Paper load

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Paper load
By Debbie

Hi all,
A couple of things might help...one, don't feel you have to grade EVERYTHING. Toss some in the 'circular file', like the homework that was supervised by the child's parent. Two, get a trusted parent or volunteer
to grade some of the less significant stuff-spelling, etc. Three, try a plus, check, minus system for assignments that don't need an exact grade. The plus is above the average, check is average and minus needs additional help.
Try a rotating schedule, each day take one fifth of your kids' stuff home, perhaps 6 kids a night. All their work in progress goes in a two pocket folder,

which is easily transported home at night. This gives you a better perspective about each child, rather than the subjects.
There are many different ways students can show they've mastered something. If you're wanting to move away from the worksheets, there are some great reading/writing/spelling assessment tools out there. If you use them on an ongoing basis, they'll give you much better information to use to actually plan next steps as readers, writers, and mathematicians...without the paperload.
Each night I take home 6 students' writer's notebooks, draft writing, reader's response notebook, math and science log. Plus any current Developmental Reading Assessments/running records/retellings I've recently completed. Best of luck...please ask if you'd like additional information. Let us know how it's going. ;-D