Grading Papers

2/7/07

Turns out that they did not have school this past Monday because of snow, so I am glad that I didn't miss out on a day where I could have been there if it weren't for being sick.

On Wed, I turned back the papers that the kids did for me for the subjunctive and went over the parts where I saw most kids were struggling. The work that they did for me was their introduction, and since then they had worked on it with Mrs. K, and seemed to understand their mistakes right away.
I really understand now what a chore it is to grade papers. I was only grading 30 papers, but it was a task! Last weekend, while recovering from being ill, I kept thinking to myself, be productive, and at least check those papers (because I wasn't being productive at all that weekend, I had so little energy) And every time I began to look at them, I would just set them back down, because they made my headache even worse. They just kept staring me in the face until Tuesday when I finished them. But it was hard to decide how I was going to grade, what to correct, and I wanted to make sure I tried to make an effort to really read what the kids had written because I dont spend much time with them, and I want to start building bridges and getting to know them better. Everytime I marked something wrong, I crinched, hoping that I wasnt going to be the teacher that grades harshly and isnt helpful in his/her corrections.


What I learned: Correcting papers is a daunting task.
What I want to do better: Get to know the kids, starting with their names and faces. (I know some, but not all)
What I did well: I made sure to write at least a sentence or two on each paper to provide feedback to the kids in some way. Some had questions about what they had written, others were what they did well etc.