2 answers
Colton
Student
Rogersville, Missouri
3
Questions
Asked
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How hard is it to grade papers?
I want to be a teacher one day and I have always wondered how hard it is to grade papers? #Gradebook
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2 answers
Alison Warren
Academic Administration
57
Answers
Boston, Massachusetts
Updated
Alison’s Answer
Hi Colton,
Good for you, wanting to be a teacher! We need lots of diligent and dedicated people in this profession! In answer to your question, it’s not generally hard to grade papers. It can be a little time consuming, though. As a teacher, you’ll have access to a lot of resources to speed things like grading up. The textbook or workbook/worksheets your class is using will likely come with an answer key for you. Or, since you will make a lot of the assessments or materials your class uses yourself, you’ll have made an answer key for yourself, too. There is even software that lets you create self-grading assignments online.
For many teachers, grading essays or projects can take the longest amount of time. This is especially true for things like high school English classes, where student essays tend to be longer and more in depth than they were in earlier grades. Still, though, there are tools teachers use/create to make the process faster, like rubrics. A rubric lays out the specific qualities a paper or project needs to have to earn low, middle, or higher grades, and it tries to be as objective as possible. It’s almost like filling out a checklist; “your essay has a, b, c, x, and y, but not z? Great, you get a B+.”
The other thing to keep in mind is that, as a teacher, you’re going to get A LOT of practice grading papers, and when you practice something, it tends to get easier and faster for you. Teaching can seem daunting at first, but you learn a lot and improve a lot the more you do it. Good luck to you!
Good for you, wanting to be a teacher! We need lots of diligent and dedicated people in this profession! In answer to your question, it’s not generally hard to grade papers. It can be a little time consuming, though. As a teacher, you’ll have access to a lot of resources to speed things like grading up. The textbook or workbook/worksheets your class is using will likely come with an answer key for you. Or, since you will make a lot of the assessments or materials your class uses yourself, you’ll have made an answer key for yourself, too. There is even software that lets you create self-grading assignments online.
For many teachers, grading essays or projects can take the longest amount of time. This is especially true for things like high school English classes, where student essays tend to be longer and more in depth than they were in earlier grades. Still, though, there are tools teachers use/create to make the process faster, like rubrics. A rubric lays out the specific qualities a paper or project needs to have to earn low, middle, or higher grades, and it tries to be as objective as possible. It’s almost like filling out a checklist; “your essay has a, b, c, x, and y, but not z? Great, you get a B+.”
The other thing to keep in mind is that, as a teacher, you’re going to get A LOT of practice grading papers, and when you practice something, it tends to get easier and faster for you. Teaching can seem daunting at first, but you learn a lot and improve a lot the more you do it. Good luck to you!
Thank you!
Colton
Harmony Quiroz
Curriculum Specialist
3
Answers
Portland, Oregon
Updated
Harmony’s Answer
Hi Alison, Grading papers depends a lot on your style as a teacher and on the grade or subject that you teach. As a middle school math and science teacher, I did a significant amount of observation in the classroom and checking on homework and classwork in real time during class. The only grading I did was on tests or lab reports or big projects so twice a month or so. As a middle school teacher, I typically had 150-180 students so there was a lot of time spent reading, reviewing, and giving feedback to that many students. However, this helped me to plan and improve my teaching.