Three ways to improve your grading and commenting

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Three ways to improve your grading and
commenting

• Choose your battles (about what you assign)
• Get good papers (good papers are easier to grade)
• Wendys tips on actually commenting and grading

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1. Choose Your Battles

• We assign, students write. And our chickens come
  home to roost. We mark the papers we assign. --
  Ann Raimes
• If you have 6 papers (two drafts each), four
  tests, one midterm and one final, not to mention
  five reports, you are torturing yourself and your
  students.
• ?Meeting outcomes will be replaced with frenzied
  hoop-jumping.
• Many students would love it if we commented on,
  graded, and counted everything they do for a
  class. This is not possible if you want to
  retain your sanity. It also creates a kind of
  learned dependence. Instead,
• Cultivate independent self-assessment.
• Encourage study groups show them how to use
  them effectively
• Choose what you will comment on.

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2. Get good papersBad papers (or exams) are
like Dementors (from Harry Potter)They suck the
life force from you and take a lot more time and
make you wonder why you went into teaching.

• Three ways to get better papers
• Create a good assignment
• Interview peer response (you must sacrifice one
  class session -- 50 minutes -- but its worth
  it.)
• Small (ungraded, uncommented on by you)
  writing-to-learn exercises as a daily/weekly part
  of your lesson. (Occasionally sacrifice 5-10
  minutes of lecture time)
• Ill send you links on these things.

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3. Actually Commenting/Grading

• Use a rubric
• Have students do a self-assessment
• Dont get sucked into Dementor papers.
• General tips on commenting
• ?More is not better ?Choose your
  battles (Ill send you a full list of other
  tips)

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Helpful links

• Use interview peer response  (a model of what to
  do)
• http//flightline.highline.edu/wac/interview_peer
  _response.htm
• Use writing-to-learn activities
• http//flightline.highline.edu/wac/writtolearn/wr
  itingtolearn.htm
• Rubrics
• Commenting Tips http//flightline.highline.edu/wa
  c/responding/commentingtips.htm