Assessment and evaluation eat up a huge part of any teacher’s day. We are constantly monitoring our students and providing timely feedback to ensure they achieve their best. The tips below from several different teachers will give you some ready-to-use tips to streamline your current marking practices.
My students usually only want to work if they see a “mark” on their work. For formative assessments I use a check system – check minus, check and check plus to give feedback and get through the marking pile quickly. You can read more about this system here. Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog
FCAs (focus correction areas) or something similar. Only grade 2-4 items per paper that you have asked the students to truly focus on. That way, you don’t have to mark every single error on paper. Meghan Mathis from Fun Fresh Ideas
I assessed every minute in my classroom. I kept an easy-to-check spreadsheet on a clipboard and marked off students when I saw they had completed a task. At the end of the week, I added the checks and recorded the completion grades. This kept me aware of student progress and understanding, and also saved me time for grading the more comprehensive assignments. Michele Luck from A Lesson Plan for Teachers
As a Special Education Teacher assessment and evaluation is key to help me know whether my students are making progress. Our district uses EasyCBM Reading and Math assessments where I am able to progress monitor my students on a regular basis. It provides graphs to see progress and regression. I also use curriculum assessment and datasheets. Laura Zank from Research Based Teaching Tools
I only mark an error once – the first time it appears in the essay. The second time I see the same error, I write a note in the margin or make a comment if I’m grading on Google Docs: Please fix all fragments. This is the second one, but there are more. Melissa from The Reading and Writing Haven
I use rubrics for everything, and I only write on the rubrics. I limit myself to three remarks per student and address everything else on a whole-class level or during workshop conferences. This helps me save time grading but also limits feedback to a digestible amount for students. I’ve noticed a big difference in how much of my feedback they can retain and implement! Danielle from Teach Nouvelle
Use rubrics for every assessment. Angie Sherbondy from Best Power Points for Spanish
Socrative is a website where you can put in any test, align to standards and then have students take that test and it will provide results that include raw scores and performance on the standards. Lisa Spangler from Mrs. Spangler in the Middle
Don’t grade everything! In an English Language Arts class, it’s just not possible. Assignments that fall in the formative assessment category are just practice and shouldn’t be graded. Assignments that fall into the summative assessment category should be graded with a rubric or checklist to make things easier. Any assessment with multiple-choice questions or a single correct answer choice should be given using a scantron or Google Forms with can both be auto-scored. Brynn Allison from The Literary Maven
Rubrics are great for projects and writing assignments. Scantrons work wonders for multiple-choice and true/false assessments. For teacher made assessments that are fill in the blank, short answer, etc., I make sure the answer blanks are all at the left margin so that I can line up several papers at a time so that as I go down checking the answers it is easy to grade several tests at once. Jenny Newberry from Bulletin Board Bonanza
I hope these tips for streamlining assessment have gotten you thinking about what you can adjust in your current practice to make this process more efficient.
Read More Grading Tips
- Grading Policies and Tips in the English Language Arts Classroom
- Measuring Student Learning Tips for Teachers
- How To Write Long Range Plans
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