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when do you grade your kids papers??


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my kids are grade 6, 8 and 9.  and I am trying to decide when is the best time to grade papers....I mean, right after the child does the work (which is really hard with 3 kids), at the end of the day and then they do their corrections the following day, or something different?  

 

In the past, we have used many workbooks (my kids learned best that way), and we used a folder system...so they did their work, put it in their folder, put the folder in the grading tote and I graded them in the evening,, put their corrections in their next day's folder...and off we went the next day. 

 

But as the kids get older, much of their work is no longer work that can go in a folder...it's in a notebook or a bigger style "workbook" that can't be torn apart and put into a folder.  So if they were to turn those in, I would need a much larger grading tote....which seems silly.

 

So I was wondering how you handled this in your home?  especially if you have multiple kids which are about the same grade level as mine.  

 

thanks.

 

 

 

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I don't grade anything yet.  I will have to come up with something for high school, but for now I don't.  I make them rework everything until it is close to perfect.  If they get stuff wrong, they fix it.  If a paper needs revisions of any kind they must revise it.

 

Sometimes I assign stuff that has no other purpose than to force them to look up some information and organize it into some sort of paragraph.  I don't make them rework that unless they didn't answer the question or find good information.

 

I try to correct stuff right away, but I can't always (especially with longer papers).  So I get to it as soon as I can. 

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when i say "grade" I don't  always mean recording a grade....but rather grading so they can rework their papers to perfection.  I expect that too.  But doing that takes time and organization, so I am looking for methods that work in your home...so that I might find one that would work in ours.

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I do it immediately in the moment. I don't mark everything though. And we're not very workbook/worksheet oriented. Other than math, my kids aren't completing numbered items, they're writing things, reading things, working on projects, etc. We do a fair amount of process centered work that simply doesn't need to be marked, such as reading or freewriting. And I often have them mark their own math. Actually, I have them check their own dictations and then I just double check them - that's part of the learning process.

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I do it immediately in the moment. I don't mark everything though. And we're not very workbook/worksheet oriented. Other than math, my kids aren't completing numbered items, they're writing things, reading things, working on projects, etc. We do a fair amount of process centered work that simply doesn't need to be marked, such as reading or freewriting. And I often have them mark their own math. Actually, I have them check their own dictations and then I just double check them - that's part of the learning process.

 

Same here. There never was a lot of stuff to be graded. Math I check immediately so they can correct while the problem is still fresh in their minds. When they were younger, I'd be nearby while they worked. Longer writing assignments I read when they are turned in. (In high school, there woud also be science problems worked out).

We never did workbooks/worksheets.

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when i say "grade" I don't  always mean recording a grade....but rather grading so they can rework their papers to perfection.  I expect that too.  But doing that takes time and organization, so I am looking for methods that work in your home...so that I might find one that would work in ours.

 

Oh so you mean when should you look at their work?  I'd say when you can.  If you have three kids it is understandable you might not get to it right away.  I think that is fine.

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when i say "grade" I don't  always mean recording a grade....but rather grading so they can rework their papers to perfection.  I expect that too.  But doing that takes time and organization, so I am looking for methods that work in your home...so that I might find one that would work in ours.

 

Right now, I do the grading for writing immediately after the work is done. But mine are in sixth grade. The papers are short pieces, and the errors easy to find and deal with. Because the next assignment in writing usually depends on the one before, the immediate feedback is important. 

I expect (I hope! :lol: ) that when they get older, I'll do less immediate feedback because I'll have to hunt harder for the errors and have to spend more time in figuring out how they can improve. To grade then, I expect to set aside a period every evening to work on grading so that I can concentrate. I don't know how much time I'll need. I guess I'll start with one hour and increase it as needed.

 

Right now Latin and Math get instant feedback. They grade their own daily work; I grade tests. 

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I usually don't grade papers. Just tests. Although sometimes I will go over Latin and/ or math if the kid is not seeming to do well. And if I do, I try to grade it right then. It is hard to make time to do that. I remember thinking to myself once.... "When I was a teacher I always graded papers and I had a lot more students. Why can't I manage to grade 3 students papers?" And then I realized, when I was a teacher, my students left at 3:00 and I had a couple hours of peace to grade papers and prep lessons. Here.... not so much!

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I tried several things during the years. I've had a 'put your workbook to grade' place (8-9yo).

Tests and math are checked a.s.a.p.

Essay type of work I check when my brains are clear (often the evening when she sleeps or in the afternoon when she is reading).

Now dd is a little bit older I check workbooks once in a while.

That can be weekly (high frequency subject) or monthly (low frequency subject).

I often feel I should check her work more often, otherwise it is easier to see 'patterns' in mistakes when you check a larger amount of work.

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For math, I've always done it immediately. They read their answers to me and I say yes or no - if no, they find the error.

 

For most other subjects, there isn't a lot I check. We were never workbook or worksheet people. However, everything other than papers, I grade immediately. They usually stand and wait and watch me grade, particularly if it is a test. I'm always teasing them that I'm going to pretend they are in public school and make them wait a few days to get something back just to listen to the anguished moans :). 

 

ETA I try to get papers back within 24 hours. It just takes me a lot longer to read a paper multiple times and give useful feedback.

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I generally look it over or grade it as DD works on the next thing, and we go over any mistakes when she has finished whatever that next thing was.  It's generally not time consuming at this point as she is the only one doing independent work.  Another thing I have done is to give DD a 10-15 min running around break, and I grade it then.  Right now she needs immediate feedback.  As her work gets more difficult, I'll probably move it the evening.  Looking forward to hearing everyone's tips and advice.

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With my youngest, and in subjects where my older boys need my attention, I sit with them and grade as we go or immediately after they finish.

 

Because I can’t be in five places at once and a few of my boys prefer work independently, I try to take the time to every afternoon to “check in†with each of the older boys, when they’re finishing up for the day or close to it. This is when they’ll give me a rundown of what they accomplished during the day, and ask me to look over or grade anything they've finished. If there’s something that I want to go over with them, or something I can check quickly, I’ll usually do it right then. Anything that requires some time and/or brainpower gets left until the late evening and is handed back to them in the morning. 

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Except for compositions, everything is graded the same day. My kids need to fix all of the mistakes before they are finished with school for the day.

 

For compositions, I often wait until the next day so I can sit with them and help them edit.

 

The reason I do this is because I hated the grading method the public school uses. When my kids attended ps, they would receive a stack of graded papers on Fridays of all the work they did during the week. There was no requirement that anything was to be fixed or reviewed. I often didn't do more than just look at the work. If I went over the mistakes with my child, oftentimes it was too far after the assignment to have a meaningful impact on my child's learning.

 

Grade and require corrections to be made when the work is fresh for best educational results.

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My dd's work I check right away to insure she is getting it.

 

My ds's work I checked weekly and then we went over what we needed to on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

This year he wants to try something different. He will do four lessons and then I will check the work.

This may almost sound like the same plan but the difference is that he won't move on until I've checked

the work and we have gone over it on the fifth day. Before we did multiple subject review on our review

days but instead with this way we will review Pre-Cal on Tuesdays, Physics on Wednesdays, Language

on Thursdays, and History on Fridays. This will only be on an as needed basis. Naturally, if he knows he

doesn't understand a concept ahead of time, he is reminded to come to me immediately and not wait until

I grade his work.

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I do it as I can during the school day--there are a number of "independent work" subjects they do, and as the work piles up, I try to quickly correct it and give it back for them to fix their errors.

 

I have found that having a pile of scrap paper helps--for each book, I paperclip a list of the problems missed, and I make myself a scrap-paper answer key--so the next time I look it over, I don't have to lug out the answer keys again.

 

Compositions take more time to correct, so I tend to do those AFTER our school day is over.

 

I just play a crazy circus multi-tasking game and give three students the assistance they need, the time to do independent work, and also get grading done all at the same time for 2-3 hours every day.  Some days it works better than others :)

 

ETA--I do NOT grade at night.  When we are done with school, we are done with school-----

 

b

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Actually, I have them check their own dictations and then I just double check them - that's part of the learning process.

This is a fantastic idea and exactly how I'm going to do it from now on. :)

 

With my youngest ones, I sit next to them as they work on most everything so I check as we go along. Some things they do on their own while I work with a different child so I usually have them put it at my place at the kitchen table and check it over right away - well, when I have a free moment anyway.

 

With my oldest, it's usually checked right as he finishes. He'll bring it to me. Latin he checks on his own and I spot check. Everything else as I have a free moment. He's finishing his history outline right now and I've had to help him a bit (one of those days) and I'll check the rest when he's done.

 

I don't want to do anything at night. By the time dinner comes around, I want to be done for the day. Filing things away in binders, however...that's another story.

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I try and stay very close by while my son works and we work math in two daily sessions and I grade the math papers between the sessions. An error I don't catch during Morning session, I point out at the start of evening session and we talk about and correct errors that same day.

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I always did it after all the kids were in bed.  My husband was always involved in community projects, so in the evenings we'd sit together in the quiet after all the kids were asleep, and he'd do his community-project thing and I'd correct homeschool papers.  Sometimes we'd even have a movie on in the background.  :)

 

 

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At this point they grade themselves except for exams but when they were younger I graded the work from the day before while I drank my coffee in the morning. It gave me a perspective on what we needed to to that day.

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