Effective feedback: Whole-class marking

What's the idea? Teachers read a whole set of books – without marking each individual student’s work – and then share feedback as a whole-class activity in the following lesson. What does it mean? Originally inspired by the Michaela Community School (where the belief is that marking forces an over-reliance on teachers and wastes valuable teacher time), whole-class marking is now widely accepted as an efficient method of feedback. Instead of writing individual comments in every student’s book (which is time-consuming and often ineffective), teachers read a set of books, make strategic notes and then give feedback to the whole class at once. This strategy is all about making students responsible for their own learning. What are the implications for teachers? This can save you a lot of marking time. Plan to read around 30 books in 15 minutes (meaning you should be able to read the writing of every child you teach once or twice a week). Make strategic notes as you read.