80/20 Question for a teacher

[read]

The principles in the book have helped me cut my workload by at least 20%. I'm having a problem eliminating further, though -- and there's a lot of work left! I'm using an assistant for my unskilled and repetitive tasks, but a lot of my work is repetitive, skilled work.

The Details:
I'm a writing teacher, and I typically have 50-100 papers to grade and comment on each week (which is 12-25 hours per week, when I'm working at top speed). I'm in the classroom teaching another 16 hours per week (5 classes), which makes my workweek 30+ hours at minimum, and usually 60 hours or more per week.

The Dilemma:
It's largely considered unethical for a writing teacher where I teach to outsource the grading of papers, and I agree with this, since my feedback on student work is a big part of what students get from class. I've automated what I can (using macros in Word to help me make standard comments without re-typing them each time and compressing my grading time so I have to work faster), but it still takes a minimum of 15 minutes per paper. My long-term plan is to cut back on the number of classes I teach and supplement income with some kind of muse, but that's a long-term solution, and I need at least a little temporary relief (if nothing else, so I have time to create a muse).

Any ideas?
I love what I do and don't want to quit my job, but I do want to create a little rest. To be honest, I think it might be a lost cause with my work, but before resigning myself to lots of work and rest only in the summer, I thought I'd bounce it around the forum a little, and see what ideas you might have?

[Skanderbeg]

One idea that occurs to me is the following:

Rather than assign so many complete papers, assign fewer papers as homework, and require more in-class writing time. For example, one day you could have them develop an idea and write an outline, teaching them about essay structure. Each following day, you could have them write one or two paragraphs of the essay in class. Then, if you could assign them a reading or something to do during class, you could grade these paragraphs while they read or do another activity, and give them feedback at the end of class or at the end of the day.

You could assign the preliminary research as homework, which you wouldn't really have to grade as carefully. For example, you could just have them show you some of their materials, to make sure they have enough to support their essay or paper, or give them some ideas.

If handwriting makes grading difficult, you could also have someone else type up the kids' papers, and give them a score on things like spelling and handwriting legibility, while you consider the content.

[TXnative]

You said it yourself that having someone else grade your papers is unethical. I suggest you avoid this at all costs. Take a speed reading course or something and read for specific ideas in a checklist format. I used to grade papers for standardized tests for multiple states and I could rip through a 10 page paper in four or less minutes. Our papers went through two people and if the scores differed (1-6 scale so say a 4 and a 6), the paper would go to a third person to settle the difference. You can do this if the papers aren't 25 pages long.

[read]

TXnative,

You're right, that scoring tests can be quick, if I read fast. Writing comments is a lot more involved. It requires explaining how to improve, encouraging the student, justifying the score, and creating a dialog about their writing and how they might work on it. Thanks for the advice on reading more quickly. I'll work on that.

I wasn't asking for outsourcing advice, by the way (that's why I mentioned that I think it's unethical in this instance). I was just wondering if anyone had ideas for streamlining the process -- or if ultimately, some jobs do require a 50 or 60 hour workweek.

Just a wee bit frazzled,
Read

[joe]

So why is it exactly unethical for you to "outsource" your essay marking?

Do the university proffessor model (like here). They have a set amount of teacher assistants (grad students) who create their courseware according to their specifications, mark paper's & assignments, create course websites, run labs & tutorials, help run subject assistant's centres and all the other extra work. The ONLY thing the proffessor has to do his show up for his lecture, practice his lecture maybe and be there during office hours which depending on the class nobody will show up for anyway. If they really need the mastery of a proffessor, he's available through email, office hours and in class questioning which most of the time no one uses!

Each proffessor still can customize their course to their hearts content and push their specific teaching idealogy. And what's really great about all this is that it's all transparent. Nobody usually can tell that someone is helping you! You just have to trust your assistants to follow your instructions and specific stylistic specifications. I wouldn't of known that my professor's had it that easy until one teacher @ another college complained about how easy it was to be a teacher at the local university.

[jetpacklife]

Summer is almost here. Won't you have time then to work on your muse? With any luck, by fall you'll have something automated that won't need much time from you all all.

For the muse, maybe an ebook on writing tips? How to get an A on every paper?

[read]

Joe- Yes, it's true that, at larger universities, teaching assistants do all the grading. The places where I teach, though, have "small" classes (around 25 students per class), and part of the appeal for students is personal attention and feedback from teachers. In this type of environment, I think it is important that I grade my own papers.

Jetpack- You're right. Summer will free me up a little. I'm an adjunct (we call ourselves "freeway fliers"), which means that I have to take on twice the workload of a full-time instructor in order to make the same income. Most freeway fliers also juggle several schools (currently I'm at 3 for a total of 5 classes). Usually, I take on an even bigger load over the summer (most full-timers take off for summer), teaching upwards of 30+ hours in the classroom, and who knows how many hours of grading outside the classroom. This summer, however, I have taken on half of my usual load, which will make it easier to get a muse started. The idea is to ultimately teach 2-3 classes at a time (so I can actually enjoy what I love about teaching -- and what I love about grading the papers, when the stack is manageable).

Thank you for the muse idea. I have many students who are international students, and I've been thinking about a product that would help them adjust to student life in the US. In the summer, I'm hoping to develop things further, so I can one day teach for fun, rather than for a living.

[jpm]

Some jobs don't lend themselves well to outsourcing or elimination. This means you'll need to make choices and getting down to a 4 hour week in your current job may not be possible.

One idea you might want to incorporate. Have the students critique each other's papers. My experience with writing taught me that I didn't really learn anything about writing until I started critiquing others work. This won't eliminate the need to grade papers but it will allow you to leverage your students time, and imho, will make them better writers.

[brad918]

I had a couple of ideas for you. I typed them out and they seemed to disappear into cyber space. If this turns out to be a double post, please forgive. I'll try to be more succinct this time anyway. Also ... please don't grade my writing, okay?

I think your situation DOES fit a Pareto situation. I don't know the level of student involved or your focus as a writing teacher - grammar or thought content? I would automate the checking of grammar/spelling/etc. I would tell the students in advance their papers would be going through an automated grammar and spelling checker. I think this forward communication would alleviate ethical issues involved with that basic automation. I would tell them I'm going to focus on their communicative style but will adjust by what the automated system tells me about their use of grammar/spelling/etc. I would require students to submit papers in electronic format if at all possible. (My son had trouble writing and LONGED for the time the teacher would accept e-papers.) I would then focus on content and communicative style.

Maybe this is rhetorical and you already to all that. I could not tell from your post. I also agree with a previous poster that you could but back slightly on the number of papers and raise the grade impact of each a little more and put some of the burden on the student to work it a bit harder.

Just some thoughts.

[ardor]

You can learn allot of other peoples mistakes, Think of all the things you have learned about writing from grading your students papers. Why not let you students sometimes grade each others work, so they don't miss out on this learning experience.

[VitaminD]

I DON'T get summers off, and my muse is going to be running live THIS WEEK, as in within a month of initial testing, which was the beginning of the work for it.

Am I missing something? You have three months off in which you don't have to work...and you want to set up a muse to supplement your income. Seriously, am I missing something here? I don't understand. Three months of NO WORK?

Are you sure the only problem isn't how you're perceiving this thing? I think you have a huge blindspot...as in, you don't see the fact that you have three months off, and that you want to set up a muse. I just don't get it.

[Marcie]

I DON'T get summers off, and my muse is going to be running live THIS WEEK, as in within a month of initial testing, which was the beginning of the work for it.

Am I missing something? You have three months off in which you don't have to work...and you want to set up a muse to supplement your income. Seriously, am I missing something here? I don't understand. Three months of NO WORK?

Are you sure the only problem isn't how you're perceiving this thing? I think you have a huge blindspot...as in, you don't see the fact that you have three months off, and that you want to set up a muse. I just don't get it.

:( I am trying not to read into your post, but are you saying people with a lot of free time should do something else?

[worldmegan]

I think D is just saying (dramatically, which I can maybe understand) that three months of free time is an excellent, excellent time to target for developing and launching a muse, to ultimately replace as much "regular" work as desired, once it's gotten going. I think -- and maybe I'm wrong, but this is what it seems like -- that D is expressing the idea that many of us would kill to have three months out of the year to work on our muse instead of the regular day-to-day job. :D

I know some teachers that are required to spend part of that time working on curriculum, etc. -- I'm not sure exactly how that works, but I think however much time is actually free for the summer months, it could definitely be considered an advantage. For Read -- I wish you much luck in finding the precise setup that works for you, and I wish that my own friends who are teachers would do some thinking about these things, as unhappy as they often seem!

[VitaminD]

I think -- and maybe I'm wrong, but this is what it seems like -- that D is expressing the idea that many of us would kill to have three months out of the year to work on our muse instead of the regular day-to-day job. :D

Yep, you got it. :) It just blows my mind is all, that one could have three months out of the year for free time, and still be confused about this. Use the Nike motto!

[worldmegan]

I understand what you mean -- and I also know that it's VERY easy to overlook something like that, because, it's your life! And our society really teaches us to live our lives like robots. It's a big deal to start noticing what we're doing and realize what that we can make it better! And, sometimes it's hard. Which makes it even MORE awesome when we do it!

[VitaminD]

I think what happens is that we get so used to our lines of thinking and the construction of our free time in our heads that we totally forget exactly how much free time we have. It's possible to completely miss the fact that you have three months off if, well, you're used to having three months off.

[read]

I know that a lot of teachers do get summers off, but I'm an adjunct college teacher at several schools -- which means that, if I don't teach summer school (which is sometimes even more man-hours than a regular semester), I don't eat. I also work an extra administrative job (in addition to teaching) year-round. Please don't make assumptions about how easy my workload must be. I work hard and long hours -- as do many teachers. In fact, up until this week, I hadn't taken one day without work (and that includes weekends and holidays) in almost a year.

With all that said, I love the idea of summers off -- and, if I can swing it financially, I plan to make a summer vacation my goal. Once my muse is set up, I'm planning to allow the muse to fund a summer mini-retirement.

For those of you who gave me ideas on grading papers, thank you. I'm actually already doing most of your suggestions, but it helps to hear them again.

[Talon]

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[Phil958]

A few thoughts....and not necessarily applicable as I am not sure what level you are teaching. First, I have to mention that the teaching of this subject has garnered a lot of debate in the profession as to the "how" to improve one's writing. Over the years I came to the conclusion it is clearly a process and one that success does not come over night nor often during the course of one class. Keep in mind, the marking of every correction is probably the least effective process to gain the most desired outcome--that of helping the writer to become better.

I would focus on only one or two skills/suggestions for improvement per paper. Even more important, I would always point out what I thought was done well! THAT will motivate the writer far more than the critical analysis of where the writing fell short.

Hope this helps!

Phil

[read]

Thanks, Phil. You're right. Students don't improve when you mark absolutely everything on a paper. In fact, a lot of students come to believe they're "bad" writers after getting papers back like this. Praise helps a lot -- and focusing on one or two things to improve, rather than 10 or 20. When I discovered this after my first year of teaching, I sped my grading time by 50%. The problem, I think, with teaching writing is that most of us (adjuncts in higher ed) have about 80-100 students per semester at several schools. This might be no problem for a math or science teacher, but a writing teacher must eventually look at the writing -- and with 80-100 students, it's going to be a big stack of work, any way it's sliced.

With that said, the 80/20 principle has helped me free up a lot of my other teaching tasks so I have time to get through those papers. When I have a manageable stack of papers, I really do like commenting on them and helping students find the one thing that will make the most improvement. With the creation of a muse, I hope to be able to teach 30-40 students per semester, rather than 90-100, as I'm currently doing. This would, I think, make a huge difference not only in my workload but in my enjoyment of the work itself.

[WriteDoc]

I also teach a College Writing course (as well as Psychology) so I understand your problem. Reduce the number of larger assignments. Do more in-class writing of shorter items. Teach editing skills by having student writer-teams in which students must edit each others draft then the revise according to the edits that are accepted or rejected. In Word the changes by each editor can be tracked. Give a grade to the editors for doing a competent job.
We also require that our students show evidence of submitting their papers to Turnitin.com, a plagiarism checker. WriteDoc