I also have a hard, hard time returning written responses, essays, reports,
etc. in a timely manner. Grading is such an arduous task for me. I have found
one helpful strategy, though, in dealing with students' daily work, such as
vocabulary, spelling and grammar work. I too teach in a 55 minute period that
must also double as Social Studies curriculum, so I embed my SS curriculum
within my Language Arts assignments, whereby the assignments the students write
are for SS. I have my work cut out mixing it all together in a warm, fine
tasting soup of ideas.
My strategy is to keep a record book with student names and daily assignments.
I do a quick-check on daily assignments for completeness and give the students
an instant verbal grade ("You have an A", "You have a C, because you didn't
include..."). Then I write the grade in the record book. The students get
instant feedback in daily assignments, I never have to collect that assignment
from them, and I have time to pick and choose afterwards which daily work
assignments I want to include in the official gradebook. Many students will
immediately begin to redo and revise work that has received a D or C or even a
B once I am able to tell them quickly during their spot check which element of
the item they didn't include. It takes about 5-7 min. to make it around my
class size of 18 students. It also makes for easier record keeping if you have
multiple classes.
I hope these ideas help,
DeAnn Kaduce
Swinney Elementary
1106 W. 47th St.
Kansas City, MO 64112
(816)418-6275 ext. 0205
Stop planning for teaching; start planning for learning.
________________________________________
From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On
Behalf Of [email protected] [[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 8:54 PM
To: A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades.;
[email protected]
Subject: Re: [LIT] a lot of students - help!
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. I
t'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]
>
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