, has been working with Audiobooks.com for a few months to get the book “translated” into audio form. David and I both thought the finished product was still months away, so we’re very excited to announce its availability. And, as an audiobook guy from way back (I used to listen to “books on tape” via my car’s cassette player) I just think it’s very cool to see the book out in the world in this format, and hopefully even more people can read and use it.
The audiobook has a 9 hour, 26 minute runtime and is available for $25 at Audiobooks.com. A very special shout-out to Michael Hacker, who narrated the book — I am not familiar with his voice-over work but I have to believe this was not the easiest book to narrate!
Calling all alt-graders
The second item is that we are looking for more guest authors.
We’ve been featuring guest authors twice a month on average, for around three years now — which is a mind-blowing fact on its own and a testament to the vibrancy of the alt-grading community. David and I have put out a big call for guest authors twice in the past, and we were able to schedule enough guest authors to stretch through August 2026. That date felt like a long way away at first. But now it’s on the horizon, and we want to start lining up guest authors for late 2026 and into 2027.
If you are using alternative grading, or connected to it in some way — as an instructor, a student, an administrator, etc. — and have something you want to share here on the Substack, we want to hear from you! Just fill out this form with a brief description of your idea:
We are looking not only for first-time guest authors, but also for those who’ve given us articles before but have something new, or something further to share.
David and I look at the submissions once every couple of weeks as they come in. Unlike a peer-reviewed journal, we hold a “the more the merrier” philosophy and our goal is to say “yes” to as many ideas as we can. We’ll get back to you shortly and try to get you into the queue.
So if you have something you always wanted to share with the general public, let Grading for Growth be your platform – and let us know what’s on your mind.
Coming Soon
The third item is a look ahead to what’s coming here, once break is over.
Next week (March 16) David will give us a look at a week in the grading life of his Calculus 2 class.
On March 23, Erin Coffman (IU Indianapolis) will share an implementation of alt-grading in an introductory data science course — with lots of cool data visualizations as you would expect.
On March 30, since it’s a “fifth Monday”, we’ll be running a retrospective featuring some of the best from the blog both past and present.
On April 6, Katie Baker (Rosemont College) will explore the dynamics of alternative grading when your college is about to merge with another, larger university.
We hope you are all heading into your own Spring Break seasons with good vibes and good experiences from helping your students grow.