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Good evening all, I was hoping maybe I could you ideas on a couple issues I am having. I am a fairly new teacher, so this is something I struggle with. 1. I am being swamped with grading. I do not have a lot of time for grading, but I do not want a lot of gimme grades that have no real muster as to how the student is doing. I don't mind a lot of these in my regular biology, but in my PreAP and especially my AP I want their grade to truely reflect their understanding and learning. We use Interactive Science Notebooking, so a lot of the assignments are done in there, so that also causes a problem when trying to grade work on more than just a completion level. Any suggestions on how to lower my grading amount, but still make the feedback worthy of the time. 2. This is the first year I have started to truely stress about not matching my coworkers grades. Basically, it has been stressed by our admin and my coworker that everything that she takes a grade on, she needs to as well and visa versa. This is not huge issue, until I start to get behind. When that happened in previous years, I would be more selective on what I graded, but now I don't feel like I can. Any suggestions on getting around this? Thanks for any of your suggestions, Patrick

Hi Patrick, I agree with Tina - a generic rubric might be helpful for the homework assignments. Something that is more like a checklist of expected elements to show completion. That way, you are acknowledging that they bothered to do the assignment without stressing over what they may or may not know or whether they did the homework themselves or had help. I find that in-class "checking for understanding" questions are more informative for determining if students are 'getting it' on a daily basis. I believe you said you use some sort of interactive notebook. Is it possible to incorporate a generic rubric for each of those homework assignments to make it easier to go through the assessing of student work? Another option is choosing one specific element that you are looking for in each assignment. For example, one day you may look to see if students were able to demonstrate understanding of a concept using a diagram. The students don't have to know exactly what you will be checking for each time. They do the whole assignment, but they find out after the fact what part of the assignment you are honing in on. Then you go through each assignment grading and providing feedback on that ONE element. They get valuable feedback for that specific item, you aren't trying to grade EVERYTHING, they have to do EVERYTHING because they don't know ahead of time what you will be picking out, and so you save valuable time as you grade each assignment. Just a thought. I hope others will provide their suggestions as well! Carolyn

I'm not sure how much time you have in your day. One thing I'm trying as part of my graduate research are Homework discussion groups in my chemistry classes. The day an assignment is due, the students get into their groups, I put the answers to the homework questions up on the board and they check their answers, and discuss the ones that they get wrong, help eachother figure out what mistakes they made etc. They then give their group members a grade according to the rubric that I gave them (attached). There are 3 categories: Homework completion(did they have the assignment done)(10pts); Ability to explain problems/responses to questions (5pts); and participation in group discussion (5pts) I then have my TA average their scores and they get the average of their group members score as their assignment for the grade. The problem with this is of course honesty in grading. To combat that I do a couple of things. As they discuss the groups I walk around and check to see if they have the assignment done. I then verify that their group members gave them 0/10 on that portion...if they haven't I discuss that with the group. Also I don't have them assign the grade until they've gone back to their original seats, so they don't have the pressure of the group members watching. I also have them grade themselves (i'm amazed at how honest they are.). While I think it helps them to discuss the assignment together it has made grading much easier on me as well.

Attachments

HW_Grading_Rubric.doc (0.04 Mb)

HW_Grading_Sheets.docx (0.13 Mb)

I use online homework sites. I use WebAssign for AP Physics C, MasteringPhysics for regular physics, and MasteringAstronomy for my astronomy class. I choose to have each assignment due at 8am on the day the students have my class. It gives me an easy way of knowing who did the assignment or not without having to walk around the room or collect papers from them, and I can also check online to see how much time they spent on the assignment. It isn't perfect, but it has helped class discussions compared to previous years when I collected homework the traditional way. Either way, traditional or now online, I still go over the homework in class on the day it was due. When reviewing the homework, I always call on students to help me solve the problem, so that is how I really check for understanding. I grade it based on whether they attempted it or not (late work receives NO credit). If they spent far too little time on the assignment, then they will only receive partial credit. I look at homework as a study tool for the students. If they take it seriously and attempt the problems, they will know what their strengths and weaknesses are and therefore be better prepared for class discussions and the tests. It only takes a few minutes to look at the statistics online and transfer points into my grade book.
These sites also help cut down on students copying answers because at least some the problems will generate new numbers for each student. The students can still ask a friend HOW to do the problem, but this way they can’t just ask for the answer. Again, that has helped my students realize that they can help each other learn.

I'm also struggling with keeping up with grading! There are three things that I have implemented this year that have really helped keep myself in check. One genius move that I picked up from an amazing teacher here in Chicago is to make a stamp of a generic rubric. I use the 4(above and beyond)-3(complete and correct)-2(incomplete)-1(incorrect science) generic rubric that comes with the FOSS curriculum (even with my 6th graders who use SEPUP) for most things, including their science journals. For $10, you can [b]buy a simple, customized address stamp[/b], but instead of writing your address, write the general rubric. We go over the generic rubric at the beginning of the year and practice writing responses at each level, so the students understand the prerequisites for receiving a 4, 3, 2, or 1. Then, I am able to just stamp, circle the score that they earned on that assignment, write a comment or two if necessary, and move on. It's the most wonderful time (and paper) saver! With my six sections, I also think it's important to give students feedback on their progress as frequently as possible. One trick that I've discovered is doing a [b]very quick quiz every Friday[/b]. The quizzes only have 2-5 questions, are a combination of multiple choice and short response, and only take up a half sheet of paper. I carefully select the questions to give me the best idea of where students are in their understanding. Since the quiz is short and sweet, it doesn't take me more than a minute or two to grade each one. These quizzes have been my savior! I get a small grade in every week, I get an idea of where my students are in their learning, and I'm able to get them feedback at a reasonable rate. The last issue that I have is with procrastination (as Tina mentioned above!). I have started [b]grading 15 minutes every single evening[/b]. I put on a timer and I get my 15 minutes done, no matter what. I figure that I can do [i]anything[/i] for 15 minutes (including going through a stack of some of the most dismal student work). I can stop at 15 minutes, or I can keep going, but I at least I get 15 minutes of work out of the way! Hope this helps!