How to lighten the load

amother

Teal

Mon, Sep 18 2017, 4:56 pm

goodmorning wrote:

Could you give all the girls a quiz and then choose some number at random to collect and grade? Everyone has to worry about their paper maybe being collected but you get a lighter grading load. You can vary the number of quizzes collected too -- sometimes all, sometimes half, sometimes a third and so on.

This might be the best idea yet.

BetsyTacy

Mon, Sep 18 2017, 5:10 pm

goodmorning wrote:

Just make sure that there will an equal number of quizzes counted for each girl. Otherwise you have kids where just a few quiz grades means each sometimes count as much as a test!
I also think that might breed resentment among the students. There are always going to be easier topics and quizzes and harder ones. Competitive students will not be happy if the hard ones get counted for some and not for others. I still like the idea of slightly less frequent quizzes which will cut your workload but be fair for everyone.

amother

Teal

Mon, Sep 18 2017, 5:12 pm

BetsyTacy wrote:

Good point regarding being fair.

I do think though that less frequent quizzes will have a detrimental effect in a number of areas.

amother

Aqua

Mon, Sep 18 2017, 5:30 pm

amother wrote:

History is that kind of subject. Then there's math and most language subjects which require some more work than a simple one word answer.

I return the quizzes literally the next day because I agree with the importance of immediate grades. That doesn't do much to lighten my load. Wink

Let me clarify then. It wasn't really history but jewish historia /stories of tanach. I just made up questions that had one answer. I taught ivrit and did the same by asking for phrases that show whether or not they know the grammar rule. It's really quite adaptable to any subject, including philosophy or intro to Judaism or any other abstract class, all of which I teach.

amother

Teal

Mon, Sep 18 2017, 8:47 pm

OutATowner wrote:

Can you just shorten the quizzes? Or if you give them on a Friday, at least you have the weekend to mark?

In response to this: let me ask all my fellow teachers, what is standard amount of questions for a quiz?

I believe the amount I give is short enough to be a quiz; it takes the girls somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. Yet it's long enough to demonstrate both to me and them whether they mastered the topic.

amother

Burgundy

Mon, Sep 18 2017, 9:59 pm

amother wrote:

I have been teaching for many years. I would say that if the answers are fill-ins (a word or two), multiple choice, or the like, a quiz would be 8-10 questions. If the answers are a sentence long, I would say 4-6 questions.

Ruchel

Tue, Sep 19 2017, 8:59 am

Following this!!

Oral quizzes help a lot. I would go with the list, but also encourage those who raised their hand.

amother wrote:

Please don't do that. You should like a good teacher and, IMNSHO, any teacher who does this isn't.

Why should other students know my kids' grades? Do you really think that doesn't result in teasing/bullying?

I went mostly to public school, with serious teachers with teachers diplomas and we had this.They would also say the grade out when giving back the papers they corrected. If anything the level was much better than nowadays with the new techniques in some schools...

iluvy

Tue, Sep 19 2017, 10:40 am

I have been working with this issue for a while. I started out giving weekly quizzes. The students loved it, and even specifically mentioned it on my official evaluations, but the grading was completely unsustainable.

Then I tried grading a random subset each time. The problem with that is if you guarantee that each student will have e.g. 4 quizzes graded throughout the year, some will be done early on, and others will have to keep studying for each quiz until the end. And if you have a bunch of students even a subset can be extremely difficult each week.

Right now what I do is include exercises throughout my regular lesson, and walk through the aisles looking at the students' notebooks as they work through it. It ends up being a lightning tutoring session with each student (less than ten minutes for the entire class) as they have the opportunity to ask me questions they were too shy or apathetic to raise their hand for, or I can quickly correct errors/misconceptions, or I can go back to the front of the class to clarify something I see many people having trouble with.

On the surface it's completely different from a quiz, but I find it serves the same function (making sure everyone is up to speed, remembers concepts from previous classes). I don't record grades, but the embarrassment of having the teacher see your empty paper ensures that everyone takes it seriously.

amother

Teal

Tue, Sep 19 2017, 12:34 pm

amother wrote:

How about giving each girl a pin, using only multiple choice questions -so no identifying handwriting-collect completed quizzes and redistribute to the girls for grading.

This is a creative idea, but it's still not a complete solution. Some girls' handwriting can easily be identified. I wouldn't want it to turn into a game where they guess whose paper they have.

amother

Teal

Tue, Sep 19 2017, 12:38 pm

iluvy wrote:

I do this anyway. I assign classwork, walk up and down the aisles looking at their work. Like you, I too have found that I get more questions this way.

However, a quiz serves to reinforce the material in a way which classwork doesn't. There's no denying that a quiz with a recorded grade is taken more seriously than work that's not recorded. Additionally, a quiz is an added element to the learning because it's the second time they need to complete work on the topic (with classwork being the first).

amother

Puce

Tue, Sep 19 2017, 3:55 pm

I take offense at your attitude towards 'superficial teachers'. I am one of those you could say. I do not have time to mark each paper every day. My way of dealing with this is to never be sitting down. As the girls are working I am constantly going from desk to desk looking at answers/ answering questions. If girls finish early I ask them to compare answers and if they have discrepancies to talk it out see who has the correct answer and change. It's not perfect down to the last detail but overall I have a good idea of where everyone is holding on the subject.

amother

Teal

Wed, Sep 20 2017, 1:16 pm

amother wrote:

I'm sorry you took offense.

I do that too during classwork. I never sit while I teach. Even while girls take a quiz, I circle the room constantly.

Still, with all that, I see a distinct difference in the girls' performance, attitude, and mastery of the topic when there are weekly quizzes vs. when there aren't.