The Marks Free Class! Feedback Assessment in Action

by Mary Sauvé, teacher - Chateauguay Valley Regional High School

Three  files are available for reading and printing in PDF format.

1 The thinking behind the The Marks Free Class! Feedback Assessment in Action 

2 Tools to use - a sample letter to parents, course expectations, course outline, tips for students, guidelines for self-evaluation, three rubrics and an evaluation grid. Although the course outline is content specific the tools are generic. 
3  Reform updates (2009)    

The following is Mary's introduction to the methodology and process she has developed.

The following handouts (found in the above PDF files) are some examples of things that I gave to my students this year. I started a marks free environment in my class about three years ago because a student said he didn't like being measured against an invisible standard. Change my whole approach because of what one kid said? Yup! At any rate it soon became the focus of my action research thesis for my Masters degree at Bishop's. Along with all of the benefits, some of which are listed in the handouts, came a shift in pedagogy. In a grades free milieu, my usual methods weren't working. They are based on a teacher directed model where I choose the assignments, the criteria and I know the evaluation procedures. If I open all of this up, I have to make everything about evaluation clear with the students. This takes time away from other things if I am teaching about standards in the course, having them grade sample papers, working on self evaluations and critical viewing of theirs and peer work. We did a great deal of talk and work regarding evaluation itself. The idea is that they become the masters of their fates and they can articulate what they feel they deserve in a way that reflects the standards of the program, not "I worked hard I deserve an A". Marks free or choose your own grade do not mean standards free.

In addition, the response only method meant I had to be very detailed and specific in my comments on their written work. It took me longer to respond to a set of papers. I figured that with the conference I could talk with students about their work and read it in its draft stages and have most of the critical feedback be oral and in class time. I could spend less time responding to final drafts since I had seen them before. Students also appreciate this immediacy and often come back more than once for one piece of writing.

If the true aim of student-centeredness is individualization and autonomy, then having students create their own curriculum seemed fitting. Even though I set up a global framework - such as studying the impact of history on literature, students are free to choose their own period to study, books to read, issues to focus on, assignments which will show their learning...Because of this I have students create rubrics for each of their assignments and write self evaluations for each one. This way I know what they know about their formats, rules, content, intent, and product. This takes a lot of practice looking at what makes a good piece of writing and what the features are of any given format (breaking down text type grammar). Students read models of a personal essay to break them down to figure out what distinguishes a personal essay from other types of essays. This, students say, is a real eye opener because they are typically not used to listing all of the things they need to do well in order to have written an effective piece.

Just because they choose their own work does not mean there isn't work we need to do all together that I value. I will often have class wide activities to introduce or model skills / processes that I expect them to transfer to their individual work. To this end, this semester I created a textbook for my students of all kinds of handouts for the course, expectations, many of the sheets below, and plenty of literary samples. This common reading is for models, class activities, responding to etc... I keep having to find ways to make this method work more smoothly for me. Each semester is something new. The idea is that for students to be freer in their choices and direct themselves, I have to try to give them all the tools I can foresee them needing in advance. This method is by no means a panacea for anything. It grew out of my own concerns, and it continues to grow.