Grading made easy

I'm writing today after the daunting task of grading 45 benchmark tests with 30 questions.. Normally just getting myself mentally prepared for the idea of grading all those papers would take me at least a week to come to terms with, but I have exciting news- it only took me 4 minutes. Yep, not even 5 full minutes. Take that extra minute to revel in your success and productivity!

I was able to do this with a nifty app called zipgrade. I first saw it pop up on Pinterest and I was intrigued but like all my other pins I saved it to a board and it was lost in the abyss. It kept popping up though so I figured I'd check it out. It's an app that will scan bubble sheets and grade it for you, like a scantron. You use the bubble sheet made by zipgrade.com which are easy to find and print. Then with your phone or device you can scan a paper in seconds. You enter your key, and can even do multiple versions of the test. After all of your papers are scanned you can find valuable information like the class average and even item analysis so you can see what percent of the class got each individual question- GREAT for reteaching! 

You can view individual papers, so this is a scan of this students bubble sheet.

You can also view all of the scanned papers to easily add to your grade book. The names have been blurred, but they'll appear as the student has written them.

Here's the item analysis I was referring to. I literally graded these tests while the children put their test materials away and in minutes we were discussing he first question since it was only answered correctly by 43% of the class. This instant feedback is great because it's fresh on their minds.

The app also allows you to export your data from the assessment so you can print out and have a hard copy, or need to file it.

The first 100 scans are free, so that's a great way to try it out with no strings attached. After that a year of unlimited scanning is $7.. Let's be real I was hooked and thought that's a steal for such a time saver and great data analysis!

I hope you consider checking out zipgrade. I highly recommend it!

Rock on,

Diana