"Get it off my stack": Teachers' tools for grading papers

Using activity theory to contextualize paper responding and grading processes, this qualitative case study uses interviews and artifacts of three first-year composition instructors to identify ways they cope with the tedious and copious work. Data reveal that teachers practice previously discovered writing habits of successful writers. Those habits, among others, include creating self-imposed goals, dividing work into manageable chunks, using physical and psychological tools such as information charts and rewards, managing criticism from their paper-grading communities, and sharing work. In light of the results, the researcher calls for administrators' increased attention to recognition and rewards and decreased criticism in the writing assessment world. Results also indicate a need for greater contextual analyses of teachers' behavior, tool use, and community interactions. Attention to the social and cultural construction of the paper-grading process will help teachers with the real jobs they have before them that may not conform to the snapshots of isolated actions sometimes presented in writing assessment research. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.