There is quite a bit to grade in the intermediate grades. Combine that with our rotations, seeing 60+ kids a day, and I'm under a deluge of papers. If there was one piece of advice I could give to new teachers, it would be that you need a system for tracking assessment information. You start with what your assessments are going to be, as well as what is acceptable evidence of learning. Then once you give that assessment, enter it into a grade book or spreadsheet.
Personally, I prefer a spreadsheet with names on the side and assessment on the top. Then you include their score and your rationale in each cell. I date mine as well, making it easier to sort (as well as to show growth over time- seeing it linearly). Right now I am behind in entering my assessment data, making this grading period seem to drag on for eons. I've spent today entering data, and then making claims from that data (another good thing is using an assessment spreadsheet and a grading spreadsheet, and tiling them so that you can look at the evidence on the top and the section on the bottom).
I've been behind, using more formative and informal assessment than summative. That is fine,
but not entering it is inexcusable. Well... maybe slightly excusable for my first year.
*Note: I'll display a screen shot later, but not currently as it has names attached and I'm in the midst of entering data :)
Ok...so any advice on keeping up with actual grading of the assignments. I am struggling with keeping up with that since the assignments in our school district are pre-set. Also the assessments are given to us by the district for the Biology class. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteI haven't been great with grading and returning work. I would grade them within a week, and enter relevant feedback into a gradebook.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, you might want to hone in on 2-3 particular questions where you want them to show their thinking. It all depends on your time, and the number of assessments you are grading.
As a student in a teacher certification program I am still unaware of the magnitude in grading, both from the enormous amount of incoming papers but the time to grade these. Thanks for the spreadsheet idea.
ReplyDeleteI am curious if there needs to be alot of grading? Does a baseline, midpoint and final assessment of each student provide enough information of knowledge? I am curious if you grade every paper or just to check that they have completed most/all work.
Ark... to answer your question, I think it depends. During student-teaching I was in a 1st/2nd split, and I had little grading. My wife teaches 2rd grade, and she doesn't have a ton of grading either.
ReplyDeleteI think the intermediate grades are tricky. If you are assigning purposeful homework/assignments, then you'll likely want to grade them. But what I've started to do is hone in on 1-2 questions that I really want to look at to see if they got it. I use a variety of reading/writing work to monitor for comprehension, so I beginning/middle/end is less helpful. Additionally you need to ensure you are regularly monitoring progress otherwise you potentially lose kids in a hurry.