How To Make Grading Easier

Understand how rubrics work. The best way to make grading easier is to come up with an objective way of marking student work. In the past few years, the most popular way to do this has been to use rubrics. A rubric is basically a chart that looks kind of like a bingo sheet, with 5 columns across and several rows down (depending on the number of categories you're marking).

The columns across the top of a rubric illustrate the different grades a student can receive on the assignment. Some teachers will label the columns D - C - B - A, while others will use a numeric leveled grading method of  1 - 2 - 3 - 4. It's up to you which grading method you choose. Just start with the lowest possible grade on the left, and work your way up to the highest grade on the right. (The top left-hand box of the rubric will be blank.)

The rows of a rubric discuss the different levels of work for each category. So you would fill in the first box of a row with the category you're going to grade students on (such as grammar, spelling, research skills, etc.) and then you would proceed to fill in what is considered a D (or level 1), a C (or level 2) and so on for that category. Use small jot notes to give brief examples of what classifies as each level of work.

Discuss the rubric with the class. Once you have filled out the rubric with all the categories and definitions of each level of work, you should introduce the rubric to the class. Put it up on your overhead projector and provide each student with a copy of the rubric to look over. If students aren't familiar with how rubrics work, you will have to take some time to explain it. But in general, discuss each category that you'll be marking them on for this assignment, along with the lowest and highest level of work that you would expect to receive. Seeing this written in front of them gives students a great idea of what they need to do in order to pass this assignment.

Send a blank rubric home with the project. As a consideration to parents who might be overseeing the assignment, send a rubric home with students when you send the assignment home. This will help parents to see how their children will be graded. And it gets rid of any chance that they ‘did not know' what you were looking for. It should be all laid out clearly in your easy grading rubric.

Fill out the rubric for each assignment. Once you have collected the assignments and they're ready for marking, you will need to have a rubric for each student's assignment. Read through the assignment, looking for indications of each level of work for the categories you outlined as you go. When you're done reading through the assignment, highlight the general level that the student performed at in each category, leave a few comments at the bottom, and then move on to grading the next assignment. You'll speed through your grading when you use rubrics and you'll quickly appreciate how they will make your grading so much easier and less time-consuming.