This article addresses one of my biggest fears in teaching a writing class: The sheer amount of time it takes to thoughtfully grade papers. As Jago says, "Teachers cannot work any harder. We have to be more effective in using time and resources."
As we have read in previous articles for this class, it is clear that although we might have to fight our urges to re-write and fix students' papers, it is much more effective to point out problem areas and have students come up with solutions to fix them on their own (as much as possible).
In the section on Level 2: Rephrase for Clarity and Style; Jago provided an example of getting students into small groups in order to help each other be more effective in what they are trying to say. I have to think this would work better with certain ages of students, and in certain classes where the students feel more comfortable sharing. I do think this is a better strategy than just a total peer review of a paper however, as focusing on just one or two trouble sentences can really help the writer see ways to fix more issues in their writing overall.
I personally love to get teacher feedback on my writing and find it disheartening when I receive a paper back with a few things circled and some teacher chicken-scratch in the margins that I cannot read. This does not help me improve my writing and I often just end up (for the most part) ignoring the marks the teacher has made on my paper- which is not teaching me anything.
I will keep this article on hand and refer to some of Jago's best practices if I find myself bogged down or hopeless in the grading of papers.
Lesley, your meme made me laugh...so true. And your fears about grading writing are well-founded. It does take a lot of time to respond to student writing. If I limited myself to ten minutes a paper, it took me 5 hours for one class. You do have to collect strategies for responding to writing and find alternative ways (like small group work) to do that. While you (as teacher) are the only one that can assign a grade to writing, you are not the only person that can read a student's writing, comment on a student's writing, respond on issues of clarity and focus. If students are writing for a real purpose, there should be another audience that can respond :)
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