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Did you know that grades weren't widespread in American education until midway through the 20th Century? This article features a literature review of the history of grading, discusses some of the ways in which grading doesn't work as well for learning as we'd like, and suggests alternative approaches to assignments and assessment.

This 2008 blog post from a mathematician at Dickinson College is the best summary of my thoughts on curving grades that I have ever come across. Other than the fact that there is more math in here, this is what I think of whenever my students ask me "Do you curve your exams?" Moreover, his discussion on assigning grades includes formulas that can be pasted into either Google Docs or Excel that will generate letter grades based on splits that you can set to your liking. (Note: I have my own blog post about this where I explain these formulas in a bit more detail. Just copy and paste the following link into your browser: https://cip.kenyon.edu/hells-bells-not-question-again-and-formulas-assigning-grades.)

It can't be an accident that this was published just as faculty start staring down big piles of Thanksgiving break grading. The arguments, however, are about how grades serve as limiters on student learning.

This website offers a suite of online and offline (Excel) grade calculators. It can do calculations based on letter grades, which is a frequent request at the CIP!

What are your opinions on grading group work? How do you balance formative and summative comments, group and individual grades, your grading and intra-group feedback?

What do classes look like as you move from infrequent, high-stakes assignments and exams to frequent grading of low-stakes activities? Warnock makes a number of claims, backed up by the literature - students become more confident and motivated, there's less incentive to cheat, the dialogue between students and faculty improves. I particularly like the last half of the article, where he talks about the practical elements of increasing informal writing or quizzing in a course.

Some interesting thoughts about what makes grading a chore, and what can make it rewarding.

When the avalanche of end-of-semester grading seems like just too much, it might be worthwhile to review these tips. Some are hints for your workflow, and others for your mindset.

A description of the author's process for grading with his iPad. The comments section includes some good alternatives, including Word's "Track Changes" feature, as well as a few suggestions of classroom strategies which improve students' receptiveness to paperless feedback.

Everyone's looking for a way to make grading more efficient without sacrificing effectiveness. Most of these tips boil down to finding ways to make feedback engaging, usually by focusing on things the student can do to improve (in a rewrite or on the next assignment).

Analysis of discussions on a site called Piazza suggest that requiring students to post an introduction can improve the amount of discussion on the boards, while heavily-graded discussions can lead students to "grind for grades" instead of authentically participate.

An intriguing description of using Google Forms as a writing rubric (or more general marking guide). I like the goal of "reduc(ing) the amount of time that I have to spend on administrative grading-related tasks, so that I can really focus my attention on reading and responding to students' work." I can see how electronic rubrics could be a time-saver, and Google Forms are dead easy to set up.

A professor of learning technology discusses some of the questions faculty should ask themselves about effectively grading digital assignments.

Lots of interesting ideas in this podcast episode for removing potential sources of unconscious bias from your grading.

"After all of the time I spent convincing students that these assignments were no big thing, I was sending the opposite message since clearly my grading problem was a real big thing." T.L. Cowan talks about designing a rubric for "low-stakes" writing assignments which motivates students and preserves her expressive style.

These questions are posed as a "step 0" for thinking about a course before implementing an alternative grading structure, but they'd be useful for considering how you want to approach any course.

Good mix of practical tips for managing your grading and pedagogical tips for helping students learn to do college-level writing.

Lots of people at Kenyon use Word's Track Changes or Turnitin's GradeMark. This post talks about ways to attach verbal comments to a document. (This idea is used by some language profs, as a way to get students some listening practice at the same time they're working on a written project.)

How many points should you give students for first drafts, project reports, and other assignments which show the student's progress toward an end goal? Andrew Miller argues for zero - he cleaves summative grading from formative assessments. (Mostly.)

Some tips on using new technologies to give meaningful feedback on writing assignments while completing the work in a reasonable time frame.