grade essays quickly

How to Grade Essays Faster | My Top 10 Grading Tips and Tricks

Are you looking for ways to grade essays faster? I get it. Grading essays can be a daunting task for ELA teachers. Following these essay grading tips and tricks can save you time and energy on grading without giving up quality feedback to your students.

Are you Googling “How to Grade Essays Faster” because that never-ending pile of essays is starting to haunt you? (Yup. I’ve been there.) Teachers of all disciplines understand the work-life struggle of the profession. Throw in 60, 80, 100, or more essays, and you’re likely giving up evenings and weekends until that pile is gone.

Truthfully, while there are many aspects of being an ELA teacher I love , grading essays doesn’t quite make the list. However, it’s a necessary aspect of the ELA classroom to hold students accountable and help them improve. But what if I told you there were some tips and tricks you could use to make grading much easier and faster? Because there are. That means saying goodbye to spending your weekends lost in a sea of student essays. It means no more living at school the weeks following students turning in an essay. Instead, prepare to celebrate getting your time (and sanity) back.

Start By Reframing Your Definition of Grading an Essay

Before you can implement my time-saving grading tips and tricks, you need to be willing to shift your mindset regarding grading. Afterall, where does it say we have to give up hours upon hours of our time to get it done? It’s time to start redefining and reframing what it even means to grade an essay.

The key to reframing your definition (and, therefore, expectations) about grading student essays is thinking about helping your students, not correcting them. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with pointing out grammatical and structural errors. However, it’s essential to focus on leaving constructive feedback that can help students improve their craft. Now, how can that be done without spending hours filling the margins with comments?

I’m glad you asked.

Grade Essays Faster with These Tips and Tricks

Since we can’t avoid grading altogether, I hope these tips and tricks can help you grade essays faster and increase student performance. And while I love rubrics, and they can certainly save time grading, they aren’t your only option. So here are eight other tips and tricks to try.

Tip 1: Get Focused.

This has been one of my biggest grading time-savers. And I’m not just talking about limiting your distractions while you grade (more on that in a minute), but I mean narrow your focus on what it is you’re grading. Often, we spend so much time correcting every single grammatical mistake that we miss opportunities to give feedback on the skills we’re currently teaching. Try to focus your feedback on the specific skills your students just learned, like writing a strong thesis, embedding quotations, providing supporting evidence, or transitioning from paragraph to paragraph.

Taking this approach to grading will lead to less overwhelm for both you and your students. In fact, your students will have a clearer understanding of what they need to continue working on. Just be sure to make the specific skill (or skills) that you’re looking for (and grading) clear at the start of the assignment.

Tip 2: Give Student Choice.

Let’s say you’ve been working on a particular skill for a few weeks and have had your students practice using various writing prompts. Instead of feeling forced to provide feedback on every written response, let your students choose their best work for you to grade. I find that this grading technique works best on shorter assignments.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t apply this to longer essays. If you’ve been working on a certain aspect of essay writing, you can let your students pick the paragraph from their essay they want you to grade. Either way, encourage your students to select the writing they believe best represents their skills and knowledge for the task at hand. Not only will this cut down on your grading time, but it will also encourage a sense of ownership over students’ grades.

Tip 3: Check Mark Revisions.

The checkmark revision approach is a great way to put more ownership and accountability on your students. Instead of grading a student essay by telling them exactly what to fix, turn it into a learning opportunity! As you review the student essay, simply use check marks to note areas that need to be corrected or could be improved. Then, give students time in class to work through their essays, identifying what the check mark indicates and making proper adjustments.

However, make sure your students have a clear list (or rubric) outlining the expectations for the essay. They can use this list to refer to when trying to figure out what revisions they need to make to improve their work. Alternatively, if you’re not ready to jump straight to checkmarks, you can create a comment code that provides a bit more guidance for students without taking up a lot of your time.

Tip 4: Use Conferences.

Have you ever thought about holding student-teacher conferences in lieu of providing written feedback? If not, you totally should! Students are so used to teachers doing the heavy lifting for them. Alternatively, turn the revision process into an active experience for them. Instead of going through the essay on your own, marking errors, and making suggestions, talk it through with each student.

When it comes to student-teacher conferences, make sure to set a reasonable time limit for each conference to ensure you’re not spending days conducting these meetings. Just make sure your time limit is enough to review their written work and provide verbal feedback. I require each student to mark their essay as we review it so they know exactly what to work on. While I’m more than willing to answer questions, I encourage students to make an appointment with me after school if they need extensive help.

Tip 5: Skim and Review

I can’t be the only one who wants to shed a tear of frustration when I watch a student toss a comment-covered essay right into recycling. So, instead of spending hours leaving comments on each and every student’s essay, skim through their rough drafts while noting common errors. That way, instead of waiting until students turn in their final draft to address their mistakes, you can review common errors in class before they submit a final draft.  Trust me. This will make grading those final drafts much easier– especially if you have a clear rubric or grading checklist to follow.

This is a great way to review common grammar mistakes that we don’t always take time to teach at the secondary level. It’s also a great way for you to address aspects of your target skills that students are still struggling with. Lastly, I find this shift in focus from the final product to the revision process helps students better understand (and, perhaps, appreciate) the writing process as more than a grade but a learning experience.

Tip 6: Leave a Comment at the End.

This is a huge time-saver, and it’s pretty simple. Although be warned, it might challenge you to go against all of your grading instincts! We’re so used to marking every single error or making all the suggestions with student essays. But, students are often overwhelmed by the mere look of ink-filled margins. What if, instead, you save your comments for the end and limit yourself to one or two celebrations and one or two areas for improvement? This is a simple yet clear way to provide feedback to your students on a final draft, especially if you’ve already gone through a more in-depth revision process from draft to draft.

Okay fine. If you must, you can fix the grammatical errors using a red pen, but save your energy by avoiding writing the same thing over and over again. If you’ve marked the same error three times, let that be it. If they don’t get it after three examples, they should probably make time to see you after school.

Tip 7: Grade Paragraph-by-Paragraph.

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by grading a tall stack of essays, consider breaking your grading– and writing– process down by paragraph. Assessing a single paragraph is far more time-friendly than an entire essay. So, have your students work on their essay paragraph by paragraph, turning each component in as they are completed. That way, you can provide quick and effective feedback they can apply when revising that paragraph and writing any future paragraphs for the final piece. Take it a step further by breaking it down into specific skills and components of an essay. For example, maybe you grade students’ thesis statements and supporting evidence as two separate steps. Grading each of these components takes far less time and, by the time students put it all together for their final essay, their writing should be much more polished and easier to grade. Plus, since you gave immediate feedback throughout the process, you don’t have to worry about spending hours writing comments throughout their entire paper. Instead, give the students a “final” grade using a simple rubric. And since you gave them opportunities to apply your feedback throughout the writing process, you can even have an “improvement” section of the rubric. This is an easy way to acknowledge student effort and progress with their writing.

Tip 8: Mark-up a Model Paragraph.

Take some of the work off your plate by grading a paragraph and letting the students do the rest. (You read that right.) Here’s how it works: instead of grading an entire paper, rewriting the same comments paragraph after paragraph, just mark up a model paragraph. Alternatively, you can grade the intro and conclusion paragraphs, while marking up one body paragraph as a model for the remaining body paragraphs. Give them a score on a smaller scale, such as 1 to 10, as a phase one grade.

Then, set aside time in class to have your students review your model paragraph and use it to mark up the rest of their paper before fixing their errors. I like giving them time in class to do this so they can ask me any clarifying questions in real-time. Once they turn in their revised essay, you can give them a phase two grade without having to worry about diving too deep into feedback. A comment per paragraph or page would suffice.

More Teacher Tricks to Help You Grade Essays Faster

T ip 9: set realistic goals..

Just like we set our students up for success, set yourself up for success too. If you know you can’t get through a class worth of essays during your prep period, don’t set it as your goal. You’ll only feel overwhelmed, disappointed, and discouraged when you only make it through half of your stack. Instead, only tackle your grading when you have the time to do so, and set realistic goals when you do. Grading more essays than you planned on? You feel on top of the world. Grading fewer? You feel like it’s neverending.

Tip 10: Avoid Distractions.

Instagram? Facebook? I know how easy it is to wander over to your phone and take a scroll break. But, we both know a few minutes can turn into an hour real fast. So, do yourself a favor, and when you know it’s time to grade a stack of essays, free your space of any distractions and set a timer. You’d be surprised by how much you can get done in an hour of uninterrupted essay grading.

The bottom line is that grading is an unavoidable aspect of being an ELA teacher. However, I hope one or more of these ideas can help you grade essays faster. The truth is, with these essay grading tips and tricks, you won’t only grade essays more efficiently, but you’ll provide better feedback for students as well. In fact, the longer we take to grade (or procrastinate grading) those essays, the less effective the feedback is for students, period.

So, here’s to more effective grading– faster!

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• 10 Tips for Grading Essays Quickly and Efficiently

We’ve all been there. No one likes marking. But as a professor, it’s part of the job description. One of the draft titles of this post was even “How to Grade Essays Without Wanting to Commit Murder.” While there are some great guides on teaching the mechanics of grading available, there isn’t much useful advice on how to make grading easier apart from either having fewer assignments or providing less feedback. In the real world, neither one of these is very useful. But there are strategies that every instructor or professor can follow to make grading essays quicker and more efficient. Here are some of mine.

1) Have Faith in Yourself

One of the biggest problems I’ve faced and continue to face as an instructor is Imposter Syndrome, or the belief that I’ve somehow fooled everyone around me into believing that I am a knowledgeable and competent person. Grading is one area where Imposter Syndrome likes to rear its ugly head. You will have finished reading a paper and then start to doubt that you’ve given it an appropriate grade. Or you worry that your students will get mad at you for giving them a bad grade. Or you’ll worry that this paper will result in a grade dispute, and then real professors will review and judge your work and find you wanting. Resist these thoughts. Remember that you have the expertise and good judgement to evaluate essays. Do not second-guess yourself. Assign a grade, make your comments, and move on. Have faith that you have done your best.

2) Don’t Repeat Yourself

It’s very common in research essays to see that same mistake made more than once. This is particularly the case when it comes to footnotes and bibliographies, which are often filled with tiny mistakes. Don’t spend all your time correcting these mistakes. Fix it once, and explain what you did. If you see it again, circle it and write something like “see previous comment on…” If it’s a systematic problem, I’d then make a note to mention this problem in the comments and say that you’ve only corrected a couple of instances to give them an idea of how to do it properly. This is not high school, and it is not your job to find every single mistake on an essay and correct it. Instead, identify the problem, and give your student an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned. The same goes for grammar and spelling. If it’s a serious issue, I always recommend that students go see the Writing Centre. It’s not your job to teach them how to write (unless it’s a composition class, in which case, good luck!)

3) Create a Comment Bank

You’ll notice that after a while, you will repeat the same sentences over and over again. To save yourself from having to either remember what you said last time or type or to write the same sentence over and over again, create a Word document with your most common comments. This is sometimes referred to as a Comment Bank or a Teaching Toolbox. I will do a whole blog post on this in the near future, but it’s easy to get started. If you save your comments on your computer, read through them and copy and paste the most common into a new Word document. For example, one that I use a lot is “While I can see that you are trying to make an argument here, you spend too much time describing or summarizing your sources rather than analysing them. In general, you should avoid description as much as possible.” The time and frustration you will save is immeasurable

4) Create a Bibliographic Bank

Odds are you will receive several papers on a given topic. Once you’ve been marking for a while, you’ll notice that you keep recommending the same books or articles. Again, to save you from having to remember which sources you want to recommend and/or typing out the full references, create a Word document with a list of topics and some of the most important sources listed for each. This way you only do the research once, rather than a million times. This is also helpful if you want to evaluate whether your students have selected appropriate sources or have missed important ones. Your comps list can be a great starting point.

5) Make a Grading Conversion Chart

In general, most assignments require three different “grades”: a letter grade, a percentage, and a numeric grade (like 7 out of 10). They each have their own purposes, but the odds are you will need to convert between them. Even when working at one institution for many years, it can be hard to do this conversion in your head. Spend several years as a sessional at multiple universities with their own ideas about what each letter grade means, and the problem grows exponentially. My solution is is to use an Excel spreadsheet of grades. This is relative easy to create. Mine look like this:

It’s really easy to do. Each “out of” number has three columns. The first is a numeric grade. The second is that grade converted to a percentage (it’s easier to do with a formula, and then just do “fill down.”) The third column is the corresponding letter grade. You can fill these in manually, or you can use a formula.

Here’s mine, but make sure yours corresponds to your institution’s grading scheme! =IF(K19>=95%,”A+”,IF(K19>90%,”A”,IF(K19>=85%,”A “, IF(K19>=80%,”B+”, IF(K19>=75%,”B”,IF(K19>70%,”B-“, IF(K19>65%,”C+”,IF(K19>60%,”C”,IF(K19>55%,”C”, IF(K19>50%,”P”,IF(K19>0%,”NC”,)))))))))))

6) Mark in Batches

I like to run, and when you’re really tired and facing a long run, thinking of the time remaining in intervals makes it much easier. The same is true for marking. A stack of 100 essays seems insurmountable. So what I do is break that stack down into manageable groups, usually 3 or 5 essays, which is about an hour to an hour and a half of grading, depending on the length of the essay. I sit down, grade those essays, type the comments up, put the grades into my grading sheet, and then take a break of at least 45 minutes. This is part of the SMART goal system (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound). It really does help make the grading feel achievable while also ensuring that you are giving your mind a break every one in a while. Once you’ve finished your batch, either set them aside in a different location or put a tick or some kind of mark on them so you can easily tell that they are all finished.

7) When in Doubt, Roll Up

Many essays seem to fall in a valley between one grade and the next, like when you’re not sure if it’s a B- or a B. In these cases, I almost always roll up. This was advice that I got when I was a TA, and it stuck with me. Try to give your students the benefit of the doubt. Remember that university is hard. Many students take multiple classes and/or work while in school. If you are dealing with a paper on the borderline between one grade and the next, or your paper is within 1 to 2% of rolling to the next letter grade, then just bump the grade. It’s always better to err on the side of generosity. And giving someone a 69.5% instead of a 70% is just a bit of a dick move.

8) Don’t Waste Your Time

There will be essays that are so bad that they defy all explanation. Either there are no footnotes or bibliography, the essay is 3 pages when it was supposed to be 8, or the student just completely ignored your instructions. In other words, it’s obvious that the student just doesn’t care. Don’t waste your time commenting on these papers. If your student can’t be bothered to read the instructions, then you have no obligation to spend your precious time marking the paper. I usually place a comment to the effect of: “I would strongly recommend that you review the requirements for this assignment, which can be found on the Research Assignment Instructions sheet.” I find that this is firm, but fair. Save your energy for the students who really put effort into their papers, even when they don’t succeed.

9) If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, Say Something Nice Anyways

Students are humans (though it’s easy to forget this sometimes…), and respond best to positive reinforcement. So try to find something good to say about the essay. Some suggestions, courtesy of my good friend Clare include: “Nice margins!” “Excellent choice of font!” On a more serious note, I usually go with something like “This is a great effort!” or “I can see that you are trying here!” I always use the positive-negative-positive sandwich. Put a positive comment, then a negative comment, and then another positive comment. This tends to motivate students to do better rather than just feel defeated. Remember, your job is to encourage students to learn, so make them feel like you are invested in their success.

Expert Tip: One variation on the positive-negative-positive sandwich comes courtesy of my friend Teva Vidal: “The “shit sandwich” is for kids who deserve detailed feedback but who just missed the mark: start off with the main strengths of what they wrote, then lay it on thick with what they screwed up, then end on a positive note in terms of how they can use what they’ve already got going for them to make it better in the future.

10) Try to find some joy in the work

You know how “Time flies when you’re having fun”? Well, this approach can help with marking. Try to have a sense of humour about the whole thing. There will be times when you become angry or frustrated because it seems like students are ignoring your instructions and therefore losing marks unnecessarily. Laughing this off will help. Some professors like to collect so-called “dumb” sentences and post them online. There are a number of ethical problems with that that I will not get into here. But I can and have shared them with my husband when I’m grading in the room with him. We can laugh together and I blow off steam (Saving your marriage through marking! I can see my husband laughing right now). I also like to mark with a bright pink pen, since it’s hard to get mad when you’re writing in pink ink.

—————————————-

So those are my suggestions for making the grading of essays a little more pleasant. I think the most important takeaway is that it’s worth spending the time to create tools. For many years, I would waste time researching lists of sources, writing out the same comments, and using a calculator. But my time, and yours, is precious, so work smart, not hard (this is becoming something of a motto…). Any other tips for grading essays quickly and efficiently? Let me know in the comments below!

So You Want to be a Sessional

essays expert tip grading Sessional work smart not hard

November 18, 2017 at 7:59 am

Many thanks for this! Found it really useful while I’m grading my mid-terms 🙂 The comment about imposter syndrome resonated with me – I’m always second guessing if I should grade higher or lower, or leave it. Most times, I re-read the essay and see that my grading was actually fair first time around.

November 18, 2017 at 5:00 pm

Same here! I still struggle with this, and I’ve been teaching for nearly ten years! Glad I could help!

October 16, 2019 at 3:32 pm

Im a new tertiary level lecturer and I am finding marking the most insightful way to udnerstand how students think. Some of the papers I have marked recently have been indescribable, incomprehnsible and just mere reflections of what I am defining as ‘laziness’. To justify this definition I thought long and hard and finally realised that if it took me truck loads of hours to get it right on essay writing, and to Masters level thats a lot of assignments.  So when I really feel confused I reflect back on my own learning experiences and use that as a secondary standard with the marking rubric the primary standard…I refuse to compromise my standards of learning just to enable a lazy student to maintain theirs.

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6 Tricks to Get an A Grade on Your Essay

We've all been there: gazing blankly at a computer screen, yearning for the right words to wow our teachers and nab that elusive A on our essays. But don't worry, my fellow students; I have a few techniques up my sleeve that can help you obtain that desired A on your next essay.

Writing a high-quality essay can be a difficult undertaking, but with little advice and effort, you can become a master of the written word. In this article, I will outline six strategies to help you get an A on your essay.

1. Know Your Audience

Knowing what to expect from your reader will enable you to write an essay that meets their needs and improves your grade. Look into the topics that interest your professor and, if you can, try to include them in your essay. 

Additionally, think about the kind of reader who will be assigning a grade to your essay. Are they more interested in seeing you show off your subject area knowledge than they are in a more imaginative and captivating writing style? You may more effectively modify your writing style to meet the expectations of your reader if you keep these factors in mind.

2. Conduct Thorough Research and Analysis

Start by choosing a topic that you're passionate about and that you can write about with authority. Conduct thorough research to gather information, making sure to use credible sources such as academic journals and books. 

Once you've gathered all of your information, take the time to analyze it and find the most relevant pieces to include in your essay. Your analysis should be informed by your thesis statement , which should be a concise summary of your argument that you will prove throughout your essay.

3. Craft a Strong Structure

Writing a strong thesis statement is the foundation of a well-organized essay. It should be clear, concise, and accurately reflect the main point of your essay. From there, create an outline that will guide your writing and help ensure that your essay is organized logically and flows smoothly. Make sure to use effective transitions to connect your ideas and maintain coherence throughout your essay.

4. Maintain Clear Language and Consistent Style

Language and style are also crucial elements of a successful essay. Using clear and concise language will help ensure that your reader can easily understand your arguments. Avoid common grammatical errors such as run-on sentences and improper use of pronouns. 

A varied vocabulary can also help keep your reader engaged and interested in your essay. Finally, creating a compelling writing style is the icing on the cake that can elevate your essay from good to great.

5. Edit and Revise

Editing and revision are often overlooked but are essential to writing a high-quality essay. Take the time to revise your essay for clarity and coherence, eliminating any unnecessary words or phrases that may detract from your argument. 

Check for spelling and punctuation errors, and consider seeking feedback from peers or professors to identify any areas for improvement. Editing your essay and revising it is a critical component of the writing process and can make the difference between a mediocre essay and an outstanding one.

6. Manage Time Efficiently

Avoiding procrastination and establishing reasonable deadlines might help you ensure that you have enough time to finish your essay to the best of your ability. You may manage the writing process better and prevent feeling overwhelmed by breaking your article into digestible chunks. Your essay will be polished and prepared to impress your professor if you give yourself enough time for revision and editing.

Writing an essay that earns an A requires commitment and effort, but with the tips in this essay, you can improve your writing. However, keep in mind that these tips are not a one-size-fits-all solution, so you may need to modify them to fit your particular writing style and assignment requirements.

It's also critical to remember that writing an essay is not just about getting an A. While grades are important, the true value of writing an essay is found in the process of gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing information as well as in the ability to clearly and coherently express your thoughts and ideas. You can use the abilities you develop when writing essays , such critical thinking and good communication, in both your academic and professional careers. 

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Practical Tips for Grading Faster: Keep the Quality & Maintain Your Sanity

Have you ever cried over a stack of essays late at night, eyes too bleary to see the words clearly? Are you a teacher who practically lives at school? Do you take home hours of grading on the weekends? These things may seem like normal side effects of the job, especially for ELA teachers. Still, should they be? Keep reading for some practical tips on grading essays faster without losing the quality feedback students need.

We have to find ways to do justice to our jobs while also having time to do what refuels our souls, which is why I’ve been spending some serious time reflecting on how I’ve graded writing and essays in the past. We must to prepare our students for college writing expectations, and we have to meet the rigors of the state or national standards as well as our district’s curriculum. Slacking just isn’t an option. At times, it may seem like too much to handle. We need an intervention.

It’s taken me a while, but I’ve found some strategies that successfully help me to grade writing faster so that I can still maintain a healthy work-life balance. I’m not in the “teachers should never take work home” camp. But. I am in the “teachers should have a balanced work and personal life” camp – the teachers deserve to be happy, too camp.

Let’s look at a handful of ideas worth trying.

TIPS FOR GRADING ESSAYS FASTER

Use built-in rubrics. .

What do I mean by that? When students have to complete writing by hand (due to technology or time constraints or just for the sake of keeping it traditional), I like to give them a printed sheet of paper with the prompt, writing lines, and a rubric built in. How does this save time? Well, if the rubric is built into the response page (like on a journal entry or a response to literature , for example), the rubric has to be smaller…and so does the student’s response. I’m not saying attach the rubric to the back of the prompt…I’m saying fit it on the bottom corner of the paper where students respond . Why? Our kids benefit from focusing on writing an excellent paragraph or two instead of rambling, and teachers benefit from having a smaller rubric, which forces us to examine a skill or two (instead of marking every single error imaginable).

Have students choose a response they want you to grade. 

Let’s say you give students an assignment where they practice the same skill several times. For example, I’ve done this before when I’ve asked students to write annotated bibliography paragraphs and even when we’ve written practice essays for standardized tests. Before collecting their responses, have students circle the paragraph (or practice essay) they believe best represents their skills and knowledge for the task at hand. Only grade that paragraph. You might expect students to be upset that their other paragraphs aren’t being graded, but I’ve never had that happen. Usually, they are relieved that they were able to select the one that would be assessed because they know that one best represents their abilities. 

Conference with students and point for revision verbally. 

Set a timer. Conference with each student for that amount of time. Don’t go over. Point out what you would like them to revise, and have them take the notes on what you are telling them. This strategy puts the ball completely in their court, which is good. Some students are used to teachers doing all the thinking for them. We mark every single error, and they mindlessly make corrections as they simultaneously text their friend, post pictures on Snapchat, and eat Doritos.

Skim their rough drafts, and use a revision PowerPoint. 

You can cut back on a lot of time spent grading essays by just skimming through the rough drafts first. Notice common errors. Make a list. Then, turn it into a PowerPoint or some other visual aid you can use to present the list to students. Include examples (from their papers to make it authentic if you think your students wouldn’t be too embarrassed). Make sure the students have their rough drafts in front of them as you review these expectations so they can make notes on their essays as necessary. My students LOVE this. Except when I tell them that I want them to revise their rough drafts. Then they groan. Otherwise, they love it. Really. It works. Here’s my revising and editing points PowPoint for argumentative writing .

Limit the length of the assignment. 

Do you  really  need a five-page paper to assess the skills you are teaching? If so, go for it! If not, cut back the length of the assignment. In the past when I’ve given students word limits, I’ve received sass, like “Is it because you don’t feel like grading more than that?” Okay, fine. Once in a while. But more than that, students can’t always write fifteen pages just because they don’t know how to be concise. That’s a skill, too. We need to teach students how to say more in fewer words. Sometimes I only have my students write one paragraph when we are practicing a new skill. For instance, when I teach argumentative writing, I differentiate for various ability levels by offering an option to write one solid argumentative research paragraph . My advanced students warm up to argumentative writing with the same lesson . Differentiating expectations appropriately for struggling writers lightens the grading load. Scaffolding enriched students to write quality research papers by front-loading with smaller-scale assignments has helped, too.

Use comment codes for constructive feedback. 

If you’re anything like me, you find yourself writing the same comments over and over and over and over and….you get it. Why don’t we just develop a comment-code sheet? Every comment that you make on a regular basis (like “avoid run-ons) can have a number. Instead of writing “Run-On” next to every error, just highlight the correct code, and include the comment paper when you hand back the graded piece of writing. I wouldn’t recommend this option with advanced skills that you may have just introduced, but for skills students should have mastered, this option will definitely save time. No need to be a hamster on a wheel.

Use Goobric and/or Google Docs. 

I don’t always enjoy grading on the computer, but it does beat writing everything out. If you are the type of person who isn’t tempted to check your e-mail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook every five seconds, grading on the computer can really buy you some time in your day. Typing is faster. It just is. If you are interested in this option but don’t know how to use Google features, there are some amazingly clear and helpful tutorials you can find with a quick web search. This is not the best recommendation for anyone who has social media ADD…more on that in a minute.

Don’t repeatedly mark the same error. 

Kind of like I mentioned in earlier…we don’t need to write “fragment” every time a student forgets a subject or verb. Mark it the first time or two, and after that (if it’s a skill they should know), just write, “Please fix the rest of the fragments throughout the essay” or something simple like that. This way, students know there are more similar issues, but the responsibility to edit their work is theirs…which is how they learn anyway.

Limit distractions.

I’m just as bad about this one as the next person. I’ll start grading an essay, and five minutes later…. I wonder if I have any new e-mails? Did anyone “like” my Facebook post? Has anyone tweeted anything funny lately?   If I don’t check Instagram, I might miss the best giveaway in the history of ever.   You get the picture, I’m sure. I have to put my phone away if I want to get any serious grading accomplished. It might even be necessary to get out of the house completely. Sure enough, as soon as I get into the groove, my daughter comes upstairs and needs me to help her go to the bathroom, get her a snack, or tell me that her brother did something annoying. Grading essays goes faster when we can focus. Plan ahead to reduce distractions in order to maximize productivity.

Instead of grading the entire essay in one sitting, try collecting and grading one paragraph at a time.

This works best with students who are motivated to make the corrections you have suggested. Assessing one paragraph doesn’t take long, and as long as students take your revision comments seriously, all you should have to do with the final draft is compare the rough draft paragraph to the final draft paragraph. Did they make the revisions you suggested? If so, they did the best they could. The final draft may not be perfect, but depending on the skill(s) you are assessing, improvement may be enough to earn an A.

Hopefully one of these ideas will be helpful in terms grading essays faster. These ideas are far from a comprehensive list of all the possibilities available. If you have other tips, by all means, please share them in the comments! We educators need to put our heads together to develop a mastermind plan for taking our lives back without sacrificing the quality or integrity of our work. Keep calm, and grade on ( but faster ).

Responding to Student Writing: Feedback That Values Students’ Internal Dialogue

Teaching email etiquette: the art of an eloquent email, using mentor sentences meaningfully, related resource:.

These are the argumentative writing unit materials I use to help students revise and edit their essays while working with a peer. This resource also includes rubrics for grading.

I have NO CLUE why I never thought of students circling the one paragraph they wanted graded! I’m doing this! And, yes, you are right about the one paragraph at a time in my opinion. Every single writing assignment does not have to be a 5-paragraph essay. More power to those teachers who do that with their students, but sometimes “slow and steady wins the race,” especially with 9th graders. Plus, teaching youmg writers that sometimes saying less IS more is just as important as teaching them how to expand and elaborate on those ideas. 🙂 What a helpful post…thank you SO MUCH! Yay!

Hi, Tara. So glad this idea resonates with you. It has certainly saved my sanity on multiple occasions. I agree with you 100 percent. Quality over quantity!

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The next step is to take each of the other criteria and define success for each of those, assigning a value to A, B, C and D papers. Those definitions then go into the rubric in the appropriate locations to complete the chart.

Each of the criteria will score points for the essay. The descriptions in the first column are each worth 4 points, the second column 3 points, the third 2 points and the fourth 1 point.

What is the grading process?

Now that your criteria are defined, grading the essay is easy. When grading a student essay with a rubric, it is best to read through the essay once before evaluating for grades . Then reading through the piece a second time, determine where on the scale the writing sample falls for each of the criteria. If the student shows excellent grammar, good organization and a good overall effect, he would score a total of ten points. Divide that by the total criteria, three in this case, and he finishes with a 3.33. which on a four-point scale is a B+. If you use five criteria to evaluate your essays, divide the total points scored by five to determine the student’s grade.

Once you have written your grading rubric, you may decide to share your criteria with your students.

If you do, they will know exactly what your expectations are and what they need to accomplish to get the grade they desire. You may even choose to make a copy of the rubric for each paper and circle where the student lands for each criterion. That way, each person knows where he needs to focus his attention to improve his grade. The clearer your expectations are and the more feedback you give your students, the more successful your students will be. If you use a rubric in your essay grading, you can communicate those standards as well as make your grading more objective with more practical suggestions for your students. In addition, once you write your rubric you can use it for all future evaluations.

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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How to Grade Faster

I don’t know a single teacher who would rather grade than teach (and if you do, give me your address. I’ll send you a large package with a self-addressed stamped envelope with some essays. Thanks!) However, grading essays, tests, and homework is part of the responsibility of being a teacher. If students would simply learn everything that we taught them, we wouldn’t need to grade anything at all! But they don’t, so we have to grade assessments to make sure that they have learned what they need to know, and make adjustment if they don’t.

If you’re an English teacher like me, you can easily be bombarded with papers. It can seem like the stack will never get smaller and just when it does, a new set of papers comes in. What can you do? Here are some strategies that have helped me over the years. And no, assign less work is not one of the strategies.

Set a deadline.

My goal is to get papers back a week after they are handed in. I don’t always accomplish it, but setting this deadline for myself is one of the best ways I’ve found to help me stay on task and get them back quickly.

If you’re especially brave, tell your students your goal. It will help keep you accountable.

Find your most productive time.

I have 1st period and 7th period off, and I’m a much quicker grader in the morning than in the afternoon. My mind is fresh and I don’t get distracted easily. On the weekends if I have papers to grade I’m likely to do them first thing in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. Those are the times when I feel like I can crank out a bunch of papers. Make sone tea, turn on some classical music, sit in the early morning sun, and I’m ready to go.

Be aware of the times of day that seem to work best for you. Grade during those times and do other tasks during the other times. I don’t check my email first thing once I get to school, because that can easily rob me of fifteen minutes I could have spent grading. I save that for much later in the day.

Pair grading with something you like to do.

On the rare occasions where I’m grading something in the evening, I like to have a glass of wine. I know some teachers who love to grade in their pajamas – even in the afternoon! Pairing something you don’t want to do with something you like to do is a great way to make the task less of a chore. Put on some of your favorite chill out music and grab that pen and go.

Create cues.

Yoga teacher Erica Jago always lights a candle in her office when she writes. This signals to her mind that it’s time to get to work.

Similarly, we can create these cues in our own lives that signal to our brains when it’s grading time. Make a cup of tea, listen to a certain CD, go to a certain place in the building. I like to grade in the media center in our school with a cup of tea. Once we signal to our brains that grading is what we are supposed to be doing, it’s easier to get in the flow and crank out some papers.

Don’t grade for yourself.

I have been guilty of putting way too many comments on students’ papers. I put comments on the paper to justify the grade I give them rather than to teach them how to do better the next time.

Excessive comments take up time, and if the students don’t read them when you hand them back, it’s a waste of time. Don’t grade to prove that the students deserve the grade you give them. Only put meaningful, purposeful comments that will help students do better the next time. If the students have questions about how they can do better, or don’t understand the grade they received you can address it then. A good rubric will also help you to make less comments.

You can also make the argument that if your assignment is summative – like a test or an exam –  you don’t need to add any comments at all. If you’re only trying to assess what students have learned, all you need to do is give a grade.

 Timeliness beats thoroughness.

I could go through a stack of essays and add numerous comments and mark every mistake, but if I hand them back two months later, it would do much good. Feedback is best when it’s received as quickly as possible. It’s much better to only mark a few things and get papers back quickly rather than be meticulous and get them back long after the students have forgotten what they’ve written.

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Computers Grade Essays Fast ... But Not Always Well

Molly Bloom

As schools look to cut costs, more are considering using computers to grade students' writing assignments and to provide writing help. The programs can assess large numbers of papers in seconds. David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images hide caption

As schools look to cut costs, more are considering using computers to grade students' writing assignments and to provide writing help. The programs can assess large numbers of papers in seconds.

Imagine a school where every child gets instant, personalized writing help for a fraction of the cost of hiring a human teacher — and where a computer, not a person, grades a student's essays.

It's not so far-fetched. Some schools around the country are already using computer programs to help teach students to write.

There are two big arguments for automated essay scoring: lower expenses and better test grading. Using computers instead of humans would certainly be cheaper, but not everyone agrees on argument No. 2.

Les Perelman, director of the student writing program at MIT, is among the skeptics. Perelman recently tried out a computer essay grading program made by testing giant Educational Testing Service.

"Of the 12 errors noted in one essay, 11 were incorrect," Perelman says. "There were a few places where I intentionally put in some comma errors and it didn't notice them. In other words, it doesn't work very well."

Perelman says any student who can read can be taught to score very highly on a machine-graded test.

That's because software developers build the computer programs by feeding in thousands of student essays that have already been graded by humans.

Then, by identifying the elements of essays that human graders seem to like, the programs create a model used to grade new essays. If human graders give essays with long sentences high marks, for example, the programs will tend to do so, as well. If human graders like big words, the programs will also, say, "manifest a tantamount predilection for meretricious vocabulary."

So, Perelman says, it's possible for students to score an A on a computer-graded essay simply by combining all the elements of an essay that would be scored highly by a human grader.

Of course, if you know the elements of an A essay and are able to combine them, odds are you're already a pretty good writer.

Mark Shermis, dean of the University of Akron's College of Education, recently co-authored a study of nine different essay-grading computer programs. On shorter writing assignments, Shermis says, the computer programs matched grades from real, live humans up to 85 percent of the time.

But on longer, more complicated responses, the technology didn't do quite as well.

"It will not identify the next great American novelist," Shermis says. "But if what you're trying to do is communicate thoughts and ideas in a very straightforward manner, then the technology is actually a wonderful tool."

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But not always. Shermis ran the Gettysburg Address through one of the earlier-generation computer grading programs, one usually used to evaluate the writing abilities of college freshmen.

Suffice it to say, Abe did not ace the test.

"On a scale of 1 to 6, one of the greatest presidents of the United States was only getting 2s and 3s," Shermis says of Lincoln's scores. "We were actually very shocked."

A history professor told Shermis he shouldn't worry; the speech is more famous for its context than for the actual words themselves.

Still, school officials trying to cut expenses are intrigued by the promise of scoring thousands of student essays in seconds, without the need to hire human graders.

Jeff Pence, who teaches writing to seventh-graders in a Georgia middle school, is already sold on the idea.

The computer graders he uses give students instant feedback on every draft. Pence says there's no way he and his red teacher's pen could do that. And quicker responses, he says, lead to more writing.

"The quantity drives the quality up," Pence says. "It's kind of the old bicycle thing — the best way to learn how to ride a bicycle is to ride a bicycle. And the best way to get better at writing is to write and receive consistent, timely feedback."

Pence says it would be great to have a couple of dozen real, live human teachers reading every student draft. It would also be nice, he says, if his district found the money to hire those extra teachers. But until then, he's holding on to his computer programs.

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Deviation from real grade (10 point scale)

Graph: A dataset of essays were graded by professional graders on a range of 1-10 and cross-referenced against the detailed criteria within the rubric to determine their real scores. Deviation was defined by the variation of scores from the real score. The graph contains an overall score (the average of all criterias) as well as each individual criteria. The criteria are the premade criteria available on Smodin's AI Grader, listed in the graph as column headings. The custom rubrics were made using Smodin's AI Grader custom criteria generator to produce each criteria listed in Smodin's premade criterias (the same criteria as the column headings). The overall score for Smodin Premade Rubrics matched human scores 73% of the time with our advanced AI, while custom rubrics generated by Smodin's custom rubric generator matched human grades 82% of the time with our advanced AI. The average deviation from the real scores for all criteria is shown above.

* Rubrics created using Smodin's AI custom criteria matched human scores 82% of the time on the advanced AI setting. Smodin's premade criteria matched human scores 73% of the time. When the AI score differed from the human scores, 86% of the time the score only differed by 1 point on a 10 point scale.

** The AI grader provides 100% consistency, meaning that the same essay will produce the same score every time it's graded. All grades used in the data were repeated 3 times and produced 100% consistency across all 3 grading attempts.

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Smodin can analyze essays quickly and accurately, providing detailed feedback on different aspects of your writing, including structure, grammar, vocabulary, and coherence. By identifying areas that need improvement and providing suggestions on how to make your writing more effective, if Smodin detects that your essay has a weak thesis statement, it will provide suggestions on how to improve it. If it detects that your essay has poor grammar, it will provide suggestions on how to correct the errors. This makes it easier for you to make improvements to your essay and get better grades and become a better writer.

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Using Smodin can save you a lot of time and effort. Instead of spending hours grading essays manually or struggling to improve your writing without feedback, you can use Smodin to get instant and objective feedback, allowing you to focus on other important tasks.

Smodin is the best AI essay grader on the market that uses advanced algorithms to provide objective feedback and help improve writing skills. With its ability to analyze essays quickly and accurately, Smodin can help students and teachers alike to achieve better results in essay writing.

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