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Marking and Feedback ideas 5/2/14 NB: The majority of ideas in this booklet are not original ideas, but are the current best practice that have been collected from around the internet and from CPD sessions. For a list of useful blogs and links, which cover these topics in greater detail, visit our blog or twitter feed.
Introduction What does our school marking policy tell us? “Teachers will show pupils where their work has met given criteria and explain how and why this is so… if work has not met given criteria teachers will explain how work can be improved.” Feedback should… “Identify what a pupil has done well, what needs to be done to improve and how this can be achieved.” “As pupils progress through Valley Gardens they should become independent learners.” “With the exception of statutory and formal assessment, the appropriate style and depth of marking for a piece of work is a matter for an individual teacher’s professionalism, within the guidelines of the policy.” Taken from the school policy document What this all boils down to is that feedback is important. It needs to be done regularly and it needs to be done properly. But it is also clear that it can be done in different ways and the most appropriate method should be chosen carefully by the teacher. There is no ‘catch all’ technique. Ultimately feedback should help students and it should help you. Teachers should read and then work within the framework of the marking policy, but not be afraid to use methods that best meet the needs of their learners and produce the most effective results.
Blue Sky Idea No. 1 Use marking codes/keys instead of ticks As well as using marking codes to check for spelling and grammar, why not use them to identify content you like? A tick only tells a student they got something right, but often they don’t know exactly what you liked about it. A simple code lets them quickly see exactly why you liked something. Best of all, students start to look for these elements in their work and it speeds them up when they have to peer assess or self assess each others work. You could use letters, symbols or whatever you like and adapt it to your subject area.
Blue Sky Idea No. 2 Use ‘+’ ‘=‘ and ‘-’ to identify the quality of student work. • Want a super quick way to let students know what you think of the standard of their work? • Write a plus, minus or equals in the top corner of a page. • + : This is better than your usual standard, you’ve worked really hard on this and should be proud. • = : This work is of the usual standard I expect from you. Well done. • - : This work simply isn’t up to your usual standard. It needs to be done again properly. • Then make them go back and improve! You’ll soon notice their work standard improves suspiciously quickly…
Blue Sky Idea No. 3 Make students write out their feedback. Why write out the same comment thirty times? Write a code (e.g. “T1”) and get students to write out their improvement target when they get their work back. This has the added advantage of forcing students to read it and think about what you have said and it also generates consistency in your marking approach. You could also get students to guess which comment will be theirs. Personalised feedback can still be given if you think it is warranted and it also makes peer and self-assessment a lot easier. This approach will only work if you give time in your lessons to feedback and improvement.
Blue Sky Idea No. 4 Use highlighter tabs to mark unfinished work. It becomes a lot harder for students to ignore unfinished or unsatisfactory work when you stick a tab in their book marking where it is. Every time students are given back their book, they’ll notice. Write a time limit for completion on the tab or offer incentives for completing work. Either way, you’ll be forcing them to go back and improve their work. If you want to turn this on its head, you could use tabs to mark where exceptional work is or even colour code to mark where assessments can be found or other important pieces of work.
Blue Sky Idea No. 5 Use a consistent feedback method Have a format for your feedback so students know what to expect and you are consistent in your approach. It could be these old chestnuts, or it could be 3 stars and a wish, or compliment sandwich or something of your own devising. Once students get into the right frame of thinking it helps them understand feedback procedures and what to expect. They may even begin to use them automatically which is all to the good. Knowing how to frame their feedback helps students understand what you are saying and also how to do their own.
Blue Sky Idea No. 6 Make time for DIRT Why spend hours marking if your students don’t have to do anything afterwards and can ignore your comments? Establish dedicated time in your lessons where students realise they are expected to improve their work and respond to your feedback. Not only will this make students work harder in the first place, it will also allow you to push them to make real improvements. Set clear expectations and provide scaffolding. After an assessment always use DIRT. Get students to re-write a paragraph or improve something. Otherwise you just wasted your time writing all those comments.
Blue Sky Idea No. 7 Establish Protocols Drill home the importance of feedback. Make students see the value and provide scaffolding and resources to make them better at it. Bad peer assessment is next to useless, as is a hostile atmosphere. Establish protocols and expectations and students will begin to see feedback in a more positive way, becoming less afraid of criticism and more open to improvement. You will have to be willing to devote time and energy to shifting your class culture. You will make mistakes, don’t worry!
Blue Sky Idea No. 8 Gallery Critique Spread work over tables or pin it to the wall. Give students post-it notes and get them to walk around sticking their feedback on any work that takes their fancy. Students can then collect back their feedback and work. This task can even be done anonymously. The technique makes it more likely that some of the feedback will be valid and also gets students to share feedback and work ideas. It’s basically Peer Assessment on steroids!
Blue Sky Idea No. 9 Make work anonymous Get students to practice looking for content rather than style by altering the format and make it anonymous. Take a piece of handwritten work and type up a paragraph… or the whole thing if you’re feeling enthusiastic! Then get students to look at the work. For whatever reason, presenting students with work that is typed up really makes them look at it. Get students to level and improve parts of the work. Sometimes the person who wrote it won’t even recognise their own handiwork. Students won’t know whose work it is and so are forced to abandon any preconceptions they may have.
Blue Sky Idea No. 10 Target mark and vary the diet Decide on the purpose of each piece of work you are doing and how it can best be assessed (There are suggestions in the school marking policy already). Use different methods for what is most appropriate. For instance: Assessments that feed into the data are going to be level marked and teacher commented, with SPAG marked and improvements made. Pieces of copied work (diagrams) are going to be ticked and checked by other students. Some tasks will be peer assessed to check them. Some tasks will be self assessed then improved. Work out what is best for your subject area. Ensure that you maintain oversight of peer and self-assessed work though, as you don’t want misunderstandings or faulty information to slip through the net. Spend time training students to peer and self-assess properly!
Blue Sky Idea No. 11 Verbal Feedback Stamp Verbal feedback is another powerful technique we can use prior to giving written feedback. Now, I have seen the use of verbal feedback stampers by teachers to record that feedback has been given to students. However, looking at Classteaching.wordpress.com made the light bulb start to flash above my head! The key difference between what I had seen previously and the method outlined by Shaun was that once he’d provided the verbal feedback and stamped the work, the students then had to: Summarise the feedback given, 2) Act on it. This meant that the students were having to process and interpret the feedback first, thus ensuring they understood it prior to acting upon it. The feedback loop was closed: feedback / interpretation / response / improvement. (Text summarised from: belmontteach.wordpress.com)
Blue Sky Idea No. 12 Priority Mark… If you are short on time and have an important test or assessment coming up, why not priority mark to ensure the students that really need your help get it? If students are making basic mistakes that need to be picked up quickly, involve them and prioritise. Ask students to put their book in the green box if they found the work easy and had no problems and the red if they are unsure or not confident. Not only does this give you immediate feedback on student confidence levels, but it hopefully means you can focus mark the students who really need help. You can then mark the other books later when you have more time, ensuring that nobody was just pretending to understand. If you don’t have boxes, just use tables.
Blue Sky Idea No. 13 Further Reading… • If you would like further ideas / inspiration to help your marking along, here are a few links to read up on… • 3squareassociates.com/wp/?p=60 • belmontteach.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/fast-feedback-4 • www.learningspy.co.uk/assessment/marking-act-love If nothing here takes your fancy then fear not my friends, there is still one viable option left open to you…
