Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Grading is great

This semester I happened to teach three section of Trigonometry, and had an undergraduate grader.  He was supposed to grade 15 hours a week (5 hours per class) which meant he could easily grade both homework and quizzes for me.  This left me with only exams to grade.  Sounds great right?

Turns out, not so much.  The grader has done a fine job (although having to get through so many papers meant the students didn't get feedback very quickly).  The problem is that I didn't get a chance to grade their work on a regular basis.  This in turn held me back from teaching as effectively as I could have.

Apparently I have taken for granted the importance of grading students' work - not because students need to be assessed or get feedback - but because regularly grading allows me to monitor students' progress.  Yes, some students ask questions in class, but sadly most do not.  Many students will pretend to understand a concept as to not appear ignorant.  This semester in particular I have been finding it very difficult to know when I have covered a topic enough so that the majority of my students understand it.  I think the reason is, for the first time, I have not been grading the weekly quizzes.

Today I did so for the first time this semester (my grader had a busy week, so I had him just do the homework).  It only took me about an hour all together, and going in to tomorrow's lecture, I know that I need to review the polar form of complex numbers, while I should probably not spend much more time discussing the different ways to write vectors. 

The point is this: grading, while often a tedious chore, is a great way to ensure that students are getting the most out of course.  It is a simple and effective way to take the mathematical pulse of the class.  Plus, students appreciate when you get quizzes and exams back quickly, which is easier to do if the grading is done by the professor.  From now on, I will grade the quizzes.  And I will like it!

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