Simple Ways to Save Time on Grading

Teachers devote countless hours each week to grading student work. But there are ways to change this! Here you find simple ways to save time on grading to make your work week more manageable as a teacher!

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**This post first appeared as a guest post I wrote for Suzy Lolley who works hard to help teachers become more efficient.  

See more tips on saving time at her site: suzylolley.com

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Why Grading Matters?

It’s important to establish our reason for taking grades in the first place. Otherwise, we would all be tempted to just throw them out the window!

• Communication: Grades help us communicate with students and families about student progress.
• Track Progress: Grades help you to see what teaching methods are working vs. what’s not working to impact student learning.
• Planning: Grades help us plan our instruction to fit student needs. They drive instruction for your class.

Keeping these reasons in mind prevents teachers from things that are unnecessary when it comes to grading student work.

Save Time on Grading with Tech Tools

Technology has really streamlined grading in my classroom by leaps and bounds! You can shave hours of grading time from your schedule each week with FREE online software and smartphone apps.

Here are some of my favorite tech tools that help you save time on grading student work:

• Plickers
• Seesaw
• Flubaroo
• ZipGrade
• Using Google Classroom Resources

These are just a few of the resources available online that help teachers become more efficient with grading. Some of these tools can be quickly accessed and used right from your smartphone! Which no one leaves home without anymore.

I am constantly raving about apps that help me teach more efficiently because technology in the classroom isn’t just for student improvement. Teachers can improve grading routines through technology as well.

Spend Less Time Grading by Enlisting Student Participation

Train students to be a part of the grading process, which will save your time grading everything alone.

Some ideas on how to enlist student participating in grading are:

• Using rubrics that students can easily follow and use for self-checking.
• Peer-editing checklists and partner work for students to check each other’s work.

These ideas may work best with older students, but with patient training, students can learn to edit their work at any age!

Ask Room Moms / Dads or Assistants to Help with Grading

Don’t be afraid to ask for help with grading student work!

Now I do put a major disclaimer on this tip. I am not suggesting to hand over student papers to complete strangers who have no idea what they’re doing!

You also want to be careful about sharing confidential information pertaining to your students.

Nor should you assume that it’s someone else’s “job” to get your students’ papers graded.

Let me clarify:

• If you have a TA (Teacher Assistant) / Parapro that helps in your classroom, organize your workflow so that he or she can take on some grading assignments.
  
  I make this super easy by keeping stacks of work request sticky notes that only take a few seconds to complete. I attach these to the papers that need to be graded. My TA has a designated area where I keep papers for her to check.
  
• Get an approved, dependable classroom volunteer to help you. Maybe you are allowed to have a Room Mom or Dad, a retired teacher, or some other adult come to help you in the classroom.

If you are concerned about not being able to “see” how your students are doing on an assignment, just ask your helper to leave the papers in your organized paperwork area so that you can access their progress/ results.

Grade LESS Work

If you want to save time on grading student work–stop grading every single thing that your students complete.

This is a challenging one for many teachers. We feel like students will not take the work seriously and give quality effort unless it’s for a grade.

If students are only motivated to complete something just for the grade, then I encourage you to reflect on ways to increase student engagement and excitement in class. Maybe this will help. 

Taking up every single assignment for a grade will definitely lead to overwhelm and teacher burnout!

Quick Tips on Grading Center Work

I love using math and literacy centers in my classroom. Students complete an activity at each center, several times a week.

Do I grade every single center activity? Nope. Here are the different ways I handle these center activities:

• Look over them for major gaps or lack of understanding. If a student bombs a center activity, I will briefly conference with them when they come to my small group teacher table.
  
• Ask my teaching assistant the main center work. I will often pull one center activity that really targets a specific skill or standard and leave one of these work request notes for my teacher assistant to grade.
  
• Have students self-check their own papers. I train my students on how to complete the center, then get the answer key to check their own work.

The rest go in my lovely recycling bin! No stacks of papers to take home for grading.

More Resources to Increase Your Efficiency

Grading student work doesn’t have to eat up all your teacher time each week.

Choose one recommend tip above at a time to implement and master. Trying to do all of them at once will only add to your feelings of frustration with grading student work.

You can also use tips from one of these topics:

• How I Use Choice Boards to Run my Literacy Centers
• Tutorial on Using ZipGrade for Grading
• Paperless Classroom Activities for Upper Elementary Teachers

And remember that you are NOT alone in this! You are doing your best and things will get better. I hope these time-saving tips and tricks help you along the journey!