Teachers know their work isn't done at the end of the school day. Assignments still have to be marked. If you want to make your life easier and take back some of your day after you've finished teaching, follow this advice on making the process of grading easier.

Consider the working of rubrics. An easy way has been devised marking student work objectively. The most popular way to do this has been to use rubrics. A rubric is basically a chart or score sheet that has five columns across and a number of rows down - depending on the number of categories to be marked.

The columns illustrate the different marks a student can receive on an assignment. The columns are D - C - B - A or 1 - 2 - 3 - 4, labeled accordingly. It is your option as to which grading method you choose. Begin with the lower grades on the left and work your way up to the highest grade on the right. Left blank will be the top left-hand corner box.

The rows of a rubric display the different levels of work for each section. So if you fill in the first box in a row with the category you're going to grade students on (such as spelling grammar, research skills) and then you would to fill out what is considered a "D" or a "1", or a "C" or a"2" for that skill category. Make small notes to yourself as brief examples of what classifies as each level of work.

Discuss the rubric. After completing the rubric with all categories and descriptions of each level of work, you can introduce the rubric to the class. Display it on the overhead projector and give every student a copy to look over. You will likely have to take some time to explain it. Just have them understand that you'll be marking them on for this assignment, along with the lowest and highest standard of work that you would want to receive. Providing this in written form for the students allows them the opportunity to see what they are required to do to pass the assignment.

Send a blank rubric home for the project. To help keep parents in the loop send home a rubric sheet. This way students cannot use the excuse that they 'did not know' what you were looking for. Your easy grading rubric should make all that clear.

You will need to have a rubric for each student's assignment. Once assignments have been collected and they are ready for marking, you must have a rubric for each student or each assignment. Mark the work and as you go along, look for indications of each level of work for the categories you outlined. When reading the assignment is complete, highlight the level that the student performed at in each category, leaving a few remarks at the bottom, and then go on to the next student. You will grade papers so much faster and enjoy how much easier it is.

Tiffany Provost writes about method class and education for www.HowToDoThings.com.