These past few weeks a large part of my responsibilities has been grading. In Week Three I (extremely) briefly mentioned that I was grading papers and it was not as easy as it seemed. With the work piling up I definitely feel the need to revisit that thought. Grading is still not easy, and for the most part it is also not very fun. Grading also happens to be a huge part of the teaching profession, so it is an important topic and one that sheds light on other aspects of the classroom.
The first aspect of grading that can have a huge impact on a classroom is the format of the test. ScanTron tests are often criticized as only engaging students on the first and second levels of thought: knowledge and comprehension. A multiple choice question does not have students analyze or synthesize things. The real depth of history operates on those higher levels of thought. However, ScanTron tests have the ability to cram 90+ minutes worth of grading into only 10. It is no wonder many teachers embrace fill-in-the-bubble tests.
Mr. Trousil and I both share the same enthusiasm for getting students to think. He does not give ScanTron tests often. What that ends up as is a lot of grading by hand.This semester Mr. Trousil has me to take care of most of the grading. One time as an entire class period passed me by and I was barely 50% done with grading one assignment, a question hit me; “How do teachers grade everything on their own?” Mr. Trousil only gets 2 periods off, and 1 is for lunch! Deep inside I knew the answer as I had already had to do this. Teachers take homework home. It would be impossible to grade 4-5 classes worth of work during the school day when 1 class’ assignment takes longer than 1 period itself. Where is the time for lesson preparation? It seems like a huge juggling game that I will eventually have to master.
One aspect of grading that I will comment on is how I believe history is one of, if not the most, difficult and time-consuming fields to grade. In science and math, there is a definite “wrong” or “right” answer. In history, many answers mainly require proper argumentation. History has so many factors that in written response questions I personally struggle at assigning points. If you feel like the students understands the concept overall but his explanation is not great how much is that worth? How about if there is little explanation but they have good knowledge and are completely correct in their points. There are so many variables that go into a response of a history-based question that assigning the appropriate number of earned points can be extremely difficult. At what level does grading become nit-picking?
Through my education at Loyola I became familiar with the creation and utilization of rubrics. I’m still not totally convinced that rubrics are the answer to every assignment. Mr. Trousil and a few discussions about grading. We both agreed that grading is something that I would have to learn by experience. He stated that he trusts my judgement and I should do the same as I learn. With the continuous expose and practice I have fallen into stride with certain assignments, others I still find difficult. Every assignment and every class provides different challenges; it is something I will continuously develop over time.
History @ Mather 