Here’s a pic showing how I convert a 6×6 rubric:
It makes sense if you don’t think about it.
To me, grading is maddening. Trying to take Language Arts, turn it into a number, and then that number turns into a letter. That letter, to certain degree, presents which opportunities are available to my students and which ones aren’t.
How do you handle grades?
In Part 1, we discussed the challenge of collecting student work online in an effective and efficient manner. And it turned out that a tool called Doctopus was the answer to workflow needs!
Here, in Part 2, we will look at the next tool needed to make online grading spectacular! And if Doctopus wasn’t a crazy enough name, how does Goobric sound? Doctopus and Goobric are a packaged deal. You can’t get to Goobric without Doctopus, and whether or not you are using Google Classroom for online submissions of work, trust me, you’re going to want to get your hands on Goobric.
Let’s dive in! Continue reading “Start Grading Papers Online Right Away: Part 2”
After misplacing another student assignment, I was at my wits’ end. I work on a high school campus where teachers don’t have an assigned classroom. That means we move from room to room. Last year, I taught in two different rooms (Some of my colleagues taught in three!). Let me give you a snapshot of what it was like.
I would bring my load with me to each place. In classroom # 1, I would set up and teach for three periods. Then I would strike my workstation, and move it all to a common office all the English teachers shared, and set it up again to work on my prep period. Then I would strike it, move it, and set it up in Classroom # 2. Then I would strike it all and go home, usually setting up again to work on some open items left over from the day.
This was Monday through Friday. No wonder I lost papers! Midyear, I started getting desperate. I had to find a way to collect papers, keep a hold of them, and get the back to the students, all while on the move. I was past the point where I would let my skepticism keep me from trying online grading. So I started looking around. And what I found has forever changed how I will collect and grade essays.
This is a layered process that seems complex from the outside looking in. So I will post it in two parts. Continue reading “Start Grading Papers Online Right Away: Part 1”
I’m a big believer in pen and paper. Students should write on paper as often as possible. I resist the prediction that one day screens will replace paper. There are so many cognitive benefits to putting pen to paper for writing that the keyboard will never be able to compete with. But when it comes to assessing student work, especially essays, I am starting to see things differently.
One of the main reasons I am transitioning to grading student work on the computer is because I teach on a campus where no teacher has his or her own classroom. We all rotate. Some of us multiple times because our campus has more students than rooms. There are some arguments that can be made for this way of operating a school, but after teaching there for four years, I can attest that the biggest argument against this operation is losing papers.
When a teacher is misplacing and searching for papers regularly, that person is going to look for any way to reduce the stacks. So I transitioned to grading student essays through certain Google apps, and I really like the results.
Here are the 6 reasons you should grade student work electronically. Continue reading “The 6 Reasons You Should Grade Student Work Electronically”
MAKE THEM MASTER IT 