Marking to improve student outcomes

Marking and feedback – are they the same?  Marking is the annotating of a piece of written work, using words, symbols and grades. It is usually in a written form.  Feedback may consist of a dialogue between teacher and student, a group or a class, and will provide students with information about how they performed in relation to the learning intention/objective(s), and the next steps necessary to improve the work. Can be oral or written.

Why do we mark?  As a form of feedback  To grade and summatively assess students’ performance  To correct students’ mistakes  To help students to improve their current level of performance  For teachers to receive feedback from students about how well they appear to be understanding the content being taught  To motivate students to work harder  To ensure a dialogue between student and teacher  To give praise and encouragement and reward effort as well as attainment  To help parents understand their child’s progress  To prevent students from having to struggle or think  For accountability purposes (as a proxy for convincing managers that you are a good teacher)  To warn students to work harder  To send teachers over the edge! Which of these answers actually improves student outcomes?

Two guiding principles and a fact! 60% of secondary children never have a conversation with an adult in school. Prof John West-Burnham UK spends £2.4 billion in teacher marking, chiefly to keep parents happy. Most marking has no effect. Prof Dylan William And on average, teachers spend 7 hours marking per week - that’s 364 hours a year marking!

How can we ensure marking is effective? Written Feedback Keep it formative Marking rota – little and often/selected pieces Targeted marking – don’t mark everything Dedicated DIRT time Rule to return substandard work Give success criteria Use self, peer and teacher marking

In marking students’ work, teachers must consider: how well the student has understood the task; what the student knows and does not know; what the student needs to do next to improve; how the student will be informed of this; how they can encourage students to review their work critically and constructively. Improving Marking Deciding: where learners are where they need to go how best to get there

Outcome of piece of work Correct Incorrect Correct, with thorough understanding Correct, inefficient methods or poor effort Incorrect in part of process Lack of prior knowledge/ understanding Incorrect, inefficient methods

Outcome of piece of work Correct Incorrect Correct, with thorough understanding Correct, inefficient methods or poor effort Incorrect in part of process Lack of prior knowledge/ understanding Identify next steps/ challenge Model efficient method with task set Incorrect, inefficient methods Highlight errors/model efficient method with task set Identify error in process address appropriately Identify gap and address appropriately

Comment-only marking is the best way to help students improve Groups of pupils given: Improvement in Work Interest in Subject Marks/grades onlyNil+ for high attainers - for middle/low Marks/grades + comments Nil+ for high attainers - for middle/low Comments only30%+ for all groups Research findings, Black & Wiliam,1998

© PMB 2007 Formative marking is therefore the most effective the desired goal some understanding of how to close the gap evidence on where they are now

How do we mark formatively and effectively  Students work must be worth marking – set the task right  Make marking criteria specific beforehand – what will you be looking at in this piece of work.  Selectivity is important. Too often you might find a piece of work covered in red pen…. Where to start? What to focus on? It is better to highlight some key things that can be worked on and improved rather than slicing error-strewn work to pieces. eg features which are related to: (i) the specific task (ii) subject-specific uses of language and/or (iii) literacy  Marking must be personal and show precisely what that individual needs to do to improve  Marking must be timely  Actions/prompts must be not be onerous – reminder prompt, scaffold prompt, example prompt, remedy prompt, challenge prompt  The individual must be given the time, resources and support to act on advice

12 marking strategies  Read through the marking strategies  Which are the most effective for encouraging student progress and why?

Reflecting on Samples of Student Work Please study the samples of the marking you have been provided and discuss the following: How effective is the action statement on ensuring that the student has responded? What is the quality of the response and can you see that it has made an impact on progress? Why or why not? Has it resulted in further dialogue? Are there any issues with peer marking? Other Things to discuss Do we have different expectations of student responses according to ability? Do we have different expectations of student responses according to gender?

Creating actions that have impact Turn these statements into an action:  Try to be more careful with presentation  Make sure you use detail to support your ideas  Think about the further effects of eating too much sugar  Use more quotes to back up your opinion  Work on your spelling and punctuation

Austin’s Butterfly 

Reflective marking – teacher reflection = student progress  Sharper view of where individual students are at which will improve – can see collective strengths and weaknesses as well as individual  Peer and self assessment can highlight common misconceptions  Marking can show what progress students are making over time and help teachers track progress  Marking can allow for differentiation  Marking can highlight other issues – handwriting, literacy etc  Marking can build better relations with students who get a sense of pride and satisfaction from positive comments or improving their work

30 words in 30 seconds – what are you taking away from today?