While I'm just getting this blog up and running after eight years away, I did write a guest post last year on Voces Digital's blog. I wrote it nearly a year ago exactly: that time of year when teachers are in the THICK of it. If you find yourself drowning in grading, this one is for you! Help! I'm Drowning in Grading Already (First published September 29, 2022 on www.vocesdigital.com/blog.php) At this point, we’ve survived the back-to-school whirlwind. We’ve got a few lessons under our belts and have learned our students’ names. But a harsh new reality is setting in: we have papers to grade. Ungraded work is a common source of stress for most teachers. We know feedback is necessary. Students need it in order to improve their skills, but they can only benefit from it if it's given within a reasonable timeframe and presented in a thoughtful manner. If we’re lucky, we might have a few automated tools up our sleeves that can save us time, but many assignments require our real, live, human insight—and that takes effort. So how can we avoid sacrificing our precious personal time in order to meet the demands of our jobs? After all, we’re only a month or two into school and still have many more months to go before the blissful freedom of summer hits. While there’s no magic pill for burnout, there are some practices that can help make grading papers a more manageable task. Let's examine a few. Pairwork - Turn 30 projects into 10 or 15 by putting your students into small groups or pairs. Nothing will slash your workload faster than reducing the total number of papers you need to grade. Top Five Errors - Instead of meticulously grading every student’s assignment, scan through all of the submissions and find a few mistakes that stand out. As part of your next lesson, compliment your students on their collective work so that they know you’ve taken the time to look at it. Then point out the “Top Five Errors” you noticed. Students can take notes or review their own papers as you go over these highlights. Spot Check - Tell students that you are going to focus on one or two responses rather than reviewing all of their work. For instance, instead of listening to every single recording on an Interpersonal Speaking task, pick one or two audio tracks and listen to them intently. Give your students a heads-up that you’ll be approaching their work in this way. Your feedback will be focused and your time will be saved. Catch Up Day! - Give your students a chance to make progress on various personal tasks. This tip is from an article called “20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half” by Jennifer Gonzalez. Gonzalez writes: "You don’t have to take a sick day or show movies in class to get caught up. If your administration will allow it, plan a 'catch-up day' with your students. Let them know you need some down time to get caught up on grading, and have them organize their binders, sort out the files on their tablets or laptops, catch up on make-up work, do homework, or read or write silently. You can give them a participation grade if that helps keep them quiet!" While I’ve yet to try this piece of advice, I like what Gonzalez has to say here. She's centered her approach on helping everyone—students and teachers alike—maintain a healthy work-life balance. They Grade It - Involve your students in the grading process. Nothing is worse than spending time grading student work, only to watch students give it a passing glance before shoving it into their bags-or worse, into the recycling bin. Special correcting pens can make the process more fun, especially for younger students. Those are my go-to's. I have one more hack for grading in mind, but it's a bit of a pipe dream. I dream of having a personal assistant who does all my grading, plus manages my email inbox and Google Drive -- that would be amazing.
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