Tips for Teachers to Save Time on Grading

Of course, assessment is one of the most important aspects of our jobs as teachers. So, it’s unsurprising that it takes up so much of our time.

Studies show that feedback has the most impact on students when it is delivered quickly, so we want to avoid spending several days, or even weeks, getting work back to students. That can be a lot easier said than done when we have many students and want to ensure our assessments and feedback are meaningful.

Thankfully, there are several strategies that teachers can use to save time when grading. Here are some of my favourites.

USE CHECKLISTS

I find it super useful to use checklists when grading a bunch of assignments, especially writing assignments.

You just need to create simple checklists for items you’re grading that you can use for each student. For example, if you’re grading a paragraph, add checkboxes for each item you want students to include (such as intro sentence, argument, example, proper grammar, and so on).

Include space for you to leave comments when necessary. Now, just print a bunch and you have a list to use for each student’s work.

This is great for formative assessment as it’s less intensive as a summative rubric.

INCORPORATE SELF-ASSESSMENT

Whenever possible, have your students self assess. This is helpful for quite a few reasons.

Research has shown that most students simply look at their grade and don’t actually read, acknowledge, or otherwise intake feedback. Obviously, we know that this is not beneficial for their growth as learners.

Teaching your students how to self assess and improve their work will not only save you time grading all of their work individually and providing feedback, it will also teach them the skills they need to know to improve on their own.

Do this as a whole class by breaking down what students need to self assess.

For example, if you’re teaching writing, discuss as a class what a proper sentence looks like. Go through that it needs a capital letter, proper punctuation, descriptive words, and so on. Give the class examples of good sentences and sentences that need improvement. Then, give them the chance to assess their own work for sentences that need improvement.

After this is done, go through how to to an introduction sentence. Go through each step detail by detail and walk students through steps. Continue this for all the things you’d like your students to focus on. Of course, don’t do too much at once or you’ll overwhelm them.

After they’ve practiced enough times, you’ll be able to simply give them a self assessment checklist and they’ll know how to check for grammar, spelling, and so on.

HAVE STUDENTS PEER EDIT

Like self assessment, teaching your students to peer edit is a great way to have them become more self reflective.

Additionally, it teaches them how to effectively and kindly provide feedback to peers. So, not only will it improve their work and their peer’s work, it will help them become better communicators.

Having your students peer edit can save you time on grading quite simply because it gives students the opportunity to provide feedback to one another. This can help students to identify and address errors and areas for improvement in their work without you having to do it.

Of course, you need to supervise and ensure they know what they are doing. This will take some front-loading work, but is worth it in the long run. By having students take the time to read and provide feedback to one another, it can help them to recognize what you are looking for specifically and how to improve those things in their own work.

This can lead to fewer mistakes when submitting their completed work, which in turn can save you time on grading.

USE TECHNOLOGY

There are a lot of online or digital tools that can automate grading and provide instant feedback to your students. These tools can help you to keep track of student progress without having tons of binders and paper clutter. You can also easily identify areas in which your students may need additional support.

Using technology can save time on grading because it allows you to quickly assess student work. Technology such as online quizzes and tests can grade student work automatically, eliminating the need for you to manually grade each of your student’s work. If you don’t have a district site, Google Forms is easy and free. It’s by far my favourite platform.

Additionally, technology can be used to easily track, store, and organize student grades, making it easier to keep track of student progress. I use Google Sheets for my student assessment. It allows me to easily see where students are at and colour code areas of need. For outcomes of equal value, I also format the cells to find the mean and calculate term grades, which is very convenient.

STREAMLINE THE GRADING PROCESS

Personally, I find that the best thing I do for each assignment is to create a rubric that clearly defines expectations. It seems obvious, but when you use this to grade assignments, you begin to move quicker and quicker. Additionally, for similar assignments, the same or a very similar rubric can be used, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Using strong rubrics helps both you and the students know expectations and helps you grade consistently and efficiently.

Additionally, you can also use short-answer or multiple-choice questions to quickly grade assignments. This is much quicker than answering long answer or essay questions, and if you’re able to assess the outcome either way, make it easier on you and the students by shortening what they have to write and you have to read.

You may also consider streamlining the grading process by eliminating the need to grade each student’s individual assignment separately. Instead, you can use automated grading systems to quickly grade multiple assignments at once, eliminating the need to manually grade each one. For example, as I mentioned above, Google Forms can grade quizzes for you. Or, ZipGrade will let you create scantron-like tests.

USE A SINGLE POINT RUBRIC

A step above a checklist, a single point rubric is an excellent way to grade and provide feedback to your students on what they have done well and what they still need to work on.

Using a single point rubric can save you time on grading because it allows you to quickly assign points to each student’s work based on a predetermined set of criteria. I also find that writing and using a single-point rubric is much quicker than a traditional one. Further, it gives you more flexibility to use your professional judgement to assign grades and provide feedback.

With a single point rubric, the criteria for each task is established so you don’t need to spend time deciding how to grade each individual task. Instead, you can simply assign points based on the given criteria.

SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

If, for some crazy reason, you are choosing not to have a rubric and not sharing it with your students beforehand, ensure that you are including very clear and explicit expectation. By providing clear instructions and guidelines for assignments, you will reduce the need for extensive feedback and clarifications. This will ultimately save you time in the grading process.

Setting clear expectations will save you time on grading because it allows you to quickly identify what aspects of a student’s work are meeting the requirements and which are not.

This will inevitably eliminate the need for you to spend time trying to determine what was meant by the student or to determine the level of quality that is expected. It will also allow the you to quickly assess the student’s work and move on to the next task, rather than having to spend time trying to understand what their intentions were.

Finally, it allows you to focus more on providing helpful feedback to the student, rather than on determining whether or not the work meets the expectations.

USE POST-IT NOTES

This is an interesting tactic I’ve known a few teachers to use. I have not personally used this tactic, but I’ve had some coworkers who will print out onto post-it’s mini-rubrics or checklists. Then, they will stick the post-its to students work and can easily provide quick feedback and a grade.

If you don’t want to use the printer, post-its can still be helpful. Instead of writing down long comments on a student’s paper, you can use post-it notes to quickly make notes or provide feedback.

For example, if a student has made an error, you can quickly write down the correction on a post-it note and stick it to the paper. This way, you can quickly review the paper and make corrections without having to write out long comments.

GRADE AS YOU GO

Rather than waiting until the end of the term to grade all assignments, ensure that you grade assignments as they come in. This will significantly reduce the amount of work you need to do later and hep avoid burnout.

Additionally, when students receive work back far later than it was handed in, the feedback becomes far less impactful and isn’t nearly as beneficial for their academic growth.

Grading as you go will save time on grading in the long run by allowing you to identify and address any areas of student misunderstanding or confusion during the learning process. This will help prevent the need for more extensive grading at the end of a unit or course, as you’ll be providing feedback and guidance in real-time as students are learning.

By doing this, you can more quickly identify which areas of instruction need additional focus and help ensure that your students are making progress at a faster rate.

Additionally, grading as you go can help reduce the amount of time overall that you spend on grading as you can focus on providing more personalized feedback as students work on their assignments.

ENCOURAGE SELF-REFLECTION

Encouraging your students to reflect on their own work can reduce the need for you to provide extensive formal feedback. By having students reflect on their own work and identify areas for improvement, you can save time while still providing meaningful feedback.

When students self-reflect, they take the time to consider their own performance and progress. This allows them to catch their own mistakes and understand areas where they may need to improve.

This can save you time on grading because you will no longer need to spend time pointing out mistakes, as your students will have already done that.

Self-reflection also encourages students to be more engaged with their own learning, as they can see the progress they are making and where they may need to focus more effort. Therefore, this can also help you to pinpoint any areas of difficulty a student may be having in a subject and can allow you to provide targeted support to those students who need it.

MEET WITH STUDENTS DURING CLASS TIME

Much like grading as you go, don’t save up all your grading for the evenings and weekends! Meeting with your students during class time can save you time on grading in a number of ways.

First, it will allow you to immediately address questions or issues that may arise with a student’s work. This can save time in the long run by allowing you to quickly explain a concept or provide feedback on a project as it is being completed.

Additionally, it allows you to assess a student’s understanding in real time, so that you can quickly intervene if needed and, if many students are confused or do not understand a concept, you can modify the lesson plan if necessary.

Finally, meeting with students during class time can save you time on grading by allowing for more efficient grading of projects and tests. During a student meeting, you can ask specific questions about the content in order to more easily assess the student’s understanding, and you can provide feedback that is tailored to that individual student’s needs. This can make the grading process faster and more efficient, and can help ensure that the student has a better understanding of the material.

USE THE 80/20 RULE

Focus on grading the most important assignments and providing feedback on areas that are essential for student learning, rather than grading every assignment and providing detailed feedback on every aspect of the work. Grading everything is a waste of your time and, when everything is important, nothing is important.

Instead, use the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto principle). The rule states that 80% of results come from 20% of the effort. This means that by focusing on the 20% that yields the most results, you can save time and energy on grading.

For example, rather than grading every single assignment and test, you can focus on the top 20% of assignments and tests that will have the biggest impact on their students’ overall grades. Those other assignments are formative assessment which will help inform you and students without needing to be formally graded.

This will allow you to save time and energy on grading, while still ensuring that their students are receiving the feedback they need to improve.

COLLABORATE WITH COLLEAGUES

Sharing resources and grading responsibilities with your colleagues can reduce the overall workload for you as well as for them. Of course, this will allow you to spend more time on other tasks.

Collaborating with colleagues on grading can be a great time saver for teachers. By sharing the workload and discussing strategies together, you can more quickly and accurately assess your students’ work.

For example, by using a rubric or checklist which is agreed upon by you and your coworkers, grading can be done more quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, you can provide feedback and support to one other when assessing student work, which can help to reduce the time and effort needed to complete the grading.

Lastly, by collaborating with your colleagues, you can learn from one another and create a more consistent approach to grading across your school or district.

Overall, by implementing these strategies, you can save time in the grading process and focus on other important aspects of teaching. What do you think? Did I miss anything you find works well for you or your coworkers?

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