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I am in the midst of grading the first major essays my ninth graders have written this year, and each time, I am reminded (and discouraged) by how complex grading is in writing. There’s sentence-level errors in grammar and typing to detect, as well as sophistication of syntax to note. A teacher must examine the argument developed and the overall execution of this argument, including global organization as well as organization at the paragraph level, including transitions from one idea to the next and one sentence to the next. Next, that teacher must identify and evaluate the evidence a student has used in support of that argument, including proper selection, usage and citation of that evidence, which must be correctly and smoothly integrated into the student’s sentences. Are the points made in clear and specific language? Does the student understand how to craft a correct sentence? Does the argument address the task at hand and show the student’s comprehension of the material? Finally, does the writer actual construct an argument, or does she rely too heavily on summary and facts?
I don’t mind saying that it’s mentally demanding, as well as exhausting, to comprehensively assess each of these elements in comments that both illuminate and advise the student on these issues in ways that are rigorous yet supportive.
Simply put: I’m in grading jail, and it’s sapping my energy.
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You said it. I struggle still every single paper I grade. It has never gotten easier. Hang in there and eventually you will break yourself out. We always do.
Nothing to it but to do it, right? Sigh.
Yes, this describes my last week as well. It took me so much less time — and was so much more interesting — to read and comment on my 9th-graders’ rough drafts than to comment on and grade their final versions. I ultimately wound up doing this laborious grading check on myself where I put all of the papers into piles by specific grade and skimmed them all one more time to see if I thought that the grading was fair across the board and made sense for where the students are and should be as first-term high schoolers. Fortunately, I do find it easier and easier to put grades on 9th-grade papers as the year goes on; it’s the first major essays of the year that almost kill me.
But, of course, it’s not just the 9th-graders; I’m currently struggling with my AP Comp students’ revisions as well. Sigh.
I think what I find so frustrating about grading is that it seems like the end of the process, whereas a draft is still mid-process, with plenty of chances to get better. I know that each finished paper is really part of the ongoing process of their development as a writer, but all the same, putting a grade on something feels like wrapping up something that’s perhaps not very good and is just never going to get better because we’ll be moving onto something else. And perhaps that’s as it should be — one wouldn’t want to be stuck with one paper forever — but still kind of discouraging.
Good luck with the grading!
WN, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I enjoy the part of my job that is helping students with their college essays and if there are any transferable lessons that would make grading essays less tedious and/or more effective. I think a big part of is that I can have so many more honest conversations with my seniors because I’m NOT grading them–we are partners in making this piece of writing better, but I don’t give the final word, so they are not trying to match my rubric or impress me, per se. Also, though, I think I take more an active role than I do with my students, which make sit somewhat easier as well. Finally, I think there’s a student motivation factor that is higher, and I’m starting to think it’s connected to the implicit and authentic purpose and audience. They KNOW this essay is important, they KNOW it’s going to be read by a stranger, and they KNOW its purpose and that it’s an important one. How to translate that into my own grading? I suspect that should be its own post!
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