How to Lessen The Teacher Grading Burden
by Brad Melsby – August 30, 2023
When the commotion and excitement of the first few weeks are over, schools settle into familiar routines. For teachers, that means you’re probably starting to collect student work. If you’re a new teacher, it is easy to become overwhelmed with the sheer volume of grading you’re expected to process.
For you, finding an effective and sustainable grading system is a matter of survival this year and beyond. We need to tame the seemingly endless classroom cycle of “Assign → Collect → Grade → Input → Return” so it doesn’t take over your life.
Why Do Teachers Collect Student Work?
1. Student Feedback
A major reason to collect assignments is to get feedback – you need to know if your students understood the lesson. Student work helps teachers gauge if they need to reteach (“the students didn’t get it”) or if the class is ready to move on to the next lesson (“the students got it”). As you probably know, this process is referred to as formative assessment because it informs or “helps form” what you teach in class the next day.
2. Accountability/Grading
There are other reasons, of course, to collect assignments — accountability, grades, and student motivation come to mind.
3. Formative assessment
Arguably, the primary reason we collect student work is for formative assessment. Formative assessment allows you, the teacher, to see if the students have mastered the lesson concepts. If they have learned the material, you move on to the next concept. If not, you reteach.
Let’s keep the spirit of why we grade student work — for the teacher to check for understanding — at the forefront. Let’s also be practical and look for ways to streamline the grading process to maintain our sanity.
9 Tips to Streamline the Grading Process
1. Some assignments can receive a “quick check”.
We understand that quizzes and tests require a thorough look-over. Our students expect us to grade those types of assignments fully and accurately. But not every assignment needs to be graded like a test.
You can give some student work a quick “check”.
In that case, what you’re looking for is completeness and proof that each student has a general understanding of the lesson content. A simple “check” at the top will suffice. If the assignment is online, it can be designated as “ungraded”. (Just keep an eye out – sometimes “ungraded” assignments get brushed off by students.)
What types of assignments can I give a “quick check”?
In my own class, I often use “checks” for warm-up questions, journal writing, or student reflections. With those assignments, I ask students to share their key takeaways, lingering questions, or personal connections to a lesson. The objective of the assignment is for students to demonstrate their thinking and for the teacher to quickly gauge comprehension. If I see any gaps in understanding, I can address them in class. These assignments do NOT end up in my gradebook.
2. Carefully grade only part of the assignment.
Sometimes, of course, there is a right and wrong answer on assignments. If you teach math, you might ask students to practice 10 problems. When grading, perhaps it’s possible to grade the first three to see if they understand the concept.
On a science assignment, maybe only the last question on the page is needed to see if a student can apply the formula in a way they’ll need to on the unit test.
As you grade, you’ll spend your time on those “essential” questions. Again, this is done occasionally and would not be appropriate for every assignment.
3. Collecting several assignments at once can be more efficient.
Instead of collecting three (or more!) separate assignments a week, consider having the students submit a stapled packet every Friday. For digital work, you could consolidate several documents into one larger document and have students submit that all together.
Over the years, I leaned heavily on students keeping assignments and notes in their binder throughout a unit. In those cases, I rely on other types of formative assessment to measure understanding like class discussions, short exit tickets, or small quizzes.
At the end of the unit, I would collect the entire packet of work – usually on the day of the unit test. Grading these packets did take time (I’d stay late that day), but it meant very little grading during a two-week unit. This helped me escape the daily cycle of “assign, collect, grade”.
4. Consider simplifying your late work policy.
It is normal (but not required) for teachers to assess a penalty on assignments that are submitted after the due date. Check with your department or school site to see if there are late work grading guidelines. Having a complicated policy for late work can make your life more difficult.
I’ve seen teachers with policies of “Late work will receive a 10% deduction for each day it is late.” I’ve also heard of “Any late work will receive a 25% deduction for the first week after the due date and then 50% after that.”
If your policy requires you to glance at a calendar, count days on your finders, and then get out your calculator, it’s taking too much of your time.
A simple and fair policy, in my opinion, might be “Work submitted after the due date will receive a 25% deduction.” The exact policy is up to you, of course. Just keep it simple.
5. Mix in Peer or Self-Grading.
It’s fine to occasionally take advantage of peer or self-grading as a means of saving you time after school. You can have students swap work with a partner or have them grade their work.
Pros of peer grading:
- Students get feedback more quickly, allowing you to address mistakes in real-time
- Students see how peers approach a problem or question in a different way
- Encourages student engagement and critical thinking skills
Best practices with peer grading:
- This is easiest to do when the assignment has clear “right and wrong” answers like multiple choice or fill-in.
- Consider having students switch papers with the student next to them, as opposed to letting them switch with their friends.
- If possible, ask students to grade in a different color than the original work.
- When asking students to peer edit writing (like a rough draft of an essay) clarify what they are looking for, what they are allowed to write on their partner’s paper, and what are your expectations for supportive, helpful comments.
6. Utilize a rubric.
This method is best when dealing with assignments that require a short answer, paragraph, or essay-length writing, rubrics can also be used with student projects or presentations.
Creating a rubric requires time and effort on your part, but has several advantages.
- Rubrics clarify for students what is expected on an assignment.
- Help clarify what you’re looking for as a teacher.
- Allows you to quickly circle or highlight sections of the rubric.
- Prevents you from writing repetitive comments.
- Calculating a grade is quick and easy.
Take a look at “How to Create a Rubric in Five Steps – Examples Included“.
7. Take advantage of grading technology.
- Check out Google Forms for automated grading of quizzes. I’ve used those for years on small quizzes.
- Mote lets teachers record comments and feedback to shared files, like Google Docs within Google Classroom.
- Formative lets teachers create online assignments that are automatically graded. It also uses AI to create quiz and test questions, a potential time-saver for teachers. As of now, the AI-generated content is fairly simple and limited but is improving almost daily.
- Kahoot! provides a quick assessment option that involves zero grading on your part. It’s been around a while and I am now seeing reduced excitement levels each year from students. But now and then, it can be fun!
8. Have a consistent time and place for grading.
“Tonight, I have four sections of World History to grade. It will either take me 45 minutes or it’ll take me 2 hours. It all depends on my ability to avoid distractions.”
The bottom line is that being a teacher means grading. Some weeks you’ll have a lot of grading. There is no way around it. But we can take steps to mitigate some of the burden. If you’re at school, carve out a time — 30 minutes a day, whatever — to grade. At home, have a place where you go that is designated as your “workspace”. Keep your phone in another room. The Pomodoro Method might help increase your work productivity as well.
9. Get your grading done promptly, especially around those grade dates.
In general, try to grade and return an assignment within a few days of when you collect it. Remember the reason for collecting it is to see if the students understand what you’re teaching them. If an assignment sits in a pile near the pencil sharpener for 10 days, the window to reteach or review a concept is probably gone.
Also, try your best to be diligent in inputting grades into your school’s online grade program. Not only do students want to know current grades, but so do parents and school administrators.
Although it can vary, most teachers will post a couple of graded assignments per week. That means roughly 20-25 assignments will make up the grade at the quarter’s end. So pay attention to the grading period dates (example below) at your school.
Start of the Quarter: August 24
Progress Reports: October 11
End of the Quarter: November 17
You should have more than two or three assignments posted by the Progress Report. We see this more than you’d think! Administrators and parents will wonder what exactly you’re doing in class when only three assignments have been graded in the first 25 days of school.
Brad has taught history at the middle and high school levels for 19 years, almost exclusively in American public schools. He holds a master’s in educational technology and is passionate about elevating the status of professional educators.