Verbal feedback in primary maths
When it comes to providing high quality feedback, we need to ensure that we are teaching responsively – actively eliciting evidence about our pupils’ learning in order to inform and adapt our teaching to meet their needs (Black and Wiliam 1998). One efficient and immediate response to move pupils’ learning forward is to provide verbal […]
Verbal feedback in primary English
When it comes to providing high quality feedback, we need to ensure that we are teaching responsively – actively eliciting evidence about our pupils’ learning in order to inform and adapt our teaching to meet their needs (Black and Wiliam 1998). One efficient and immediate response to move pupils’ learning forward is to provide verbal […]
The ‘real exam time’ project: Strengthening the retention of information to improve outcomes
The purpose of the project I describe here was to create a sustainable model for the English department to improve exam technique for all students across Key Stage 4. This would both improve student confidence in, and outcomes for, the English language and literature GCSE examinations. The retention of information is key to success in […]
Making marking manageable in Secondary English
When it comes to providing high quality feedback, we need to ensure that we are teaching responsively – actively eliciting evidence about our pupils’ learning in order to inform and adapt our teaching to meet their needs (Black and Wiliam 1998). This responsive teaching approach can help to reduce the marking load for teachers as […]
Live marking in a primary classroom
When it comes to providing high quality feedback, we need to ensure that we are teaching responsively – actively eliciting evidence about our pupils’ learning in order to inform and adapt our teaching to meet their needs (Black and Wiliam 1998). One efficient and immediate response to move pupils’ learning forward is to provide verbal […]
Peer assessment in a secondary science classroom
Assessment is how we attempt to make learning visible; it includes any procedure or strategy used to collect information that will help us make inferences about our pupils’ learning (The AERA 1999). One way we can do this is through peer-assessment and feedback. When facilitated with appropriate modelling, routines, and monitoring, peer-assessment can be an […]
Live marking in a secondary classroom
When it comes to providing high quality feedback, we need to ensure that we are teaching responsively – actively eliciting evidence about our pupils’ learning in order to inform and adapt our teaching to meet their needs (Black and Wiliam 1998). One efficient and immediate response to move pupils’ learning forward is to provide verbal […]
Daisy Christodoulou explains comparative marking and why it matters for assessment
Insights into inspirational arts practice in schools: The art of doing at Queen Elizabeth’s High School
Context Queen Elizabeth’s High School is a state funded grammar school with 1200 pupils on roll and 7 per cent pupil premium. The art department has four members of staff, one head of department, who is also head of house and one of two A level teachers. The second A level teacher is assistant head […]
Improving the quality of homework
Homework works best when it is a targeted, well-designed strategy to support learning and understanding. Digital technology offers the opportunity to re-design homework tasks to take advantage of multimedia recording and editing tools. What does it mean? New digital tools and resources can be very enticing and many certainly have the ‘wow factor’. We need […]
Checking pupil understanding using online quizzes
Quizzes and tests are not just good for assessing how much a student knows and what they still need to learn to inform future planning. Online quizzing tools also support teachers to check pupil understanding and help students take advantage of the ‘testing effect’. What does it mean? Research into the ‘testing effect’ shows that […]
Using visualisers to give whole-class feedback
Visualisers help you feedback to the whole class at once by projecting specific samples of student work while you model answers, defuse common misconceptions and provide scaffolding to better performance. What does it mean? Feedback can take many forms, but marking is one of the most common – and the workload associated with traditional marking […]
Effective feedback: Selective marking
Selective marking involves selecting one section of work to mark in depth and using this to give specific feedback with focused, manageable improvement targets. What does it mean? With this strategy, rather than trying to mark everything a student writes, teachers ‘zoom-in’ and specifically focus on smaller sections of work and particular skills. You mark […]
Effective feedback: Whole-class marking
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 […]
Effective feedback: Self-assessment
Activities involving students assessing their own work, using mark schemes and checklists, to support learning. What does it mean? This is a feedback method where students assess their own work using checklists and mark schemes. This form of self-assessment can empower students by shifting the focus away from teachers (and examiners) as ‘owners’ of knowledge. […]
Effective feedback: Class critique
Structured, whole-class feedback sessions where a group of students collectively critique a piece of work, offering suggestions and guidance to help its owner improve. What does it mean? In An Ethic of Excellence (2003), Ron Berger makes the case for accepting only the highest standards of ‘excellence’ in students’ work. One way to do this, […]
Effective feedback: Marking lean
For marking to be a useful practice, the emphasis should be on teachers doing less as students do – and, therefore, learn – more. What does it mean? Marking fulfills two main purposes: To allow teachers to engage with students’ work so that they know how well they are doing and can plan accordingly. To […]
Effective feedback: Workload vs impact
Using a range of effective marking strategies in your daily teaching practice ensures that timely, effective feedback can be sustained without creating an unmanageable workload. What does it mean? Managing marking is one of the greatest workload challenges faced by teachers. With growing class-sizes, many teachers find themselves responsible for reading and responding to hundreds […]
The Terror of Error
Let’s start with an easy observation: we all make mistakes and don’t like admitting to them. In fact, as a culture, Schulz (2011, p.7) believes ‘we haven’t even mastered the skill of saying I was wrong when we add, for example, a modifying but to the end, or express it passively as in mistakes were […]
How can we reduce teacher workload without affecting the quality of marking?
In 2016, a Department for Education (DfE) working group found that the obsessive nature, depth and frequency of marking was having a negative effect on teachers’ wellbeing and their ability to plan, prepare and deliver outstanding lessons. Marking was monopolising our working hours outside of the classroom to the detriment of our health and, ironically, […]