Monday, October 30, 2017

5 Tips for Grading Faster

Where's My Clean Desk?
This was my desk at the beginning of the year. Cleaned off, everything done and in its place.



And this is it now. 



The pile of things to do and grade is taking over. I feel a bit guilty, but I just left it on Friday. I have too much home and family things to do this weekend to spend countless hours trying to get caught up. 

I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m drowning in paperwork and grading at this time of the year! No matter what year it is, where I am teaching, or what my class personality is, October and November always seem to have this constant stress of too much to do. 

Do you feel this way too? I’m revisiting my grading time savors list to help streamline my work, and I thought something here might be useful for you, too.  Check out the link below for other time saving products in my TpT store!


1.      Don't grade too much! 

The assessments you choose should reflect what the students have been learning and practicing.  It shouldn’t be a stack of everything they have done. Being a little more “picky” about what you include in your grade book should save you some time!


2.      Use an assessment for multiple things.

Ask yourself, “Can I assess more than one area with this assessment?” Maybe you have a spelling test and you have your students use their words in writing. Take 2 scores from this test – one for spelling/word work and one for writing.  Maybe you have your students write how a certain person in social studies contributed to society. Use that score for social studies and for language arts.  Does your math test on multiplication assess the student’s ability to use multiplication in real-world problems? Take 2 math scores (math computation and math reasoning). This way, you’re not grading separate papers. Big time savor!


3.      Grade in batches

This was a HUGE game changer for me!  Instead of grading Brandon’s science test, then Macey’s, then Marcus’s, now I grade page 1 of everyone’s test, then go to page 2 of everyone’s test and so forth. Grading the same thing in smaller chunks actually uses your short-term memory to recognize correct answers quicker. I can quickly breeze through a page of multiple choice questions, remembering the sequence of the answers, making grading go faster.


4.      Keep your answers on the left side of the page.

If you create your own tests/assessments, try to keep your students’ responses all on the left side of the paper.  Even if you give your students space to work out their math problems right where the problem is on the page, have your students place their final answers in a column on the left. This lets you grade quickly, letting your eyes run down a single column for answers. If you need to check the details of a problem, it’s still there, but your eyes don’t get hung up with searching for the answer.


5.      Self-checking assignments

Not all assignments can be checked by the students, nor should all of them be set up this way. But there are benefits for having students check their own work at times. Students have immediate feedback on their work. They can learn from their mistakes, and take time to look at their work to see what they got wrong. I know when I pass papers back to my students, most of them look at the grade at the top of the page and shove the papers in a folder to take home (if we’re that lucky). Checking things in class forces students to notice specifics about their incorrect answers, as well as gives them a chance to ask questions or see the correct response. Scoring things in class also saves you the time to have to go through everyone’s paper.

I self-check as much as possible in class.  I have to train my students how to do this, though. My rules are (1) pencils away, (2) checking pens out, (3) write a question mark next to something that you’re not sure of, and (4) write how many you missed at the top and CIRCLE IT.

Sometimes I have an assignment where students check their work with an answer key. It is sometimes as simple as completing a page of math problems and checking with my teacher’s manual that I lay out on a table (or the corner of my desk) for them to use. It’s easiest to make a few copies of the answer key and place them in different areas around the room. This way, more students can check at the same time. My rule with these is that if they have an incorrect answer, they must circle the problem number that is wrong and go rework the problem. They are not allowed to just copy the right answer and say it’s done. This kind of self-checking is best for review or practice pages. They are not going in the grade book, but intended to give more time and practice with a particular skill.

I hope these time saving tips help you streamline your work so you can enjoy life outside of your classroom!  I know I’m definitely going to focus more on these this coming quarter, too!

Here are some great time saving helps that you may be interested in from The Owl Spot!




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