The Grading Mountain

I love most things about my job as a teacher. I love interacting with my students and fellow staff members. I love planning and presenting lessons. I love the fulfillment that comes from doing meaningful work. But one part of my job that I find difficult to enjoy is the constant mountain of grading. It’s a little like the laundry pile; it is always there for you, and it is impossible to work ahead on it. Every year when school begins, I get this sinking feeling when I start to see the papers pile up, and I find myself swamped by grading.

So, I write this as much for myself as for anyone, as I ask questions like these: What is the value of grading? Is it really necessary? How do grades aid the learning process? Could I serve my students better by spending less time on grading, thus freeing my time for other worthwhile things? How much of students’ work should get a recorded grade that ends up on their report cards?

Recorded Grades

I remember when I first became a teacher and was somewhat dismayed to realize how little grades actually meant and how limited they were in showing true learning. I had worked hard as a student, and grades were always of utmost concern to me. Suddenly I saw grades from a different perspective. When I became a student again after teaching for a number of years, sometimes I had to laugh at myself when I realized that I was focusing more on grades than on actual learning. I had to retrain my brain to focus on what was more important than recorded grades.

Over my years as a teacher, I have shifted to recording fewer grades and have spent more time focusing on having students make corrections on their work. Tests and quizzes get recorded, but most other work does not. Also, I try to emphasize real learning instead of grades. My third graders have not yet been conditioned to be highly motivated by grades, and I try to keep it that way. I want them to be motivated to learn for the sake of learning itself, not for the sake of scores on a report card.

I do realize that grades mean more when students get into upper grades and high school. Still, when contemplating whether or not to assign a grade for certain assignments, I think all teachers should be considering this: Are students only motivated by the grade they will receive on a project? At one point does assigning a grade to something actually hinder the learning process? How can we motivate students by means other than grades?

Unrecorded Evaluations

Just because I am not assigning and recording grades for much of my students’ work does not mean that it is not important for them to get feedback on that work. When I write about the grading mountain, I am thinking primarily of the daily task of checking and evaluating students’ written work and marking incorrect answers. Part of the purpose of this is to evaluate our students’ progress and to adjust our teaching accordingly. Half the class got number five wrong on the math assignment? We had better review that concept and do more practice.

I will confess that this is a big reason why I find the task of grading undesirable. I would like to teach students who always follow instructions and who get things write on the first try. When I grade students’ work, I am forced to deal with all the results of misunderstandings and unfollowed directions. I must decide whether to make a student do an assignment over and how I should adjust my teaching the next day. This is part of my job, whether I like it or not.

In the morning when my students enter the classroom, they are responsible to look at the graded papers on their desks. If anything is marked with “Make Corrections,” they are supposed to work on it right away. I try to emphasize to them the importance of evaluating their own work and learning from their mistakes. Ideally, they would always do this. Realistically, of course, this does not always happen, but I can always keep nudging them in that direction.

Keeping It Manageable

We do need to find practical ways to keep grading manageable. Students do not need feedback on every single piece of work that they turn in. Sometimes it is just fine to check quickly through a stack of papers to see that students have completed the work, and then throw those papers away. We need to be careful not to let grading sabotage time that could be better spent otherwise. I do my best to avoid letting grading spill over into evenings and weekends, though I am not always successful at this. Sometimes in my classroom I have the students exchange books and check each other’s work as I read the answers. While I am cautious about doing too much of this with my young students, I think that sometimes hearing the answers read aloud and seeing their mistakes immediately can be a valuable learning experience for students.

A certain amount of grading is still inevitable in a conventional school. So how can we make it feel like less of a chore? In my school, we teachers gather at the front entrance to wave goodbye to our students at the end of the day. We often stay and chat for a while afterward. Sometimes we bring our grading with us and work at it together. Together we can bemoan our students’ failings and rejoice over their success. A few years ago, we started a tradition of going to a coffee shop after school once a month. We take our work with us and grade papers as we socialize and enjoy nice drinks. When I have a pile of grading to do on my own, sometimes doing little things like lighting a candle and turning on some music can make the job more palatable.

Grading may seem like a mountain, but we gain energy for the climb when we approach it with the attitude of loving and serving our students.