I am using a tactic again this semester that I tried last semester, one that I adopted from my former GWU colleague Ryan Jerving: Live grading. It only works in certain fairly luxurious teaching scenarios, where class sizes and/or course loads are small enough to accomodate the time commitment required.

The way I set up my composition courses, students are graded for "final for now" drafts of each major paper, and then are assigned a separate portfolio grade for revisions of the body of their work. Their final paper, then, is due in conference in the second to last week of classes--right now in my case. Each student sets up a 45 minute conference during this week where they come in to my office with their paper, and walk out with a grade on the paper, and revision tasks for their portfolio.

Here's how it works: A student arrives with two copies of their paper, including an audience analysis and a full works consulted page. I read the audience analysis silently and them look over the bibliography, and we go over formatting issues for that document. Then they start by reading the whole paper aloud. I'll stop them in places where I want to make a comment (the equivalent of margin comments) and they can ask questions as they need. For some higher-order issues, I'll jot some comments down for discussion afterwards. When they are done, I'll identify any other trends I see and we'll discuss how to address them in revision.

When they have a clear sense of what they'd like to do with the paper, I ask them to look over the grade descriptors in the course handbook, and together, we decide on an appropriate grade. 85% of the time, students are within a half-letter grade of my assessment, and they are not always as generous to themselves as you might imagine. They are tasked with writing up their own end comment, detailing, their paper's strengths, its weaknesses, and revision strategies they want to take on.

Once that is done, we discuss their course grade in progress and discuss the other work they'll choose to revise for the portfolio. They can ask any questions they want, and this ranges from questions about their grade to feedback about the class and even the live grading process.

Upsides? Students typically feel significant more empowered about the evaluation process--my comments are part of a dialogue about their writing, and doesn't have the same dogma effect that green pen does. The time commitment is not significantly more than paper grading for me, and since I cancel a week of classes to do these conferences, the hours expended are roughly the same, but it's all loaded into the workday. So I go home with my grading task completed (I hate to grade at home). Also, by asking students to write their end comment, I can see what they are processing of the coaching they get, and what I will need to reiterate in the last week of classes.

Downsides? It's a bit of an anxiety producing experience for some students, especially coming into the process, and in the rare case where a student is surprised by the grade, there is some awkwardness, particularly if tears are involved (as they have been only once). I can't do this in other classes, but in this situation, it's a process I like very much.

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