5 Tips to Help You Stay on Top of Your Grading
Grading is kind of like the laundry of teaching! It’s never ending and no one really likes to do it! When I was in college, I would love to grade papers for the teachers I was working with…now I’d probably pay someone to do it! Do any high school/college kids out there need a little side job?! #notkidding
Here are a few tips I’ve picked up over my years of teaching. They may not be revolutionary…but we’re talking about grading and let’s be honest…this is not a fun topic!
1. Grade As You Go
One thing to help keep on top of your grading is to grade as students turn in their work. Now sometimes, this is impossible because you may be working with students or administering orally depending on accommodations. But if you can, grade the assignment as soon as the student turns in the work. This allows you and the student to see immediately how things are going.
2. Grade One Page at a Time
When grading a multi-page assignment, grade every student’s page 1 and then move on to page 2. (Especially if it’s multiple choice!) It makes grading so much quicker!
3. Don’t Grade Everything
Unless your district requires it, you do not have to grade every single thing your student does. Oftentimes, you just want to see how students are understanding a concept. This means you don’t have to formally grade an assignment in order to see their progress.
4. Do More Informal Grading
This kind of goes with the last tip. Use whiteboards to quickly assess students’ understanding of a concept instead of actually grading a whole assignment.
5. Grade Only a Couple of Questions
If you must give a written assessment, try grading only a couple of the problems. This works really well for math. If you’re just trying to see if students can add or multiple, you can tell by just grading a few problems without having to grade all of the problems on the page.
BONUS TIP: File 13
When all else fails, put those papers in File 13 (aka the recycling bin!) You can always toss them in your teaching neighbor’s bin so your students don’t see! I won’t tell! :)
Thanks