The Grading Podcast

By Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley

Grading is an extremely important and largely unexamined piece of the classroom puzzle. In this weekly podcast, Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley, two long time classroom instructors from the K-12 and... more

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FAQs about The Grading Podcast:

How many episodes does The Grading Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 112 episodes available.

The Grading Podcast episodes:

February 13, 202431 -The Role of "Effort" or "Work" in an Alternative Grading Architecture and the Relationship with Due Dates
Two of the most frequent questions that come up when introducing instructors to alternative grading are "What about homework/effort?" and "What about due dates?" In this episode, Sharona and Bosley look carefully into both of these questions. From rethinking all the "work" in your class and grading it not on time, place and manner but rather on intent to marrying that intent to your due date structures and late policies, this is another episode where we take the time to talk and think deeply about some of the unexamined components of our classrooms.
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
57min
February 06, 202430 - Listener Request - A Deep Dive into the Weeds of our Grading Architecture
By your request! A listener from New York City wrote in asking us to talk in more detail about our grading systems, what we have done right, what we have messed up - so we did! Sharona and Bosley talk in detail about some of the things they each tried and what worked and what has not. Keep those requests coming!
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
The Case Against The Zero
The Cast Against Percentage Grades
PLCs at Work by Richard DuFour
College Bridge

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
1h 5min
January 30, 202429 - The Current State and Future Wishes for SoTL in Alt Grading - with Dr. Drew Lewis
Let's discuss SoTL research! What is it, what are some of the things that have been done to apply SoTL research to Alt Grading, and where do we want to see it go? Dr. Drew Lewis returns to the pod to share his experiences with SoTL research in his classrooms. Sharona and Bosley also share some of their experiences and perspectives. If you are curious about SoTL research, we go deeper into some of the choices that we can make to do useful, effective research in support of alternative grading practices.
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
Dr. Drew Lewis
Impacts of Standards-Based Grading on Students' Mindset and Test Anxiety, Drew Lewis
Applying a Standards-Based Grading Framework Across Lower Level Mathematics Courses, Drew Lewis and Jay Elsinger

Resources
The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Registration for 2024 now open!
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
54min
January 24, 202428 - Developing and Using Technology Tools to Author Assessments - with Steven Clontz
In this week's episode, Dr. Steven Clontz returns to talk in more detail about creating and using open source tools to support aspects of alt grading such as authoring assessment banks to support the reattempts needed in many alt grading systems. Join us as we look at how CheckIt, Dr. Clontz's open authoring tool for assessments, developed and what path forward he sees to developing the sociotechnical infrastructure needed to better support instructors and students in the work of implementing alternatively graded classes.
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
www.clontz.org
checkit.clontz.org
Shout out to Jean-Sébastien
The PROSE Consortium
PreTeXt

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
1h 8min
January 16, 202427 - Developing Your Course Calendar
In this episode, Sharona and Bosley take a detailed look at what goes into developing a course calendar for an alternatively graded course. How do we schedule all those "reattempts" into a term? And what impact does that have on our organization and communication with our students?
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
We recommend checking out the various discipline based repositories for more detailed information on what other folks have done:
The Grading Conference Resources Page
Materials repository: Math
Materials repository: Physics
Materials repository: Biology
Materials repository: Chemistry

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
52min
January 09, 202426 - Active Learning and Alternative Grading: An Introduction to Team-Based Inquiry Learning with Dr. Drew Lewis and Dr. Steven Clontz
Welcome to 2024! In our first new episode of the year, Sharona sits down with Drew Lewis and Steven Clontz to discuss their Team-Based Inquiry Learning project as well as other parts of the growing open resource community. We look at the integration of Alternative Grading with active and inquiry-based learning, learn about TBIL, and also delve a little bit into some of the other NSF projects coming along to support instructors in the areas of assessment, instructional design, and enhanced classroom activities.
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
The Team-Based Inquiry Learning Project (tbil.org)
The PROSE Consortium
CheckIt Assessment Tool
TBIL Linear Algebra
TBIL Calculus
Drew Lewis
Steven Clontz
Do the Math!: Challenging, Fun Math Puzzles for Kids, by Steven Clontz

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
46min
January 02, 202425 - Happy New Year 2024! Replay - Getting Buy-in
It's the last of our replay episodes as we finish out our holiday break. As we start to think about next semester, we felt it was a good time to think about how we will begin building buy-in from the very beginning. Enjoy as we discuss options for getting buy-in with students and others.
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
Whatever it Takes, by Richard DuFour
The SAFE Approach to Earning Buy-In, Robert Talbert
Alabama School of CyberTechnology and Engineering Interview (Episode 17)

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
1h 2min
December 26, 202324 - Holiday 2023: Revisiting Gathering Evidence of Learning and Developing Proficiency Scales (from Episode 7)
As we continue to enjoy the holiday season, Sharona and Bosley revisit their own grading architecture decisions and discuss some things they are thinking about for the next semester. From rethinking how we collect the evidence of learning and considering how our proficiency scales impact the design of our grading architecture, semester breaks are often spent tinkering. Enjoy revisiting Episode 7 with us as we take a break from the usual day-to-day work of educators.
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
www.tilthighered.com
Episode 2: Getting Started Part 1, the Problems with Traditional Grading

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
55min
December 19, 202323 - Holidays 2023: Replay - Developing Your Grading Architecture
We're heading into the holiday break, so over the next few weeks we'll be replaying some previous episodes while adding some thoughts as we conclude the Fall semester of 2023. So enjoy your holiday break!
In this episode, we describe the four decisions that make up the "Grading Architecture" of an alternatively graded course.
How will you assess your learning targets?
What type of proficiency scale(s) will you use?
How will students show proficiency for a specific learning target? (I.e. how much evidence and of what kind to they need to provide)
How will you wrap up into a final grade?

After introducing the four decisions, we explore some examples of common options used for each of the decisions. This includes:
What types of evidence of learning will you accept?
Exploring three common types of proficiency scales - 2 level, 3 level and 4 level scales
Describing different methods for determining proficiency on a specific target (the Guskey method, N times, and decaying average)
Evaluating options for rolling up grades, including the simple count method, the bucket method, and the "good to great" method with multiple levels of proficiency.

Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
Implementing Mastery Learning, by Thomas Guskey

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
45min
December 12, 202322 - Equity, Inclusion and Alt Grading in Biology: An Interview with Katie Mattaini
Dr. Katie Mattaini is an lecturer in Biology at Tufts University. In this episode, we talk with Katie about how to think about equity and inclusion when designing a course using alt grading. Katie uses a range of alt grading practices from standards-based grading in into biology to collaborative grading (or ungrading) in an upper level Cancer Bio course. This wide ranging conversation touches on the fundamentals of course design, the need for deep thinking about the use of due dates with different student populations, and concludes with some advice for alt grading practitioners to think about when considering inclusion and equity in their courses.
Links
Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!
Katie Mattaini at Tufts University
Building meaningful student-instructor relationships (on the Grading for Growth blog), by Katie Mattaini
Twitter Threads about #ungrading

Resources
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 (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):
Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.
If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.
All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Music
Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation
Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
...more
1h 6min

FAQs about The Grading Podcast:

How many episodes does The Grading Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 112 episodes available.

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