Thirty Red Pens

Thank goodness for my set of 30 red pens.

I used to spend hours upon hours grading.  I still do, but the grading has gotten a lot easier for me once I realized that my students can grade their own work.  At first, I thought this seemed like a bad idea.  After all, wouldn't students just cheat?

The more I read about formative assessments, the more I realized that I needed to be doing more to give good feedback to my students.  This seemed impossible, considering I was barely getting by with grading student work based on whether answers were right or wrong.

I decided to experiment with letting my students grade their own work.  This is what I did:

1.  I bought a set of 30 red pens (on sale!) for my classroom. 
2.  I assigned an easy-to-grade homework assignment. 
3. I created an answer key for the assignment to project onto the screen in my classroom. 
4. Then, on the day that the assignment was due, I asked students to clear everything off of their desks except for their completed homework assignment. 
5. With the help of student volunteers, I passed out a red pen to each student. 
6.  I projected the answers onto the board, and read through them with the students. 
7. Students drew a star next to correct answers. 
8. Students made a checkmark next to incorrect answers, and then wrote the correct answer next to the question. 
9. Finally, I asked my students to total up the number of stars, and the number of checkmarks they got on the assignment. 
10. They returned the assignment to their class inbox. 
11. I went around the room and collected each red pen (or else they had a habit of disappearing).

Because I only have students grade work that is low-stakes for them, they don't have much of an incentive to cheat.  They would also have to sneak their regular pencil or pen onto their desks to be able to change their answers.  I tell students that I don't mind if they get answers incorrect, but I want them to learn from their mistakes, and show me the correct answer in red pen.

I still grade summative assessments, and a lot of other things, on my own.  But having students grade some of their own homework and/or formative assessments has allowed them to learn from their mistakes, and it has saved me a lot of time.

Image:  from BRICTSoftware.com