From john hattie to david didau to phil beadle to ofsted, the virtues of regular marking are being extolled. It is one of the most time consuming tasks performed by teachers in the uk. Teachers in the intervention group read everything students wrote but stopped marking books and then used a series of planned classbased. Formative marking vs summative quality marking, acknowledgement and peerself marking are examples of formative marking. These informational text passages are organized around highinterest topics connected to the curriculum and to key comprehension skills. But the guru on formative assessment and feedback, dylan wiliam, interprets the terms differently. Marking, feedback and response to feedback are common words and phrases that keep appearing in many teachers conversations across the country. Being a teacher is great but marking can sometimes be a nightmare when you consider all of the hoops you need to jump through for ofsted, and in many cases, the information you are expected to write will not make any sense to the students for whom you are writing it.
The power of an effective teacher and why we should assess it. All feedback was given verbally, either to the whole class, in small groups or onetoone. The feedback from students was the marking did not help them improve, while teachers felt the hours they spent marking was not having any impact. The frequency of each type that is used will vary between faculties and key stages. Ensuring that all pupil tracking data is up to date 4. Teachers then rush marking, because the expectation is that every book will have diagnostic marking, and the quality of feedback naturally drops. Teachingbooks strives to enrich everyones experience reading childrens and young adult books with our original and curated literary resources. Marking is something that we as teachers have to do. Sep 19, 2015 feedback is, were told, the most powerfully important invention in which a teacher can engage, but marking students books can be mindnumbingly tedious drudgery. It is therefore key that we do not overreact with a marking policy that has teachers poring over every written word by students, but instead we need one that recognises the importance of formative written and spoken feedback with a view to what is reasonable to expect. The great thing was, our no more marking approach worked. Marking books will never completely go away, but combined with approaches like the above it can become far less onerous. Ofsted is once again trying to bust the myth that extensive marking is. Why marking students books should be the least of a.
Teachers wasting time on marking in coloured pens 21 october 2016. Yet, it adds, timeintensive approaches such as triple impact marking, in which pupils respond in some way to the marking and the teacher then checks their later work, have not been properly tested. For a few weeks, we tried not physically marking any work at all, but. Teacher marking impacted teachers workload, not their pupils. This, in theory is great, and is much discussed on teacher toolkit. Marking tips to reduce your work time the highly effective. Our books looked marvellous no red pens but lots of green pen pupil responses and.
Gradebook template for excel free teacher grade book. Many teachers interpret feedback or formative assessment to mean commenting on students work, and annotating it with ticks, crosses, and comments and so on. Search the worlds most comprehensive index of fulltext books. Years of research on teacher quality support the fact that effective teachers not only make students feel good about school and learning, but also that their work actually results in increased student achievement. Ofsted recognises that the amount of work in books and folders.
Yes, if you want to make it past ofsted, then you have to be marking their way. Some stuff the books into a bag for life, others in boxes. Very soon, written feedback becomes another bit of administration done not to help children, but to tick boxes during the next half termly work scrutiny. They inform the teacher and pupil of learning progress. I wrote recently about the differences between marking and feedback. As a cyclist, i see flashing reminder signs and speed limits ignored left right and centre.
I know, for example, that on tuesday week 2 i am marking year 10 igcse books. I see them that day so i can easily collect their books. Jun 11, 2017 some stuff the books into a bag for life, others in boxes. I have even known some teachers to buy special carts on wheels in order to get their teetering piles of marking to the car. Teachers wasting time on marking in coloured pens bbc news. Because of this tension, many schools have introduced strict marking policies and work scrutiny schedules to make sure that teachers dont shirk this crucial responsibility. My books used to be kept on my tables so the students could access them quickly. I am certainly not one of the super teachers, but i do feel less overwhelmed by the prospect of those year 11 books on wednesday nights. The most effective marking strategy for primary school. The new no marking policy in our primary school and how to. What do teachers do at school while theyre not teaching. The aim is to get the students actively involved in seeking this evidence. Have the book creator reveal, anytime, their purpose, writing, illustration, and research processes with these teachingbooks original primary. I have also witnessed a rapidlyapproaching driver slow down as they approached a dynamic speed limit sign.
When marking is such a huge thing at the moment, its really not fair for the class teacher to have to come back and mark the work. Some teachers he had spoken to were not even sure that children read the remarks left in. Ten ways to improve your marking collins freedom to teach. The idea being that all the marking is done in the lesson thus allowing you to not mark after school. The higher standards students today are expected to meet call for literacy instruction that focuses on the close reading of complex texts. Shaw primary academy in thurrock has implemented a new marking system that allows teachers to check every book quickly and efficiently. Nov 16, 2017 the feedback from students was the marking did not help them improve, while teachers felt the hours they spent marking was not having any impact. Our new approach provides structured, relevant feedback in a meaningful way to the children. Slt will be collecting a few random books to scour to ensure the marking policy is being met every 4 lessons, successes and next steps, teacherstudent.
Feedback is, were told, the most powerfully important invention in which a teacher can engage, but marking students books can be mindnumbingly tedious drudgery. How i minimised marking and reclaimed my weekend tes news. One of the biggest pressures facing teachers is workload, a large proportion of which comes from marking and feeding back on work. Headteacher dawn copping outlines the straightforward changes she introduced to eliminate the need for teachers to mark books at home. Im on the verge of certainty that most, if not all teachers would have had a similar experience at some point in their career. This then seems to get translated into write a lot in the childrens books to show it. If a teacher is not marking a pupils work, what incentive is there for that child to put effort in, asks this teacher. Afl and good teaching have been demonstrated to have a greater impact on lowerability students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds black and wiliam, 1998b. She says she spends at least two hours a day marking books. This can be achieved quickly and simply by training students to write next to the stamp in their books. It is one of the most timeconsuming tasks performed by teachers in the uk. Heavy duty marking for primary school textbooks can leave teachers overwhelmed and pupils underworked. Headteacher dawn copping outlines the straightforward changes she introduced to eliminate the.
Apr 04, 2017 students dont need teachers that are too weighed down by the stresses of marking 30 books each night after teaching all day. Some teachers he had spoken to were not even sure that children read the remarks left in their books, he said. Peer marking is often checked by the teacher too to make sure any comments given by another student are relevant. Teachers in the intervention group read everything students wrote but stopped marking books and then used a series of planned classbased feedback strategies called frontend feedback, register feedback and strategic sampling. I also know that im marking year ib diploma books on friday week 1. Include diverse cultural experiences in your instruction. Preparing lessons including writing and submitting lesson plans 2.
Some of these books will never get further than the hall, where they will sit all weekend in silent reproach and cast a. What you shouldnt do is sit at your desk with a pile of books with one eye on the door in case anyone walks in and catches you, whilst you feel guilty for marking not engaging with your class. Why marking students books should be the least of a language. Just because theyre not marked doesnt mean theyve not been looked at. School bans teachers from marking in attempt to boost. Some teachers he had spoken to were not even sure that children.
For us, it seemed important to differentiate the marking approaches we would use for different subjects and then to a degree, with phases of the school. On the selfish side, it has been a relief not to keep track of, store, and carry paper for the workshops. Effective marking teachers handbook learningmatters. The irony of this will not be lost on the 53% of teachers who, in the. No written feedback in books, no acknowledgement marking, and instead lots of verbal feedback. Some students, for example, might not be capable of or refuse to act on the. How can you get your marking workload under control this term. Why we still mark every book, every lesson tes news. The marking and feedback policy that might work for ks2 maths would not be the same as for ks1 literacy.
We live in an instant culture filled with manufactured objects. It was established that some teachers endorsed the. The report says previous research shows that teachers spend around nine hours a week on marking. Everywhere you look, educationalists are telling us about the importance of marking. Apr 17, 2020 how we set about creating our no marking policy.
Slt will be collecting a few random books to scour to ensure the marking policy is being met every 4 lessons, successes and next steps, teacherstudent dialogue and action on feedback. The previous heavyduty marking policy wasnt working at st matthias primary school so headteacher clare sealy decided to start from scratch with a new no marking policy for her primary school. The teacher may or may not comment and there is no expectation for the teacher to make a comment. Teachers were asked not to write in pupils books at all during the study. What you should do is take one groups books at a time, sit on their table and monitor their work while you are marking their books, addressing. Eight ways teachers can reduce their marking mountain. Stuart kime shares study findings on not marking schoolwork.
I often look at the books in class while theyre doing tasks but wouldnt always mark on the book that ive seen it. We now have a few different types of grade books that can handle most of the major grading systems used in high school and colleges. Headteacher clare sealy explains why she banned marking in her primary school for an entire term, and the strategies she used to move beyond prescriptive text book marking. Youd still look after the wellbeing of your students. Introduction never, as in this day and age, secondary schools in the uk have made such a big fuss about the importance of marking student books and never has giving feedback been so tiresome and timeconsuming for teachers. The efforts of these super teachers are inspiring but it can feel overwhelming at times, especially when you have thirty year eleven books to. In brief, and contrary to popular wisdom, they are not the same thing. This mirrors the host of messages i received personally from teachers who are spending the majority of their noncontact time in and out of school marking. How many times have you taken that tub of books or assignments from the classroom to the car, into the house, back to the car, back to the classroom and still not completed the marking. Well essentially i think we need a mass culture change towards marking, it should be more about the feedback in whatever form it takes. Students dont need teachers that are too weighed down by the stresses of marking 30 books each night after teaching all day. Some of these books will never get further than the hall, where they will sit all weekend in silent reproach and cast a shadow over any attempt to relax. Its a bugbear of mine that amazing classroom practitioners are leaving the profession because of the overwhelming marking workload from a seeming mountain of books and assessments. It is necessary for the students to have feedback on their work, and for us to assess their learning.
Oct 21, 2016 teachers wasting time on marking in coloured pens. Meeting with students for additional help, personal advice, careers help, deal. I banned marking books entirely because i knew my teachers would find it hard to wean themselves away from such an embedded approach. This type of feedback enables the child to take ownership of their learning in a way that marking books cannot. These books are mostly written by teachers for teachers. Read this earlier blog first to find out more about clares research into what constitutes ineffective and effective marking in primary school. If marking is of value, and students are able to use it to improve their writing, then teachers need to find a way to implement it in a timeeffective manner. Teachers are familiar with the problem of marking and overmarking so we decided to think about what would happen if you never marked another book again. There are those who would point the finger at the teacher here and ask questions about the efficiency of their practice. What would happen if you never marked another book. Youd still offer meaningful feedback in other ways.
Oct 21, 2016 teachers wasting time on marking in coloured pens 21 october 2016. Apr 25, 2020 i banned marking books entirely because i knew my teachers would find it hard to wean themselves away from such an embedded approach. It was established that some teachers endorsed the marking done by pupils and that others did not. We now know empirically that these effective teachers also have a direct influence in enhancing student learning. The workload of a teacher means you can never be ahead, within 24 hours you will have more books to mark.
This free gradebook template for excel started out as a very basic grade book spreadsheet, but it has evolved into something that is very useful, flexible, and powerful and still free. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the world wouldnt fall apart if you stopped marking books. They need be able to access timely feedback from their teachers and peers, feedback that allows for progress to take place. The control group teachers continued to do marking as usual. Supply teachers not marking was a huge bugbear of mine. They dont need teachers that can only provide feedback on their work once every fortnight. We refused to have supply teachers back if the class teacher came back to unmarked work. The children love it, the teachers love it and its really effective. Classroom teachers, school leaders, education bloggers, unions and ofsted were all. This year i have 7 classes and what equates to nearly 200 books and then homework books to mark as well. Marking strategy formative marking there are three main types of written feedback that teachers can use and students can expect to see.