How to Make Grading
Student Notebooks Easy
For years I have heard teachers say they don’t like using student notebooks because of the grading.
Looking at a stack of 100+ notebooks can be intimidating and overwhelming – no doubt!
Yes, grading notebooks takes work and time. But it doesn’t have to be hard and it doesn’t have to take LOTS of time.
When you consider the benefits of student notebooks, they clearly outweigh any objections.
Looking at a stack of 100+ notebooks can be intimidating and overwhelming – no doubt!
Yes, grading notebooks takes work and time. But it doesn’t have to be hard and it doesn’t have to take LOTS of time.
When you consider the benefits of student notebooks, they clearly outweigh any objections.
In this post, learn the amazing advantages to using student notebooks and my secret to getting 130+ notebooks graded.
Why Student Notebooks
The purpose of a notebook is to serve as a learning tool for students. Which means everything inside the notebook is intended to be practice for students in understanding the concepts and ideas being taught in class.
Here are 3 benefits to using student notebooks:
1) Reference for homework and projects. Students have a place to easily find the information we learned in class for their homework assignments and projects.
2) A study tool for tests. Students have access to everything important that will be on the test. It’s almost like a study guide!
3) Organization skills. The notebook is almost forced organization. Those students who were naturally organized, loved it. And yet it provided a great deal of support so those who did struggle with organization could find success and benefit.
Here are 3 benefits to using student notebooks:
1) Reference for homework and projects. Students have a place to easily find the information we learned in class for their homework assignments and projects.
2) A study tool for tests. Students have access to everything important that will be on the test. It’s almost like a study guide!
3) Organization skills. The notebook is almost forced organization. Those students who were naturally organized, loved it. And yet it provided a great deal of support so those who did struggle with organization could find success and benefit.
Notebooks and Grades
Some units could have as many as 30 pages dedicated to it. Something of such great importance to classroom learning must leave a mark of some kind in the gradebook. But how?
In my opinion it was not appropriate to grade on correctness of the material. It was, after all, considered practice work. Plus, grading 100+ notebooks for correctness was just not a practical option.
But simply grading on completeness was not appropriate either.
Therefore I started looking at rubrics. While I couldn’t find anything that would work for my needs, based on what I did find, I developed a rubric that would allow for a bit of a combination of correctness and completeness.
To help students achieve their best, I found it helpful to give opportunity for peer reviews with a simple checklist before turning in notebooks for a grade.
In my opinion it was not appropriate to grade on correctness of the material. It was, after all, considered practice work. Plus, grading 100+ notebooks for correctness was just not a practical option.
But simply grading on completeness was not appropriate either.
Therefore I started looking at rubrics. While I couldn’t find anything that would work for my needs, based on what I did find, I developed a rubric that would allow for a bit of a combination of correctness and completeness.
To help students achieve their best, I found it helpful to give opportunity for peer reviews with a simple checklist before turning in notebooks for a grade.
