Boundaries with Grading

Setting boundaries, especially with grading, is one of the hardest parts of being a teacher in my opinion. I have been teaching nine years this year. Some years I have been better at setting boundaries and some years I have set none. The 2020-2021 school year was one where I struggled mightily to set boundaries; as my job expanded from just inside the classroom to also teaching children while they were at home. This year has been more difficult in some ways and I have worked hard on setting boundaries after the first six weeks. One area I have been focused on reigning in is grading. I have been setting boundaries with how much time and how many assignments I will grade each week.

Grading Boundaries

Grading has been a task that can take over hours of your time. My districts sets a minimum number of grades needed per subject per six weeks. It has typically been 12 grades. This year I am trying to stay closer to that target versus entering 25+ grades per subject.

One way I have been tackling this is deciding before hand which papers/activities/projects will be for a grade and which are for practice. Depending on your district policies this may change how you grade. These are some of the boundaries I have set this year to help keep from being overwhelmed with grading.

Grading Boundaries Tip List:

1. I choose the 2-3 items I will grade each week before hand. The ELA tests we have to give are graded every week, so I choose two items that show students understanding of the concepts during activities/stations/small group/whole group that are not represented on the test.
2. Setting one day during the week aside to spend grading in the evening. I have chosen Wednesday as my main grading day. I will grade tests on Fridays quickly to see who I will need to pull for reteaching the following week.
3. Items that are not graded and are just for practice get a checkmark (by me or the students – they love when I have visually checked over their work and to get to add their own checkmark of any size to their paper) go into take home folders right away. This cuts down on paper in my classroom and confusion of where does this go questions.
4. I will not stay more than 30 minutes after school for the sole purpose of grading except on the designated day.
5. If an assignment can be online and graded online I choose that option. My school uses a social studies program that has a virtual option. The tests can be assigned online and read aloud to my students. I use this during station times on Friday’s while I pull students. They can independently complete the tests and I can still work with students on different concepts.

Flexibility

Some subjects are easier to stick with the boundaries than others. Science and Social Studies only need two grades per week where I teach. I typically only have 2-3 activities/graded assignments to give during the week because of the time allotted to these subjects. Math is more difficult because sometimes we cover 2 or more concepts in a week and I will grade more that week because each concept gets an opportunity to show mastery. At my grade level we write a full paper over three weeks so I only need to grade 21 papers every three weeks whereas other teachers may be doing so more often.

One other thing I do to make grading a little more appealing is I always have one of my favorite snacks (died sweetened mango for me) and drink (sweet tea) ready at my desk after school. So even if I am not in the mood to grade I can sip a little and graze which the majority of the times helps make the task easier to complete.

Take Away

What I would encourage you is to find 1 or 2 ways to set some boundaries with grading. Whether it be setting aside one day to bulk grade, setting time limits to how long you will grade each day, or limiting graded assignments. How will you set boundaries going forward with grading? Let me know in the comments. If you have another suggestion about how to spend less time grading I would love to read about it in the comments!