Supplement for “Lessons in Ungrading Chemistry” presentation by Beth Haas at BCCE 2024

What’s in here

• Annotated references for the sources cited in my talk
• Other references and resources that you may find interesting or helpful if you’re new to Ungrading
• List of ungrading-related course materials I am willing to share

Sources for BCCE presentation

• Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh, The Ungrading Learning Theory We Have Is Not the Ungrading Learning Theory We Need, CBE–Life Sciences Education, 23:es6, DOI:10.1187/cbe.24-01-0031
  • My talk includes Figure 1 from this paper, which is a chart of grading/ungrading techniques showing degree of student autonomy and student learning
• Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh, Ungrading: A Series, Part 1
  • This blog post convinced me it was time to move from reading about ungrading to trying it out myself
• Jeffery Moro, Against Cop Shit
  • Blog post in which Moro defines cop shit: “any pedagogical technique or technology that presumes an adversarial relationship between students and teachers.”
• Lindsay Masland, PSY 3010
  • Section of Masland’s PSY 3010 syllabus explaining her Process Reflections-based approach to ungrading. She shared this link (and the two that follow) on Twitter as part of a thread about the philosophy and practicalities of her ungrading approach
• Lindsay Masland, Day 3 – Syllabus Cont & Commitments,
  • Slide deck from Masland’s PSY 3010 course further explaining her ungrading approach; includes link to the Mid-Semester Process Letter document (see below)
• Lindsay Masland, Mid-Semester Process Letter
  • Process Letter for a different course by Masland (PSY 5810)
  • In the speaker notes for the Day 3 slide deck, Masland cites Susan Blum’s example in Ungrading as the model for her Process Letter document. My Learning Reflections in CHE 105 may also be similar to Blum’s approach, but I started with Masland’s document as a model
• Robert Talbert, The EMRN Rubric, https://rtalbert.org/emrn/
  • I have used the EMRN rubric (using alternate symbols of ✓+, ✓, –, X because I find that easier to parse at a glance) to score questions in Checkpoint assignments in CHE 211-212
  • Talbert notes that his rubric is derived from the EMRF rubric from Rodney Stutzman and Kim Race

I would also like to credit my approach to flexible due dates to the educator who tweeted about assignment “best by” dates circa 2022. Unfortunately, I cannot recall who it was, and my attempts to locate the tweet and my notes about it have been unsuccessful.

Further reading and resources

• Where Does Grading Come From? by Asao B. Inoue
• Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
• The Case Against Grades by Alfie Kohn
• Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) edited by Susan Blum
• Getting Rid of Grades by Laura Gibbs
• How to Ungrade and Ungrading: An FAQ by Jesse Stommel
• Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently) by Jeffrey Schinske and Kimberly Tanner in CBE–Life Sciences Education Vol. 13, No. 2
• Specifications grading: We may have a winner by Robert Talbert
• Ungrading after 11 weeks by Robert Talbert
• Ungrading: A Chapbook from Open CoLab at Plymouth State University
• Why there isn’t one ‘right way’ to practice ungrading by Heather Miceli, Rita Shah, Firas Moosvi, Lisa Wennerth, Elizabeth Leninger, Taylor Vivinaco, and Beth Haas

There is also an #Ungrading HUB Discord server organized by David Buck, full of folks periodically discussing ungrading research, strategies, and philosophy.

Course materials

I am very willing to share these course materials and more if you email me a request. (I'm in the Utica University directory.) – BLH, June 2026

• CHE 105 syllabus (ungraded Chemistry of Everyday Things course) for Spring 2024
  • Learning Reflection 1 from CHE 105, S24
• CHE 211 syllabus (graded Gen. Chem. I course) for Fall 2023
  • Explanation of Checkpoint scoring system from CHE 211, F23
  • Checkpoint conference feedback template from CHE 211, F23