Time Saver: Grade Book Tips

Paper Grade Book:

• Skip a line between names, or even two lines if a class is small.  That way you have room to add in new students alphabetically.  
• Don't set up your grade book until the second week of school.  Too many class changes happen before then and you might have to go a whole marking period with mistakes or redo it.  
• When an assignment is missing, outline the box.  This makes missing work stand out at a glance.  
• When you enter scores into the computer, highlight them in your paper book.  Then you will immediately know what needs to be entered when you open your grade book.  
• If you give homework passes, write "pass" in the spot the student chooses to use it or you might lose track if its been used or not.  
• If you want to keep track of who has handed in an assignment, but haven't yet graded it, here are two ideas.  Make a separate column for handing in the assignment.  (Sometimes I would could turning big in on time as a homework grade).  Or, put a small dot in the boxes of students who have the work.  Then go back and outline the boxes without dots.  I found this allowed me to quickly look at the grade book rather than locating and flipping through a file of work. 

Computer Grade Book:
I have only one real tip for your computer grade book, but its a big one.  It might depend on the program you use for it to work.

Creating grading codes is a great time saver for you.  It might take you a little bit of time to enter the codes, but it will save you time dealing with students and parents.

Here's the idea.  Create some codes that represent typical situations that students and parents ask (or nag) about.

For example:

NHI = not handed in

NGY = not graded yet

These two are very helpful to show parents in particular that either yes or no to if you have received certain assignments. 

When you use these codes all the time, then any zeroes in your grade book will only represent real zeroes earned on poor work or work that will no longer be accepted.  (Actually, you could come up with a code for a closed assignment, too.  I used to use ND = not done).

Time Saver: Reusable Rubrics

I used this idea for daily class participation rubrics, but really it can be used for any form you use frequently. 

Instead of having students use a new form each time, laminate enough copies of the form for two days.  Then, stock up on dry erase markers. 

If you are using the form daily, make it part of the class procedure for students to pick up their rubrics and markers and to fill them out and return them to a set location. 

After you have recorded the information on the form, erase the rubrics. 

After a while, the rubrics will get a bit dirty.  I more than once had detention or study hall students with nothing to do wash my rubrics with a cloth and board cleaner. 

I often considered using this for rubrics I filled out while grading, but never did it because I wanted the students to have to copy of the rubric with items circled to provide the easiest feedback as to why an item earned the score it did. 

Time Saver: No More "Take One, Pass it Back"

I remember being taught during student teaching to hand out papers with "take one, pass it back" or to the side or around or whatever.  But in  practice, this still means you have to count out the papers for the rows and wait for them to get back to the back of the room.  I used a lot of handouts, so this was a significant waste of time for me and disrupted flow making transitioning harder. 

I soon decided to put all my handouts for the class period in one set location in the room.  Students quickly learned to pick up their handouts as soon as they entered the room. 

Occasionally, a student would forget to pick them up, but then that student just got up and got what was needed. 

When I grouped work for absent students, I just picked up one from each pile and paper clipped them together. 

Another idea for saving time with handout distribution is to make one big packet of handouts for a whole unit.  I did this once or twice and really liked it.  But, there are two downsides.  First, you have to plan it out well in advance to get the copies made in time.  Second, students can easily leave the packet at home and not have any of the handouts needed for the day.  This second problem can be addressed by having classroom copies available that students borrow during the class period and return before leaving.  I used to keep this stuck to the white board with magnetic clips.  When a student borrowed one, he would write his name under the clip. 

Discussion Chips

One of my big challenges in my daily teaching was balancing class discussion among all members of the class.  This is a trick I picked up somewhere along the way, wish I could remember so I could give credit.


Give each student four poker chips: 2 white and 2 colored.  The white poker chips were for answering questions or making comments, and the colored ones were for asking questions.

In order to speak, students had to "pay" with a poker chip.

This method helps balance discussion in a few ways.

First of all, if you have one or two students who dominate discussion, they will either save their chips for when they have something really important to say or they will spend them immediately (and probably try to speak anyway!).

Once your usual talkers are forced into silence, there will be other students who will step up, either because they have ideas to share they would usually keep quiet or because they can't stand the silence!

There will still be students who refuse to spend their chips, but I've found it is less than in a regular discussion.

Your job as facilitator during this kind of discussion is to collect the chips cuing that a student can speak.  Also, keep watch for your quiet students.  As soon as I saw a quiet student raise her hand, I would make sure to get to her as quickly as possible. 

I've coupled this with writing a line up on the board of who can speak next so that students can focus on what is being said versus when they will be called on.  So, if I go around and take chips from Tom, Emily, Kendra, and Casey then I write their names on the board in that order.  I keep adding to the bottom of the list as we go, and periodically erase the names of students who have taken their turns.

If you are working with older students (such as late high school) or a group that is very mature and in tune with each other, you can try stepping back.  Students could instead deposit their chips themselves, maybe by tossing them in a central pot or by passing a bucket.  This adaption allows students to work on the flow of their discussion.

Whenever I did this type of discussion, I would leave several minutes at the end for students who have been forced to be silent to speak again.  Usually, at least one student bursts saying a million things she's kept bottled up.

A couple more points before you put this into practice.

Before you begin, you have to decide on rules about trading and donating chips.  I don't have a problem with students trading the colors of their chips, but I don't allow donating of chips because it goes against the purpose of balancing discussion.

You also might decide to make the colors mean different things.  If you are working on a specific skills, you can make one chip color represent that.  Examples of types of contributions your colored chips could represent include: questions, textual evidence, inferences, facts, opinions, rebuttals, piggy backing, or going up to the board to write or solve a problem. 

Four chips worked well for my classes of about 18 students where we planned to discussion reading for 30 - 40 minutes.  If you want a shorter discussion or have more students, you'll want fewer chips.  If you have a small class of ten and want a long discussion, you might need more chips.

You shouldn't do this type of discussion ever time or else it will become boring and tiring.  But, if you include it regularly students will get used to the procedure and fall into it more quickly each time. 

Time Saver: Eletrical Tape Chart

I picked this tip up at my husband's old office. 

If you need to make a chart on the white board for which you'll be erasing items in the boxes frequently, this is a great time saver. 

Instead of drawing the lines with marker, make the lines with electrical tape.  No matter how much you erase or how sloppy you erase, your chart will stay behind with dark, fresh looking lines. 

I used this for a reward chart we used over a period of weeks, but there are many other uses. 

Now that I think about it, you could use this for any type of line you want to last, not just charts.  For example, you could use it for lines that segregate areas of your white board or to draw a number line, y and x axis, or time line.  My old middle school had a chalk board tool for making sheet music lines, so I'm sure some product exists today to serve that function, but you could also make the lines for music with electrical tape.

(You could also try using wet erase marker instead of dry erase marker to make chart lines that last).