Grading Systems for ELA Teachers Made Easy: The Backwards Approach

This is the year to transform your grading approach, save time, and enhance student success in English Language Arts. Assignment grading for teachers in the ELA classroom can seem daunting. We often have students do so much writing. And if you are teaching middle or high school, you often have over 80 students to grade for. That’s a LOT of essay and short answer work to read! Grading systems in the classroom are a must. In fact, this is post #1 of classroom systems that will keep you running efficiently all year long!

When I first started off as a new English Language Arts (ELA)  teacher, I felt like I had to grade everything. I had no grading system. I thought that if I made my students do the work, it was only fair that I give them a grade. I wondered, if I didn’t grade assignments, would students be motivated to do the work? I didn’t realize that for most of the school year, grading could be a really easy part of my job. What?! Easy grading as an ELA teacher?! Keep reading to find out how.

Begin With the End in Mind: Mapping Out Your Grading Strategy By Utilizing Backwards Planning

Assignment grading can be manageable most of the time for ELA teachers. There will still be times you have to grade a lot of essays, or give feedback on short answer responses. But if you’re planning well and being strategic and innovative, grading can be a breeze for you and help your students at the same time.  Effective planning for each unit is key to this strategy. Planning your units following the Understanding By Design method by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (backwards design/ planning) means that you know what you are assessing students on at the end of the unit before you even start teaching your unit. Here are some great resources on backwards design on by Jay McTighe. This is key to the grading system that you will use over and over because it works.

Use A Template As a Part of your grading system for Easier ELA Unit Planning

At the beginning of planning your unit when you clearly define and create your end assessments, you can also plan out how many assignments you would like to grade each week. This may depend on your school’s requirements, your grading policy, or both. For example, my school required me to submit three grades a week and I had to create my own grading policy that included two quizzes, one test and one project per unit.

So taking all of that into account, I decided that learning objectives would align to each of those major assignments. I then used daily assignments to build up to the skills required in those major assignments in my grading policy. If you want a super simple grading planner that helps with this strategy, I shared my unit planning template with my weekly grading strategy here. It makes each week so much easier! I come in on Mondays and I know what is being graded, what days I am grading assignments, and when students will get feedback for improvement before the next assessment!

Aligning Assignments with Learning Goals & Putting Assignments on The Calendar

After defining my final assessment, projects, and quizzes as a crucial starting point, I was able to connect the dots. I knew how various assignments supported key skills so I was able to start putting them on my planning calendar. This allowed me to manage my grading workload.  I knew that if my final unit assessment was on week 6 of the unit, I would need a quiz at the beginning and middle of the unit. Those assignments would then go on the calendar. I also knew that I wanted the project to be a way for students to combine the things they learned before taking the final assessment so I scheduled it near the final assessment. This selection was strategic so that my assignments were always targeting critical skills.

Since these major assignments were the most important, they would always be the first to be factored into my required grades each week. Sometimes, I would break these assignments into multiple grades when appropriate. For example, if I was counting the project grade as one of my three grades entered into the grade book each week I could break it into two grades- one for the final project grade, and one for participation according to how students used their class time to work on the project that week. That meant I only needed to enter one more grade in the grade book that week!

Be Intentional About Ungraded Work

Taking the project example into consideration, this does not mean that I graded students on participation, graded their projects, and looked at no other work that week. This just means that I was grading those pre-planned assignments, and giving feedback and monitoring student work either verbally, with short comments, or peer review, for example. A lot of times this is me giving students feedback verbally. I also would carry around a pen and jot down notes on their work and ask if they had any questions. 

I think receiving feedback- especially at the secondary level- can be a skill that our students practice all year. With the exception sometimes of ELLs and students who need more learning support, students can practice receiving feedback and deciding how they will channel it. Will they write down the comments from their teacher? Will they listen and make changes immediately? As adults we are responsible for taking feedback and making use of it and it’s ok if we gradually give our students the same responsibility.

Leveraging Work Review for Student Progress- Not Grading as a part of the grading system

Using work review as a way to inform student progress was very helpful in grading less, but also took some strategizing. If I wasn’t grading after school then I needed to be constantly up & walking around as students were working. That meant saving my lesson planning for after school, not while students were working. 

Work review looks like walking around, peeking over shoulders as students work (which can feel uncomfortable for everyone). I would always start class with telling students I would do this which cuts down on the awkwardness. When I’m reviewing work as students go, I can give feedback on the spot, and also have an idea of what students will turn in later. This can greatly cut down on project or essay grading if you already have an idea of student work before it even lands on your desk. 

Giving feedback also means that this had to be a part of my grading strategy. Nurturing growth had me asking myself which assignments were best for verbal feedback, which were best for a quick grade, and which were more suited for peer feedback or peer grading.

Maximizing Efficiency: Handling Ungraded Assignments

Once I had a clear understanding of my assignments for the unit, and how each of them were going to be graded, I had to decide what to do with the ungraded assignments. These are great assignments to use for peer feedback (with comment suggestions for students) or self-grading. Sometimes I even collect the work, review it, and recycle it (*gasp*) if students do not need to hold onto the work. As teachers we don’t need to hoard work or overload ourselves with every single step of our students’ learning process. As professionals we can say what stepping stones best indicate growth, and which ones were simply practice along the way.  Let go of the guilt if you are carefully planning and grading for true student growth.

Crafting a Balanced and Effective Grading Strategy To Save You Time & Sanity

If you take the holistic approach to grading- weaving together assignments, feedback, and learning goals- your students will succeed. If you make a plan of attack for your grading, you will take home less (if any!) work, grades can be entered more quickly, and you will have a better idea everyday of how well your students are understanding the content of your ELA classroom. 

You don’t have to always be behind on grading, with a huge stack always waiting for your eyes. Make a plan, grade during class time when appropriate, and find alternative ways to inform yourself and students of their progress. Wishing you all the grading success this year!

I’m Glad You’re Here,

Kameo

P.S. Need other classroom system ideas for this year? Check out this post on rules & expectations!