Grading Hacks #5 for Teachers, Manage & Grade Papers FASTER, High School Teacher Vlog

High school & middle school teachers! Don't get buried by the ever-growing stack of student papers. Instead, borrow these tips from an experienced high school English teacher who has reclaimed her life while still giving rich, meaningful feedback to her students. Episode 5 (the bonus episode!) takes you into the nitty-gritty of how to run a writing contest in your classroom. The writing contest gives your students authentic, meaningful feedback on their writing while giving you some breathing room toward the end of the semester.
Want to help other teachers find this information? SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, COMMENT, or SHARE this video! (Pretty please?)
More information on the Survive! writing contest materials:
www.teacherspa...
A copy of the sample paragraph used to model peer feedback is here on my blog (scroll to the bottom of the blog post):
laurarandazzo....
FREE Sustained Silent Reading program materials:
www.teacherspa...
Lots of tips, tricks, and free resources for teachers at:
laurarandazzo....
Music used with permission of Sing King:
/ singkingkaraoke

[@kristacoyle6644]

I just tried this for the first time (slightly modified for 7th and 8th graders) and it was really fun and meaningful. I've never seen students work so diligently on a piece of writing! And some of the students who wrote the absolute gems got some quiet glory. Fun!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

YES!!! Oh, Krista, this makes me so happy to hear. 🙌

[@jaymelang9610]

I love your energy! I am an aspiring high school English teacher, and your videos show that hosting a challenging, yet doable, class is possible, while maintaining a life outside of the classroom. Thanks for all your hard work!

[@ashleyneighbors7664]

I'm not a teacher and I've been out of school for years now. I somehow stumbled upon your videos and I've watched several (maybe even binged a few)...you're the type of teacher I loved and enjoyed being in their class! I can tell by your enthusiasm that you truly enjoy seeing your students grow! Keep on being such a special influence!! ❤

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Thanks, Ashley, for your note of support. So...you're a non-teacher who can't help but watch teacher videos. Interesting. Maybe a teaching credential and classroom of your own is in your future, perhaps? Hmm...

[@lovesickcynic]

I love this idea! Your students are so lucky to have you!

[@shool4school729]

Oh my goodness, I love this so much! I absolutely love to ham it up and get kids excited about assignments, so I can totally see this working with my juniors. I love that every student participates and they are all seeing multiple examples of great writing. Not having to grade all of these myself is icing on the cake. Thank you! I will be adding this to my TPT must-have list.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Shool 4 School Sweet! Love knowing that this'll fit your classroom style. :)

[@salomeedmond6278]

Thank you so much, Laura. I hate the fact that I came across this now school is out for Christmas break, BUT I will definitely get it going as soon as class resumes. Thank you so much for these. I love them!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Salome Edmond So glad you found me, Salome! :)

[@DogandaTopHat]

This sounds amazing--love the idea for the spring semester with my kiddos!

[@jennifersmith6912]

Fantabulous!!! Such a fun way to make them evaluate! Thank you!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Jennifer Smith Thanks for watching, Jennifer! :)

[@beccarenfroe]

Amazing, as usual. Thanks for these awesome ideas--you are making my first year teaching English so much easier!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

That's awesome, Beccasaurus Rex! My mission is accomplished. ;)

[@Dr.D-hk9rh]

I can't wait to use this :D

[@rebeckah1834]

Excellent video! Thank you for sharing, Laura.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

And thank YOU for watching, Rebeckah! :)

[@brittanyscheer70]

This will make writing so much more engaging for my students! Thanks, Laura!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Absolutely, Brittany! The contest is always a highlight for my freshmen. Because of the competition element, I don't think they even realize that we're reinforcing our semester's writing lessons. Tricky! :)

[@marthadouglas-osmundson4871]

Laura, I love your ideas and your passion SO MUCH! I bought your code ebook and the Survival game, and I am going to use them this year!!! Thank you so much!!!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Martha Douglas-Osmundson Aw, thanks so much, Martha! The Randazzo family is very appreciative. :)

[@DigitallyYoursAdele]

Watched all 5, Saved them in a playlist and SHARING UP THE WAZOO!!!! (Also purchased your Exhausted by Essays file, and I NEVER pay or stuff!!!! ) You ROCK LAURA!!!! YOU are now OFFICIALLY my NEWST FAVORITE KZbinR!!!!!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Thanks for this extra drop of sugar to enjoy with my coffee this morning! SO glad you found me, Adele, and to hear that the codes are working for you. SUCCESS! :)

[@DigitallyYoursAdele]

I haven't gotten to try them yet, but as a fledgling KZbinr, myself, I find you inspiring beyond words! Love the usual (frequent) car-venue, your upbeat and positive attitude and your natural repore with the camera!!! You've got a solid groupie here, in Israell!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Digitally Yours, Adele That’s so nice of you to say! I actually hate that so many of my vids are in the car, but that’s the only quiet, calm space in my day. Plus, the audio’s pretty good in there. Oh! I know you know the pain of trying to find a good filming spot. Keep creating! :)

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Digitally Yours, Adele That’s so nice of you to say! I actually hate that so many of my vids are in the car, but that’s the only quiet, calm space in my day. Plus, the audio’s pretty good in there. Oh! I know you know the pain of trying to find a good filming spot. Keep creating! :)

[@DigitallyYoursAdele]

Hahahaha...... you can just call me "Adele" :-)

[@jamillajones1119]

I love your videos and I'm a 19 year vet.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Jamilla Jones Thanks so much, Jamilla! Glad you’re here with me. :)

[@robertiyer2390]

Wow! I'm really going to have to watch this video step by step before actually doing it. I have to write each step down carefully, not to mention make sure I have the copies in order. I'm really interested in trying this out cause I LOVE IT! Thanks, Laura!!! Just one thing: What happens if you have any absences on the day of writing or after? What if 2 out of 3 from a group are absent, by chance either on the day of writing or the next day?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Glad this procedure spoke to you, Robert! It really is a lot of fun and so good for student growth. If a student is absent, he can email the paragraph to me to still have it included in the competition if he emails it by the beginning of the class period when everyone else's paragraphs are being turned in. A paragraph still needs to be submitted for the 10 completion points, but a late submission cannot be entered into the content because...well, that ship sailed when I had prep materials to launch the judging round. If a student is absent for the judging rounds, the other two people who wrote on that topic will still judge the entries. If two out of three students are absent on submission day (happily, this never happened to me), then I suppose the solo kid who showed up with a paragraph that day would win the Round 1 competition and advance to compete against the other nine Round 1 winners in Round 2. Lots of flexibility, depending on how you build your routine. 👍

[@robertiyer2390]

@@laurarandazzo1158 , of all your Grading Hacks, this one was my favorite and, yes, I loved the others too! I was up for a while at night time thinking about how to work out some of the logistics regarding absences when the new school year starts. Your approach to absences is possible, but knowing where I'm moving to for work, I need to be very careful about how to monitor plagiarism using your suggestion. I can easily do so in the classroom when students are present. That's an easy approach. But, to trust students at home...hmm. I know that at this new school, a few kids will take advantage and deliberately stay home for this reason. I've been informed already about this matter. Thank you, Laura! You're a star!!

[@mspropp5068]

I love watching these videos! Yes, make more videos! Did I miss something? How are students grading each paragraph? Do they use the same codes as you do? Another question: What happens to the papers that are not placed in first? Doesn't the paper load lessen? I need to try this!!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Hi, Ms Propp. Great questions! For the "grading" of each paragraph, it's more like feedback. The first round tribal council members just leave the feedback on the back of the paper and then decide 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. They can debate and decide however they wish to determine the ranking; it just needs to be unanimous. For the 2nd round where the entire class evaluates the top 10-12 paragraphs (depending on the # of topics in that class), my students are given our content rubric to use in consideration as they determine the 1-2-3-4-5. I model this for them, but it's really up to each individual to determine what a "3" means to him/her. All of the papers from round 1, regardless of what place they earned, are returned to the writers on Friday so they can have their detailed feedback. I don't grade any of the paragraphs, though I do quickly glance at the round 1 comments just to make sure everyone's being kind. DEFINITELY give this a go! We still do four-to-five major essays each year that I grade, but the end-of-term contest is a great way to get kids excited about writing without breaking my teacher spine in the process. :)

[@mspropp5068]

What kind of grade goes in the grade book? What grade do I get if I was out after round 1?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Why, you're happy because you earned 10/10 completion points just for entering the contest. :)

[@healingasthmaacasestudy9851]

So I just purchased this and am ready to start, but my periods have a very different number of students in each period. Any suggestion when one class has 27 students and another class has 39?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Sure! Sounds like your giant class will need to have several competition groups of four rather than groups of three.

[@daviesvalerie]

Love this!!! I discovered this idea on Thursday and have already shared it with many colleagues!! Hoping to do this with my grade 8 students next week here in Indonesia! One question: on Thursday, are classes still reading and evaluating the work of another class or their own? Thanks!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Valerie Davies So glad you found my channel, Valerie! On Thursday in the contest week, kids will complete the Round 2 scoring of a different class period’s papers. They never end up scoring papers from their own class period and this works best when I have three sections of the same class level to slide around. Hope this helps! :)

[@daviesvalerie]

That's what I thought--just double checking! Thanks!!

[@mspropp5068]

Also, I feel like my students would stare at me and not know what to write or how to start. Did I doze off watching, what does the winner get? Does a kid find out they lost right away? Sorry if these were answered in the video, just tell me and I can watch again.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Hi again! Since we've worked on literary analysis earlier in the term, my students know what I'm looking for in their 11-sentence paragraphs. You'll just add this contest to the top of whatever writing lesson you've been using with your kids. I just chose lit. analysis because I don't have time to grade another one of those whole essays, but my kids need the practice. They win bonus points in the gradebook - always a big motivation! The round 1 winners find out the next day (Thurs.) in class; the round 2 winners (the top 3 from round 1) find out on Friday. I know there's a LOT of info. thrown at you in the video, so you may want to watch it again. Also, you might want take the nugget of my idea and modify it however would best fit your kids and classroom. My way is one way to do this, but far from the only way. :)

[@mspropp5068]

which tpt item should I buy for this activity? And, what is the one called where you discuss the writing codes and rewrites?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Ms Propp My favorite one is Survive!: www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Competition-Great-Feedback-with-NO-GRADING-from-You-Survive-Theme-490788 And the codes are part of my 5 minute essay grading system: www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Exhausted-by-Essays-5-Minute-Essay-Grading-System-Reclaim-Your-Weekends-1134474 Hope these tools are helpful!

[@Momba_Jules]

Great idea! I'm going to think about how to use this in my own class. Out of curiosity, what are the topics that you use for this during your Romeo & Juliet unit?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

I'm so excited to hear that this might be a match for your classes, Julianne! When I use this toward the end of the spring semester with R&J, these are the topics I'll usually assign: flowers; stars; light/darkness; birds; lips; poison; weapons; Queen Mab; oxymorons; similes/metaphors; puns; and character foils. Remember, they have to write only a paragraph and it's pretty easy to find three concrete details under these umbrellas to analyze. Hope this is helpful! :)

[@Momba_Jules]

Thanks!

[@karengrace7478]

Hi Laura! I have purchased your Essay package through TPT and, of course, it is awesome! However, I do have a question. What is the incentive for the students to do the essay corrections? How does it impact their grade if they do or do not complete the corrections? Thank you so much!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Great question, Karen. Alas, my kiddos are not so intrinsically motivated that they'll complete the corrections for the simple joy of becoming better writers. Sigh... Instead, I make the corrections a separate homework assignment. I don't pour points back onto the original essay grade because I want the grade book to be an accurate reflection of their performance and, hopefully, growth over the term. Whether a student has two corrections or 20, it's still worth the same 10-point HW assignment. If a student refuses to complete the corrections (happily, that hasn't ever happened in my world), I would call home and then keep the full essay grade out of the grade book until the corrections were submitted; the corrections are actually the most important part of the writing process because that's where the real growth/learning happens. Hope this is helpful info! :)

[@karengrace7478]

Very helpful - thank you so much!

[@TaraK172]

Hi Laura! What do you do on Friday's for SSR? Do the students get to read whatever they want or do you assign something?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Hey Tara! It's free-choice reading and they have to successfully book talk 250 pages per nine-week quarter to earn full credit on the assignment. Almost every Friday, they read their books quietly for 40 min. or so, which gives me the time I need to individually conference with kids, work with small group writing support, and stay on top of my grading. I have more info. about my SSR program here: laurarandazzo.com/2016/08/09/making-ssr-work-for-them-and-us/

[@TaraK172]

Laura Randazzo that's a great idea! Thank you for this 😉

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