What's the going rate for grading papers?

watergirl

Thu, May 19 2016, 9:16 am

A big issue with this, especially for English, is that you end up planning test and homework to be gradable by outsourcing. What starts off as an every now and then thing to help you winds up being so much easier for you, that you will soon find yourself creating tests that can be graded by other people. That means tests will be subjective, not objective. More multiple choice and fill in the blanks. For english, well, for everything really, you are really limiting what you can test your students on. Can they spit back information? What you are NOT testing them on is their ability to analyze the literature and make sure that they understand what they are learning. You are also only testing to SOME of the students strengths with these types of tests - those who are better at short answer/essay will do terribly here and develop test anxiety.

I am in college now, at the age of 34. Yeah, go me. I'm in a number of classes, and its interesting how the teachers all choose to synthesize what we know. My bio teacher ONLY gives multiple choice and I am literally failing - she agreed to give me an extra credit term paper to bring my grade up enough to pass. I know the info, I've gotten extra tutoring through the school, but last night when I sat down to take the final, total blank.
My psychology teacher this semester gives us a final and midterm with one question that we have to answer using as much info as we can. He lists the important items to trigger what we should know, and expects to see a thoughtful essay. But as he isn't grading according to our ability to write beautifully, just on how well he can see what we've learned - guess what - I'm Gd willing getting an A.

If a teacher is finding herself buried under so much grading that she has to out source, she is doing something wrong. Homework is to reinforce the learning, tests are to analyze what the student has learned. Creating tests that are so easily graded puts the students needs behind the teachers.

amother

Black

Thu, May 19 2016, 9:29 am

watergirl, I have actually found the opposite. I'm a college professor and I've worked in both in a research-heavy institutions and a teaching college. The research institutions don't view teaching as the main job of their faculty (research is) and have the budget to provide TAs to do grading (sometimes also to hold recitations or office hours). Teaching colleges don't.

I only used TAs to grade homeworks (not exams), but I found that when I had TAs, both the quantity and the quality of the homeworks that I assigned were better. That's good for the students in the long run. Now that I don't have TAs, I try to get away with giving fewer homeworks, because I'm buried under a mountain of teaching prep and research and really don't have time for extra grading. That's bad for the students in the long run.

I'm creating finals now for my classes and aiming for a mixture of short and long answers. I won't give all multiple choice, because I'm opposed to it on pedagogical grounds, but I'm sorely tempted.

If your biology teacher had a grader, she'd be MORE likely to give essay questions on exams than multiple choice. If you don't do the grading yourself, you don't begrudge your students the time that it takes to grade their work.

DrMom

Thu, May 19 2016, 10:32 am

watergirl wrote:

I am in college now, at the age of 34. Yeah, go me. I'm in a number of classes, and its interesting how the teachers all choose to synthesize what we know. My bio teacher ONLY gives multiple choice and I am literally failing - she agreed to give me an extra credit term paper to bring my grade up enough to pass. I know the info, I've gotten extra tutoring through the school, but last night when I sat down to take the final, total blank.
My psychology teacher this semester gives us a final and midterm with one question that we have to answer using as much info as we can. He lists the important items to trigger what we should know, and expects to see a thoughtful essay. But as he isn't grading according to our ability to write beautifully, just on how well he can see what we've learned - guess what - I'm Gd willing getting an A.

I never had a multiple-choice test in university. All our exams were blue-book essays or problems that we needed to work out.

fbcmom

Thu, May 19 2016, 9:58 pm

Ive thought about this topic for a long time. I currently teach English in two high schools teaching ab 150 students. Yes marking is very time consuming And overwhelming. But I would never ever give my students' work to someone who doesn't have a relationship with them and who doesn't know what to expect from them. I feel that my students trust that I care enough for them and really want to see how well they do. Besides, I get a real feel of their individual strengths by reading their ideas, knowledge and input. Thats my personal way of taking full responsibility for what my job intales. Bh im a ftm and this year I did feel very overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork so I gave up my job in one school for the coming year so I will be able to handle what it takes to be a responsible teacher.