Thursday, October 23, 2014
Grading
We're getting into the time in the semester where my mentor is involving us in grading. Grading has to be my least favorite part of teaching. I like reading students' papers. I'm always excited to see what they have done with the topics they have been working on. I think what I don't like about grading is the fact that I don't feel like I can spend as much time as I would like on each paper. I just don't have the time,, especially if I want to get them back in a decent amount of time. That means that I have to focus on what I believe are the most important or most helpful things. This gets frustrating because I want to talk about everything and I know that I can't. The other problem is trying to write my feedback in a way that the student will understand. With freshmen it's difficult to know whether or not they will know what I'm talking about. Hopefully, over time it will get a little better.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Though I've only graded one set of papers, I totally see what you're describing haooenning to me in the near future. I feel like one way to perhaps remedy this would be to only cover three things maximum in each paper- or something similar. Yeah?
ReplyDeleteDid you have a rubric? if you did not? What is different between 85 and 87 or 90 and 88?
ReplyDeleteI've graded one set and it was like 90,95,80, 85......
It was not clear to me without a rubric....
Grading is my least favorite aspect of this gig, as well. Beyond the time that is consumed in grading (I try to spend 20 minutes on each paper), I feel that some of my feedback goes unnoticed by students. I have found that requiring revisions and re-submission has made students take note of my feedback and have to do something with it to polish their work. I re-grade their second submissions, so it's like twice the work, but I feel that it is important for freshmen writers to understand the value in feedback.
ReplyDeleteOn a slightly dreamier note, grading algorithm programs are really fascinating to read about. Maybe one day we'll just be required to teach, actually facilitating learning, and use our values to adjust the algorithm programs to do the grading for us. I am grading a batch of essays right now, so I am living in this fantasy world where this could be possible! :)
I think what Hongtaek said is important. Using a rubric not only helps define what a grade is, but it helps you stick to certain criteria, without wanting to mark up the whole paper with everything you want to say.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with this too. I've been told it should only take 10 minutes to grade a five page essay. Well, I haven't figured out how to do that. I usually set a time for ten minutes for holistic grading, then set it for five for mechanical issues. However, more often than not, I'm still grading after the alarm goes off. It you figure it out, let me know.
ReplyDeleteI just wrote about grading too. I think that grading is a difficult thing to do. Are you doing it objectively? Are you doing it in a timely manner? What is the most efficient and effective way to grade? I think the short answer is: Nobody knows! Everyone does things differently, but I think if you're fair to yourself--while also being critical of yourself--there are ways around these questions.
ReplyDelete