Steep Grade Ahead!

Another week, another new experience. This week it was grading essay exams. I got to design my grading rubric and grade two questions on the first exam of the semester. I didn't write the questions, which is perhaps a little tougher than grading your own questions. Still, the questions weren't foreign to me and it wasn't terribly difficult to determine what was essential in responding to each one. I will say, though, that the grading process was nothing like I expected it to be.

First, I can't believe how personally invested I became in grading these exams. I found myself angry, discouraged, disappointed, and at times exhilarated. While I tried to grade the questions in an anonymous and unbiased manner, I could usually tell whose paper I was looking at about a paragraph in. It was encouraging that in a month or so I have gotten to know these students well enough to recognize their individual thought processes. It was a burden, however, to keep from allowing personal feelings and expectations from entering the grading equation. I can see how that will always be a challenge when giving exams that aren't primarily objective in nature.

Then, I am anxious (not sure this is exactly the right word, unless by it I mean "experiencing anxiety") to track my attitude toward the class after this first big opportunity to see the quality of their work. There are approximately six weeks remaining for class meetings. I don't want the emotions I experienced while reading their essays to overtly (or covertly) color the way I feel toward the individual students, nor toward the class as a whole. It is important that I try to divorce my expectations going in from my behavior coming out. The classroom is still about the students learning and processing and not about me finding affirmation in my teaching brilliance!