It seems like I have spent the last month either correcting, worrying about correcting or avoiding correcting. Around this time of year, the amount of corrections that need to be done starts to look ominous and a collective dread works its way around the staffroom. Whenever the topic of corrections comes up, a sigh tends to be the most common response. Weekends marred by a stack of papers lurking somewhere in the house.
But the thing is, it is the quantity rather than the process itself that I don't like. If I have a bit of time, if a bit of love (or at the very least, some care) has been put into the writing, then correcting written work is really rewarding.
You can figure out new things to cover in class, you can get to know your students a bit better, you can spend a bit more time thinking about how language works than in the heat of the spoken moment. And if you get the time to sit with the writer, you can have a really wonderful exchange.
The only problem is time. There is so little of it. And trying to get through tons of corrections in what little there is, I fear, robs you of the possible joy of correcting and denies the student the value to be gained from those meaningful responses that our better selves would like to offer.
Does anyone have any thoughts on correcting and how to make it less of a drag and more meaningful?
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