Monday, March 25, 2013

Update Grades




Recently a student sliced about grades and how long some teachers take to update grades in our computer system: Progress Book. I found myself leaving the student a long comment and then decided to just blog my thinking. 


I want to tell this students that he is absolutely right.  Grades matter. Grades matter to students. Grades matter to parents. Grades matter to most colleges. They might even matter to most teachers. If grades are not updated regularly students may have a false sense of poor (or stellar) performance.


I am guilty of sometimes taking two weeks to transfer grades from my clipboard to the computer.  Why does it take so long to get grades entered? 


Grading is my least favorite part of teaching. Perhaps grades do not matter to me much. I love reading student work. I love talking to students about their work. I enjoy assessing where students are and designing a lesson to bring them further in terms of writing or reading skill. I do not love putting a number or a value on student work. I do not love reducing the richness of a student's performance to a letter grade. I do it though. It takes time, also, because when I do it, I want it to be accurate.


We make time for what we enjoy, for what we value.  So much of my teaching time goes to other things:  Poetry Club, lesson planning, department meeting, and more. Some meetings I am required to attend, some I am required to lead, others I do by choice. Poetry Club is one of those. It is an hour or two a week (depending on where we are in the slam season). That hour or two may not sound like much time, but think about a teacher's schedule.


 We all spend time outside of the duty day working. We plan. We collect. We grade. We write. We connect. All goes toward the work we do in front of students. A lot happens behind the classroom scene.


At my school, our work day begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m. Every teacher also gets a 45 minute planning period, or 47, I don't have the exact number of minutes clear in my mind, but we get one class period. On Wednesdays the class period is shorter by about ten minutes. We also have 19 minutes of common planning time after school. Rarely do I use that time to meet with colleagues and plan. Sometimes we meet then to plan a meeting or create a plan for a course we have in common, but that generally takes more than the 19 minutes we're allotted. Here's how a recent week went in terms of time.




I did grade. I responded to a set of reviews I'd been carrying around. I did that the Saturday not pictured and finished Monday evening. I also recorded students' blog posts--check marks in columns by date and number. I fought against the checking as I did it, but I know that I need to know who is not posting, who might need additional help, who is hit or miss. I  read and commented on many Slice of Life posts Wednesday evening while having dinner at my parents' house. This Saturday morning (actually two weeks ago once this posts) I'm at it again and hoping to actually get the grades from my paper roster into the computer program that students and parents see.  


I've got to be alone and able to focus in order to evaluate and grade. Finding alone-time at school is nearly impossible. Making it happen at home, with a family, feels unfair. Grading and posting grades takes time away from doing the work that matters more to me.  Helping students and teachers, in person, in the moment and beyond, that's what I really want to do with my time. Time is terrible, no matter how you slice it, for everyone. 

17 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Argh! I wrote quite a long comment, & it doubled, so I deleted & both disappeared, Lee Ann. I'll return tomorrow! You are so right about the time-not enough!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry, Linda! I'm going to change the template. I think it causes problems or it does for me, especially when I'm using the Chrome browser. Thought of you yesterday when my Uncle called--he lives in Denver too.

      Delete
  3. So very true! I also wish students understood how much time everything takes. I've occasionally had a group of kids complain when I didn't have something back to them quickly (or turn something in late and still expect to get it back right away). I sometimes go through with them all the things I do "behind the scenes" that they may not see.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is tricky to balance everything school requires. Thank you for sharing your behind the scenes thinking.

      Delete
  4. Grading is so challenging for all of the points you and your student have made. I hope I have a better plan in place before I return to the classroom. Actually, if you get it all worked out, then I can copy your plan. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! As if any of us could ever work it all out. The more I teach it seems the more aware I am of the infinite--possibilities abound in every moment and move in the classroom.

      Delete
  5. Grading is so complicated. The amount of time it must take to enter things into a computer system like this is absolutely ridiculous, especially on top of all of the other responsibilities and extra activities, and given that there is such a limited amount of planning time. And like you, I would much rather confer with kids, talk to them about their work, give feedback, etc. On the other hand, as a parent, with kids in high school, with two sons who were not all that communicative, or all that motivated about school. I relied heavily on this system, to know how my boys were doing. I wanted to support them, to help with work, to reward or punish as needed, and I couldn't do that if I didn't know. I guess an alternative would be to email or call the teacher, but then she has to take the time to respond. Sometimes it feels like there are no winners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right, Carol. Sometimes there are no winners. I do wonder if I spend more or less time on the input side of things by writing scores down first. I know some teachers just sit with the pile of papers and put grades in from the pile. I've always written them down first and then quickly key them in, in order. Who knows if it takes more or less time. I'd probably need an efficiency expert like Frank Gilbreth to really tell me how to make more out of my time. : )

      Delete
  6. I am with you about loving to read and respond to student work, but not liking to assign a number to it. A student and his or her work is so much more than a number. When my students complain about not getting work back soon enough, I explain how long it takes me per paper and how many papers I have to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Kay! It's always comforting to know others are in the same boat.

      Delete
  7. I think I would rather do anything else than grade. I keep putting it off until I have no choice. The only things that I like grading are the quick quizzes that are easy to to check. Essays and reflections; love reading them, but like Lee Ann, hate giving them a numeric evaluation. Should I correct the quizzes that are in my bag tonight or comment on slices??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course I would have picked spend time with your family, but that wasn't an option. It is difficult and unfortunate that many outside of education don't see it.

      Delete
  8. I usually try to get grades back pretty fast, but I struggle with how much to grade. I'm like you -- I care so much more about the learning and so little about the numbers. It's hard to figure out what to assign points to, how many points something should be worth, and how to assign the points... I agree with Jaana -- I would so much rather respond to student writing with comments than "grade". Of course, time is such an issue that some weeks it's hard even to respond to as much work as I'd like to! I wish our educational system would do a major overhaul to recognize the amount of time and effort teachers spend outside of the school day each day... yeah right! At least we can commiserate and support each other!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's right, Jennifer, we can support each other. That is one of the wonderful things about teaching (and the Slice community!).

      Delete
  9. You said, "We make time for what we enjoy, for what we value." Amen! That's so true! I agree...grading is the least favorite part of my job. I struggle with it too. Students and parents think they're important, but I struggle with what is motivating them. I want students to care about finding better books and stretching themselves as a writer because it will make them a better reader and writer, NOT because it's the difference between and A+ and an A. Ugh! I'm with you in this struggle. It's nice not to be alone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've often wondered if high schools could go to a pass/fail model, what would happen?

      Delete