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historians.org

Evaluating without Grading | AHA

8-11 minutes

By Luke Clossey and Esther Souman

For more information on this course and specifications grading,

read "Evaluating without Grading: Encouraging Students to Master
Skills with Specifications Grading," Perspectives on History,
October 2021.

In our Introduction to Global History survey course at Simon Fraser

University (SFU) in autumn 2020, students earned their grades by
"unlocking" different levels of various assignments. We introduced a
specifications grading system, evaluating individual assignments on
a pass/fail basis, and created multiple pathways for students to
move through the assignments and earn a final grade. Our goal
was to ensure that every student mastered basic skills, and the
more advanced students had opportunities to develop more
creative projects. This system was adapted from Linda B. Nilson's
authoritative Specifications Grading (Stylus, 2015).

Assignments and Evaluations

There are no quizzes or examinations. This course uses a

"specifications" grading model: Students undertake a number of
short assignments, and receive a course grade based on the
quantity and difficulty of the assignments successfully completed.
Each assignment will involve options, so students can work on
something relevant to their own lives. Each course grade also

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requires a specified minimal level of attendance and participation.

To earn a grade, you must meet both the participation-score
minimum and the minimum number/level of assignments. This
approach has been shown to minimize stress and maximize long-
term learning. Overall course grading will be on a curve that can
only benefit students. If necessary, final grades will be increased to
coincide with departmental averages.

Grade Participation Score Minimum Number/Level of

Minimum Assignments

A+ 95 L1 L2 L3 L4

A 90 L1 L2 L3 L4

A- 80 L1 L2 L3 L4

B+ 95 L1 L2 L3

B 85 L1 L2 L3

B- 75 L1 L2 L3

C+ 80 L1 L2

C 70 L1 L2

C- 60 L1 L2

D 60 L1

Due Dates

You may submit one assignment (upload to Canvas) for each

Intake, with the following deadlines:

First Intake: 7 Oct. 11:59pm

Second Intake: 21 Oct., 11:59pm

Third Intake: 11 Nov., 11:59pm

Fourth Intake: 2 Dec. 11:59pm

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For the first Intake, everyone is invited to submit an L1 assignment.

In subsequent Intakes, to submit an assignment of a specific level,
you must have previously passed an assignment at the level
beneath it. That is, to submit an L3 assignment, you must have
already successfully completed an L2 assignment. To earn an A
grade, you would submit a successful assignment for L1 at the first
Intake, for L2 at the second, etc. To earn a C grade, you would
pass an L1 and an L2 assignment, and would have no obligation to
submit any others.

An assignment can be submitted late, with a participation-score

penalty of 3 points per 24-hour-period, or fraction thereof, after the
deadline. The teaching staff is happy to discuss assignment
requirements, and to discuss how you might go about completing
them, but cannot confirm in advance that a draft assignment fulfills
the requirements. The teaching staff is not expert in the skills
needed for the various assignments, so, depending on your choice,
you may have to work with a significant degree of independence.
You are encouraged to take advantage of the SFU Student
Learning Commons for assistance with writing and study skills.

Requirements for All Assignments

• Completeness (all required items submitted)

• Professionalism in writing quality and presentation: clear

organization, no sentence fragments or run-ons, no more than two
errors per 250 words (including citations in Chicago style)

• Course relevance: must cite one or more podcasts, and one or

more of the assigned sources

• No plagiarism (see "Academic Policies" below)

• All papers should be written according to the instructor's How to

Write and the Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian's A Manual for
Writers of Term Papers.

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Level 1: Summarize!

Summarize the podcast(s) and sources from a single week of your

choice. Do not include external information or anaylsis.

• Use prose, with paragraphs, as if in an essay (i.e., not in list-form)

• Between 500 and 750 words (include a word count)

• Organization should be clear, with transitions between paragraphs

• Information should be presented as a coherent whole

• Include citations for the podcast(s) and sources

Level 2: Analyze!

Analyze a source or a collection of sources. Make an explicit

argument that demonstrates insight. The argument should be
original, significant and interesting. (You should make clear to the
reader the originality, significance, and interest.) The argument
should not be a fact—if all scholars would agree with it, it is
probably not an argument.

• Use prose, with paragraphs, as if in an essay

• Between 750 and 1,000 words (include a word count)

• You may include external information, properly cited, if it helps your

argument

• Include a literature review, which you might use as a tool to

demonstrate your originality

• Include a citation for the source(s) you analyze

Sample sources: Sample approaches:

• podcast • lectio dificilior potius (to
• assigned source identify which of two
• digital museum collection item versions of a text is older;
(example) we'll learn about this in

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• image Week 5)
• sound recording (e.g., from • global perspective: show
radiooooo.com) the regional assumptions
• dataset (e.g., list of constitutions and motivations behind the
(example), source
www.slavevoyages.org, • find patterns in time and
orbis.stanford.edu) space
• computer game

Some projects ideas:

• Take a source of uncertain origins, and argue for a specific region

or time of origin

• Choose 20 tracks from https://radiooooo.com, and find patterns

across time or space (Is music in 1920s Africa more complex than
music in 1930s Asia? Why?)

• Look at your diet for a week. How modern/premodern is it? How

traditional/global? Write an essay about the history of one food
you've eaten or about one quality found in several of your foods.
How are other peoples' dietary practices different from your own?

• Choose one of these texts. Make a list of all the assumptions it

makes. Analyze each assumption from a global or premodern
perspective.

Level 3: Create!

Your creation should demonstrate its clear, significant value, and

have a professional appearance. Your creation should be
accompanied by a commentary (300 to 500 words) explaining your
goals for the project and how you sought to meet them (unless you
are doing a proposal).

Personal Applications

• Create a global-history timeline, with events chosen for relevance

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to your own life.

• Create a global-history map, with places chosen for relevance to

your own life.

• Choose things important to you (in categories such as techmology,

biology, ideas, recreation, food...) and then historicize and globalize
them.

• Choose the most important events in global history. Justify your

choice. Create chains of causality between them. Analyze the
results.

• Identify an identity and trace it through space/time (e.g., your family,

vegans, or whatever).

• Describe a particular world-perspective (e.g., Buddhism ca. 200

BC), and apply it to a modern problem.

Pedagogy Tools

• Create a infographic/visualization (example 1, example 2)

• Create a textbook section

• Create a historical roleplaying session

• Create a map (e.g., Google map or a Carto map)

• Create pedagogical materials (with an instructor's permission)

• Identify 4 to 6 learning objectives for HIST 130 and connect them to

details in the course

• Design a final exam for HIST 130

Research Tools

• Write a research-paper proposal

• Compile an annotated bibliography of at least 25 items

• Create an annotated dataset of at least 25 items

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• Write a Teaching and Learning Development Grant proposal (use

the available exemplars as guides and complete one of the three
"TLDG Project Proposal Forms")

Level 4: Synthesize!

Your synthesis should demonstrate a clear, significant value, and

have a professional appearance.

• Write a research paper (750 to 1,500 words). Explain the research

question, why it is important, the state of the scholarship, and what
sources or approached your paper uses to answer it.

• Write a policy proposal for the federal government, using this as a

model (750-word limit).

• Sum up the history of the world in a single minute (video/audio) or

in a 500-word-maximum essay. Include an essay (750 to 1,000
words) justifying the choices informing it.

• Write a small SSHRC grant. (Ignore Sections VI and VIII; you can
fabricate any answers for Section I.)

Final Grades

This table shows the distribution of grades in the course, slightly

randomized to preserve privacy.

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