Schools are
constantly reviewing and re reviewing marking policies, all schools mark
differently, but many of us still spend hours of school time and our own time trying
to keep up with marking and feedback demands. Sometimes we are our own worse animals finding it hard to let go of the the more detailed traditional marking. Here are a few tips that might
help to cut your marking time down.
- Experience has taught me that marking needs a lot of forethought and planning. Look at your timetable a week before and plan in which lessons you will complete detailed marking and which lessons can use another form of marking such as the suggestions below.
- Use labels to save time. Many people have been posting on social media recently about using label machines but another alternative is to use label printer paper as shown in the picture below. Before or after the lesson you can type up your star/ wishes/ next steps onto a label, simply print off and stick into books. You could use the same label template for all children or differentiate a number of ways to suit the abilities in your class. I normally put my next steps in red so it is obvious to the children.
- Hand write stars, personal to the child, but use a bank of next steps preprinted on labels. These could be preprinted with titles such as reasoning, fluency and problem solving.
- Photographic evidence – if the children are completing group work, practical activities, rough notes on whiteboards etc, you don’t have to always stick in their work. Take a photo and add to a word document with date, LO and at the bottom the next steps. To save time you can include three level of next steps, colour coordinated and children can choose the level of difficulty they would like to challenge themselves with.
- QR code next steps – if you have ipads in class why not print of QR codes for next steps linking to a quiz or game for the children to complete building on previous learning.
- Peer and self-assessment sheets which can be acknowledged by the teacher with a some tick.
- Mark with the children, data has proven 1:1 feedback as being the most effective form of marking and feedback. If you can sit with a child and mark, simply mark with something along the lines of '1:1 feedback', 'chat time' or 'verbal feedback'.
- Stampers – get a good set of stampers which can be used on ‘those days’ when you have 90+ books to mark.
- Supply teachers – get yourself a supply teacher stamp for those times you come back and find your books unmarked despite the pleading letter to mark work. We should not be spending even more time marking someone else’s work on top of the existing workload.
- Sometimes just a tick and an initial is all a piece of work needs, don't over complicate it :-).
- Use TAs - if your wonderful TA has been working with a group why not ask them to mark the their books. Six books can save you a good chunk of time.