I am currently teaching third grade, but I'm ready for a change. One of the main reasons is because I'm tired of all the correcting. I was hoping to move to kindergarten; however, I just found out that that may not be possible. My next choice would be grade one, which I've done before, but it was 7 years ago. I'm just wondering, on average, how much correcting do you do in first grade?
Almost all my correcting is done as they students are working. I circle anything that is incorrect and ask the student to keep working. For late finishes, or students that are confused, we always have time on Fridays to continue work. If still not finished, I sometimes send it home as homework. I also do go through homework and circle incorrect items. I do not ask student to redo that work in class since it's very little that is not correct or unfinished. I even noticed a huge difference in the amount of grading from 2nd to 1st, so I'm sure you'll see a huge change from 3rd.
I've taught K, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages. Have you tried tweaking your teaching to allow for less correcting? Programs like The Daily 5 are great for the kids and eliminate all of the worksheets and things that you would schlep home in your teacher bag.
It depends on your curriculum. We have Saxon Math, and the homework is 2 pages a day,so I have that pile. If I don't correct it right away, that can be quite the pile at the end of the week. If you are required to use workbooks, that would be something that you would need to correct,unless you do the pages together in class(my favorite trick). Even with Daily five, you have journals and writing to look at and grade, and I do that once or twice a week. However, since I changed to Literacy work stations, the load of stuff to correct is quite small, if I do it as it comes in.
I agree - I think it depends on your teaching style and the curriculum. We rarely use worksheets. We do a lot of work in journals, so I do "check" those, but I am usually up and about observing as they work so I am checking it as they do it. I do not have papers to take home on a daily basis.
