📄️ Writing Objectives
In classrooms that utilize traditional grading, course objectives can feel like wrapping paper -- pretty statements that decorate the slides on syllabus day. Once presented, the objectives are discarded and the "real substance" of the course begins. No judgement, here! We've all done this. It's how things have always been done.
📄️ Choosing Mastery Levels & Schemes
In this section, we'll help you build a framework for how you'll assess student work for mastery of the course objectives. But first, we need to clarify a few points. (Get it?! Points, like assessment points?).
📄️ Converting from Mastery to Letter Grades
In a perfect world, letter grades or other grade distinctions wouldn't exist. As we discussed in Why Mastery Grading, letter grades were originally created to permanently sort students into tiers of the factory organization (businessmen, managers, floor workers, etc.). Thank goodness, that's not the goal of education in the twenty-first century. We would probably revolt. We're writing and you're reading this guide because you care about cultivating your students' learning, not about permanently sorting 66% of them into inescapable poverty.
📄️ Understanding Grade Calculations
Determining grades from requirements and thresholds is an important concept, so let's explain it as accessibly as we can. Please forgive our silliness (and our indulgent use of ridiculous polka-dot themed clip art).
📄️ Achieving a "Weighted Average" Effect
In traditional grading, it is not uncommon for grades to be calculated using weighted averages. Weighted average grade calculation dictates that each type of assessment in the course contributes some amount of the final percentage. For example, a course syllabus might stipulate that:
📄️ Sample Syllabus Language
We know it can be difficult to communicate to students how mastery grading works, especially to students who are used to traditional grading. In the following sections, we'll share the language that we use in our syllabi. Feel free to copy and modify however you like. It's always easier to edit than to author from scratch!