Grading

Praise the Lord, I've finished grading my Gen. Ed. students' 10-page research papers! And when I say "finished," I mean typed the last comment for the last paper about five minutes before going into class to hand them back.

I'm frightened by how darned slow I've gotten about grading; surely I should be getting faster as I get more experienced, rather than the other way around? I did get this set of 45 papers graded in two weeks, which I think is not unreasonable for longer papers, but the sad thing is that I was actually working on them the whole two weeks! Normally I goof off and procrastinate on even starting them, but this time I got started right away. It just took me simply forever to grade each one; granted, they were each on a different topic, which made them much less boring as a whole but also meant I had to use my brain more to engage with each one's topic and follow each argument. But still!

I have a colleague who came back from Easter Break having graded all 60 of her students' papers over the long weekend; yes, they were five-page freshman papers and thus less onerous (but far more boring), but I still find that a remarkable accomplishment. I wish I had her discipline!

On the other hand, I have another colleague who takes weeks and weeks to grade everything, who spends a full weekend grading every time she gives a simple quiz, whose students never get their papers back because she doesn't finish grading them until after the term ends. So at least I'm not that bad ... yet.

But enough with this worry about the future. For now, I've finished grading papers!

Until Friday, when the next batch come in.

Comments

[jo(e)]

I too have found I now grade slower than I used to. I think it's age.

But congrats for getting it done!

[Linda (FM)]

Hey, you got it done! That counts for a whole lot.

[Linda (FM)]

Besides, it's hard to read and grade thoughtfully when you've got a lot on your mind, and let's face it, you've had a lot to keep you're mind preoccupied recently.

[Mommyprof]

Hooray for you! I know it is such a relief to get a dreaded assignment graded and returned.

[Sfrajett]

Hats off to you for typing comments. Mine are usually scrawled. Not sure how to help with faster grading on 10-page papers--sounds as if the time and the gravity of the assignment are linked (I'm assuming these are fairly important to their grades). On five-pagers though, I'm a whiz, mostly because I realize that almost everybody has one or two issues I can go to town on. Like, intro paragraphs. Or conclusions.

[analisa guzman]

Sfrajett, that is a good idea! Maybe I will try that....I am superslow too, and like others here I have gotten slower. I was thinking about that this week...