Harder than it looks!

Giving feedback and grading is so much harder than it looks! I found myself trying to be as positive and forgiving with the writing as possible as I tried to take into account the ages of my students. I also found myself struggling to give cohesive criticism, it's so easy to have something to say in your head but being able to say it out loud and allow a student to learn from their mistakes is very difficult. I also found it very tedious to compare every aspect of the writing to what the rubric was asking for. For example, while student #3 was lacking flow and analysis, student #2 had a thorough and easy to understand thesis. As for grading, all essays felt like B's across the board. This is absolutely something I need to further improve on through practice and patience with myself. I find it extremely difficult to be detailed because it feels mean-spirited. However, I would say that student #2 was the best overall. I might approach a larger batch with a more general outline of what makes a good essay rather than getting caught up on the tiny details. 

P.S. I was unfortunately unable to access the blog post of the person above me in the chart.