Don’t spend too much time grading your kids papers! Honestly, I can hardly believe I’m writing this but it is true. If you are trying to get your 6th grader to write a perfect essay and so you correct every.single.thing. that you can find, re-write all the sentences, and re-arrange the content YOU ARE DOING TOO MUCH.
The curriculum we use (BJU Press Homeschool) comes with rubriks* to help us grade each writing assignment. There are points for content (Did the students get the point across in the essay? Did the ideas have logical progression?) and points for technical skills (Capitalization and punctuation, etc.) Those 2 scores are combined and a grade is assigned. This way both the student and the teacher know what is expected!
I tried not to take very long on grading. If they got the basic ideas, GREAT! If they did not get the basic idea at all, we talked about it and they would re-write it.
If they missed some spelling, capitalization or punctuation, I made a red mark and they could correct it to up their grade.
Of course, the rubriks are set up for each assignment and address what needs to be mastered at each grade level. However, I have heard of some moms who are spending HOURS grading papers. That’s too much!
Homeschool Grading: Let them take ownership!
What about daily work pages? In the ACE system my school used in Junior High, all the answer keys were available when you finished your assigned pages. You had to take your book up to the grading station where only red pens were available. You corrected your own work! Facilitators checked behind us in a random fashion to make sure we were honest. Perhaps you could institute a similar program in your homeschool for your older students.
Have you found some other ideas to streamline your homeschool grading? Share your ideas in the comment boxes below or on our Facebook page, Homeschool Christian Mom.
*What is a rubric? from University of Texas at Austin
A rubric is a scoring guide used to evaluate performance, a product, or a project. It has three parts: 1)
performance criteria; 2) rating scale; and 3) indicators.
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Let’s face it- we all have bad days. This action plan is not for a bad day, but it may help you break a bad pattern of behavior. And sometimes, it just helps you identify and decipher what is really going on with your child.
