So I wanted to get on my favorite soap box today! People ask me all the time: "how do you not grade at home?, how do you never have piles of stuff to grade?, what do you do with all the papers? how do you get grades?" I am here to answer these questions! First off, I NEVER take anything home with me. My first year teaching I remember spreading tons of papers on the floor and grading for hours. Nope. Not anymore.
How do I do this? Well, first of all, I limit the actual worksheets that I give the kiddos. There are so many options for formative assessment where I can simply walk around and jot their grade on paper, in my grade book, etc. For example, if the kids are working on a math concept, I can have them hold up whiteboards and instantly see who's "got it" and who doesn't. I also use a lot of exit tickets where they only answer a few questions. Sometimes, I even grade these right in front of them, circle the ones they got wrong and then they go back and correct. This process takes about 10 minutes to get through the whole class and voila! grades for the that are done if you jot them down as you go. Sometimes I use the workbook pages but, who says they have to do the whole page? I choose a few key problems to show their skills and then I only grade those. BAM! Time cut in half and the students aren't sitting there all day doing a workbook page. So, in short, make your formative assessments nice and... short.
Another key to my grading process.... this one is top secret.... I.... throw..... things..... away. Sometimes, I can give grades based on what I see in class and anecdotal notes. I do NOT need to grade a math page every. single. stinking. day. That is crazy. If I don't grade it in at least 2 days, it gets thrown out. Formative assessments are supposed to be used to inform your instruction. If you don't grade quickly, you cannot possibly be using that to inform your practice. So, if it doesn't get graded right away, it doesn't get graded at all.
Lastly, homework. I do not grade homework. I check for completion and look at one or two questions to make sure they didn't write "booger" for every answer. This saves a ton of time and I cannot imagine sitting and grading homework every day. In my opinion, I could be doing much more amazing things for my students with that time.
That's it. The end. Now, go spend your time not grading!
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