To each their own when it comes to grading. Some enjoy spending a great deal of time on it, others don't. If you can find ways around it, great do that. With as many things as we have to do, there is a need for finding ways to save time.
Well, I definitely don't enjoy spending a great deal of time on it! It's just one of the time-consuming aspects of my job. And I do what I can to save time (I don't grade everything they do, on some assignments I just check representative problems, etc.). Like mopar said, grading is also an important opportunity for me to see how the kids are doing--more than just looking at their score would do. If it works for you, though...
Of course I don't stay every day to grade for several hours, I simply was stating my choices were to stay after and do it, or do it on the weekend. I also have a day that I stay late with a co-worker to plan. As for the number of papers, we are required to have a minimum of 7 grade per subject per six- weeks. I prefer to have 9 or 10, just to give more of a range. If I were to let anyone other than a teacher grade papers, I would be written up and could lose my job. My students only "grade" practice pages. Our new 4th grade teacher came to us from the high school. She is a great teacher, but still adjusting to the time outside of class that is required. (Not legally required, just that we need the time to have everything ready.) At the high school here, they get there a few minutes before the kids, stay just until the bus rolls, and then they leave. No weekends, no staying late, no coming up on holidays. Here at the elementary it's a very different story.
I understand having to have a certain amount of grades. We are required to have 2-3 grades each week for every subject. That is a lot of things to get graded and put in for each week. That does not mean I actually get them put in every week. I put them in when they get graded. Sometimes that takes time, it is not at the top of my priority list.
lol Unfortunately, my administration (school and district) make it a priority. We are required to have grades entered within a week of them being taken. Which, to be honest, makes sense. Parents are able to view grades, and if I wait and enter a huge chunk of grades it makes a big difference, and often it would be too late for the child to change anything.
I understand that and how much a school monitors things (micromanages and dictates) can have an effect. We have had years where it was not monitored at all. Grades could go for weeks without being entered at all, that was nice. Then we have had years where it is closesly monitored, parents can also check, but how often the parents look is not a worry. Most of them understand that we have a lot to do and it just has not been put in yet. But even when being monitored, as long as you put some grades in, what difference does it make if you add something a few weeks old in later on that didn't get graded, no harm no foul.
I think it makes a difference to the kids. Immediate feedback is so much better than delayed! I was observed by my department chair 7th period today. We had our post-observation conference after school today, and I know I can expect the writeup within a day or two at most. While I'm happy with the lesson and know what the writeup will say, I would be less than thrilled if I had to wait a few weeks for it. At the base of all we do, we have to remember that it's about the kids. So, no, not every assignment needs to be graded overnight, though that's the goal I tend to aim for. But I do believe that the feedback should be sooner, rather than later, if we want our kids to benefit from the feedback we provide.
Agreed with Alice. It's very difficult to ask a student to go back and redo an incorrect or incomplete assignment when the class has moved on to new material. The more immediate the feedback, the better the ability to reteach.
That is true, but we also know there are many other methods of assessing their understanding than the assignments/tests we take for a grade. On most things based on the work done in class we should have an idea of how they are going to do on the graded piece (though it doesn't always correlate). You are also right it is hard to ask a student to redo something that happened weeks ago, so that usually does not happen. We move on and focus on the next skill. The longer I have been teaching the less important I have grown to feel that individual grades on assignments are. That is just my feeling on it.
