Making Grading More Efficient

In Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment Walvoord and Anderson (1998) describe a number of strategies that can help make grading more efficient.

One suggested strategy is to make use of what students already know about their work (Walvoord & Anderson, 1998). That is, as a required part of an assignment, ask students reflect and give feedback on the strong and weak points of their work because "why spend time writing comments about a paper's focus when the student, if asked, would respond, 'Oh, I knew that paper wasn't well focused'?" (1998, p. 129). Knowing this information, you'll have context and focus that can guide your feedback to the student.

Have you asked your students to evaluate their own work? What do you feel are the challenges of this grading strategy? The benefits?

What efficient grading strategies have you used?

References
Walvoord, B. E., & Anderson, V. J. (1998). Making grading more time efficient. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment (pp. 119-134). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

[Photo from flickr user: Paul Allison]