Ep 88: How to Cut Your Time Spent Grading Essays in Half - EB Academics

Ep 88: How to Cut Your Time Spent Grading Essays in Half

Ok, ELA teachers, we hear you, and we get it! Grading student writing can feel never-ending and totally depleting. It can also suck the fun right out of your nights and weekends. We both struggled with grading and giving feedback on students’ essays in our first few years teaching ELA, but we are here to tell you that there is hope!

Grading writing–or any student work–can and should be done quickly, and when it is, you and your students will benefit in a big way. You will regain your sanity and reallocate your newfound energy and time to better lesson planning or recharging with friends and family, and your students will benefit from your positive attitude, energy, and laser-focused instruction. 

With a few, easy-to-implement strategies, you will be able to cut the time you spend grading students’ work in half! Tune in to hear the simple adjustments you can make to your next writing unit–even if it starts tomorrow–to radically shift the quality of your students’ work as well as the time you spend grading it. Sometimes, less really is more! 

Tune in now to hear:

  • [00:25] Why cutting back on time spent grading is surprisingly simple!
  • [02:30] Why you can show up differently for your friends, family, and students when you stop spending so much time grading
  • [03:40] Why using a very specific rubric helps save time
  • [06:15] Why you MUST review the rubric early on with students 
  • [08:35] How targeted mini-lessons improve students’ writing and saves grading time for us!
  • [10:00] Why you should be giving your students real-time feedback
  • [11:00] Why less is more when it comes to student feedback

Click here to listen now!

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3 Comments

  • Loved this podcast! It is definitely working . . . I’ve used a rubric for writing the rough draft and it has helped them to stay focused, follow their map, and include word choice and creative leads and conclusions in the beginning instead of in the revising phase. Their writing is becoming stronger from the start!

    Reply
  • Here in Canada we do provide rubrics, but I would like to direct more attention to them along with the exemplar. Ah, yes, formative assessement in mini lessons is crucial, especially online. Negative feedback is tough to handle. Less is more. Focusing on one or two tasks would be less daunting. Oh, wow, getting them to figure out what they’ve missed is powerful in step 3! Thank you!

    Reply

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Then, pick the date you’re going to teach it in your classroom, and sit back while you watch as your students show up to your classroom pumped about what the day holds…and gush about your class to their parents on the car ride home!

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