In Jesse Stommel’s article “Ungrading: An Introduction”, Stommel presents a few interesting alternatives to that how our grading systems are being used in all classrooms in the United States, from elementary grade school, to high school, all the way up to college. One of the few key keyliners that stuck out to me after reading the article was this:

“Minimal Grading: Using scales with fewer gradations to make grading ‘simpler, fairer, clearer’…”.

When it comes to grading itself, this is one of the few things during my educational time period that can make me anxious sometimes. Every teacher/professor uses their grading rules in their syllabuses/instructions differently every semester which students know very well as like a sixth sense; one half get straight to the point with what is to be expected throughout the entire course of the semester, which I myself have dealt with many course times (for example my Web Design and Math Courses respectively). The other half tends to be less restrictive and strict about how they critique their student’s work throughout the semester, which is another side I have experienced, in my opinion, they were easier for me to work with as I did the majority of my work like this, I point my fingers to my art classes as those are the courses that I excel greatly in.

After doing a close reading of this article, I can come to the conclusion that I and many other students can all relate and say that we’ve all been taught for many years to follow along and go with whatever grading preferences that our instructors abide by for our semesters. To conclude, “minimal grading” is what gets Stommel’s point across to students, while setting a reasonable system that we students can use as guidance for what kind of work is required, and to create a more balanced working ethic for students.