Go Grade Yourself: Podcast on “Slam Assessment” with Sean Law
Saturday, 26 January 2008 Clay Burell 
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Early last December, I posted my excitement about Sean Law’s new blog, Slam Teaching. Three weeks later, after many rounds of commenting on each others’ posts, we somehow went from Twitter to Skype one holiday weekend afternoon (in Seoul – it was around midnight for Sean in Denver), and talked for a good hour and a half.
Sean agreed to my podcasting parts of that talk that I found worth sharing (hint: most of it), so this is the first segment. It’s about 15 minutes long. I chose to start with this because it’s about that schooly abomination we call “grading.” And about Sean’s thoughts on how to do it, slam-wise, by letting students give themselves their grades.
The conversation was timely. It spurred me to adapt the idea to my PLN / Networked Learning elective (an update on that soon).
We discuss two other topics as well:
1. connecting university students in teacher certification courses to connect with my 1:1 laptop school students to “learn 21st century teaching” possibilities (Alec Couros, Dean Shareski, Ferris Bueller, are you there?)
2. the differences and similarities of teaching online – Sean is the English department head and English professor of his state’s online college program - versus teaching in a physical classroom. I was surprised by much of what I learned about the world of online teaching.
So here it is. As usual, it’s an enhanced podcast, with chapter markers for easy navigation in iTunes, and with links to all sites referenced, if you download it.
Or you can just click the player below (Quicktime required). You’ll still see links to click and follow if you’re so inclined.
[quicktime]http://pod.kis.or.kr//blojsom_resources/meta/cburell/Slam%20Teaching%201%20Grading.m4a[/quicktime]
- A Must-Read New Blog: Sean’s “Slam Teaching”
- Student Project Blog as “Business”?! Podcast with Two PLN Class Students
- Podcast: With Dean Shareski on _Natural_ Global Collaboration and Networked Learning
- Beyond Global Collaborative “Units,” on to Real PLN’s: Podcast with Chris Craft
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No. 1 — January 27th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Heh, rubrics. (But that deserves a whole blog post from me, later.)
Clay – I enjoy the way you mix music into these, btw. Keep doing it.
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The idea of allowing students to grade themselves (and back it up) is very attractive if you want them to own their learning. I have to admit to having participation/discussion grades in my own classes based on the same sort of checky/slashy system Sean was using (with some + and – for particularly good/bad days for students).
My question for this sort of thing goes back to what you think the point of your class is. If your class is something (like creative writing) that is already seen as about developing a skill in students that’s very personal and not really measurable on a point system, this kind of approach is very easy to bring in. However, if part of the purpose of a class is ensuring that students end it with a certain set of knowledge/skills, which can be measured, how applicable do you see this sort of slam grading being? And if it is applicable, how would you apply it to, say, a history or science class?
Penelope’s last blog post..Wishing…
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No. 2 — January 27th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Clay and Sean,
Your conversation had an unexpected relevance for me, as I prepare to facilitate an online course for educators. This is a part-time job that I hope will become full-time when I retire.
I tend to keep the two professional threads of my life separate, and never really thought about how to transfer some of the asynchronous, interactive forums that make up one part of my life to the structured classes that make up the other, larger part.
My school has given me a Blackboard account to play with (not perfect, I know, but since even PB wiki and 21classes are essentially useless because of our filter, BB is better than no interactive site at all). It will be interesting to see how much of the PD course techniques I can translate into schooly endeavors.
Your grading philosophy reminds me very much of that used by my favorite grad school instructor. We’ll see just how much of my “other life” I can inject into my teaching life.
If I totally bomb, at least the students will have a unique experience! So far they’ve been hesitant to buy into the partners in learning concept. Maybe I can win them over.
diane
diane’s last blog post..Age of Aquarius
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No. 3 — January 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
@PENELOPE: I can’t speak for Sean, but do note that he spoke about using this approach, I believe, in a writing course. Similarly, I’m using it in a Project-Based Learning course.
Whether, and to what extent, such an approach could be integrated into a “core content” academic class, is an interesting question. It’s hard to see how it could be a total replacement in, say, science; at the same time, it’s an attractive idea to weave some self-grading into the overall grade somehow: tell me what you should make for class participation, and justify it with examples. Tell me what you should make as a problem-solver and team player, and justify THAT with examples too. Tell me how you translated all this academic memorizing into learning of personal worth and relevance, and justify THAT with examples.
Hm. I like that. Hm. Thanks for weighing in
@DIANE: student buy-in IS a problem. I wish I worked in a developing nation. I’m sure we’d see differences in learner attitudes. Teaching rich kids to want to learn can be like trying to teach post-binge gluttons that they’re hungry.
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No. 4 — January 27th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Clay – I can’t help but filter everything I read with the “that’s cool, but how do I use it?” questions, but I know you’re both using it in non “core” type classes. As for your ideas, yes, exactly the thought I was aiming at.
Penelope’s last blog post..The Problem with Curriculum
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No. 5 — January 29th, 2008 at 9:54 am
[...] students will grade themselves – see the “Slam Assessment” podcast with Sean Law – and justify their marks with evidence of their attempts to succeed and risks taken. [...]