Grading this Semester

So between last week and this all five of my classes have turned in their first major assignment. I am not grade free in my classes for a variety of reasons, but this year, my first at university, I am trying new things, building on high school grading changes I made in the last couple of years. In my both my composition and content classes* (early English survey and Shakespeare) in class activities are 75% of their grade and done for completion. You do it it's 100. The composition classes decided this should be based on attending, so in a 3 day class 100 for all 3, 75 for 2, 50 for 1. They also have two low stakes assignments as prep before the major writing assignments, so these count in the 75% as well. In the content classes it's generally an activity, formative assessment I do once a week. Maybe close reading practice or an organizer or thesis statement. I give feedback and return. In general I wanted a system where if you were showing up and doing the work, putting forth the effort, you were going to pass.
The other 25% of their grade are the summative assessments. In the composition class these are their major writing assignments. In the content classes they are a project, close reading, scholarly response, and final project.

For every LSA, MWA, summative, I do not grade.
No taking papers home. No rubrics. No grading. Nada. Nothing. None.
Not in my composition courses, not in my content courses.

Instead, for each assignment on the schedule there is a workshop day followed by grade conferences. On the workshop day they work on the assignment in class. I walk around, answer questions, look at things, make corrections, but mostly they work. I am there if they need me. For grade conferences, they come up, show me the work, and tell me what grade it should get and why. I ask questions, I offer feedback. That's it.

Last year teaching high school I did grade conferences for the major assignments and really loved it. It forced me to teach more what the elements each assignment needed, which got me thinking about WHY I assigned it and WHAT I wanted students to get out of it. This transition to all grade conferences is new, as obviously, the move to university.

One thing I like in the composition classes about the low stakes assignment conferences is that I get to sit and talk with all my students. Ask how they are, what's going on. Even though all my composition classes are working on different assignments, the first LSA for most was what did you choose and why? Whether it was a profile, historical marker, or movie. That day in class I tell them to bring other work, and some students want to be first, and some stay behind, and it all works out. They come up front, answer the question, I ask clarifying questions (sometimes) and ask if they have any questions about next steps.
I also like, as we've moved onto the second LSA that they had to dig a little more. One class had to tell me what demographics they were choosing to focus on for their movie choice and why.  I don't know if they realized what a big deal it was, but they researched demographics of school then chose a demographic to focus on and argued to me why that was their target audience.
For the content classes their first big assignment was an intro to research project, a presentation type thing that was a chance to explore a topic related to class. I think I want to tweak the assignment in the future, because it doesn't quite do what I want, but again, the conversation, their argument, my feedback, is really cool.
They tell me what grade they think it is and why, and we talk about how a "C" is average. And that's okay. That it's okay if English isn't your thing. If you have a busy or stressful personal week and perhaps didn't do what you wanted. Because I've told them I don't care about grades but care about them and their learning, they know this is more about how our class culture runs and not about half-assing work. I've told them why I don't use rubrics. Or give lengths (it needs to be as long as it needs to be in order to accomplish X). I tell them I care about growth and feedback. And they appreciate that.

Once I'm back in my office I put the grade in Blackboard, so their grades are always up to date.

At the end of the first big assignment they take a survey on how class is going, giving me feedback, so I can course correct if needed.

I like that they're thinking about what they're writing, who for, and why, and using this.
I like that they're presenting oral and written arguments.
I like that they all chose their own topics, and explored them.
I love the engagement and investment this has.

So far, I'm really happy with how it's going. And this was all the toughest learning curve, introducing them to all this, so I hope now that they have the pattern that the rest of the semester goes well. I'll keep you posted.

*Look, I know someone is gonna give me the "what you don't think composition is content" comment. So let me stop you. Of course it is jerkface. I chose this term because it's easy to distinguish between the types of courses I teach. Ratchet down.