I'm doing #ungrading again.
Because I can't realistically keep a sense of the progress of each of 50+ students in my head, I give a number for each assignment:
0: Turned in nothing or a blank document.
1: Significantly incomplete.
2: Basically complete. For programming assignments, passes all unit tests.
3: Above and beyond -- perhaps tackled an optional challenge problem.
Several 0s and 1s indicate a problem to be addressed. 2 is by far the most common result. If a student wants to argue for an A, they should have a few 3s.
**The question: should I show these numbers to the students?**
Pro: It give them a sense of how they're doing, and therefore how much energy they need to allocate to this class.
Con: They will look at the number, think of it as a "grade", and pay no attention to written feedback.
Thoughts?
@peterdrake Since your students are probably mature enough to debate the idea, why not have them tell you what criteria would fit 0, 1, 2, or 3? If there's time allowing for it, that is.
@peterdrake it feels like an invitation to debate. Maybe show them a unitless graph of their performance so they can see trend over time.