Inclusivity and Assessment in the Classroom

Prediction encourages students to synthesize information, apply concepts, anticipate results, and revise thinking. Yet, while common in STEM, prediction is less intuitive to the Classics classroom. How can students “predict” historical events and ancient texts? Based on active learning approaches to classical art history, this talk shares successful applications of prediction through the withholding and revelation of information.

I teach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a federally-designated Minority-Serving Institution and Hispanic-Serving Institution. Among the undergraduate student body, no race constitutes a majority, so I teach diverse groups of students each semester. In this lightning talk, I will share how studying the plays of Luis Alfaro generates unique opportunities for teaching anti-racism.

As one component of anti-racist pedagogy, many instructors wish to make students aware of appropriations of Greco-Roman antiquity by contemporary white ethnonationalists. I will recommend sources of examples and guidelines around student safety for using such material both to complicate idealized notions about “the Classical Tradition” and to prompt discussion concerning the relationship of the study of antiquity to racism.

Rome is a key character in the Babylonian Talmud.  Unfortunately, this source remains neglected among classicists. The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud provide important subaltern perspectives about Roman subjugation, tell tales of covert meetings between emperors and rabbis, and incorporate a wide array of Greek words transliterated into Aramaic characters. How can Classics strive to include this radically different perspective?

Traditional grading perpetuates educational inequities: students with more experience get higher grades than those with less.  In order to break the cycle, I suggest wide adoption of labor-based grading in Classics.  In this talk I will share my experience with labor-based grading, which I have seen benefit all students, reestablishing love of learning and curiosity as drivers of student work.

The global pandemic has caused us all to pivot in our teaching. I have made the most radical (and possibly permanent) shift in the way I assess students. In lieu of tests and traditional paper prompts (including in language courses), I have embraced:

• Focus on individualized feedback on homework prior to class meetings
• Untimed assessments
• Creative composition assessments
• Portfolios

Point-based grading can present challenges to student success by discouraging students who fall behind early. Two flexible approaches to assessment, ungrading and learning portfolios, rely on frequent formative feedback and self-assessment to support an inclusive learning environment focused on progress without grade anxiety. This session will facilitate a discussion of these and other equitable assessment strategies in Latin pedagogy.