One hundred and fifty essays is not an unusual number for a high school English teacher. It is five sections of thirty, each with a due date that seems to arrive at the same time. The math is grim: even at ten minutes an essay, that is twenty-five hours.

Teachers respond in different ways. Some rush through and write less. Others keep the standard high and pay for it with their weekends. Neither option is sustainable for a full school year.

The good news is that grading time is not fixed. It shrinks when you change how the work is set up, how feedback is delivered, and how many times you read each paper.

Here are habits that make a real difference during a Jekyll and Hyde unit.

Grade in Focused Passes

Reading an essay once and trying to catch everything leads to long, tired comments. Instead, focus on one skill at a time. A first pass might look only at thesis and evidence, and a second at organization.

• Set a timer of eight minutes per essay and hold yourself to it
• Grade one class at a time so the standards stay fresh in your mind
• Start with the middle-range essays to set your baseline
• Take a real break every ten essays to avoid fatigue drift
• Stop for the day when your comments start repeating word for word

Cut What Doesn't Change Student Behavior

Line edits on every sentence rarely lead to better writing. Students tend to fix the marked errors and repeat the same ones next time. A few targeted comments on the biggest issues do more.

Consider giving detailed feedback on a rotating subset. Every student gets full comments on some assignments and lighter scores on others. Over the term, everyone gets meaningful feedback without you reading everything at maximum depth.

Use Templates and Comment Banks

You will write the same comment about weak analysis dozens of times. Save your best versions and adjust them for each student. This keeps the language clear and saves typing time.

Make each comment specific enough to be useful. "Explain how this word choice shapes our view of Hyde" beats "more analysis needed."

Let Technology Handle the First Draft of Feedback

AI grading tools change the math. With GraideMind, you upload your rubric and the essays, and the tool returns criterion-by-criterion feedback and a suggested score for each paper. You review, adjust, and add your own notes, which takes a fraction of the time it takes to write everything from scratch.

The point is not to take yourself out of grading. It is to reserve your attention for the parts of it that need a person.