If you’re a teachers, then you know that grading is a crucial part of the job. Many teachers are looking to optimize their time when grading students, and learn to grade better. Some teachers and school administrators are looking into a robust online gradebook to help solve their grading challenges. But what are the best ways to grade your students? Here are eight helpful tips for grading your students.
Table of Contents
1. Be Clear and Consistent in Your Grading
When grading student work, it’s important to be clear and consistent in your expectations. This will help ensure that all students are graded fairly and accurately. It’s also important to be consistent from one assignment to the next, so that students know what they need to do to get a good grade.
2. Grade on a Curve
Grading on a curve can help ensure that all students are graded fairly. It can also motivate students to do their best, since they know that not everyone will get an A. How do you do this? Simply grade students based on how they compare to the rest of the class. For example, if most students got a C on an assignment, then a student who gets a B would get a higher grade than one who gets an A.
3. Use Rubrics
Rubrics can be helpful for grading student work. They outline the specific criteria that will be used to determine a student’s grade, and they can help ensure that all students are graded fairly. If you are creating your own rubric, make sure that it is clear and concise. After all, you don’t want to be grading students on things that they didn’t actually do wrong.
4. Grade holistically
When grading student work, it’s important to look at the big picture. Don’t just focus on individual assignments or tasks; instead, consider how the student performed overall. This will help you to determine a student’s strengths and weaknesses. This also helps in eliminating the chance of bias when grading student work.
5. Use Feedback to Improve Grading Practices
If you’re not sure if your grading practices are effective, then ask your students for feedback. This can be done through surveys or interviews. By doing this, you can gather information about how well your grading system is working and make necessary changes. Many teachers allow students to grade at times, because they know their classmates best and can be impartial.
6. Grade on Effort
One way to help motivate students is to grade them on effort. This means that students can get a good grade, even if they don’t have the best skills or knowledge in the class. To do this, you simply need to create a rubric that measures how much effort a student puts into their work. This can be done by looking at things such as how much time the student took to complete the assignment, how well they followed directions, and how many mistakes they made.
7. Grade on Improvement
Another way to motivate students is to grade them on improvement. This means that students can get a better grade if they show improvement from one assignment to the next. To do this, you need to set specific goals for each student and then grade them on how well they met those goals. You can use a rubric again to help you determine how much improvement a student has made.
8. Use Technology to Grade Student Work
Technology can be helpful for grading student work. For example, you can use software to grade essays or tests. This can help to ensure that all students are graded fairly and accurately. It can also save you time, since you won’t have to grade all of the student work manually.
Zara Raza is the Head of Marketing at SchoolCues, an all-in-one SaaS platform for schools to manage their admissions, payments, grades, student information, and more. She graduated from University of California in 2019, and has written several blogs on topics such as technology and education.
