You see this stack right here. This is a stack of papers I have been grading for the past 3hrs. Usin

You see this stack right here. This is a stack of papers I have been grading for the past 3hrs. Using a bright pink pen. You see, I used to think that my students would toss the graded papers and ignore my comments on them. Then I switched to digital grading and copying and pasting comments with every click. They never read them.

Not this time, not this year.

I went back to using pen and using my weekends to decide which brightly colored pen would I use. Tonight, in all its glory of pink, I have seen the difference. This is the 2nd stack and tomorrow will be a third stack and quite possibly Thursday might be a fourth stack. You see, I have made genuine comments with the first stack including, “Dude. I gave you 30 minutes and this is all I get? [Grade] D.” Oh, and, “Great quotes and citation. Now use Academic vocabulary in your response. [Grade] A.”

Now we are at stack 2 and the students have taken my advice and it is wonderful. WONDERFUL.

And this is why, personally, grading on a Sunday does not seem so bad for me. At least for now. It makes me see that the students are working on how to be better readers and writers. I will, of course, scaffold from this activity (they will write 8 sets of Reader Response assignments for Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street”) and with each set there will be a new lesson to build on.

I just hope my students keep this up! I hope I can keep this up.