Grading papers and other little situations

The best part of this week at my school was helping individual students to write their essays and do revision on them. I enjoy the most working close-up with students and interact with them, so that was exciting to do that. Also, oddly enough I enjoyed grading assignments. Maybe it is a sadistic part of me, but I finished and actually thought it was fun. I learned a lot from that experience. First, it is all the things you need to consider when you grading. How much point do I award for certain things and what seems fair. Especially when you are grading on completion, you have to kind of compare student papers. If I gave same amount of points to two people, did they work actually was similar or because I got kinder at the end on my grading or more strict in the beginning. I had to consider all those factors and sometimes go back, because I messed up. Through this, I also found beneficial to write comments next to their grade. I thought students should know why they missed so many points and also I think it’s important to encourage them to keep doing well.

One thing I would adopt from my teacher along with the grading that includes comments along with the grade is modeling the work that I expect them to do. I found it so helpful and refreshing to see a teacher explain how a student should for instance annotate a poem. You can’t expect to know what you want from them unless you show it, so I found that practice to be valuable.

Now, a situation that was a bit difficult was when you know you need to help a student, but they do not want your help. The teacher told me to help a student and also told the student that I am here to help. What I found really quick that she really did not want my help, but from what the teacher still need it. What I learned from this is that students sometime put on guard. It could be that they don’t like working with someone, but as my teacher said, sometimes it just makes them feel like they are not good enough. If you need help then it means you are stupid, but of course that is not true. Confidence is a big issue in a school like mine and I guess I’ll just have to find a way that will both help them and not undermine their feelings about their competence. It’s difficult. Any suggestions?