simplifying your life

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2003 : February : 17

simplifying your life
By Carolyn

I think it is a common problem that I have heard teachers complain about. I am currently mentoring a fourth grade teacher who has a good-size of about 25 students, and she was nearly pulling her hair out with the correcting.
What I do:
1. Homework is corrected by the students at the beginning of each class. Math homework, for example, starts our math class. Students have been instructed to correct their own papers, including the mistakes they make. I check off who does and who doesn't have the homework finished as I circulate around the room when kids are giving me the correct answers or we are putting

the problems on the board. The kids know that when I check off their assignments in my book they will receive an check for the day, which when I go to do grades translates into a 100. They also know that if they don't do it, they get a 0, and if they do not finish all of it, they get an I.

2. To make sorting easier, I have a bin for each of my four rows. When we have finished correcting work, I have the kids at the end of each row place their row's work into the basket. That saves me time when I go to look at their work.

3. I only grade tests, quizzes, and projects. Everything else I just glance at and assign a grade of E, S, I, or N. My students know that I will look at their classwork and homework and that it's important to me, but that they are supposed to check both classwork and homework themselves.

4. I make it a point to collect EVERYTHING that the kids do so that they will take it seriously. However, I throw about half of what they do into the trash can and send home the rest on Wednesdays in a take-home folder. I collect stuff that I would expect the kids to throw away. I know from experience that any papers you let kids keep they will either throw away or allow to accumulate inside of their notebook, desk, or cubby. Mainly, I collect all of their work to keep them from being trashy, although they don't know that.

5. Grading English writing pieces is a daunting task, I know. I save myself time by setting up a grading rubric in advance to determine what's important for the kids to be able to do before they complete the writing task. The rubric takes time to create, but you can save it, and it saves time in the long run. Parents can hardly argue with a rubric, since it is an objective analysis. I don't edit the students' work. I have them do that themselves, and I tell them that I will take off five points for every spelling or other mistake in editing. This encourages them to take more time to look over their own work and use a dictionary. I also have the kids check each others' work.