The Bugaboo of Writing Instruction: Grading 😫

Read on teachers...but ALSO read on students & professionals: I have tips for you before I get into the grading weeds....

When I shared my new professional plans at the school from which I am departing, a colleague asked me: “Can you do anything to help teachers with grading writing? I constantly hear about how difficult it is…” Of course, I gave a resounding, “Yes!”

In the long term, I’m cooking up some big ideas about how emergent technology can dramatically speed up and streamline our evaluation of writing…so stay tuned in the coming months for those exciting updates…but, in the meantime, I have some action items to make teacher’s lives easier NOW.

Before the non-teachers on this list decide to stop reading…hold on! I have tips for you, too.

Before you move on: please know that there is a LOT of content in this newsletter. I recommend using the tried and true technique of skimming to find the content that interests you and leave the rest 😉.

To professionals:

In case you’ve been out of the education space for a while, the gold-standard grading technique is the use of rubrics, which are glorified checklists of expectations for any assignment.

Well, what I posit for you today is that creating your own writing “rubrics” (i.e. checklists) can help you more effectively accomplish any writing goal. Here is my suggested checklist for the professional writer:

1. Who is my audience? Ask yourself: literally who will read this text? Or is there an “imaginary” audience for whom I’m supposed to write? (e.g. in academic writing, one often writes for the “generally educated reader who knows little about one’s specific topic”)

2. Is there a standard format for this type of writing? If you know what it is, adhere to it. If you aren’t sure, find some mentor texts (i.e. samples you’d like to emulate—I have taken this tack with cover letters and resumes, for example). If you are blazing a trail, create your own template before writing. In my professional writing experience, I have done this with student comments: before I write 50 individualized comments, I create a paragraph-by-paragraph fill-in-the-blank template. Doing so streamlines the process, ensures consistency in a repetitive writing task, and ultimately increases the specificity of each final text while maximizing efficiency.

3. What level of formality should I assume? The tone of our writing should differ tremendously between an academic paper, a professional report, a marketing email, a blog post, and a social media story. For example, here, I am using a polished conversational style. I want you to feel like I am “talking to you,” yet I want to use complex sentence structure, precise and varied vocabulary, and appropriate grammar for the context (e.g. complete sentences yet also the use of contractions).

4. What is my one-sentence goal for this text? Ultimately, you should be able to articulate a “thesis statement” for any text. Then, when you review your work, you should check that your text actually serves to further that goal.

5. Have I proofread? Never forget to proofread. My favorite tools are the free AI text-to-speech app, Speechify Soundbites, and Grammarly (which is not always correct but does help—always crosscheck Grammarly’s suggestions with your instincts).

To students:

My advice for you is simple: use the rubric carefully, and if there is no rubric, ask for concrete expectations and examples. Don’t stop asking questions until you are sure about exactly what your teacher is looking for!

In addition, take advantage of every opportunity to conference with your teacher about your work. No question is too small, and you will do better on every assignment if you meet with your teacher during the writing process.

Feel free to read the teacher recommendations below to get some insights into what your teacher is actually trying to do when they grade your work.

I also recommend you use the same tools I mention above to proofread your work: Speechify Soundbites and Grammarly (which is not always correct but does help—always crosscheck Grammarly’s suggestions with your instincts).

To teachers:

So I have approximately infinite ideas to share here, but I will try to be brief (not my strong suit 😆). (Reach out to me on Instagram or on the Substack chat available below if you want to start a follow-up dialogue—I look forward to hearing from you!)

To improve our grading practice (in all academic work), I think we need to break grading up into a few separate goals:

1. Provide feedback on student work to support future growth

2. Assess students’ current level of achievement/competency in particular skills

3. Communicate students’ level of effort on the assignment, as demonstrated by their completion of all requirements and timeliness of submission

Here’s my key trick to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of grading writing: make feedback an iterative process throughout the assignment timeline. Then, the summative grade at the end of the process need not be laden with feedback and can instead summarize growth targets for future assignments.

Here are my suggested steps for this “new and improved” iterative feedback loop and targeted summative grading:

1. Establish a clear rubric at the start of the assignment. I recommend the “three-column rubric” (example of my own rubric). This style of rubric is more effective than the traditional grid rubric (publicly available example) because students need only read one description of how to meet expectations for each component of the task. In addition, a three-column rubric allows flexibility in nuanced assignment of points for each category, along with the opportunity to briefly and holistically document why you made each choice (emphasis on brief!). Finally, it sets “meets expectations” as below 100% (I choose 90%), which allows growth targets beyond expectations. Order the categories of the rubric in a logical grading order for you: I like to start with the overarching ideas (thesis/topic sentence), move to evidence/analysis, and end with organization/style/mechanics.

2. Establish a scaffolded writing process that meets the needs of the group. At a minimum, establish guidelines and a timeline for: brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and revising. Depending on the age/ability of students, brainstorming & outlining templates are very helpful (example of an outline for a first writing assignment in 7th grade history).

3. Use class time for the writing process throughout middle school and high school. I know “work periods” are anathema to many educators, but hear me out. First, in the age of ChatGPT, do we honestly think most students will resist this temptation when writing at home? Second, do we honestly think all students will pace themselves appropriately when working at home? My experience is that without strict guidance, procrastination is the norm. Third, class is where highly-effective iterative feedback happens. When all students receive a clear directive for how to use class time, they will lock in on that task, especially if the teacher plays calming, wordless music. Then, the teacher can circulate to each student to provide real-time feedback. I like to speak my comments while typing them into the students’ docs (spelling/grammar errors accepted as a sacrifice for speed). Then, the students can immediately integrate those comments into their work-in-progress drafts.

4. When it comes time to grade the work, move swiftly through each rubric, category by category. I recommend jumping around rather than reading the assignment linearly, using your established rubric category order. Do not write any comments in the document at this point; the students won’t integrate this feedback (see step 3 for when to comment in the document). Write terse comments in the rubric to justify your assignment of points above/below the standard, and summarize briefly your overall impression of the assignment and growth targets for the student.

5. Set a standard for the grading protocol for late work. I tend to be quite flexible given students’ circumstances (e.g. sickness or family/extracurricular commitments) yet also hold students accountable if they are simply procrastinating. I use decreasing grades based on late submission as a last resort.

6. Set a standard for if/when you will allow post-grading revision and how you will regrade revised work. I usually allow revision for scores under 70% and average the former and latter scores in order to accurately document their initial challenges and additional effort.

7. Require a metacognitive reflection (“thinking about thinking”) right when you return the grades, and then ask the students to review this reflection at the start of the next assignment (reflection example—for a Google form, make sure to send responses to students’ emails using the settings menu).

If you are interested in learning more about how to actually implement this system efficiently, stay tuned for my professional development course, which will launch sometime this summer or fall. I have very specific protocols for duplicating documents, sharing feedback, etc., that are too nuanced for a newsletter.

And, please do reach out with comments and questions! If you share on our substack chat (below) every reader of the newsletter can see and respond to your questions/ideas!