Almost every Sunday, I go through the same dilemma... to grade or not to grade. Indeed, the amount of grading is our achilles heel in ELA, but in a sick and twisted way, we revel in the misery of it. A very wise mentor once told me that when the essays or papers are of such quality that you want to throw them across the room, simply pull out a nice bottle of wine to accompany your challenge and remember three things: 1) Never correct students' mistakes; 2) Only focus on a few of the issues; and 3) Perhaps most importantly, always give encouragement about something. I have discovered that a St. Clair's Riesling goes very well with literature analysis, and when looking at journals, you can never go wrong with a Gewurztraminer.
I happily choose this dilemma over some of my colleagues' coping strategies. Apparently, some of them just don't assign writing assignments to begin with, taking care of the pesky nuisance of this grading stuff. While it may sound tempting on the surface, I can't help but think about my students trying to complete a college or job application in a few years--for some in a few months--and know that living with the guilt that some of theirs would go straight to the garbage can due to errors would wreck my sleep. So, yes, I may curse and complain every Sunday afternoon (before I pop the cork), but I would much rather be known as one of those teachers who drinks and swears than a lazy one who never writes (because we should write with our students too) or assigns writing assignments. Happy grading!
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