137 - Mild, Medium, Spicy: Gamifying Mastery in Grade 7 Math with Gabriel Despatie

About this episode

Gabriel Despatie discusses his experience with standards-based grading and the implementation of a gamified mastery system in Grade 7 math.

Grade 7 math teacher Gabriel Despatie (Ontario) shares what happened when he tried to “overlay” standards-based grading onto nine years of refined tests—and why he ultimately scrapped his assessments after realizing they were packed with filler that measured rounding, formatting, and test-taking more than the actual learning goals. Gabriel walks through the system that finally clicked: a weekly “Learning Carnival” where students work one standard at a time with three backwards-compatible performance levels (mild/medium/spicy), two questions per level, and unlimited retakes that count as mastery whenever they happen. The conversation dives into practical logistics (tracking sheets, retake flow, managing chaos), the surprising motivational impact of gamified mastery markers (smiley faces and fist pumps), and what changed when he temporarily hid percentage grades—only to see retakes drop as soon as the numbers returned. Along the way, Gabriel connects alternative grading to Building Thinking Classrooms, shares how Open Middle tasks improved assessment quality (without punishing reading comprehension), and reflects on why meaningful grading reform takes time, iteration, and community…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sharona Krinsky, Robert Bosley

Guest: Gabriel Despatie

Topics covered

• standards-based grading
• gamification
• mastery learning
• assessment reform
• student motivation

Keywords

• grade 7 math
• gamified mastery
• learning carnival
• assessment
• retakes

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Building Thinking Classrooms, Modifying Your Thinking Classroom for Different Settings

Places: Ontario

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