This feels like a dirty secret, hidden from teacher’s lounge grousing, but here it is:

I like grading.

Not all grading – – I’m not at any risk of picking up my neighbor’s stack of quizzes and going to town anytime soon – – but the grading I’ve selected to do? Not a problem.

My soapbox on grading/classwork philosophies could stretch for a few posts, but in general, I follow a small number of clear tenets:

1. Practice is practice, not perfection.

2. It’s only a grade if it’s an actual show of learning or work. (Habits – – do nows, journals, notes – –  count.)

3. If you can Google it easily, I’m asking the wrong questions. (Related: cheating should be WAY more of a pain that doing the work!)

These aren’t carved on stone tablets, but they’ve served me well. For example, I will still give points for things like straightforward comprehension questions or brainstorming, but I don’t stress about giving a precise 8.73 for answering most of the questions, but skipping #9, and forgetting two commas…you get the idea. And I free up my patience for much higher-stakes grading, like the literary criticism projects my juniors just finished.

I’ll post a screenshot later, because man! These projects are so cool!

My ELA 3 colleagues shared the original template and assignment with me, and I modified slightly for my students by expanding their choices. Using two different critical theory lenses, they could choose to analyze a children’s book (carefully chosen to be a huge pain to Google), a choice book they had already been reading (again – high interest, tough to cheat), or their own favorite book as a kid (guaranteed warm memories and buy-in).

The projects so far are so fun. I’ve read about Where the Wild Things Are, The Cat in the Hat, One Piece, assorted webcomics, and Harry Potter. It’s clear the students had a little fun with this project, so I’m having fun grading them, too.

But shhh. Don’t say anything in the teacher’s lounge. Can’t ruin my reputation!