Tina and Ann, I, too, am a middle school English teacher. I have 6 classes of 7th grade English; 1 Far Below Basic, 3 Honors and basic English classes. I teach 6 / 5 without a prep so I can make an extra 20% because of the economy in my state as well as the country. This is my 3rd year. I salute you if you can get the papers back in 3 weeks. My papers are read, every word, and I comment on every one of them. However, it takes a long,long time. This year I have finally learned to stagger the essays so that they are not all turning them in at the same time. Actually, the FBB and basic classes are easier to score, edit, because they write so little. But because they are weak in their writing, I feel I have to pull teeth to teach them, train them, re-teach them; they have such bad habits in writing. My Honors classes have some good writers, but they are not all good writers, and sos the essays tend to be longer and more interesting to read. I can focus on content and elaboration. It's possible there is no easy answer unless teachers could teach writing like you were before the budget cuts.
I am trying to devote 3 class days of writing the actual essay after we have discussed, outlined, and written a sloppy copy so that I can call students up. Of course everything else goes by the wayside. Certainly, there is no easy fix! Mac I, too, have to teach vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, writing and in a 55 minute period as well. AND I have to differentiate in the 3 levels of ability so it is like having 3 preps multiplied by 4 components. Grade, grade,grade ---- Ann <[email protected]> wrote: > Tina, > I teach four sections of 7th grade English and one remedial 8th grade English > class. I have a total of 140 students in a six hour day and am overwhelmed > with the assessing of writing. I am using the 6 Traits, but also have to do > reading, spelling, grammar, speaking and listening in a 55 minute period. > There is not a weekend that I don't take piles of papers home to read and > write comments. I won't give a writing assignment and score it with only a > number or letter. Middle school students won't write if I don't provide > feedback. Handing back papers doesn't happen in a week or two, sometimes it > takes me three weeks. I do the best that I can in the amount of time > provided. > -- > Ann > [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
