Papers, Papers, Papers: An English Teacher's Survival Guide

by Carol Jago

You're reading as fast as you can, but the pile of unread essays grows taller and taller. Guilt mounts. Students want to know when their papers will come back. Grading begins consuming all your energy, your weekends, your life. Grading papers is a fact of life, especially in English classrooms, and the paper load is a leading cause of teacher burnout. Fortunately, Carl Jago's here to help, and in Papers, Papers, Papers , she offers you advice honed from thirty-one years in the English classroom and forty-five thousand papers worth of grading. You'll not only get through stacks of papers, but you'll do so accurately, completely, and with the time you need to give each and every student in your classes the attention they deserve. Ever practical and always professional, Jago suggests techniques that can be implemented right away to turn your mountain of essays into a foothill. She covers every aspect of attentive grading, With all this and her Ten Tips for Handling the Paper Load, Carol Jago gives you everything you need to keep on top of student papers.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Professional Development, Nonfiction, Writing

107 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2005

About the author

Carol Jago is an American English teacher, author, and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. In 2016, Jago received the CEL Kent Williamson Exemplary Leadership Award from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could give half star ratings, I would give this book 2.5 stars. I actually found that a lot of the advice Jago gives in this book, I already do to help minimize the paper load (self-assessments, reflective essays, portfolios, etc.) so there wasn't a whole lot of new information this book presented.

I was not fond of Jago's tone and voice of this book. It was a tad bit inconsistent - one minute she's talking about handling the paper load, the next minute she's talking about what's wrong with public education. She also talks about how pinpointing all of your students' errors is a futile attempt, but the next minute she's talking about how she dons her red pen and marks students' errors.

What I DID like about this book is how Jago addresses what to do about students who don't read teacher comments, and also how to deal with students in a peer conference setting so that they actually get to work and don't goof off.

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

virtual PD day choice. Jogged my memory. '-)

[Sarah Zerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jago's work is always thoughtful, and this book does offer some practical strategies for handling the paper load. I'm curious to know how her thinking on grading has changed in the 11 years since she wrote this book. Or if she's still so anchored on a literary analytic framework for her classes. Or how much she uses workshop pedagogy. Or what she thinks about the standards based testing movement now--getting students ready for writing on state and national tests is a strong theme in the book. Underpinning the text is an assumption that every piece of writing needs to be evaluated by the teacher--graded, corrected. I'm moving away from this in favor of providing more feedback as a reader of my students' writing rather than being an evaluator primarily.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't agree with everything that Jago suggests or says in this book, I do think she raises some essential questions about the hard work facing all English teachers, and offers some effective strategies for dealing with the paper load. Some of her ideas may elicit more discussion than agreement, but I do think that's the purpose of any "methods" textbook, to enable teachers (preservice or veteran) to make up their own minds about these issues, and find approaches that work well for them.

[Meghan Brannon-Reese · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d give this 3.5 or even 3.75 stars if I could. It’s a short read, but that doesn’t mean it’s short on information or inspiration. Jago has been an inspiration to me for several years now; I’ve seen her via zooms and always really appreciated her student-centered approach.
However, I like her approach to reading, analysis? And discussion a bit better than her approach to writing.
Let me be clear though, that there are aspects of her writing pedagogy that overlap with mine and that I appreciate, but for me parts of this text missed the mark a little. Perhaps bc it was written in 2905, and I’m reading it in 2021, but there were a couple of parts that felt overly prescriptivist when it comes to grammar. Many people are, and use such approaches well in the classroom. That just doesn’t happen to fully mesh with my own pedagogy. It’s also possible (and likely) that ideas were, of necessity, compressed given the length and focus of the text. Still, I am looking forward to diving into another Jago book: the book in question.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I make a promise to my students at the beginning of a school year: if you write it, I read it.

English teachers martyr themselves grading essays. It’s true, but we can’t quit because the work is too important. Carol Jago gives pragmatic advice and helpful suggestions on how to manage the paper load and not let it defeat us.

It’s freeing to hear someone chant: “comment rather than correct” and “I wield my red pen with love” (4).

I don’t know any English teacher who wouldn’t agree that grading writing is the most tedious and time consuming part of their job. So, we learn to read fast, use a scoring rubric, and use peer review and self assessment to manage a little better.

Overall, Jago is a soothing balm to my weary soul—misery loves company, after all.

[JTGlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got a copy of this from school PD.
Fast, easy read, but by the time I got to page 103 and saw those bullet points, it was clear that this was really an essay expanded into a book.

Skip to page 103 and you've got the overview. Flip back if you need some more details.

Really bothered by "...strategies that would help me retain my balance on the hire-wire (sic) act of classroom teaching." (102)

[Maximilian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly common sense stuff, but common sense comes through experience, and this is an excellent overview of some solid ideas based on experience for newer teachers (and experienced ones who are willing to learn a thing or two!).

What a tortured sentence.

[Jeff Mattison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has a core of good ideas. I updated the analog strategies in my mind to the options available with cloud based LMS today. As short as the book was, perhaps it could have been a long article instead...

[Barbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great suggestions and ideas, especially for the new English teacher. I highly recommend it!

[Katie Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read for new teachers in the English field. Offers valuable ideas and activities without being overbearing or one-size-fits-all.

[Lisa Penninga · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great, quick read - perfect timing before school begins- and gives some great tips on grading. I have six new ideas to help make my grading more meaningful. Love Jago’s books!

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/20/23: Re-read because I couldn't find my previous notes (:/). Same review applies below, but I am going to up it to four stars.
12/11/22: I am sure I must have skimmed this book before in desperation. It's an older book (2005), so some ideas are outdated, and none of the website links exist. What I found useful: expected attributes of well-written essays; distinguishing between what Jago calls level I, II, and III feedback; what kind of feedback (or rewriting) to ditch; how to explicitly direct students to self-assess their work; having students self-reflect about teacher feedback. I didn't find much of it useful in actually cutting down on time or managing the paper load, the purported goal of the book. With the focus today on social-emotional learning, I found it refreshing to read comments like this:

A corollary of the right to free public education is the responsibility to complete the work assigned. . . . [T]he lowering of expectations of student performance beyond all recognition is of no conceivable benefit to the student. Moreover, by allowing students to slip through school, awarding credit to students who write almost nothing, a teacher is guilty of educational malpractice.

If only that were still the attitude today.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would definitely recommend this text to pre-service and new English teachers as the research noted and breadth of ideas allows one to reflect on the realities the paper load can pose and provides insights into how one might handle them effectively. Although at times I felt the text jumped around from the topic of surviving the paper load to other personal opinions of the author, I came away with several ideas that had not occurred to me and I plan on using next year as I continue to work to improve in the area of providing my students with quality feedback.

[Vicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few good tips and a couple of useful rubrics. I liked the chapter on peer and self assessments. However, some of it was common sense and stuff I already do. In order to handle the paper load, assign less essays, I think we know that. Some areas seemed to go off on tangents on the state of public education. I think I bought this in my second year of teaching, perhaps it would have been more useful then.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there are some ideas in this book I already use in the classroom- or prefer not to- there are enough new suggestions, lesson ideas, and tips to make it a worthwhile read. Jago is committed to helping teachers to be professionals who "thrive in a challenging environment" instead of the "martyrs" that some teachers unnecessarily strive to be. I appreciate her insights and look forward to implementing some of her ideas into my writing classes.

[Thomas Maerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going with three stars because this book was good, but not phenomenal. It's not too long, clearly focused, and has a specific audience in mind. I would definitely recommend this book to new and young English teachers--middle or high school. I've got a bit of experience, and it's always nice to have some quality reminders to reinforce better habits.

[TJ Wilson]

I learned some great advice about saving time when grading papers, but was totally turned off by her "computer grading" software suggestions. Computers will never be able to understand meaningful rhetoric. Blegh!

[Jkim46 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book from an English teacher who understands the public school classroom. Lots of great tips in it and things to try. Very readable because of the author's no-nonsense, humorous, realistic tone.

[cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Godsend. Succinct. Practical solutions to to the never-ending stack of essays.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I don't agree with her approach to certain pedagogical issues, she has some good ideas for certain things.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

not available in Minerva

[Lindsay Coppens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some new ideas, some old ideas. I would have found this very helpful in my first years teaching, but there are a few things I plan to try this fall.

[Sirpa Grierson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are wondering how to stay above the waterline when you are faced with massive amounts of papers to grade, Jago gives the most practical advice I've read. Easy to read and practical.

[R Zavala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Might have been better had I read this year's ago, but am already mostly using her tricks. Better for a beginner teacher.