When I was a teacher, I assigned my fair share of essays to my students. As a history teacher, I wanted them to use narratives to explain their interpretation and understanding of the events that have shaped the world as we know it. However, the one thing that I hated about assigning essays was the amount of time that it took me to grade them.

In response, I had to find new and innovative ways to reduce the time that it took me to assess them. If I didn’t, my weekends would be perpetually spent grading hundreds of essays. Thankfully, I came up with several strategies that helped me decrease the amount of time that it took me to grade each piece.

Fast forward to April 2018, and I run across the graphic below that made me smile because it triggered so many memories. It lists several strategies that can be used to reduce essay grading time. I used several of these in my assessment routine. I hope this helps.