Something I learned by accident

One thing I want to do with my students is give them credit for what they know. Being a math teacher, I know that many students make mistakes and want to give them partial credit for procedural knowledge. With a multiple choice test, it is right or wrong - - they get credit or they don't. So with that rationale, I spent a couple of hours making out quiz for my four preps: Algebra II, Pre-AP Geometry, Transitions and Pre-AP Algebra II. Oh, and I was so proud --- I had made sure that the problems were like something we had gone over in class and my keys were precise with each and every step of each problem worked out perfectly.

I administered the quizzes to my six classes. That afternoon I proudly gathered the said quizzes and with great excitement, hurried home to grade 116 beautiful quizzes. At 9:30 p.m., after 3 hours of grading, I knew that I had again failed to consider the amount of time a particular task might require. I had a total of 12, yes, 12 quizzes graded! I was spending an average of 15 minutes on each student's quiz. Now, I didn't think that was much considering that the student's had spent about 45 minutes of their time on the quiz. It seemed to me that my students deserved 15 minutes of my time. However, 15 minutes per student adds up to 29 hours of grading papers! Good Grief! There was no way. So, what was I to do?

I had 3 more to grade in my 1st period class. So I did. After that, I typed up the quiz keys with the answers in red and the next day, I explained the dilemma to my students and asked them to help. I had them clear their desks and gave each of them a red pen and their own quiz. I explained to them that all I wanted them to write was an X on the number of the ones they missed and then write the corrections out to the side. That day was one of the best days this year. The students asked more involved questions; "Why?" and "What if . . . " questions and really thought about what they had done and what they should have done. It was amazing!