Google Doc Grading

I've been grading essays for twelve years as an English Language Arts teacher, and I rarely increase my speed. I probably spend 10-15 minutes effectively scoring each essay. Some essays will even take 20-30 minutes because I'm checking plagiarism. (I don't have a TurnItIn account.) It can be a little rough on my schedule (which includes graduate coursework and a second job). I'm not the math teacher but even if I only spend 10 minutes on each essay we're at at least 800 minutes which is over 13 hours of scoring. If you're not an English teacher, you probably know one lamenting this every time they collect essays or reports. I'm just happy that I no longer have to print and lug around all the essays I have to grade.

So I want to share some helpful apps, add-ons, and extensions which will help with this grading nightmare of written work which I've come to know and love. Please keep in mind this is all focused on DIGITAL grading and tools. Some of these babies are things I've learned from my 2ndaryELA Facebook group. If you're teaching ELA and on Facebook, these people will change your life. Join it.

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

1. NoRedInk - Upload your Google Classroom or use class join codes and have your students practice skills you've identified in their writing previously. It even has diagnostic assessments. The paid version offers some extra writing help, but this has been my go-to for grammar and punctuation remediation.

2. Grammarly Browser Extension and SAS Writing Reviser Add-On - These will help your students do the revising they need to BEFORE submitting an essay written entirely in sentence fragments without capital letters (I hope). SAS does a great job of analyzing sentence structure. Students will just have to go up to Add-Ons and run it after they're done typing. Grammarly, on the other hand, as an extension, is just always scanning what is being typed and locating errors. Grammarly has also saved many a tired email I've written before my first cup of coffee, so if you don't have it as an educator, you really should start there.

FOR YOU, THE TEACHER

1. CheckMark Add-On for Google Docs - This could potentially change your life. You've been warned. This add-on comes with CANNED COMMENTS which will allow you to highlight a piece of text in the document and pick something like "F" for "Check for Fragment" to be attached to it as a comment. Even better, they've added the ability to ADD YOUR OWN shortcut comments. I'm just waiting for them to add a bot to this so it can scan my papers, identify and comment on the common problems (with my approval, of course) and save me tons of time so I can focus on content, organization, style, etc. Do you hear me, EdTechTeam?

2. OrangeSlice Add-On for Google Docs - This is a rubric add-on that will automatically populate your rubric and points into the app, tallying the score of your essays for you. You just need to copy and paste your rubric in the essay, clearly labelling the "Rubric Categories" (in the top left corner of your table) so the program can read your rubric. It'll automatically complete the math for you and give your students a total and percentage at the top of the paper. I highly suggest googling a step-by-step video like this one to walk you through how it works. It does get a little technical, but REST ASSURED, it is worth your patience and time.

I may have shaved a few minutes off my grading time this year, but it isn't just about having the extra time, personally. It means that I can spend more time effectively reflecting on my students' writing, offering more constructive feedback than I ever have before. Additionally, by including all my comments and my rubric as part of the document, students now have access to that feedback digitally at any time - even when they head to 9th grade next year. That can be a game-changer.