Thriving in Academe

Issues To Consider

Saving Time in the Grading Process
Four questions to enhance your efficiency.

1. What aspects waste my time? Like the back-of-the-envelope reminders provided by utility companies (e.g., “Did you sign your check?”), I require students to submit, with each assignment, a completed checksheet with items such as “Did you read X and Y before writing the paper? Did you spend at least X hours on the paper, over at least X days? Did you proofread the paper twice and have another person proofread it? Did you underline your thesis sentence? Does the rest of your paper support that thesis?” Put on the checksheet all those items that students can self-check and that save you time. I refuse to accept any paper where the student has not fulfilled all the conditions, because it doesn’t have the student investment that merits my investment. I go through the checksheet thoroughly in class and offer to help students with any aspect of it before the paper is due. But I don’t back down on the requirement, because they will face plenty of demanding situations in their professional lives, where things have to be done right and on time.

2. What’s the big picture? If the student has spent enough time, has read the appropriate material, and has proofread appropriately and the paper is still bad, the student either lacks prerequisite skills or has misunderstood the assignment. Address these problems, rather than marking every error. Does the student need a tutor? Re-assignment to a lower-level course? Do you need to institute a preliminary check of early student work to catch early misunderstandings?

3. What can the student absorb and use? Teacher effort can be wasted unless it reaches the student at a teachable moment. When you are giving final grades that cannot be changed, use a checksheet or rubric to quickly illustrate strengths and weaknesses, and write a comment that will guide the student for the future; your line-by-line comments are probably wasted. Even if you must reduce the total number of assignments in your class, it is often worthwhile to respond to student drafts, because then you create a teachable moment when your comments matter.

4. Does every student need this? Don’t give every student what only some students need. Along with your checksheet and advice-for-the-future comments on final graded papers, offer in a truly inviting and friendly way that any student who wishes can come to your office for a line-by-line discussion of the paper’s strengths and weaknesses. Then you can invest that time for the students who really want it.

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