Manageable and Effective Marking
As a school we are trying to move forwards with a few aspects of our marking, assessment and feedback. Moving towards a culture where pupils really engage with their teachers efforts is a challenge and it can often be a dispiriting one. You've spent hours trying to construct valuable guidance and "next step" comments and in the pupil reflection time / space; they write, "Yeah, I will do that," or draw a smiley, or as one colleague showed me yesterday, they tell you where to go in no uncertain terms.
So, we want staff to mark more, we want pupils to do more with it and we want to see all this evidence very clearly for Ofsted too. No small wonder then that at the end of the longest school term I can remember, we are all shattered.
It was this that got me thinking -
"other people must have at some point encountered the struggle of managing their marking load, whilst wanting their quality not to slip! I think I will search the web and see if I can steal other peoples' ideas."
And so I did.................(massive thanks to all whom contributed unwittingly to this post!)
Just in case any of you are thinking of slacking off as the term draws to a close.........
Why we mark in the first place: if you ever wonder why we as teachers mark, what this means and what its for...please read this little blog....I often refer back to it mentally on a Sun night when I can think of little else I would rather than read little Jimmy’s musing on the causes of the First World War.
A powerful read for the teacher who may need a nudge ....
Marking grids: (English teacher’s idea)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l-UsthPEKaM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dl-UsthPEKaM
In essence the idea presented here is to reduce the endless rewriting of the same phrases, sentences, success criteria and guidance on all the books in a set of 30. If you’ve properly set up a task, the students know what they are being assessed on and you know what you’re looking for and what the likely pitfalls are. This means that students will have either achieved your set goals or not and will need to know to what extent they fall into either camp or what their next steps are for forthcoming work. Therefore why not use “Marking Grids” These can be shared with the class to help focus them before they start, stuck into their books after they have finished, to save you doing all 30 and then used to limit the amount of writing you have to put on their work. Simple. Effective and decreasing marking time!
For example - it might look a little like these.....
http://whenisitdueinsir.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/lazy-marking/
This is a very quick way of giving pupils leveled feedback on their work and getting them to engage with the level descriptors and therefore understanding the key success criteria without you having to write out reams of feedback. It also avoids the major time implications of writing the same targets, guidance out repeatedly.
Step 1: Set them a task to complete that you want to assess
Step 2: Decide what you think the most likely areas to target improvement are likely to be as a result of this piece of work – 4-6 is most likely. Put them on a power point.
Step 3: Mark their work for literacy, grammar etc and make whatever comment you would normally do but don’t put their targets to improve.
Step 4: Write out their 2/3 targets to improve as numbers based on your original list. If someone needs to improve something outside of that list – add it to your original and put the correct number in their book.
Step 5: Next lesson – get the pupils to find their 2/3 numbers – put the list of targets on the board and get the pupils to copy their targets into their books in PPP!
Step6: If appropriate get them to then act on their targets…..marking, pupil response and first 15mins of the next lesson taken care of!
For example - it might look a little like these.....
Success
Criteria
|
Yes:
|
Partially:
|
No:
|
Write using
PEEL paragraphs
|
|||
Every
paragraph has a golden nugget of historical fact
|
|||
You’ve
explained each cause fully using “because”
|
|||
You’ve come
to a reasoned conclusion that makes a decision
|
|||
WWW:
EBI:
|
|||
Follow up
development question:
|
|||
Student
response to development question:
|
|||
http://whenisitdueinsir.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/early-y9-targets.pptx
Lazy Marking: (Geography teacher’s ideas)
http://whenisitdueinsir.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/lazy-marking/
This is a very quick way of giving pupils leveled feedback on their work and getting them to engage with the level descriptors and therefore understanding the key success criteria without you having to write out reams of feedback. It also avoids the major time implications of writing the same targets, guidance out repeatedly.
Step 1: Set them a task to complete that you want to assess
Step 2: Decide what you think the most likely areas to target improvement are likely to be as a result of this piece of work – 4-6 is most likely. Put them on a power point.
Step 3: Mark their work for literacy, grammar etc and make whatever comment you would normally do but don’t put their targets to improve.
Step 4: Write out their 2/3 targets to improve as numbers based on your original list. If someone needs to improve something outside of that list – add it to your original and put the correct number in their book.
Step 5: Next lesson – get the pupils to find their 2/3 numbers – put the list of targets on the board and get the pupils to copy their targets into their books in PPP!
Step6: If appropriate get them to then act on their targets…..marking, pupil response and first 15mins of the next lesson taken care of!
Verbal
Marking: (Primary idea)
http://www.sjeducation.co.uk/2012/09/verbally-marking.html
This has got legs but needs to be thought through about how and when we use it. The central idea here is it that it is more powerful to discuss work than simply pass comment on it. It is more powerful to discuss the work with the author and to get them to engage in what they have done well, what could be improved and maybe how someone else would improve their work. Imagine how complex it might be to explain in written words about how to improve and then how easy it would be to show and talk through examples orally. This would require classes to be set quiet and independent work to be getting on with whilst you talk to individual students or 1-2-1 marking clinics out of lessons. The latter would be easier – but wouldn’t exactly save time unless you were very careful – lots of possibilities for small sixth form classes with long essays here……
This has got legs but needs to be thought through about how and when we use it. The central idea here is it that it is more powerful to discuss work than simply pass comment on it. It is more powerful to discuss the work with the author and to get them to engage in what they have done well, what could be improved and maybe how someone else would improve their work. Imagine how complex it might be to explain in written words about how to improve and then how easy it would be to show and talk through examples orally. This would require classes to be set quiet and independent work to be getting on with whilst you talk to individual students or 1-2-1 marking clinics out of lessons. The latter would be easier – but wouldn’t exactly save time unless you were very careful – lots of possibilities for small sixth form classes with long essays here……
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/dec/03/five-ways-reduce-stress-marking-teaching-tips
Also mentioned in this article in a secondary context as “individual marking meetings,” that are set up on a half termly basis with a yr 11 GCSE English class.
Also mentioned in this article in a secondary context as “individual marking meetings,” that are set up on a half termly basis with a yr 11 GCSE English class.
Label Marking: (RS teacher’s ideas)
I’ve used this – for much the same
reasons as the teacher who posted this – no one can read my handwriting and
this cuts into DIRT time (DIRT is an
abbreviation for Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time.) It also has the
massive bonus of saving you lots of time as long as you are happy to set up
labels in word, have a supply of sticky labels and can type quickly. I have
found this very useful and would recommend it!
A-Z marking: (RS teacher’s ideas)
Same link as above – bit of a
development on the “lazy marking” model above. The key advantage of this model
is that you have decided all the possible feedback at the start of the year, it
can be sutuck into books, referred to at the start of tasks, be used for
self-assessment, peer assessment etc etc
etc. The major downside is that I think it lacks personalization to pupils and
to tasks. Not a great shame at KS4 and 5 – but might need some careful use at
KS3. (big plus to this link – is that he has uploaded his A-Z list – so you can
steal it and adapt to your classes very easily.)
Traffic Lighting (Yorkshire Primary groups advice paper)
Old fashioned but very effective
time saver – if done correctly and as this “copied and pasted” section from the
document above states – the key is success criteria that the pupils understand
and can use.
“For
older children, it has been found that ‘Traffic Lights’ can help with
communication between teacher and child.
·
Children
are asked to ‘traffic light’ by putting a small coloured circle or dot at the
end of the piece of work. They choose
the colour according to their degree of understanding. It involves the pupil (and possibly response
partner) in self or paired assessment.
·
The
teacher looks at the work, and if there is a lot of red, it means that the
pupil has a limited understanding and there is a need to re-teach. Future teaching is therefore planned
according to need.
·
Traffic
lighting against success criteria needs to be made specific, so pupils know why
and what they are supposed to be achieving.”
It might look like
this…
Success Criteria
|
Traffic light where you think you are
(G, A, R )
|
Teacher’s Traffic Light
|
1) Can you give at least one reason
why William won the Battle of Hastings?
2) Do you think you have included this
in your written answer?
3) Do you understand why this was a
reason?
4) Do you think you have explained
this reason?
5) Do you think you have explained it
fully?
|
||
Teacher’s overall comment on the work:
|
||
Verbal Feedback Stamper: (English
teacher’s idea)
This is an idea that we should be
familiar with by now. The key problem to it is making it evident that we have
actually given feedback and more importantly that the pupils have captured the
feedback we gave them. This link here has a few other useful ideas too – but
does talk about capturing verbal feedback in bullet point form in books.
“Another favourite tool is my verbal feedback
stamper. I carry this around with me to all my lessons. I generally use it as I
walk around when pupils are working in groups or individually, I discuss an
element of whatever they are doing in depth, stamp their books and ask them to
note bullet points down.”
Me and a colleague were discussing this a few weeks
ago with regard to her BTECH Sci classes. She came up with the idea of a verbal
feedback book specific to each pupil. She gives feedback, gets them to bullet
point down what she has said and then she will come back and stamp it, initial
and date it. If she needs to add to it – its much quicker than writing it all
out and she has got the pupils to record exactly what she has aid to guide them
forward.
If you've got any comment on these - or even better some other great ways of reducing work load and stress - whilst still not dropping off on quality then please post below.........
If you've got any comment on these - or even better some other great ways of reducing work load and stress - whilst still not dropping off on quality then please post below.........
happy marking!
T
