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Introduction: Clarifying Grade Abatement
Arguably the most concise overview of the central shift in assessment. Links to the texts and handouts next on this list.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=2593
“The Case Against Grades,” by Alfie Kohn
Essential for anyone eliminating traditional grades. Embeds the relevant research into a critical deconstruction of the problem.
URL: https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/
Step-By-Step Guide to Grade Abatement
Printable guide meant for regular classroom use. Adapted from the following post:
URL: https://tinyurl.com/step-by-step-gap
Grade Abatement Triptychs
An explanation of the assessment panels that divide each quarter into three sections:
Grade Abatement Profiles
Used for assessment, feedback, and guidance. Single-sheet version with tiers.
URL: https://tinyurl.com/grade-abatement-profiles
Universal Skills and Traits
Used for assessment, feedback, and guidance. Single-sheet version.
URL: https://tinyurl.com/universal-skills-traits
Static GAP Score Feedback
General feedback post attached to all formal scores.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3598
General Feedback: GAP Basics
Google Doc from 2020 with general feedback on the basic requirements of grade abatement. Now attached to all formal scores.
URL: https://tinyurl.com/gf-gap-basics
General Feedback Docs
Where the “GAP Basics” doc is stored, alongside all general feedback docs. Created in 2020.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?page_id=4514
WIP GAP Explained
Explanation of work-in-progress or provisional grade abatement profile scores. Usually accompanied by a letter like this one from 2020.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3412
GAP Score Triage
Explanation of spreadsheet data shared with students. Usually accompanies WIP GAP scores.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=2804
Dürer’s Rhinoceros
Another look at how profile scores shift. Helpful alongside work-in-progress scores.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=2337
Insufficient vs. Sufficient Work
Definitions and examples of sufficient and insufficient work to help guide students used to grade-based feedback.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=2409
How to Improve without a Grade
One of many examples of guidance on breaking free of traditional motivations.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=2101
Mongering and Congeries
Originally written to correct mis- (and dis-) information about how feedback works in a makerspace.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=794
Level Design: In-Class Focus
Covers how important face-to-face work and in-person productivity are to student success.
Cross-posted to the instructional page here.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4560
Focus and Feedback
Intended for the beginning of a school year (the tagged “opening salvo”). Each subheading links to an Atmosphere song, which is unrelated to anything but how good Atmosphere is.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3350
On Reflection & Metacognition
Explicates the reflection and metacognition necessary for the highest GAP scores.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4367
The Feedback Chain
Uses a “chain” metaphor instead of a “loop,” and illustrates it with student work and teacher feedback.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3529
Feedback: In Shambles
For use especially when students struggle to motivate themselves and require the more traditional risk/reward model to buy into the course.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3647
A Better Form of Feedback
Hosted on Medium and embedded or linked in almost every other overview of innovative feedback. Worth highlighting separately.
URL: https://medium.com/@sisypheanhigh/a-better-form-of-feedback
A Better Kind of Quiz
Like the “better form of feedback,” an overview of how a traditional teaching tool can be overhauled in a grade-abated makerspace.
URL: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=2562
How Feedback Should Work
Finally, a post that explains along the way how instruction works alongside feedback to teach students.
[Y]ou should recognize that all of this is intended to teach you slowly and over time. You must interact with these instructional posts and documents like you would if assigned annotations. If you let them teach you, you won’t just learn how to do the next assignment; you’ll learn why this all matters, how to be curious about a great many things, how to write, etc.
See also, e.g., this letter from 2020 that covers the same idea in detail.