Grading Student Work: How to Do More in Less Time

Should interest and engagement be measured?

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Have you felt the guilt? C’mon, you know the feeling, I certainly have had it. It is the torment from those neglected assignments that sit on your desk far too long only to be shoved in a folder and hidden in drawer to be further avoided. If you are like me, you eventually come to your senses and realize that there is no escaping the grading, and while you hate yourself for procrastinating all along you never take that step to stop it the next time.

This week I collected 78 essays from my AP Literature students. Two and three page responses that asked them to connect How to Read Literature Like a Professor with 1984. Along with those 200-or-so pages of essays, each student completed a multi-page project. It is self-inflicted torture.

In the past the sheer volume of that paper load would intimidate me. Like the dishes, no matter how much progress I made, I knew there would be more tomorrow. But that’s in the past. This year I have resolved to achieve a better balance. Already I’m seeing dividends. Assignments are being returned at a quicker rate. I’m repeating mantras that are keeping me on track. And I’ve found a practice that is saving time while building better writers.

Here are three tips on managing the paper load.

1. Break the work into manageable chunks

It is a humbling truth that sometimes the simplest logic is the easiest to ignore. With grading, I couldn’t see the trees, my eyes were fixed on the vastness of the forest. Rather than tackle it, I’d ignore it, allowing the work to pile. Now I divide and conquer. This is accomplished by setting small goals, with mantras to guide me like “one class per day,”  or “15 papers per prep period.” I repeat them in my mind and it is helping me to stay focused. In fact, those summer reading essays, which normally would have taken me over a week to return, were in the students’ hands three days later because I set a goal of one class set per day.

2. Say it loud, say it proud

This year I purchased a hanging file folder, which is on full display in the front of the classroom. There is no hiding from the grading now. In the past I would binder-clip their work and stuff it in my work bag, out of sight, out of mind. Now, the students can see the progress and hold me accountable when there is inertia.  Not only can they see it, I tell them when the work will be returned, setting a realistic deadline and inviting them to hold me accountable in the process.  While a mantra can dissolve quickly, a promise to a student is harder to break.

3. Converse rather than comment

I’ve saved the best for last. Don’t gasp but… I don’t comment. No notes scribbled on the side, no words of critique at the end. Ask yourself, can you really develop a writer in the margins of a paper? Perhaps, but most students read them once and never act upon them. I’ve found a better way to do it. I build relationships.

I allow students to rewrite their essays as long as they conference with me. The irony of it all is that these conferences are probably more time consuming than the comments but their impact is exponentially more enduring. We sit, we talk about the strengths of the writing, we look for weaknesses. We strategize how to articulate ideas, we look for more substantial support for topic sentences, we address grammatical issues. It takes time, sure, but it is time worth spending.

 YA author Laurie Halse Anderson once told me that her novels go through seven to nine rewrites, her final draft differing vastly from the first version. She can’t fathom why students are given once chance to get it right because, in her opinion, writers are made through the rewriting process.

So there you have it. Three ways that have me focused on the grading, inviting students along for accountability, and building relationships all the while.