Save Time Grading Essays

Help! How can I save time grading essays?!

This is one of the most frequently asked questions I receive at the beginning of each school year.

Rubrics Help You Save Time Grading Essays

The College Board provides rubrics for each of the FRQs. They can be helpful but are not always the best option for student-friendly rubrics as you’re starting the year. I’ve found that making my own rubrics for frequent assignments saves a lot of time throughout the year!

In my class, I have students write thesis statements throughout the school year, so I’ve developed a quick rubric to assess their thesis statements. I’ve also created a similar rubric that I use for paragraphs.

The more you use the same rubric, the easier it is for students to understand the expectations, and the easier it will be for you as a teacher. Once you’ve created a rubric, you can reuse it year after year without reinventing the wheel.

To help students, I like to create a checklist for them to use before turning their assignments in so they can make sure they’ve included all of the criteria from the rubric before they submit.

If you’re looking for a rubric that’s closely aligned with the College Board, but more student friendly, check out this rubric that my friend Amy shared with me:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w32_Rvz3P-xG4_IBVcuXhKEpT3MlRnBDiBcykFsnnBc/edit

How to Avoid English Teacher Burn Out

Early in my career, I was assigning a lot of essays early in the year. I quickly noticed that I was putting the same feedback students’ paper from paragraph to paragraph, essay to essay.

I went back to basics with shorter assignments. My students’ writing improved, and their assignments were easier for me to grade.

Some examples of shorter assignments:

Thesis statements (bell-work, entry ticket, exit ticket, homework, etc.) – this can even be a completion grade.
Topic sentences (sometimes I will have them write a thesis statement and a topic sentence) – this helps students practice their line of reasoning and writing a claim.
Outlines (as a prewriting step or a standalone assignment) – if students can outline all of their ideas, I can follow their line of reasoning and students can prove that they understand how to put everything together
One-pagers
Body Paragraphs (this allows me to set up the expectations I have for what a body paragraph should look like) – it’s a lot easier to grade a paragraph than it is an essay.

Tips for Providing Feedback on Student Essays

Tip #1 – Use a comment bank

I have a comment bank on Google Classroom that I use when there are comments I know I’ll be using for several students on multiple assignments. This helps to streamline the grading process.

Tip #2 – The “Glow and Grow” Method

I give students a “glow” (something they did well) along with a “grow” (something they can improve upon). Generally, I will provide one to two of each. For the “glow,” I tend to focus on something we have been working on in class or something that the individual student has been working on. For “grow,” I try to identify the one thing that will improve their essay the most (usually their commentary).

Tip #3 – Use Mote for recording audio feedback

If you want to record individual student feedback quickly, this can be a great option. Sometimes recording audio feedback is faster than writing or typing comments.

Tip #4 – Student sample slides

You could choose a student sample from your own students (I would suggest keeping it anonymous) or you could choose samples from the College Board. I tend to only choose positive student samples from my own students and use College Board samples to highlight weaknesses.

General Tips for Grading Essays

Here are some of the top ways I have learned to save time grading essays:

Tip #1 – Don’t grade everything. Don’t feel obligated to make every single correction on a student’s writing. Have clear criteria for what you’re looking at before tackling any writing assignment.

Tip #2 – Use grading bursts. Grade 5-10 essays at a time to make sure you’re giving your students fresh eyes and providing quality feedback. Knowing I only have to grade 5 also makes the task seem less overwhelming.

Tip #3 – Try the Palamodoro Method. Grade for 25 minutes. Take a 5 minute break.

Tip #4 – Grade shorter assignments first. Completion grades, bell-work, thesis statements, Common Lit assignments, etc. These assignments will allow you to quickly get some grades entered into your grade book and help you feel productive. It will also keep your students happy to see grades updated.

Tip #5 – Crowdsource grading to your students (later in the school year). Try peer exchanges and allow students to choose their partner. Make sure you help students understand exactly what they are looking for with checklists or broken down rubrics when they are participating in peer reviews. Have students peer edit small assignments first before longer writing pieces.

Tip #6 – Have students self-score their writing. After students are familiar with the rubrics and expectations, you can have them self-score their writing with a written explanation as to why they scored it the way they did. You can then determine if their score is accurate.

Revisions

It’s up to you whether or not to allow revisions or which revisions you will allow.

Personally, I don’t allow for it very often during the year. If we are doing smaller writing pieces leading up to the larger writing assignments, students tend not to need revisions as much.

However, with their first major timed-write, I do offer (or sometimes require) revisions.

Revisions can be additional work for you as the teacher, but they can be beneficial to your students. And, let’s face it, revision is a crucial part of the writing process.