I am having lots of trouble keeping up with various commitments. Being here is one of them! But when I think of this place as a conversation rather than a set of settled statements, it helps. So, this is like the quick text I might send to a friend just to keep things going, even when I wish I had time to do more.

Rafael brought up ungrading.

There’s an entire issue of Zeal devoted to ungrading, with contributions from Jesse Stommel and Robert Talbert, whom I follow, and several voices who are new to me. Talbert also recently published a “stop/start/continue for the ungrading community.“

One of Stommel’s simplest suggestions — and yet one I’m ashamed to have often skipped — is to have explicit conversations with students about grades and grading practices. I have a couple questions about this on my latest feedback questionnaire with my students. I linked to Stommel’s piece and to Kohn’s “The Case Against Grades” in the contexting for these questions, so students are invited to read those but not required to.

Here’s a (long) question and some of the responses so far:

Let's look specifically at Lab Practicals and the points/grades that go with them. Here's the 2nd lab practical from the fall semester — please review it briefly to remind yourself how points worked.
My goals were for everyone to accomplish enough on the lab practical to demonstrate they'd learned the relevant ideas. Putting points on different aspects is a way for me to signal to you what is important. It's not that I actually care about the grade. In fact, almost everyone passes the 100% line.
Would it be possible to describe what is important, lay out requirements, or some other idea that does not involve points, and achieve the same outcomes? Or are the points an essential motivation for making this work? 

- I am very motivated by points because I pride myself in getting good grades
- I disagree, With my major I am very busy. If I saw something with no points to it I would add it to the last thing to do in my pile of work.
- honestly not sure
- I find the points to be motivating
- I like the points for motivation, I felt like I would look at the material more and review it more before the lab practical. I felt that this made me feel more comfortable with the material more. I wish we did more of these lab practical's. for example, if we did 4, all 4 would equal the 2 we did in points.
- the points are pretty important

I have lots of thoughts about why these (few) responses do not seem to support an ungrading approach. But what do you all think?

(Side note: If you’d like to click through to the Lab Practical assignment, you’ll see that it is very, well, “alternative graded,” I guess? There are more points available than needed for the assignment. So I’m getting some of these ideas in even if it’s not via true ungrading.)

So, what do you think about these students’ thoughts on points? What would your own students say?