Dr. Jessica Zeller
@jessicazeller
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Assoc Prof. of Dance, she/her. #Pedagogy , #Ungrading , #Ballet , #HigherEd . Views my own. Now writing: Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies (Routledge)
Fort Worth, TX
Joined March 2009
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For the evening crowd:
“I said the biggest
#Ungrading
loophole out loud and made it sound like it was no big deal. Eyebrows around the room nearly reached their respective hairlines.”
My latest:
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I’m confused about how kids are “behind” in school right now. Behind who?
How about we find a way to not consider students somehow deficient because of a pandemic and massive social upheaval.
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A couple of years ago, my dept chair stopped sending faculty, staff, and students emails after 5:30pm or on weekends.
Now, almost no one in my dept. sends emails outside business hours.
It's absolutely possible to shift culture with simple choices. I think about that a lot.
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Refusing to replace retiring tenured faculty *is* cutting tenure-line jobs, just to clear up any confusion.
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“You should ask them. They’re the ones out there actually doing this shit.”
—Roy Kent, critical pedagogue
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If you ever needed a reason to use organic/rolling deadlines, I offer you this student response to my request for midterm feedback:
"The flexibility offered in this course is so much more motivating than deadlines. Because I do not feel pressure to learn, it feels like play."
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A student contacted me terrified about missing an exam in another course because they didn’t want to risk a lower grade, despite having been HIT BY A FUCKING CAR the day before.
The hegemony of grades is doing profound damage. Whatever you're doing to mitigate it... keep going.
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I almost spit out my tea reading “remain vigilant about emotional wellness” at the end of an email stating that the university plans to go full force into F2F classes next week in a county with a 35.38% positivity rate.
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For anyone who needs to hear this:
I haven’t started writing my fall syllabi.
You’re not alone.
The paralysis is real.
#Fall2020
#truststudents
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There’s a lot of talk about what students have “lost” over the last few years. Their deficiencies.
But after my end-of-semester
#Ungrading
meetings last week, I’d prefer to focus on what I see most having gained/learned/become.
A 🧵 for the pedagogic optimists:
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The semester ended and I’ve gone dead weight.
The grief that’s surfacing is embodied and heavy. Not unexpected.
Educators have been through hell this year. Real rest releases the tension that’s been holding us together.
Rest and grieve, folx, if you can. You deserve it. ♥️
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Folx. If your institution has to bring in therapy dogs every finals week to solve the students-are-so-stressed-out problem, I promise you it's not the dogs' problem to solve.
#HigherEd
#CriticalPedagogy
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I don't grade anymore. Haven't for a few years now. We develop an ongoing feedback loop, and students grade themselves. It's wonderful to watch them direct their own learning. They take ownership and pride in their work. 1/
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I just went to look up a concept from bell hooks for a chapter I'm writing. I looked up and an hour had gone by... apparently reading was my writing today. 💜
Here it is:
"the classroom should be a space where we're all in power in different ways." --bell hooks, 1994, p.152
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Did an online training for new classroom tech:
"Best practices," say to have Zoom record automatically.
"Best practices" omit any mention of student privacy concerns with auto recordings, so I put it in the chat.
Crickets.
Students have rights. Respect them. Ask for consent.
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When writing attendance policies for fall, our
#1
question should be:
Might it in *any* way result in a sick student choosing to attend class to avoid being punitively affected? (Tip: ask students to help draft it.)
This is where the honor system belongs. Trust them first.
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I have a student in my course this fall who was in one of my courses last spring. The current course isn’t required for her.
When she asked me about it she didn’t seem to care what the course was about as much as whether I’d be using
#Ungrading
again, which—of course—I am.
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Today I told a class we’re doing “back to normal” because that’s the option we've been given.
I told them I’ve never seen fatigue like this in Week 5. Ever.
I told them I trust them to make choices for themselves re: their health & our class.
Two of them cried on the spot.
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She enrolled, she said, because
#Ungrading
assured her she’d learn something. As she discovered last spring, she loves learning when she gets a voice in the process.
What does this mean? People will gravitate toward spaces where their autonomy is enshrined in policy.
#SDT
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I ran an anonymous survey of students 18+ as part of my current research.
I asked what their ideal student-teacher relationship would look like and how it would make them feel.
You already know how they responded. +
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#Ungrading
is part of a love ethic.
When the grade is no longer the focus, our day-to-day interactions with students change. Our process of working with them takes a completely different tone and tenor. We evaluate, yes, but as part of the process.
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I’ve been tinkering with the relationship between
#Ungrading
, pedagogic ego, and student dependence. And bodies, of course, which are never far from my thinking.
Just rolling it all around a bit. 🧵
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Most of the learning that happens during a semester-long course is neither foreseeable nor measurable.
What unpopular academia opinion would get you in this situation?
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An accidental admission from admin in a meeting on grading policy:
“We don’t have an answer for that. We’re making it up right now.”
An end-of-semester reminder that grades are pretend. 🙃
#Ungrading
#CriticalPedagogy
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After nearly six years, I am officially in the “quietly enacting” phase of
#Ungrading
.
The prospect of advocacy or dialoguing or even just sharing about it feels like it touches too much of a nerve. On site and online.
The ground has shifted. Anyone else experiencing this?
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Thread. On hierarchy, humor, and pedagogic abuse.
I pulled an April Fool’s prank while teaching ballet today. I’ve never done anything like that before with students, but I thought it might be a way to lighten the mood. +
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I thought I was doing the right thing by eliminating structures that seemed oppressive. I’ve since learned that the effects of burning the place down can present problems for students who need anti-oppressive structures, as opposed to no structures at all.
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A new bit of writing:
"I’m committing to unstuffing my courses—to make time for the rest that enables curiosity. To flout the suggestion that self-care is an antidote to capitalism."
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To those who would suggest that
#Ungrading
and other non-punitive policies don’t adequately prepare students for a profession/career: a thread.
+
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This "deadlines" discourse is exhausting.
You're not teaching time management.
If a student is asking for an extension, the window for teaching time management is long gone.
The only lesson here is that some profs lack the ability to respond empathetically.
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Institutional support for faculty/staff *is* institutional support for students.
To wit: the top-down governance model (that they like to call "shared") has disempowered mid-level decision-makers (chairs/deans) in supporting faculty/staff, and it's hurting students.
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Keep reminding students about their own agency and how to use it, so the classes where they *don’t* have agency (there are many…) won’t become their default pattern for how to function in a learning environment.
Tell them you trust them. Tell them again. And again.
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Compassion:
Most express real concern and care for their peers. They actively support one another. Many ask how I am from class to class, in earnest. They check in.
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Implications for ungraded courses: a subtweet
1. due dates become flexible
2. penalties no longer apply
3. you can’t *just decide* at the last minute to implement some authoritarian measure to regain control
It's not a method to be used in isolation. It's a pedagogic philosophy.
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Students want to feel seen, acknowledged, and validated in the most basic of ways.
They want to be celebrated for their good work *and* challenged to go further.
They want to feel cared for through our actions and how we communicate. +
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There is a stunning dissonance in seeing/hearing educators talk about last year as we barrel towards fall—
“But we’ve learned so much”;
“it’s been fascinating”
—while their faces are fallen and empty.
It’s an existential exhaustion. They’re using optimism to mask their grief.
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A thread. Courtesy of required online training.
Learning Outcomes aren't outcomes of learning. They’re not even goals. They’re directives.
They tell students what & how they’re expected to learn. They don’t allow other learning processes or knowledge to be considered valid.
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A student from my *first* fully ungraded course 5+ years ago just reached out to ask for
#ungrading
resources.
She’s teaching now, working with the leadership at her school to develop a gradeless curriculum.
I'm so moved. 🥲
It really does what we hope/know it does.
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It was a solid April Fool's joke, to be sure, but it's raised some serious questions for me.
I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.
Thanks for listening. Fin.
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But now, after the fact, I’m wondering if this is also how pedagogic abuse happens. That those lower on the hierarchy know what they’re supposed to do, so they do it. Silently. No matter what. +
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I despise the term "hand-holding." Today I heard it used to describe the extra work teachers do to try and support students. Just SO pejorative.
If a student needs a hand literally held so they can face the systemic inequities in
#HigherEd
, I'll hold their actual hand. Proudly.
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End-of-semester PSA: learning doesn’t have to manifest in writing to be legitimate or meaningful.
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Dear Students,
No matter what Fall '20 looks like, we’ll make something brilliant happen—together.
Will it be like Fall '19? No.
Will it have value and meaning, and maybe even be fun? Yes. We’ll make sure of it.
I trust us.
Looking forward,
JZ
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If you have a 9-mo. appt. in
#HigherEd
, you're being paid for 9 mos, including tchg, rsch, svce, etc. (even if you're paid 9/12)
Summer is *unpaid,* yet it's the only time academia allows us to do the research that lets us keep our jobs.
3 months of free labor.
#NotAFamily
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All told, I’m pedagogically optimistic. These last three years of cohorts have had a very different
#HigherEd
experience than their predecessors, and it shows in *all kinds of ways. I know which I'll be focusing on.
Let’s assume the best and give them some grace, shall we?
/end
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And there's so much more.
I’ve been thinking about these responses every time I’ve walked into a classroom this semester, and they’re making me a better teacher-human.
Ask students. They'll tell you.
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For educators who tried something this term that didn't work as expected:
It doesn’t mean the thing is wrong or bad.
It doesn’t mean *you’re wrong or bad.
It doesn’t mean no one else should ever do it.
We’re all on a learning curve. Give yourselves some grace & start revising.
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Creativity and Curiosity:
When they have space and low pressure, they ask thoughtful questions, offer interesting and honest insights, and produce things I’d never have thought of.
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Seeing as yesterday was the last day of classes, it seems I've managed to get away unscathed, my hand still un-slapped, despite having put this statement on the first page of a fall course syllabus:
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I’m channeling my Day 2 post-Roe rage into preparing a syllabus statement. Students *will need support. Expect it.
Here’s a draft. Note that I teach ballet (which has historically limited bodily autonomy to begin with...) so this seems necessary. Adapt or lift as you’d like.
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They want to feel comfortable enough to make mistakes and ask questions without fear of judgment.
They want to feel like respected, trusted collaborators with knowledge and ideas to contribute. +
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What if *the* explicit goal of a “course” was for students to leave it with the ability to ask better (more well-informed) questions about the subject matter than when they started?
Might try it...
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You know what's great about
#Ungrading
at the end of a semester? Student self-reflections.
There are lots of reasons to love those narratives, but they help me see what I need to adjust in future courses. They're feedback on pedagogy through the lens of individual learning.
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It's impossibly sad to watch academia destroy people. My heart is heavy. Check in on your friends,
#highered
folx.
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The inequity.
The lack of humanity.
The utter failure to consider privilege and access.
The deliberate antagonism.
The willing ignorance with regard to research on grades.
This is enraging.
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I hope no one expects any productivity from anyone in Texas right now.
We're in a constant cycle of rage-mourning.
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Every time I hear admin say to "post our lectures" for when students can't be in class, I want to scream about how they've ignored the arts, where embodied learning and the passage of oral traditions happen in studios and workshops, in one-to-one mentored spaces and in community.
I hadn’t thought about this before, but this is spot on.
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Everything is awful and the world is on fire, but I just made the most sweeping pirouette exercise for my ballet class and it felt so good to dance it (in my living room...) that I actually wept.
Ballet seems kind of irrelevant right now, but sometimes it's just... everything💕
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Receptivity:
Many reply to feedback with real interest or more questions. Most try to find relevance in the material. They try their best to hear one another.
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Well, this one seems to have struck a chord. While we’re all here: join your faculty union.
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If you sit on a search or scholarship committee, *please* start pushing hard for a shift to a short list of references instead of recommendation letters. It's on us to stop pushing this excessive workload onto our colleagues, especially toward the end of the semester.
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Any time university-level assessment requirements come up in faculty meetings, I almost spontaneously combust. Short thread:
tl; dr: As long as schools continue throwing money at the idea that everyone should teach and learn in the same way, they’ll be inequitable. +
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@thehistoriann
I think there's a LOT of understanding as to why folx might send emails after business hours--lots of good reasons for this. Her shift has built a culture where we know we're not *expected to respond then, which is key.
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Integrity:
When we talk about the ethical challenges of the moment, they are concerned. They are aware. When they feel that I trust them (which I do, but which I work to earn), they are forthcoming.
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Yesterday a graduating senior told me that she now has more questions than answers.
My job here is done. 💜
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Cheating disappears when:
Students have autonomy and voice;
Work is relevant and meaningful;
Pedagogy is an explicit part of course content.
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cc: academics
"You have to build a life beyond your job, and expecting your job to give you all your happiness isn't going to work, even when you like your work."
-
@AOC
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Note that I’m tenured & white at a private university, so I have latitude to say this. Might get a wrist slap anyway.
Because teaching is political.
Because students matter more than rules.
Because equity.
Because humanity.
This feels like the bare minimum, but it's a start.
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I tell students I want to help them not need me anymore. I'm there for support, but eventually I hope they move on, taking whatever I’ve offered that's relevant and meaningful to them.
If the goal is to enable student autonomy—for them to outgrow us—we have to let (them) go.
/X
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The more of
@kate_manne
’s Entitled I read, the longer it takes. I keep putting it down to deal with the embodied response I’m having. As in, I keep having to pause to exercise—like my body is confirming all the infuriating truths in this book... trying to shake off the rage.
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There are few things that make me want to retreat, professionally, but the firehose of policy and system requirements in the week before classes begin is intensely demoralizing, philosophically. It's like watching the gatekeepers gatekeep in real time with absolutely no recourse.
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"Who is assessment for?"
Answering this question is like turning over a rock. There's no un-seeing what's beneath it. It changes everything.
We need to start with really basic questions: Who is assessment for? How can assessment better support student learning? How can we engage students more fully in conversations about their own education, bringing them into the design of courses, curricula, and assessment?
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Grades infantilize. They keep students dependent on us to assess *for them—stunting their potential maturation.
Students remain immature/dependent in top-down grading paradigms because we need them to. Their dependence satisfies our pedagogic ego. It benefits and centers us.
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The ability and desire to listen—to others and to themselves:
Most want to develop and be part of a classroom community and engage with each other. Most take advantage of the time and space to reflect on their own work/process.
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"Feminism is not a few women hurdling over the obstacles. Feminism is the destruction of those obstacles that hold back all those other women who are very much mired in the patriarchal fuckery of the here and now."
There are too many brilliant quotes in this... just read it.
New essay: My ambition is much bigger than doing whatever a man can. Men are not my yardstick.
My ambition is for much more. I want to be free.
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"Girls are born with plenty of rage already, but we squash it. They are taught to be polite, to be well-behaved, and to not make a scene. We tell them not to raise their voice and not to speak too much."
(cc: ballet teachers)
What would the world look like if girls were taught they were volcanoes, whose eruptions were a thing of beauty, a power to behold and a force not to be trifled with?
I look at the importance of nurturing the pilot light of anger all girls are born with.
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Stop telling shorter faculty (particularly women) we look “just like the students,” please.
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Yesterday I told students I was canceling class this morning. Today I got this in a thank you email:
"I had the best 10 hour sleep of my life followed by the most relaxing morning walk and topped it off with some homemade chocolate chip pancakes!"
Cancel one if you can💜
#rest
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Genuine appreciation for those who offer support:
There are always some I reach more than others. But those (thankfully) let me know when I do.
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I'm sharing it here in case others find themselves in a similar situation. I’m excited to see how it’ll work in practice—the jury's still out. If it’s useful to you, please feel free to adapt.
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Syllabus snippets, Spring '21:
"I am not the only one with knowledge in the space of this course."
"The outcomes of this course will not be exactly the same for everyone—your experiences will be your own."
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I messed up. I did something that might’ve hurt someone close to me. I apologized.
Their response: “This is an opportunity to get our bearings. Not a test you have to pass.”
We should all be so lucky... 🤍
Next time a student apologizes for something, I’m going to adapt it.
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I plan to include this statement to students on my syllabi with some Learning Objectives and a blank space for Learning Outcomes. (We’ll see if I get my hand slapped…) Feel free to use and adapt as needed. FIN.
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The rigor "conversation" just keeps coming back over and over like the undead, which is pretty ironic when you think about it...
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So last night I had ice cream for dinner and today I wrote 1500 words.
I’m not saying they’re related, but maybe they’re not *not related? 🤷🏻♀️
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I'm adding a new structural support to my courses this semester. Short thread.
My approach to
#Ungrading
has always asked students to evaluate and grade themselves, while I lend support via qualitative feedback.
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Just taught my last class for the semester. Feels like I’m under a steamroller. This level of exhaustion simply isn’t sustainable, and I know I’m not the only one. Sending 💜, dear ones.
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Writing recommendation letters—despite the silly amount of other things that need my attention rn—is really grounding.
Also: A reminder to send students your rec letters so they can read the lovely things you say about them. It's just a nice way to make someone's day better.
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Oof. In a meeting yesterday I commented that keeping students accountable isn’t what we should be focused on—that a sense of accountability is something they develop on their own.
I didn’t realize facial expressions could be so violent…
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@abbeydick
Yes of course they can. The point was about how modeling can change culture, from the top down.
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How close to the first day of classes do you think we'll get before being told we have to prepare hybrid and online versions of courses that admins have been hell-bent on *only* offering in person?
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You’re not “giving students a voice.”
You’re getting out of their way so they can use their own.
#CriticalPedagogy
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A breathtaking lack of humanity from Purdue's leadership.
Notable: "Post-infection immunity" and "Natural immunity" have not, to date, been proven, and may never come to be.
Raise hell, Purdue folx. We're with you.
This Presidential statement from Purdue is one of cruelest things I’ve read in the last 6 weeks: “Even a phenomenon as menacing as COVID-19 is one of the inevitable risks of life.”
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Academics.
Can we *please* stop saying we're looking at areas others have "ignored"?
Could we instead frame our work as building on what others have accomplished?
Our work has a lineage.
Saying so doesn't detract from our position; it strengthens it. It builds trust/legitimacy.
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"Given all the trepidation around
#Ungrading
, I find its challenges most worthwhile when I look at it as part of a love ethic—as part of a generous acknowledgment of humanity in an education sphere that is rapidly dissociating itself from anything human."
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Also? Because grades are pretend, we can design them to be more equitable. We must, actually. In the imperative.
#Ungrading
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