Grading strategy for high school teachers - easy and fast way to make sure students are reading

How to grade papers - an easy way to quiz students on their reading assignments. It’s not a quiz, test, or formal assessment. It’s a QUIZZER! Now, doesn’t that sound better?
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[@chelseyneff2593]

Current student teacher over here!! I LOVE quizzers with all my heart and soul! My students and I have more time for meaningful conversations over Great Gatsby. Thank you so much!! 💗💗

[@gigikean6003]

OMGGGGGG! Are you back....like for real?! We miss and NEED you girlfriend. We on the struggle bus. Randazzo to the rescue.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

For real, for real, Gigi. Let's sit in the back of the bus together. :)

[@bladedesoul]

One of my favorite English Professors used to do this and even as a 30 year old man, it was terrifying. That random 'PUT EVERYTHING AWAY' and then a simple one question quiz that just proves whether or not you were doing the reading. It's neat to know that I can apply the same strategy in a High School class.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Go for it! It can become like a game show, too. Let's play, "What'll Randazzo Ask Today?" :)

[@nunyabizness3890]

When you said AUDIOBOOKS, I cheered! SERIOUSLY, people, some students do struggle with reading print, but they can still get the content through audiobooks. Laura, I just love you for this.

[@geniakenschaft4935]

Yes! Please restore humanity to assessing students! Yes. You have to be consistent, but if they care enough to come to you about a grade they will care enough to work to change it and they definitely deserve to be heard. Thanks for this. Also, love the "quizzer" idea. We tried to read novels in a virtual environment [cue crashing plane sound]. Short stories work better. Can't wait to be on the other side of COVID for so many reasons.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Absolutely, Genia! Everyone deserves more grace than ever this year. Stay strong.

[@dakotagibson5405]

Thank God! Randazzo is back! I watch you daily!!! Thank you for all you do! 😍

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Hey, Dakota! Feel free to keep looping my old stuff. I mean, I make .000001 cent per click. :D Ha!

[@velinabrown2708]

Welcome back. Thanks for the quizzer idea.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

You bet, Velina! Happy you're here with me. :)

[@MrsMoss-sb9in]

Lol you're hilarious. "Look I have a prop."

[@kristacoyle6644]

LOVE!!!!!

[@MrsSonyaKS]

Wait. Huck Finn is still being taught in schools today?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Sigh...yes. #wecandobetter #theyrarelybuyusnewbooks

[@robertdufour2456]

Brilliant!!!!!

[@lisal.4837]

I am so glad you are back on the tube! You have made my start in teaching so much easier and more enjoyable and for that I am deeply grateful. I am a teacher at secondary school in Europe (year 8-10) for English as a Second Language. My students have difficulties with reading comprehension. After talking to students and discussions with the whole class, I found out that they might lack specific strategies to make sense of a text. In my class, the proficiency levels vary greatly (A1-B1). I was wondering if you have already created materials or a video on how you develop students' skills in reading comprehension... Thank you Laura!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Hey, Angelina, thanks for watching and for reaching out to me! Building reading comprehension skills is a huge topic. I'm thinking I'd need a whole series of videos to show how we might approach this. (Just added this to my video topic creation list, by the way - thanks!) For my lowest level readers, I've found that audio support goes a long way toward improving comprehension. Some kids just absorb the content better through their ears instead of their eyes. High-quality audio productions of texts, teachers reading aloud with different character voices, and - my favorite! - readers' theater are good places to start. You can learn more about readers' theater over on my blog: laurarandazzo.com/2014/08/19/help-teens-work-through-thick-text/ Hope this helps! :) Laura

[@andrewhendrickson7506]

YAYYY! You're back!!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Yay! You're back here with me, too! :)

[@neulovecat]

So happy to see you again!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Happy that you're still here with me, Lotta! :D

[@nikkirae83]

I am so excited you are back! Please keep the videos coming. I love this idea for grading. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

It feels good to be back! Thanks for watching and being here with me. Glad quizzers might find a place in your classroom. :)

[@Hosanna77777]

Love your videos. Glad you're posting again!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Glad that you're glad! It's so nice to be with my peeps again. :)

[@danadaugherty1126]

So great to see you, again! I always love your material.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Thanks, Dana! I appreciate that you've stuck around. I know I've been...um...inconsistent on KZbin. Oh! :)

[@brieb9750]

I just love your energy! I’ve used this hack because of you! I’ve also shared your wisdom with others in my LA dept! 💞

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Brie! You're the best! Thanks (as always) for walking beside me. :)

[@brieb9750]

@@laurarandazzo1158 Thank YOU! 💞

[@sheiladevisubramaniam7466]

Hi. Enjoying your rants, tips and insights

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Thanks, Sheila. Try as I might, I just can't stop myself from talking sometimes. Glad you're here for it. :)

[@love_agapi_m3976]

Welcome back!

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Thanks so much! :)

[@vikkicharboneau9521]

Do you change the question for each class?

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Ab-so-lutely.

[@gnomealone350]

I’ve been watching lots of teacher videos from the US and I can’t wrap my head around this word “grading”. Where I live here in 🇨🇦 nobody uses that word. We call it “marking”.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

That's because you're way fancier than us. 😉

[@yendiparker642]

Would be good too if they did read but can't quiet remember that specific part they can just write/describe other information around that part in the book 🤷

[@niviamaldonado1361]

Hi. Thank you so much for your tips! I'd like to do quizzers too but I'm not sure how to integrate it within my gradebook. Is this a separate category, worth 10% or do you integrate this with your classwork assignments? TIA

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Great question! I don't weight grades. I just enter the quizzer grade as straight points. By the end of each semester, there's usually 1,000 to 1,200 points in the gradebook. A quizzer's worth 5 points. For comparison, a unit exam or process essay is usually worth 100 points. I increase the points for major work as we get deeper into each semester. Hope this is helpful.

[@lindaweston9456]

@@laurarandazzo1158 yes! Weighting grades by points. I did it for 30 years and it never failed me.

[@jenniferburke-hansen155]

I love this idea!! But what do you suggest when there is a majority or a good number of students who haven’t read??

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Oh yeah, this happened to me when I first started at my new high school in Idaho. The kids were shocked when I pulled the 10 kids who had read into a small discussion circle while the other 24 were assigned to read the chapter silently at their desks. The group of 10 was engaged in the discussion of the chapter (laughing and building on each other's ideas) that a lot of the non-readers started leaning in to listen to our discussion. It became an unplanned fishbowl and the quizzer pass-rate soared for the next day's reading quizzer. It doesn't always work. But sometimes it does. :)

[@normanleach5427]

A gym teacher assigns a quick task if you don't know the answer to a trick question: How many sheep did Moses have on the arc?

[@bornearth]

I appreciate the strategy. And I feel that some of your talk is racialized. I am stating this respectfully.

[@velinabrown2708]

Hi Bornearth, Could you give a specific example of “racialized” talk in this video. I feel making a general statement like that is too vague to be helpful. Thank you for sharing your perspective.

[@laurarandazzo1158]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm with Velina, wondering what specifically jumped out at you. By all means, I want to be thoughtful about the material I produce. If you'd prefer to let me know more privately, you're welcome to message me via the Q&A option on my blog where it won't post publicly. Thanks!

[@bornearth]

I rewatch the entire video to point it out but I'm share between 2m and 3 m it is racialized in a way that swings problematic. But hey, be well with Velina. Keep leaving your speech open to question.

[@GaunCochran]

Maybe they were referring to 1:05 in the video where you said something that sounds like African-American Vernacular English. I personally don't see why that would be inappropriate but I did notice it too. I'm not American, so I'm curious if this is something people are very sensitive about now.

[@cherish2559]

@@bornearth this is still pretty vague. I'm black and I genuinely don't know what you're referring to. Not saying there's nothing but you gotta be more specific if you want people to be able to reflect on what you're saying