Tag: ai

How many hours do you spend grading during the weekend?

A colleague recently asked me that question. When he did, I asked him — no lie — three times to confirm the word “weekend” in his question. I emphasized the letters “E-N-D” each time to ensure I heard him right. The question threw me for a loop. It was asked with the assumption that spending hours (plural) on the weekend grading is the norm. This is problematic.

His question made me think once again about how teachers balance the time we spend grading with our need to gauge student learning and provide feedback. Grading large amounts of student work doesn’t correlate to understanding what students know or offering meaningful feedback. Similarly, too little grading produces gaps in how well I perceive student learning and offers infrequent opportunities for feedback. Striking the right amount of each can be tricky, especially during the first few years of teaching.

Establishing a good balance in grading practices means more than having a weekend not filled up with marking papers — although that is a goal in and of itself. It also means my assessment strategies are targeted, efficient, actionable, and yes, imperfect. I will never be able to access everything a student is thinking. Finding a reasonable compromise is necessary. It means I can dedicate more time to reacting to students’ thinking because I spend less time discovering it. This is no easy task, but I think it should be a goal for every teacher.