How Writing Conferences Reduce Essay Grading Time

Essay grading can be time-consuming and tedious. After years of trial and error, I found a great way to make grading papers easier while also helping my students produce better essays. It’s a win-win! Instead of doing all of the grading outside of school hours, I used writing conferences to support students and reduce grading time. 

How to Reduce Time on Essay Grading

The best part about using writing conferences to reduce grading? There are truly no downsides. You get to meet with students 1:1. You can help students in real time and provide individualized support. And because you’ve helped students as they write, the essays you grade have fewer errors and need fewer corrections. AKA you don’t have to spend as long grading them. Here are a few reasons to use writing conferences to reduce grading time.

#1 Apply Feedback in Real Time

Writing conferences allow for lots of one-on-one feedback. When students wait for you to return their graded essays in order to get feedback, there are a lot of missed opportunities. Plus, the takeaways aren’t as in-depth as getting feedback in real time.

When you meet with students as they write, students can apply the feedback immediately and learn in the moment, which means they also end up with better essays. And you and I both know that grading a well-written essay is much easier than grading a paper that needs a lot of work. 

#2 Grade Papers During Conferences

Another reason writing conferences can save you time on grading papers is you can actually grade right then and there. You’re already focused on the student’s work during a 1:1 conference. You can assign that work a grade rather than taking the essays home and spending the time grading them alone.

Don’t overthink it, though. You don’t need to grade the entire essay from top to bottom during the writing conference. Instead, look for something in particular, like a thesis statement or clear evidence. 

#3 Tailor Instruction to Improve Writing

When you take the time to meet with students to discuss their writing, you can take that knowledge and use it to tailor your instruction moving forward. This is the same thing as using informal assessment to guide your instruction – rather than trying to circle back on material after you’ve already graded student work.

Writing conferences can help inform your decisions when making small groups, planning writing mini-lessons, and even choosing writing prompts for the future. I recommend keeping track of common things you address with students during conferences and who you discussed it with. It can be as informal as writing it in a notebook.

Writing Conferences in Action

I’ve shared how writing conferences can help with essay grading, but I also want to give you a brief look into how writing conferences looked in my classroom. This will give you an idea of the flow and expectations I set in my classroom.

I talked about this briefly, but one thing I liked to do during writing conferences was get specific. Maybe you want students to focus on their explanations or work on evidence. Either way, choose a prompt that supports the skill you want students to focus on. This will make it easier to check students’ work (you know exactly what to look for) and grade their work.

For example, after reading, I’d ask students to write one page about the themes they saw in that section of the text and include evidence. Then, during conferences, I was able to focus on just that. I didn’t worry about grammar or their thesis – at least not at that moment.

Immediately after a writing conference, students will apply what we discussed. Make it clear to students that you won’t be spoon-feeding them by checking in on every change to their essay as you’ll be occupied conferencing with other students! This holds students accountable in applying what they’ve learned, as opposed to leaning on you for constant support.

How to Organize Student Conferences

There are lots of ways you can organize your writing conferences, but I want to share what worked for my classroom and how I implemented essay grading alongside that. 

I found that allowing students to slowly trickle to my desk as they worked was both organic and effective. When it was time to write, I would tell students they had 20-25 minutes to write their response. Some students would finish during the first few minutes, and others would need the entire time. 

As they finished, they would come to my desk, and we’d have a 1:1 conference. Most of the time, this flow worked really well. Occasionally, the line would get long, so I’d have students write their names on the board in the order they finished. Then, they could read independently while waiting to have a conference with me. 

If I didn’t get to everyone during class, students would leave their notebooks and papers with me, and I would look over their essays when I could. The next day, I would meet with those students first to go over my feedback. This system worked really well in my classroom, and I loved that it didn’t require extra planning.

If essay grading is leading to overwhelm, I highly recommend trying this writing conference method. It’s possible to structure your class period to allow for meaningful conferences, real-time application, and overall better writing. Which, of course, leads to less grading.