Miwa's reading Notes #5

I really appreciate readings on assignments, as it is the biggest challenge that I am currently facing in my teaching. I am interested in three topics in terms of assignments: managing the time for grading, grading anxiety, and to the use of my feedback help students to improve their work.

Managing the time for grading

One of my major problems should be that I am not selectively review and grade assignments as Davis (2009, p. 311) suggests. I am sure that dealing with every piece of students’ work is not the right way, I feel that I am waisting a huge amount of time, and I would improve my efficiency. There are a lot of useful tips introduced in readings, and I would start working on avoiding overmarking (Davis, 2009, p. 329). I have commented on every item that I deduct points for in rublics, but it is not only a matter of inefficiency but also fail to focus on key problems. In order to improve my grading efficiency, I am thinking to provide comprehensive comments focusing on major problems, instead of commenting on each item. Also, I may ask students to ask comments to me if you are not sure what for points are deducted for specific items. I would know if the approaches are good ways to go. Other several tips that I can take advantage of include improving the rublics (Lang, 2008, p. 137-140), starting with letters (p. 141), reading through all assignments first (Davis, 2009, p. 325 & 327).

Grading anxiety

I am very pleased to find that Lang (2008, p. 127) discusses grade anexiety. I am facing a huge pressure for grading because I am receiving much more inquiries and challenges about grading than my previous teaching assistantship as a basic Japanese language course instructor. I wonder if the problem is based on my creditiliby, caused by my status as an international teaching assistant, weaker English language skills than other instructors, or failure to establish an appropriate power relationship (p. 128) with students. One of my assumptions is that students may have their own criteria for grading, which my previous students didn’t have, and compare their criteria with what they have received.  

Also, I am struggling with my grading that tends to become much lower than I expected. I am spending extra time to adjust grades after finishing grading. I am trying to seek quality expected in the course, but I might expect I wonder if I had better focus on basics more than quality that I consider to be expected in my understanding.

The use of my feedback for improving students’ work

I am also trying to get feedback on my feedback (Davis, 2009, p. 326) and ask students to comment on the assignment (Davis, 2009, p. 331), but my attenpts haven’t worked well yet. Consequently, I often fail to limit the amount of class time devoted to reviewing to reinforce students’ understanding of my feedback.