Grading in Middle School: Free Yourself and Stop Grading Everything

Free yourself and stop grading everything!

Grading in middle school is time-consuming. There’s no other way to say it. So how about if we stop? It sounds too good to be true.

When thinking about this, my mind goes to the pandemic. Our students had to wait a considerable amount of time to get on video due to legal considerations. At that time, I thought that reviewing all of their work carefully and grading it in some way shape or form would show the students and their parents that I cared and that I was there for them.

Wrong! All I ended up doing was stressing them, and myself to no end. From that experience, I learned a valuable lesson on what NOT to grade (at least all the time).

Free yourself and stop grading everything!

Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar Errors when Grading in Middle School

While spelling, punctuation, and grammar are essential skills, we don’t always need to grade them. We can get ourselves (and our kids) bogged down in this. Kids might be too preoccupied to get their thoughts out and organized. There is definitely a time to do this, but we don’t need to do this on all assignments.

Another option is to pick one thing that you will grade from this category. For example, if you are teaching how to write dialogue, that would be a time to focus on punctuation. Or perhaps you notice that your students are constantly mixing verb tenses…perhaps you could focus on that for a particular assignment.

Grammar is tricky. We want kids to get these skills, but grading it all the time is not practical. If you need some ideas, read my article “How to Sneak in More Grammar in Middle School“…it contains ideas that don’t need grading.

I would keep some “non-negotiables” when grading in middle school. Some ideas are capitalizing sentences and proper nouns, punctuating the end of a sentence, running a spell check on a final draft, etc. These are rules that must be followed at all times. It creates better habits and automates it in their writing.

Don’t Grade Bell Ringers and Exit Tickets

Bell ringers, AKA “do now” or “anticipatory sets”, are designed to get kids engaged in the material that they will be ingesting that day. They are like a “warm up” for the brain. They are not designed to give kids anxiety over “getting it right” or perfecting their spelling/punctuation/grammar. Nor are they designed to give you extra work to grade.

This was something that I graded during the pandemic because if I didn’t, they didn’t do it. For some reason, I felt I had to. Big mistake. I was constantly going back to check on these items, and it was a waste of my time because the moment had passed.

With exit tickets, we sometimes like to use them as a formative assessment. That’s a great idea, but it doesn’t mean you should be “grading” them. If I give kids an actual physical “ticket” (I use index cards), I quickly group them into 3 piles: they understand the concept, they somewhat understand the concept, or they have no clue. I can then address the issue the next day before continuing.

Do I make charts and lists of kids who don’t get it? No way! Not on a regular basis, anyway. I might pull a small group based on this during a writing workshop, but recording and grading…no. I don’t have time for that.

Writing Drafts

As I teach language arts, writing drafts is a huge portion of my writing workshop. In my class, drafting is a way to get your thoughts out and give it a try. It is not the time for grading. It is a time for me to sit down and have a conversation with you such as, “How’s it going?” or “How can I help?”.

If you feel the need to grade to make sure kids do it (and believe me, I get that), just enter a completion grade of 0-3 (“0” means they didn’t do it, “1” means minimal effort, “2” means they did most of it, and “3” is for the kids who really put effort into it). I know it’s subjective, but that’s ok…you are their teacher, and you know them best, and it is not a final draft.

When you are doing drafting in writing workshop, your time is much better spent in conferencing. If you need a way to keep track, I have a free product for you.

Click here to grab your freebie: Free Writing Workshop Conference Forms

Notebook Entries are NOT for Grading in Middle School

You do NOT need to grade every single entry. Notebooks are more of a check-in and at best, graded for completion (with my eye also on their effort as I know my students well and know when they “phone it in”).

I still grade notebooks but in a much simpler way. For reading/writing workshops, the main reason for notebooks is to give kids a chance to practice what they learned. So when I walk around and conference, I check in, and make notes if a student needs help with any of the skills. I usually grade on a scale of 0-3, and I do this quickly.

With social studies notebooks, I do grade them, but they are turned in twice during a month-long unit. They are graded in a much more general way, and it goes quickly. I have a freebie for this rubric. Click here for your free copy.

Grading in Middle School: Do NOT Grade Every Class Work and Homework Assignment

No. Heck, no. You do not need to burden yourself with this! I did this as a new teacher. I suspect most of us did. The fact is, you will drown in it if you try.

Going over work in class is much more useful. These assignments are formative in nature. I do go around and glance at certain homework assignments and enter a completion grade in my online gradebook. Honestly, that’s enough!

So free yourself. Grading does not equal caring. At one time I thought it did, but it just doesn’t.

Not enough time to read? Try the Podcast!

I recently started a Podcast for middle school language arts teachers. Check it out!

Listen here!

I hope this information was helpful. I would love to hear about what you don’t feel the need to grade. Comment below! Wishing you and your students all the best!

-Linda A. “All in One Middle School“