Get out of Grading Jail

“Grading Jail” refers to the long and frustrating hours spent grading papers. Grading takes more time than any other part of teaching. Teaching is the easy, fun, and rewarding element of education. Administrative chores are distasteful but usually not too time-consuming. Grading, however, is not only time-consuming, but also frustrating and stressful.

Grading discussions, essays, and other written work takes a lot of time without an effective system. Using the tools and strategies outlined in this short ebook, I’ve worked out a system that allows me to grade approximately fifty essays in about 5-6 hours and the same number of research papers in about 10-12 hours. This includes comprehensive feedback and personalized comments on every paper. Students always mention on course evaluations how much they appreciate my thorough suggestions, corrections, and comments on all their work. They like getting their assignments back so fast so they can use that feedback to better prepare for the next assignments.

Students want substantive feedback on their work and they want it fast. My usual practice is to return work within 24 hours of due dates. If I happen to have more than two classes with the same research paper due dates, then it might take me 48 hours. I like getting all the grading finished by the end of the first and second day of the week because that leaves me more time to interact with students in the discussions and individually via email or online text chat.

Writing comments on students' work takes time and reflection. It is so much easier to use the "bouta" method (bouta A, bouta B, and so forth). More faculty than you might imagine use this method of grading and do not bother to include comments on students’ work to explain grades. In one graduate course, the professor put a B on a twenty page case study with the following comment: “The content is good but you need to learn to use APA correctly.” That was it – nothing more.

Giving meaningful feedback to students about their work is a huge part of teaching and learning.  I am very nitpicky about writing and APA so I write a lot of comments throughout the paper about writing or using and citing sources properly. I also write questions here and there about content because students need to think more creatively and critically. They can figure out what works best without being told what to do. I always write a paragraph summarizing my reflections about the work.

Check out Grading Made Fast and Easy for tips on how to get out of grading jail fast.