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Uncategorized   |   Oct 5, 2011

Grading Made Simple

By Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

If you’re looking for a more efficient method of grading papers and assessing student progress, you’ve come to the right place. On this page (which has been adapted from  The Cornerstone book ), you’ll learn tips and tricks to help you gauge student progress quickly and easily.

Using simple and consistent markings

Choose your color for grading and use it exclusively.  I use red because it stands out well and makes it clear to parents and kids what I have written vs. what they have written (my kids often correct their own papers using blue pens). Red is the traditional teacher color, and I think that some of us as adults are kind of scarred from seeing red marks on our papers as kids.  However, a young child hasn’t had those types of experiences and therefore there are no negative connotations. I also use red ink for all of my stamps, so my kids associate red with positive messages, too.

I think seeing numerous corrections can be intimidating in any color, so it’s more important to focus on what types of marks you are making on the paper.  Be sure to use simple, quick markings, and be consistent with them.  For example, I don’t make big Xs by or circle wrong answers, I just draw a slash through the problem numbers.

Try not to make more work for yourself.  I once knew a teacher who wrote the correct answers next to wrong ones on EVERY student paper. That’s great for the kid and parent (assuming they actually read each paper) but it took her a half an hour just to grade a set of spelling tests!  Another teacher I know circles the correct answers and leaves the incorrect ones alone.  This helps build student confidence and makes marks from the teacher a good thing (the more, the better!) rather than a bad thing.  I love this concept, but again, I wouldn’t do it for the whole class because it is too time-consuming.

Keep papers from piling up

Try not to let students’ ungraded work sit out on your desk: until you’re ready to grade, leave it in the file trays where kids turned it in.  Messy piles accumulate so quickly!  If you have a good filing system, it should take less than ten seconds to find any stack of ungraded student work in your filing trays.  Use the ideas in Chapter 4 of  The Cornerstone  book (which is about  Avoiding the Paper Trap ), so there will be no more confusion about what’s already been entered into the computer grade book, what’s has been graded and what hasn’t, etc.

Don’t let papers go ungraded for more than a week, tops.  This is easier said than done!  However, more than once I have been in the middle of grading a tedious math worksheet when I realized I had already tested the kids on the material.  What’s the point of grading the practice class work at that point?  It was too late for me to assess whether or not the kids were getting it, and because I never provided them feedback on how they did, it’s possible that a number of them had used the assignment to practice incorrect strategies.  It was a waste of time for me and them.

Finding time to grade

In the past, I’ve set aside certain times of the day to grade papers, such as during students’ Morning Work, while the kids used math centers or completed cooperative projects (and therefore were being pretty independent), or right after dismissal.  Every day during the predetermined time, I tackled whatever papers the kids had created since the day before.  This was a very effective way to make sure that papers never piled up, and was manageable because my students completed most of their written work in workbooks and journals which are not graded.

I know other teachers who stay after school one day per week to catch up on their grading, and that works well for them. However, when I stay late to work on tedious tasks, I find that I have less enthusiasm and energy the next day in the classroom. For my own sanity, I get my grading done during the school day.

Taking papers home to grade

Although I’ve never regularly taken papers home, I do have an organized file folder system for transporting and keeping track of papers that I prefer to grade at my house.  Sometimes I’ve used  three folders for each subject (class work, homework, and tests); other years I just had one folder for each subject.  Additional folders can also be useful:

• Already graded—to be entered in computer: I kept my grades electronically and put papers in this folder until the grades were entered.
• Already in computer—to be filed: I would empty this folder into the basket of papers for students to take home.
• To review/redo with class: When there were a lot of errors I wanted to go over, I placed the papers in this folder.
• Incomplete: These would be stapled to weekly evaluations on Friday as weekend homework.
• Make-up work: I normally graded make-up work every two weeks and kept it in this folder until I was ready to correct them.
• No names: I filled this file if I was going to try to find the papers’ owners later or give kids a chance to claim them.

Tips for grading student writing quickly

I realize it can be difficult (and time consuming) to think of original, carefully-worded, and encouraging comments for students, so I created this 21 page PDF of  Feedback Comments for Student Writing . It contains hundreds of comment suggestions you can use for written feedback. The comments can also be used to guide your conversations during writing workshop and writing conferences, and to describe student writing for portfolio assessments, progress reports, report cards, or in parent conferences.

Often, you can also simplify the grading process for students’ writing. I use one trait (or single trait) rubrics to help refine my writing instruction, help students better understand characteristics of effective writing and how their work is assessed, and simplify the scoring process.

The idea is simple: since we teach traits of effective writing individually, why not assess traits individually sometimes, too? Not every piece of writing needs a full assessment, and one trait rubrics make it easy for teachers to give meaningful feedback quickly without spending hours grading essays.  Additionally, assessing student writing is a subjective process that is often a mystery to students and parents: using a straightforward rubric with only 3 or 4 criteria makes it clear why an assignment earned the grade it did. It also prevents you from downgrading a paper by weighting one aspect of good writing too heavily. Concentrating on only one trait makes it easier for the teacher to fairly assess a student’s skills in a particular trait.

The system is beneficial for students, too. It can be overwhelming (especially for younger children, reluctant writers, and English language learners) to try to concentrate on all aspects of great writing at one time. Knowing that they’ll only be assessed on a single trait helps students narrows their focus and makes the task more manageable.

You can read more ideas in my blog post,  10 time-saving tips for grading student writing .

Tips for quickly assigning formal grades

Use a slide chart grading aid (easy grader)..

This little device allows you to have any number of problems or questions in an assignment and calculates the grade.  The easy grader prevents you from having to choose a basic number of questions for an assignment, such as 20, in order to make each question worth 5 points each.  With a grading aid, having 27 or 34 questions is no problem.  You can buy these for about $5 at teacher supply stores, or  download a free one  from my site.  The quickgra.de website  will calculate the same way for free online.

Grade an assignment on criteria for multiple subject areas.

If you assign a reading passage with questions about living organisms, you can take reading AND science grades from the same assignment.  A population graph activity may provide you with social studies AND math grades.  At the top of students’ papers, write the subject area and grade for each, e.g., ‘Rdng- B, Sci- A’.

Collect grades from several workbook pages at a time.

This is a useful strategy for grading assignments in workbooks when children aren’t supposed to rip the pages out.  It works best when you need the grades for documentation purposes and don’t need them for information on student progress.  Collect the workbooks and record grades all at once for several assignments by flipping to the page numbers that students completed.  You can even have students fold down the page corners to help you find them more easily.  This process is much more efficient than collecting workbooks or journals after every single assignment.  If for some reason you must do it that way, have students stack their workbooks while they’re still open to the right page so you don’t have to flip through them.

When grading multi-page assignments, grade the first page for each student, the second page for each student, and so on, rather than grading the entire test for one student at a time.

This is an invaluable tip that I learned years back, and it has saved me countless hours.  When grading one page at a time, you tend to memorize the answers, making it easier to spot errors.  If there are a lot of problems on each page, write the number the student got wrong at the bottom of the page, such as –0 or –3, and then after you have graded the whole stack, go back through and count up how many each student got wrong by looking at the minus-however-many that you wrote at the bottom of the pages.

Use accurate student papers instead of making answer keys.

After the first quarter of the school year, you’ll have a pretty good idea about which students will have the right answers on their papers.  If you don’t have an answer key for an assignment, check two or three of those students’ papers against each other first, and find one that is basically correct.  Mark corrections for any mistakes on the paper, then use it to check all other students’ work against.  This is much quicker than making an answer key, and if you photocopy the child’s paper, you can save it and use it for the key again the following year.

Make an answer key transparency.

For lengthy assignments or those you plan to use for several years, make photocopies of bubble sheets (like those used on standardized tests—check the back of your teacher’s guides) and have your students fill in the bubbles instead of writing answers on the test or blank paper.  Make an answer key on a blank transparency using a permanent marker.  When you are ready to grade, place the transparency over a student’s paper and count how many bubbles don’t match up between the student’s sheet and the answer transparency.  I grade my students’ Scholastic Reading Inventory tests this way and can get through an entire class set (45 questions each) in less than 10 minutes.

Tips for keeping a grade book and averaging grades

Give letter grades instead of percentages..

Not every school district allows this, and not all teachers like the idea, but this will save you so much time!  Essentially, instead of having to calculate the exact percentage a child earned, such as 84%, you just write “B” in your grade book.  This makes it much easier to glance over your grades and see how a child is doing and also how well the class as a whole scored on a particular assignment.  At the end of the marking period, average the letters out mentally, or if the grade isn’t immediately clear, assign each letter a point and average it that way (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1).  If your report cards don’t allow for plusses and minuses to be given, this makes even more sense.  Grading isn’t rocket science in elementary school—don’t make your job unnecessarily difficult.

Only use weighted grades if your district mandates that you do so.

Have every assignment count equally, instead of weighting tests to be equal to 50% of students’ overall grades, homework as 25%, and so on.  This will save you massive amounts of time at the end of the quarter.

Simplify the way you calculate homework grades.

At the end of the quarter, I simple go through and count up how many assignments were missing.  If there were 42 homework assignments given in a marking period and a child did not turn in 3, she gets a 39/42 and the computer automatically translates that into a letter grade and percentage out of 100.  If your district requires you to assess homework separately for report cards, then that’s your grade.  If your district expects homework to be included in each subject area’s average, you may be able to use the same homework grade for every subject, rather than differentiate with a reading homework grade, math homework grade, etc.  After all, children are either doing homework or they’re not, and that choice will usually impact their grades in all subjects equally.  Also, if you rarely give social studies, science, or health homework, combining all the homework assignments ensures you will have a homework grade in every subject.

Use a digital  grade book.

I was hesitant to start this method because I thought it would be a pain to have to record grades and then enter them in the computer, but if you back up your files, you don’t have to keep a paper grade book at all!  A computerized grade book allows you to pull up a child’s average at any point (such as when a parent calls), and at the end of the quarter, all you have to do is print out the grades.

Angela Watson

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About bubble sheet grading, we have lengthy reading and math benchmark tests three times a year. We used a laminated bubble sheet (before we started using Scantrons) and then hole punched the correct answers. All you had to do to score the test was place your key on top of a student’s answer sheet then mark a slash in any answers that didn’t match up. It was so fast and easy!!

This is a great tip, Jill! I’ve done something similar with transparencies as the answer key (you make a transparency of the answer key and then lay the transparency over the child’s answer sheet and slash to the left of the problem where the bubbles don’t line up). I like the hole punch idea better because you can mark the correct answer for the student through the hole. Cool!

This article has been so helpful. I am a first year teacher and I have been caught in the paper trap. I refuse to have this continue to happen to me year after year. Everything you described has happened to me. I especially want to return graded papers back to my students in a timely manner. None of my colleagues had a CLEAR suggestion on how to MANAGE GRADES and NOT let the grades MANAGE ME! Thank you again , I will strive for the upcoming school year to be more efficient. Sincerely, Yvette

Hi, Yvette! I, too, found that teachers would tell me not to get stressed out about grading, but never clearly explained how to do that! It’s difficult to find a process that works and even more difficult to explain it. But once I figured it out, I knew I had to write it down so other teachers could benefit!

There are lots more ideas for grading in The Cornerstone book. The ‘paper trap’ chapter would probably be very helpful for you, too, because it explains step by step how to create a place for EVERY paper you come across. 🙂

• Pingback: Grading Strategies | School Outfitters Blog

I’m returning to teaching after being gone for 16 years. Your tips have helped alleviate some of my anxiety. I intend to use several tips. Thanks so much.

I appreciate your kind words. Welcome back!

Thank you very much Iam a new teacher ,your grading is very helpful . Venessa

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A Simple Guide to Grading Elementary Students

Tips for Recording and Reporting Student Progress

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Make Good Use of Assessment

Grade to help your students, not hurt them, use rubrics, codes for marking grades k-2, codes for marking grades 3-5, communicate with families.

• M.S., Education, Buffalo State College
• B.S., Education, Buffalo State College

Grading elementary students is no simple task. Teachers must be objective, fair, and consistent but the volume of grading to be done and lack of time to do it can make this process excruciating. Many teachers also find grading exhausting because they don't have a dependable grading system.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about strategic and productive grading to give you one less thing to worry about.

Before you can implement grading strategies, you first have to make sure that your assessments are effective . The purpose of assessment is to inform future teaching and accommodate student needs but too often, teachers check for correctness, give a grade, and move on to the next concept. This leaves behind anyone still struggling and doesn't give students any information about what to keep practicing.

Assessment results are only helpful when you use them to determine what a student knows or doesn't know (not just whether they are right or wrong), find where discrepancies lie between your instruction and student comprehension, and decide how to get everyone on the same page.

Teach smarter by designing meaningful forms of assessment that allow students to demonstrate exactly what they know at the conclusion of a lesson. These must be closely aligned to a lesson and its standards (assessing skills that haven't been explicitly taught is not equitable teaching) and able to be completed by all of your learners . After a lesson concludes and independent work is finished, use the following criteria for grading, neatly document your findings, and articulate student progress to families.

Grading is complicated and full of grey areas. Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to grade your students as long as you hold them all to the same standards and use grades for good (not evil).

While grades do not define your students or their abilities, they do have a direct impact on their lives. They can discourage them and lead to unwanted competitiveness in the classroom. Some teachers even use grades to shame or guilt their students into trying harder but this only results in low motivation and poor self-esteem.

Use these tips for conscientious grading to prevent your students from feeling like their self-worth is tied to their scores and make the most of the process.

• Recognize student achievement and progress always.
• Differentiate between incomplete and incorrect work.
• Provide students with opportunities for revision.
• Make students aware of what you will be looking for when grading before they start an assignment.
• Give students meaningful and actionable feedback on their work.

What Not to Do

• Use scores as the only form of feedback to students.
• Display or announce grades for the whole class.
• Make a student feel as if you are disappointed in them when they perform poorly.
• Reduce marks based on tardiness or attendance.
• Grade every single assignment students complete.

Rubrics are an efficient and reliable way for teachers to check in with student progress based on pre-determined learning objectives. They can determine whether each student grasped the main takeaways of a lesson and to what extent. Rubrics remove some subjectivity from grading by setting clear guidelines for what constitutes success.

Keep these best teaching practices for rubrics in mind the next time you go to score student work.

• Create a rubric prior to giving students an assignment so that they know exactly what is expected of them.
• Go over rubrics with your students to clear up any confusion ahead of time.
• Keep rubrics as specific as possible but do not make them too long.
• Provide feedback on student scores by referring to individual portions of the rubric.

The two common ways that student work is graded in kindergarten through second-grade are letters or numbers. They both assess a student's progress toward particular learning goals. Whichever system you or your school district prefers, be sure to use grades to show how students are advancing and not only for final products. Marking period report cards should not be the only time that students and families see grades.

Letter Grades

Number grades.

As you can see, the only difference between the two methods is that letter grades offer one more measure of success than number grades. Use your best judgment to choose which system will most benefit your class and stick with it.

Student work for grades three through five is assessed using more sophisticated scoring charts. These almost always involve a system of letter and number combinations. The following two charts are examples of this with one representing a more precise score gradient than the other. Either chart is sufficient.

Simple Scoring Chart

Advanced scoring chart.

A critical contributing factor to student success is family communication . Keep families informed about their child's progress as it is happening so that they can help their child achieve learning targets. Use parent-teacher conferences and progress reports as opportunities to directly touch base and supplement these by sending home graded work often.

• “Grading Student Work.”   Office of Graduate Studies | Teaching at UNL , University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
• O'Connor, Ken.  How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards . Fourth ed., Corwin, 2017.
• How to Use a Running Record to Assess Beginning Readers
• 20 Book Activities to Try With Grades 3-5
• How to Get Students to Talk in Class
• Goal Setting With Elementary Students
• Journal Writing in the Elementary Classroom
• Create Rubrics for Student Assessment - Step by Step
• 7 Independent Reading Activities to Increase Literacy
• Classroom Jobs for Elementary Students
• Scaffolding Instruction Strategies
• June Themes, Holiday Activities, and Events for Elementary Students
• 10 Learning Strategies to Use in Your Classroom
• 7 Reading Strategies and Activities for Elementary Students
• How to Promote Student Growth
• Strategies for Teaching Writing
• Parent-Teacher Communication
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Maneuvering the Middle

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Grading Math Homework Made Easy

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Grading math homework doesn’t have to be a hassle!  It is hard to believe when you have a 150+ students, but I am sharing an organization system that will make grading math homework much more efficient.  This is a follow up to my Minimalist Approach to Homework post. The title was inspired by the Marie Kondo book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up .  Though I utilized the homework agenda for many years prior to the book, it fits right in to the idea of only keeping things that bring you joy.

One thing is for sure, papers do not bring a teacher joy.

For further reading, check out these posts about homework:

• The Homework Agenda Part 2 (Grading Math Homework)
• Should Teachers Assign Math Homework?

I am also aware that homework brings on another conversation:

• what to do if it is not complete AKA missing assignments

Any teacher will tell you that a missing assignment is a giant pain.  No one enjoys seeing the blank space in the grade book, especially a middle school teacher with 125+ students. (Side note, my first year I had 157.  Pretty much insane.)

Grading Homework, Yes or No?

Goodness, this is a decision you have to make for you and the best interest of your students. In my experience, I would say I graded 85% of assignments for some type of accuracy.  I am not a fan of completion grades.  The purpose of homework is to practice, but we don’t want to practice incorrectly.   Completion grades didn’t work for me, because I didn’t want students to produce low quality work.  

Students had a “tutorial” class period (much like homeroom) in which they were allowed 20 minutes a day to work on assignments.  I always encouraged students to work on math or come to my room for homework help.  Yes, this often led to 40+ students in my room.  But, that means 40 students were doing math practice.  I love that.

I also believe that many students worked on it during that time because they knew it was for a grade.  This helps to build intrinsic motivation.  

Grading math homework:  USING THE HOMEWORK AGENDA

During the warm up, I circulated and checked for homework completion. Students would receive a stamp or my initials on their Homework Agenda. Essentially, the Homework Agenda (freebie offered later in this post) is a one-pager that kept students homework organized. As a class, we quickly graded the homework assignment. Then, I briefly would answer or discuss a difficult question or two.  To avoid cheating, any student who did not have their homework that day were required to clear their desk while we graded.

I would then present a grading scale.  This is where I might make math teachers crazy, but I would be generous.  Eight questions, ten points each.  Missing two problems would result in an 80.   I tried to make it advantageous to those who showed work and attempted, yet not just a “gimme” grade. 

Students would record their grade on their Homework Agenda. They would repeat this for every homework assignment that week. A completed Homework Agenda would have 4 assignments’ names, with 4 teacher completion signatures, and 4 grades for each day of the week that I assigned homework.

Later in the class or the following day as I circulated, I was able to see on the front of the Homework Agenda how students were doing and discuss personally with them whether or not they needed to see me in tutorials.   I was able to give specific praise to students who were giving 110% effort or making improvements. 

This is why I love the Homework Agenda.

“There is no possible way, I could collect the assignments individually and return them in a timely fashion. I tried that my first year and there was no hope. Since using it, I am quickly able to provide individual and specific feedback in a timely manner. It opens up conversations and helps be to encourage and be a champion for my students. ”

On Friday, I would collect the Homework Agenda.  If during the week you were absent, had an incomplete assignment, or didn’t complete one, Friday was D day.  It was going in the grade book on Friday.

Here is my weekly process:

• Collect homework agendas
• Have frank conversation with students who did not have it
• Record grades on paper (mostly to make putting it in the computer faster because they were ordered)
• Record grades in computer
• Send the same email to parents of students that did not turn in the agenda – write one email, then BCC names.
• List names of missing assignments on post-it note next to desk (official, I know)
• Pull students from tutorial time (homeroom) who owed me the homework
• Follow up with any students who were absent Friday and still needed to turn in their homework to me

What About the Missi ng Assignments?

Yes, there will be missing assignments.  Yes, students will come to Thursday and have lost their precious agenda.  However, it won’t happen often to the same kiddo.  My least organized student, who carried everything in their pocket, could fold that agenda up and hang onto it for a week.  It was too valuable.  Too many grades, too many assignments to redo.

We all know that it is much more work when students don’t complete their assignments.  It would be a dream world if everyone turned in their work everyday.  Unfortunately, we all live in reality.

We can vent our frustrations over students not doing work, which is legitimate.  We can also work towards solutions. 

The reality is that not every student has a support system at home.  I would love for us to be that voice of inspiration and encouragement.   Sometimes that voice sounds like tough love and a hounding for assignments and just being consistent that you value their education and you are not willing to let them give up on it.

They will appreciate it one day and you will be happy you did the extra work.

Want to try the Homework Agenda?  Download the template here, just type and go!

This post is part 2 in a two part series.  To read part 1, click here.

Digital Math Activities

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Reader Interactions

42 comments.

February 29, 2016 at 2:39 pm

How do you prevent kids from cheating and writing a better grade than deserved? And you said 8 questions 10 points each, so do you then give them 20 points for attempting for making it an even 100?

March 1, 2016 at 2:46 am

Hi Lisa, thanks for the question. You make a great point about students wanting to write a better grade than they earned. The first few weeks, I really talk about what it means to be honest and check over their shoulders. As I walk around to check I will make sure everyone is marking their assignment correctly. I even will flip through what has been turned in on Fridays and double check or “spot” check. After several years of doing this, I can only count a handful of times when I had to deal with a situation. You would be surprised! Yes, I tried to make everything easy to grade as well as giving points for effort, especially if the assignment was difficult. Hope that helps!

May 20, 2016 at 10:03 pm

So do you have students turn in all the papers on friday as well or just the agenda? How do you spot check if you only collect the agenda?

May 20, 2016 at 10:38 pm

Hi Heather! Yes, I have students turn in their work with the agenda. If it was a handout/worksheet I provided, I just set the copier to staple it to the back. If it was something out of a text book, they would staple it to the agenda. Hope that helps!

June 4, 2016 at 9:42 pm

The ‘initials’ box on the homework agenda is for you to sign when checking who has it done? Or is the person correcting the paper initializing it?

Do you take off points for students not having an assignment done by the time Friday rolls around? Also, what does the small 1’s and 2’s in the corner of your gradebook mean?

June 5, 2016 at 6:56 am

Hi Alysia! I use the initials box to sign or stamp that it was complete before we graded it. I think you could have the student grading do that, but then you wouldn’t have a good grasp on how kids were doing throughout the week. I really liked going around at the beginning of class and touching base with students/seeing who needed extra help. Yes, I took off points for turing it in late. We had a standard policy on our campus that I followed. Also, by not having initials, it was by default late because it didn’t get checked when I came around. This section of my gradebook was during review for state testing, so the 1’s and 2’s were a little incentive I was running in my classroom. Review can be so boring and tedious, so I tried to spice it up with a sticker/point system for effort and making improvement. Hope this helps!

August 15, 2016 at 6:27 pm

I’m a bit confused how you assigned a grade to the homework assignment. First, you mentioned each problem was assigned 10 points. How did you determine how many points students would receive for each problem? If I read your blog correctly it sounds like you had the students score the assignment, how did you instruct them to score each problem? With 10 points for each problem it seems like there is a potential to have a wide range of scores for each problem based on who is grading it. Also, did the grader score it or did the student give their own work a grade? Sorry for all the questions…thank you!

August 16, 2016 at 6:43 am

Hi Tanya! In my example, there were eight problems but I only counted each as being worth ten points. That would be twenty points left over for trying/showing work/etc. As for marking it, each problem incorrect would be ten points off. Hope that helps. You could have either the student self grade or do a trade and grade method, whichever you felt more comfortable with.

November 28, 2016 at 1:28 am

Can you explain your grading system in the photo on this page where it reads, “Grading without the stacks of paper”? What do the small 1, 2 and 3’s mean? I assume your method on this posting is to avoid the complicated grading, but you’ve got me curious now about what method you were using in your photo. Thanks for clarifying this for me.

January 2, 2017 at 9:48 pm

The small numbers in the corner were used for an incentive. This photo is from a state assessment prep and I used various points for incentives to keep working!

December 26, 2016 at 7:31 pm

I like the idea of trade and grade. Right not I just check hw for completion and they get 5 points for doing the assignment. I treat this like extra credit for them. Most of them will at least attempt the problems and show their work. We also talk about just writing random numbers and how that will get no points.

December 26, 2016 at 7:34 pm

Ugh! The name is Celeste

March 11, 2017 at 7:25 pm

We aren’t allowed to do trade and grade due to privacy issues and legal issues. Otherwise, I do like this idea.

April 1, 2017 at 2:33 pm

I have heard that from other teachers. You could have them check their own, too.

May 30, 2017 at 3:19 pm

Do you allow them to redo and make corrections to their work for credit back? Or does the grade stand no matter what? This is why I go back and forth between correctness and completion. While they need to practice correctly, I don’t like being punitive for getting the answers wrong when they are learning the material for the first time. I want them to practice, and practice correctly. But I also want them to be motivated to persevere and relearn until they master the material.

June 4, 2017 at 6:10 am

Yes, it depended on the school policy but I would typically drop the lowest homework grade at the end of the grading period. If a student is willing to come in and work on their assignment (redo, a new one, etc), then I was always thrilled and would replace the grade! We want kids to learn from their mistakes. 🙂

June 4, 2017 at 1:48 pm

Regarding grading homework, my students have three homework assignments each week, with between 8 and 13 practice problems per assignment. I go through each problem and award 0-3 points per problem. 0 points if they did nothing. And then 1 point for attempting the problem, 1 point for showing necessary/appropriate work, and 1 point for a correct answer. This way, even if students get the problem wrong, they can still get 2 out of 3 points. If a student got each problem wrong, but were clearly trying, I would give them an overall grade of 70%.

June 20, 2017 at 8:13 pm

Great ideas! Love that!

August 31, 2019 at 8:27 am

Are you grading that, or the students?!?!

March 15, 2024 at 10:44 am

It depends! Usually I had my students grade!

June 15, 2017 at 4:54 pm

Do you staple the agenda to a homework packet to hand out on Monday?

June 20, 2017 at 8:07 pm

Yes! Well actually, I would copy it all together or if it was out of a text book, they would staple their work.

June 19, 2017 at 12:16 am

Our district insists that we MUST allow students an opportunity to complete assignments, and we have to accept them late. They do not specify how late though. I was bogged down with tons of late work this last year, and hated it. Can you please share with me your secret of how you handle late work, how late can it be, how much credit does it receive, and how do you grade it? That would help me tremendously. Thank You!

June 20, 2017 at 8:00 pm

We always had school policies for the amount of credit a student could earn, so I would follow that for credit. As far as actually collecting and grading, I did the following: 1. If it was late, I didn’t sign their assignment sheet. Instead I wrote late. 2. They had until Friday, when I collected the assignment sheet and homework to complete it. 3. On Friday, I would collect everything complete or not, and put grades in the grade book. Then, I would send an email to parents letting them know. Usually, kids would then be motivated to come to tutoring to complete any missing grades. I tried to not take any papers other than the Assignment Sheet and its corresponding work.

August 11, 2019 at 2:47 pm

If the students came in the next week and finished the missing assignment, would you give them full points or would they still lose some points for turning the assignment in late?

March 15, 2024 at 10:47 am

Hi, Jackie! I would go with your school’s grading policy.

August 12, 2018 at 1:55 pm

I really hate taking late work but when im forced to I tell my students that the highest grade they could receive is 5 points lower than the lowest grade fromthe student that turned it in on time.

July 17, 2017 at 3:30 pm

What percentage of their overall grade is homework? We are only allowed to give 10% which is why I only grade for completion and showing work. Maybe I’m not understanding correctly, but you have 80 points per assignment roughly?

August 11, 2017 at 5:26 am

Yes, I really tried to be generous and would give points for showing work/effort, to make the grading scale easy. Thanks!

July 30, 2017 at 9:07 pm

Love all the ideas. One question though – do you have any problems with kids not having their homework done, but making note of the correct answers while the class is grading and then just copying those answers later?

August 11, 2017 at 5:18 am

I would suggest to monitor and ask them to have a cleaned off desk if they did not have their assignment. Thanks!

August 22, 2017 at 11:37 am

What does your class look like on Fridays? If you only assign homework M-Th, when do your students get practice on the material that you teach on Friday?

September 2, 2017 at 9:01 pm

Hi Briana! I didn’t assign homework on Fridays, and really tried to plan for a cooperative learning activity if possible. This way we could practice what we did all week.

August 5, 2019 at 9:21 am

I love the idea of the homework agenda. I tried passing out papers and filing them but it was to time consuming. If students are allowed to take the packet back and forth every day what keeps them from sharing their answers to other students from another class period throughout the day? I love that you can put notes/reminders at the bottom of the agenda page.

June 11, 2018 at 11:07 am

Hello! Do you have a editable copy if your homework agenda anywhere? It seems like an interesting concept. I would love to see the overall layout.

March 15, 2024 at 10:13 am

Yes! You can get it here: https://www.maneuveringthemiddle.com/math-homework/

June 13, 2018 at 7:39 pm

What are your procedures for the agenda for those students who were absent the day you graded?

Hi, Brittany! What a great question. I would just collect any absent students’ packets when they return and grade them on my own.

December 2, 2018 at 11:21 am

I often give homework on Quizizz or EdPuzzle which scores for me. The kids who cannot do the assignment at home due to computer or internet issues can do it in tutoring. (I offer before school, after school, and lunch opportunities for tutoring.)

December 9, 2018 at 9:16 pm

How do you set up your homework agenda? In the date box do you put the due date? Or the date they receive the assignment? Do you have an example homework agenda?

December 22, 2018 at 11:34 am

Hi Alyssa! Yes, check out this blog post for more ideas and a sample: https://www.maneuveringthemiddle.com/math-homework/

August 20, 2019 at 11:41 pm

How and when in this process do you grade the homework for accuracy? At your quick glance at the start of class? On Friday after you collect the agenda and associated work? What mechanism do you use to provide constructive, timely feedback to the students?

Tips for Grading Efficiently and Fairly

How do i grade well on a deadline, ten tips for fair and efficient grading.

• Develop clear assignment expectations before the assignment is handed out and share them with your students.
• Use a rubric to specify grading criteria.
• Grade all responses to the same question together.
• Anonymize assignments when grading.
• Skim a sample of the assignment submissions before grading.
• Limit the scope of your feedback to 2-3 major corrections when possible.
• Create a bank of comments.
• Take regular breaks.
• Create wrappers for your assignments.
• Prepare for grading challenges.

Read below for more explanation, description, examples, and resource links.

1. Develop clear assignment expectations before the assignment is handed out and share them with your students. 

Remember your students will come from a variety of different backgrounds and have different amounts of support in completing their work. Students of privilege will be less impacted by poor directions because they are supported by a network that has informal knowledge about college. For underserved student populations, like first-generation college students, students of color, and other minoritized populations, the lack of clear expectations can cause them to stumble—not because they can’t do what you’re asking of them, but because they didn’t understand what you were asking of them. For this reason, focus on providing clear and widely understood expectations and directions. Doing this is one of the best ways to benefit all of your students and make grading less frustrating for you as well!

With your teaching team, create a grading policy to give students at the beginning of the course. This should include things like: how you will handle late assignments, how students can ask questions about grades, a clear process for how students can challenge a grade respectfully, how quickly students can expect feedback, and how grades and feedback will be shared. 

2. Use a Rubric to specify grading criteria. 

A rubric shows students how an assignment will be scored, and typically outlines specific criteria students must meet and what constitutes a complete and successful assignment. See examples and read more about Grading and Performance Rubrics from the Eberly Center.  You will see more about grading with rubrics in Canvas in an upcoming page. In developing a Rubric, you should work with your teaching team. 

3. Grade all responses to the same question together. 

Imagine you are grading an exam with multiple questions. Whether they are essay responses, or lengthy calculations, your grading will be more consistent for each student if you grade all responses to question 1 before grading question 2. You will be better able to track themes or common problems across students, and be able to more easily apply consistent feedback. Later in today’s content, we will cover Speedgrader, which allows you to grade by question. 

4. Anonymize assignments when grading.

To “anonymize” an assignment means you remove student identifying information, so you don’t know which student you are grading. This practice helps to minimize bias, and is commonly used in screening job applications. Even the most well-intentioned teachers still have feelings and implicit biases, i.e. attitudes that unconsciously affect actions, that affect their grading (Boysen & Vogel, 2009).  Information on how to anonymize assignments when grading in Canvas can be found here: Anonymous Grading in Canvas . 

5. Skim a sample of the assignment submissions before grading.

Especially when you are new to grading and to a particular assignment, it can be hard to calibrate your expectations. Often, the first grades you assign will be too harsh or too easy. As you grade more students’ assignments you will start to find the right balance of how discriminating you want to be, the amount and level of corrections you offer, and the time you can spend on each assignment. By skimming the assignments beforehand or assigning grades in pencil, you can help ensure all of your students are receiving consistent treatment.

6. Limit the scope of your feedback to 2-3 major corrections when possible.

You don’t always need to comment on everything that is wrong on an assignment. This is inefficient both in terms of your time and student learning. Focus on the most important and clear corrections, and provide instructions for improvement. This will make it easier for your students to understand the most important aspects of the assignment.

7. Create a bank of comments.

You will likely find yourself offering the same comments repeatedly. To save time you can create abbreviations (e.g. NC = needs citation) or a numbered bank of comments with detailed corrections which you share with the students. Then, as you grade, all you need to do is put the appropriate abbreviation or number that corresponds to the comment and correction in your bank. 

8. Take regular breaks.

Grading all of your assignments without a break may mean you are more likely to be tired or frustrated at the end. This may make you more harsh or less detailed in your feedback. Instead, make a schedule with breaks and rewards during the time you allot for grading.

9. Create wrappers for your assignments. 

Wrappers are short worksheets that come before or after an assignment. These can help identify student preferences for feedback as well as serve as reflection tools, which aid in student learning. Wrappers can ask things like:  What grade do you expect to receive on this assignment? What are you most proud of in this assignment? Is there anything in particular you want me to focus on or provide feedback on while grading this assignment?

This information can help you decide how best to provide feedback. It can also help students make connections between their effort, your feedback, their grade, and how they can improve ( TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 4 , n.d.). Read more about Metacognitive Wrapper Questions.

10. Prepare for grading challenges. 

A student challenging a grade can be both an intimidating and stressful situation. This is an area where it is extremely important to be on the same page as your lead instructor. Make sure you discuss this eventuality beforehand as well as any individual cases that arise. Having a clear policy will help you navigate the situation easily in the moment. Discuss this with your teaching team! 

Consider creating a policy in your course that creates space and time for you and the student to review the assignment and then have a calm discussion. Some policy suggestions include: asking students to wait at least 24 hours to contact you about their grade, asking students to email you to schedule a face-to-face or private virtual meeting and summarize their complaint, or specifying that you will not re-grade the assignment with the student present. Don’t be afraid to do what you think is right. Sometimes, the student will be mistaken and you can stand by what you originally said. Other times, you might have made a mistake  – simply acknowledge it and correct it. It is not a sign of weakness for you to admit the mistake. Review L&S Grade Appeal Information if you are teaching an L&S course. 

Boysen, G. A., & Vogel, D. L. (2009). Bias in the Classroom: Types, Frequencies, and Responses. Teaching of Psychology , 36 (1), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00986280802529038

Staats Cheryl et al. (2017). State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review 2017. Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved June 21, 2020, from http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2017-SOTS-final-draft-02.pdf

TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 4: Metacognitive Processes . (n.d.). LINCS | Adult Education and Literacy | U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teal/guide/metacognitive

Grading Principles and Guidelines

One of the primary goals of a proficiency-based grading system is to produce grades that more accurately reflect a student’s learning progress and achievement, including situations in which students struggled early on in a semester or school year, but then put in the effort and hard work needed to meet expected standards. If you ask nearly any adult, they will tell you that failures—and learning to overcome them—are often among the most important lessons in life.

When building a proficiency-based grading and reporting system, schools should begin by developing—ideally, in collaboration with faculty, staff, students, and families—a set of common principles and guidelines that apply to all courses and learning experiences. The guidelines should represent the school’s grading philosophy, including how grading will be used to support the educational process. In “Starting the Conversation about Grading” (Educational Leadership, November 2011), Susan M. Brookhart makes the following recommendation:

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that getting sidetracked with details of scaling (letters, percentages, or rubrics? Zeros or not? No Ds or Fs?) or policies (What should we do with late or missing work? How can we report behavior? What will we do about academic honors and awards?) before you tackle the question of what a grade means in the first place will lead to trouble. Logic, my own experience, and the research and practice of others (Cox & Olsen, 2009; Guskey & Bailey, 2010; McMunn, Schenck, & McColskey, 2003) all scream that this is the case. Grading scales and reporting policies can be discussed productively once you agree on the main purpose of grades. For example, if a school decides that academic grades should reflect achievement only, then teachers need to handle missed work in some other way than assigning an F or a zero. Once a school staff gets to this point, there are plenty of resources they can use to work out the details (see Brookhart, 2011; O’Connor, 2009). The important thing is to examine beliefs and assumptions about the meaning and purpose of grades first. Without a clear sense of what grading reform is trying to accomplish, not much will happen.

The following exemplar guidelines are offered as suggestions to schools as they implement a proficiency-based leaning system: 1. The primary purpose of the grading system is to clearly, accurately, consistently, and fairly communicate learning progress and achievement to students, families, postsecondary institutions, and prospective employers. 2. The grading system ensures that students, families, teachers, counselors, advisors, and support specialists have the detailed information they need to make important decisions about a student’s education. 3. The grading system measures, reports, and documents student progress and proficiency against a set of clearly defined cross-curricular and content-area standards and learning objectives collaboratively developed by the administration, faculty, and staff. 4. The grading system measures, reports, and documents academic progress and achievement separately from work habits, character traits, and behaviors, so that educators, counselors, advisors, and support specialists can accurately determine the difference between learning needs and behavioral or work-habit needs. 5. The grading system ensures consistency and fairness in the assessment of learning, and in the assignment of scores and proficiency levels against the same leaning standards, across students, teachers, assessments, learning experiences, content areas, and time. 6. The grading system is not used as a form of punishment, control, or compliance.In proficiency-based leaning systems, what matters most is where students end up—not where they started out or how they behaved along the way. Meeting and exceeding challenging standards defines success, and the best grading systems motivate students to work harder, overcome failures, and excel academically.

Additional Reading on Effective Grading Practices Many educators, academics and grading experts have dedicated their career to untangling some of the thornier issues related to grading and determining how grades can facilitate, rather than impede, the learning process for students. We have included a selected list of books below for those who want to learn more about the grading practices that support student learning. Each work outlines practical strategies that educators can use to build an effective proficiency-based grading and reporting system that values and supports the learning process.

Susan M. Brookhart Grading and Reporting: Practices that Support Student Achievement (2011) Thomas Guskey Answers to Essential Questions About Standards, Assessments, Grading, and Reporting (with Lee Ann Jung, 2012) Developing Standards-Based Report Cards (with Jane M. Bailey, 2009) Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Report Cards (2008) Developing Grading and Reporting Systems for Student Learning (with Jane M. Bailey, 2000) Tammy Heflebower, Jan K. Hoegh, and Phil Warrick A School Leader’s Guide to Standards-Based Grading (2014) Robert Marzano Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading: Classroom Strategies that Work (2009) Classroom Assessment and Grading that Work (2006) Transforming Classroom Grading (2000) Ken O’Connor The School Leader’s Guide to Grading: Essentials for Principals Series (2012) A Repair Kit for Grading: Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades (2010) How to Grade for Learning (2009) Douglas Reeves Elements of Grading: A Guide to Effective Practices (2010) Making Standards Work: How to Implement Standards-Based Assessments in the Classroom, School, and District (2004) Rick Stiggins Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right—Using It Well (with Jan Chappuis, Steve Chappuis, and Judith A. Arter, 2009) Rick Wormeli Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom (2006)

Download Grading Principles and Guidelines  (.pdf)

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Keep Your Calm with These 15 Time-Saving Tips for Grading

Help! I’m up late grading EVERY night, and I’m exhausted.

When you have a mountain of assignments to grade, sometimes even the best Netflix marathon can’t keep you from feeling overwhelmed. If you’re exhausted from staying up late correcting papers every night of the week, put down the red pen and read these teacher-tested tips for making it faster and easier to grade tests, quizzes, essays, and more.

1. Stamp student assignments.

Ellen L.G. Lucy , who’s been teaching for 35 years, says the best teacher tool she ever bought, at the recommendation of a colleague, was a rubber stamp from Vistaprint that says “Seen by Mrs. Lucy.” She stamps papers that she has perused—not corrected completely—so students and parents are aware. If you don’t want to buy a stamp, take Melissa Redden’s advice: Just put a large check mark on the paper in a noticeable color. “I tell parents at the beginning of the year the only grade book grades will be a number grade with a circle around it,” says Redden.

2. Color-code essays.

Students in Jamie Hales ’ class color-code their essays before turning them in. She has them underline their main idea in one color, evidence in another color, and key vocabulary in a third color. “It forces them to make sure they have everything required before turning it in,” says Hales. “I can scan the essays to make sure the colors are all there.”

3. Use a scanner.

For grading multiple choice and true/false questions, you can save yourself hours of tedious work with a scanner. At only three pounds, Apperson’s DataLink 1200 is portable, so you still can do your grading at home if you run out of time at school. The best part is that it comes with DataLink Connect , free software that instantly spits out reports on student performance. So, instead of sorting through every quiz or test, you can quickly look over the report to find common errors and areas you may need to review in class the next day (and quickly get back to watching your favorite shows!).

4. Pass out colored pens.

Have students grade their own multiple choice quizzes and worksheets with a brightly colored pen, like red or green. Ronni Jones says she has her students place their pencils on the floor and asks her most trusted students to act as monitors. She likes the system because it provides kids with instant feedback. “You still have to check to be sure they’re being honest,” says Heather Galiszewski, who also uses this strategy. “I tell my students that if I see anything other than a red pen in their hands, they get an automatic zero.”

5. Grade one section at a time.

When Rebecca Bolton is grading assignments or tests, she first grades all multiple-choice questions for every student. Then she moves on to the second section and so on. She says it typically takes only about two minutes per student to grade her physics exams.

6. Stop using an answer key.

If you’re grading assignments, not formal assessments, correct one paper against another. Ellen L.G. Lucy learned this technique from a teacher friend. For example, put any two students’ papers side by side; find where the answers differ; and then check to see which one is correct. Lucy says this technique catches most errors.

7. Provide an answer blank.

“When I first started teaching, I thought I needed to look at every process on every problem for every student,” says math teacher Cindy Bullard. She started adding answer blanks so she could quickly focus on the areas where students need support. “If they have right answers, a quick scan tells me if their process and notation are correct,” says Bullard. Wendy Badeau uses a similar strategy to save time, which she learned from a fellow teacher: She asks her students to write any multiple-choice or true/false answers in the margins of their papers. “I can line up four or five papers and grade them all at the same time.”

8. Trade and grade.

Sarah Mattie has students write their ID numbers, instead of their names, on assignments. That way, when she asks students to trade papers and correct them, it not only saves her time, but it also keeps grades confidential.

9. Don’t grade everything.

Take a hint from Caitlin Valesco and give a completion grade on bellwork or work that is guided and/or done with a partner. Rather than collecting this work to correct, Valesco simply walks up and down the aisles with a clipboard and checks that the assignments have been completed. Kimberly Darron grades homework for completion by using a bingo dauber color-coding system: green dot for 100 percent complete; blue dot for 50 percent complete; and red dot for 0 percent complete. Darron says she also uses this system to grade journal entries when she’s just scanning for content completion.

10. Spot check during lessons.

Ellen L.G. Lucy often provides students with whiteboards and markers (or has them use the whiteboard app on their iPads) to have them work through math problems and hold up their answers. “The nice thing about this is you can quickly see who is understanding the concept by not only accurate answers but by who holds up their whiteboard the quickest,” says Lucy. Sarah Mattie also uses whiteboards for vocabulary assessment. She asks students to write down the words and hold them up.

11. Alphabetize assignments.

One of the student jobs in Anita Schmuecker’s classroom is to put all turned-in papers in alphabetical order. She says it helps her quickly enter the scores after she grades them.

12. Cut down on grading long assignments.

On longer assignments, Michelle Turner chooses a random 10–15 questions and grades those rather than the entire assignment. She says she chooses a different set of questions for each student.

13. Give verbal feedback.

“I’ve started providing more verbal feedback to students,” says Christa Barberis. “Assessment needs to be something students can work with, and it needs to be authentic,” says Barberis. She typically provides feedback on one aspect of the assignment in which a student did well and one aspect that needs improvement.

14. Use voice typing to dictate your comments.

When Sancha De Burcha needs to write extended feedback on assignments, she uses Google Docs’ voice-typing feature. She downloaded the app for her phone, which allows her to simply dictate her comments rather than write or type them. Bonus of using this method: You end up with a digital record of the feedback. De Burcha cautions, however, that you need to check for typos.

15. Mark all papers before entering grades.

Many teachers mark a single assignment and enter it into the grade book immediately. Mary Elizabeth Allcorn says she saves a lot of time by marking all papers first. She then sets up her grade book and inputs all of the grades at once.

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