In this episode, Sharona and Boz are joined by Dan Guberman and Kimberly Ellen Hall to reflect on a recent Grading for Growth post exploring how alternative grading can make teaching more joyful. The conversation moves beyond the usual student-centered arguments for grading reform and instead examines how abandoning points-based systems can fundamentally transform instructors’ relationships with their work, their students, and even themselves. Drawing on experiences from music conservatories, art schools, mathematics classrooms, and online humanities courses, the group discusses everything from attendance and student motivation to embodied learning, handwritten reflection, and the emotional exhaustion caused by traditional grading systems. Along the way, they explore how alternative grading shifts classroom conversations away from compliance and toward genuine engagement, why arts education offers important lessons for all disciplines, and how grading reform can open space for creativity, connection, and meaningful learning.

Links

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• Grading that Feels Good, the Grading for Growth Blog
• An Introduction to the Theory of Embodied Cognition

Resources

The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading:

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel

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Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.