Welcome to Teaching with That Marine Science Guy!
I use lots of past released test questions as daily practice in any AICE course I teach. I highly suggest that method. Typically we work on vocabulary first, direct instruction (lecture), and then hit past papers pretty hard, and do a lab or two. Quiz, more released test items, and finally test. This means, I have, weekly, a stack of papers about 2.5cm / 1" high that must be returned to the kids. These papers also need to be graded, with meaningful feedback on them, too. I wrote more on how to do that in the article below.
Nesessity is the mother of invention. Enter the paper passback sorting station. I made these two book end looking devices out of scrap plywood I had in the garage. I. LOVE. THEM. On top, I rest my seating chart - shown at right center. Yes, I have these memorized, but it helps to have my seating chart there. I'm now ready to sort out papers! Do you have a teachers assistant? This is a perfect task for those helpful students!
Each flat shelf of the paper sorter represents a lab table. I have 8 lab tables, and it's at these tables that the kids sit for class - we don't have a back lab area (sadly). The main pile of graded papers to be passed back is sorted by each student who sits at each lab table. So, Sara, Jake, and Jill sit at table 8, and all of thier papers are sorted into slot 8. This does not take long to sort out either. Once done, I pull the papers out of the sorter in a way that allows me to walk around the room from one table to another - I call it sort stacked. See the gif image below. As I walk around the room, I drop that specific stack of graded papers on each lab table. The kids then rummage through, and pick out thier individual papers.
This system has really helped me make paper return as efficient as possible, and BOY do we use paper in my AICE classes! I hope you find this helpful as well. You are free to build your own paper passback sorter, or you can purchase one from my Etsy shop (coming soon) using this link. Just keep in mind, my products are built to order, so it may take a little time to ship to you.
