Excellence in Education: Less Time Grading
Unarguably, feedback, whether it’s positive reinforcement, areas for improvement, or clarifying learning goals, is one of the most important things we do to advance student learning.
About halfway through my teaching career, I came to the realization that I was spending far too much time grading. It wasn’t that I hated grading--I actually enjoyed leaving comments using a wide variety of colored pens to differentiate. But, I realized that most of my work went for naught. Despite my best efforts, the feedback was rarely timely and even more infrequently was it acted upon.
I made it a goal to improve my feedback through other means. Here are some of my favorites:
- More frequent quizzes with students grading their own quizzes.
- Increased student self-evaluation through rubrics, self-analysis, etc.
- One-to-one conferences with students
- Peer feedback on concepts, graphic organizers, definitions and other assignments
- Color-coded feedback (OK, I couldn’t give up my coloring, but it became more efficient)
- Three-step rubrics for longer, written assignments
More Formative Assessment
- Increased use of mini-whiteboards
- Improved questioning strategies
The impetus to my change was based mostly on my frustration at spending hours grading and commenting with little bang for the buck, I discovered that increasing the student’s role in self-assessing and providing feedback led to increased student responsibility. Frequent self-checking and correcting, led to less errors and greater student buy-in and I was able to focus more of my time and energy on improving my teaching.
Need To Knows
Leaving your classroom: If you and your students leave your classroom, please post a note on your door stating where you will be and notify the following people: Nurse Tomlin (ttomlin), Tiffany Daniels (tdaniels), Kate Melvin (kmelvin), Miriah Dudley (mdudley) and Cynthia Serrano (cserrano).
Substitutes: As you create your substitute plans, please be sure to provide them with information regarding student accommodations (health plans, SBIT, 504s, IEPs). Please be sure to turn your emergency lesson plans into Kate.
Useful Links
Technology / Website Permission Request Form Please use this form to request use of a website or any resource that requires student log-in if the site is not already on the approved list. DART approved list
Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm Please be sure to have announcements cued and ready to go at 8:55 every morning.
Announcement Request: http://tinyurl.com/requestannouncement
Birthdays
October 10: Michael Remchuk
October 12: Jo Ann Harris
Shout Out
Congratulations to Rolf Mann who received a commendation from College Board for his excellent work as an AP Test Grader.
Calendar and Memo Items
October 10: Sip and SIOP Training (see Ms. Timms or Ms. Pryor for details)
October 11: PSATs
October 12: Faculty Meeting (AM Only) and PD Follow-Up Due -- your PLC should create a student watch list and document your plans using this form
October 12: Senior AVID Trip*
October 12: Music Concert at 7pm
October 13: Art Field Trip*
October 19: Hearing/Visual Screening for 10th graders
*Please see Monticello Shared Calendar for list of field trip students
PSAT Schedule
October 11
There will be NO AM Bells
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“0” Period (7:40 – 8:40)
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1st Period
8:55-11:05
*10:30: Senior Meeting in Auditorium
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2nd Period
11:10-1:30
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3rd Period
1:35-2:40
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4th Period
2:45-3:50
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12th grade AM CATEC Students go to CATEC at Normal Time
PM CATEC Students will leave at 1:30
Friday, October 13 Schedule
A-Day
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“0” Period (7:40 – 8:40)
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1st Period
8:55-10:15
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Club Period
10:20-10:55
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2nd Period
11:00-1:00
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3rd Period
1:05-2:25
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4th Period
2:30-3:50
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Worth Your Time
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