Marking and Feedback

To share practice of S.I.R marking – Our journey

To share how my department has adapted its practice in terms of marking and feedback

To share current thinking on Feedback

March 2015

• Ofsted does not expect to see a particular frequency or quantity of work in pupils’ books or folders. Ofsted recognises that the amount of work in books will often depend on the age and ability of the pupils.

• – Ofsted does not expect to see unnecessary or extensive written dialogue between teachers and pupils in exercise books and folders. Ofsted recognises the importance of different forms of feedback and inspectors will look at how these are used to promote learning.

Why is bad feedback damaging? Alex Quigley ‘ The Confident Teacher’

• It leads to professional burnout. • Often it is a wasted effort; teachers play catch up when giving

written feedback. • Immediate oral feedback can be the most useful mode of feedback,

whereas the time-lag on written feedback can too often render it redundant.

• Teachers are in danger of having little time or energy to concentrate upon the good feedback that really matters for improving learning.

• There is no getting around the fact that feedback is necessary and often it can prove very time-consuming.

• Given the effort, it must be for the purpose of improving students’ learning.

Student Responses

Original

Response

Use a Marking Criteria

Attach a mark criteria as a sort of check list enabling them to respond in greater depth.

Feedback and student responses

• To improve on a specific piece of work (relatively easy)

• To close the gap on performance (a challenge)

• In 2015 – 2016 our focus has been making feedback manageable, timely and worth while.

How have we tried to improve our feedback in order to close the gap?

• Starting point was to do LOTS of research….led to……

• Acknowledgement marking• Blob/Dot Marking• 5 Minute Marking Plan• Feed forward targets• DIRT

Feedback : Some ideas• “Feedback is the information given to the

learner and/or the teacher about the learner’s performance relative to learning goals. It should aim to produce improvement in student’s learning.” (Education Endowment Foundation)

• Meaningful intervention in the learning process. (Wiliam)

• Feedback for both students and the teacher.• To aid future planning.• ‘Just in time’ and ‘just for me’

Teaching Backwards ( Griffiths and Burns)

• Feedback is timely

• Learning adapts as a result of feedback

• Reflecting on feedback is habit

Focus

Feedback is timely

Timely : Dot marking• Mark a selection of students work • Assign a colour for each Strength and Improvement identified in the

sample• Read the rest and put a coloured Dot on the students work to

indicate a Strength and an Improvement.• Students write down their individual Strength and Improvement -

respond either to this piece of work or apply to a later piece.

Dot MarkingWhy did Henry agree to be whipped? – Teacher Feedback

Strengths ImprovementsGreen – You are now providing more detail in your answer.

Pink – You need to focus that back on the question (Use the sentence starter – ‘This made Henry agree to be whipped because…’).

Nude – You are now beginning to explain why and focus on the question.

Purple – Take your explanation further – why did this mean Henry had to agree to be whipped? Why did the Pope say he had to be whipped? What did Henry need from the Church?

Orange – You are explaining and focussing on the question.

Grey – Support your points with more specific factual evidence.

If you have ‘Exp.’ you need to re-write the sentence. It is poor English.For every spelling mistake, re-write the spelling correctly 3 times.

Timely : Acknowledgement Marking

• Mark a sample of students work – 20% , range of abilities

• Note general subject related issues as well as literacy and presentation.

• Use the Five Minute Marking Plan to record findings

• Give Verbal Feedback. Students respond –Marked by the teacher and shows improvement.

• This may impact on future planning.• Allows for immediate feedback

The 5 Minute Marking PlanThe big picture?(The purpose of marking for this piece of work / project?)

Key marking points to share

with students?

Common Errors?!

Formative marking:

Re-teach?

Ross McGill 2013 - @TeacherToolkit & Stephen Tierney @LeadingLearner

Summative marking:

….print and scribble your way to focus on student assessment!

What? When?

How?Why?

Comment system:

Grading system:

What should/should not be marked?

Student response to feedback required?

Peer/Self assessment

opportunities?

to improve student learning

to measure (progress) student learning

What should be changed in activity /

SoW?

Completed 5 minute marking plan

Acknowledgement Marking

Focus

Learning adapts as a result of feedback

Learning adapts as a result of feedback

• Common Errors – identifying common errors across a number of learners’ work – oral feedback

• Re-teach (or tweak) – Spot the “gap” in learning and go back and address it again if necessary. Plan the re-teach/ tweak: What, When, How & Why? This is a powerful way to improve the teaching programme whilst things are still fresh in everyone’s mind.

• Student Response to Feedback Required? – Once you’ve spent time giving feedback students must go back and either correct errors, redo areas of their work that needs improvement or apply targets to future work. ‘Feedback is only successful if students use it to improve their performance’ Dylan Wiliam

DIRT time–Acting upon feedback

What: Give students an allocated period of time to engage and act upon feedback. Jackie Beere 2014

How: Plan dedicated time within lessons or schemes. This can come in the form of a starter activity, end of a lesson task or a dedicated lesson during a scheme.

Why: Feedback can easily be forgotten about or simply not acted upon. Creating dedicated time means the gap between where they are and where they should be can be closed

Initial marking feedback

DIRT Responses

DIRT

What: Use previous feedback/feedforward as starting target for new work.

How: Students write their feedforward targets on new work / target log. Gap in the last piece of work is visible and in mind when working on their new piece.

Why: Students easily forget or ignore feedback. Provides clear criteria for which students work towards in their new piece.

Feedforward as a starting point–Using feedback as future learning

Target Logs 

History Target Log  

Date Target Action taken Completed

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Next steps....

DFE March 2016 ‘Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking’• Meaningful : what works best for the teacher and

pupil.• Manageable: marking is proportionate …time-

effective in relation to workload.• Motivating: motivate pupils to progress – short

challenging comments or oral feedback does not mean always writing in – depth comments

Our challenge

• To adopt an approach that considers exactly what the marking needs to achieve for pupils

• To take into account the workload for staff

• For the feed forward to be more effective in the long term

• Complete the Feedback checklist

• Get into 3s : share ideas that you have been using in your departments/ school with regard to feedback or discuss how you could use one of the ideas from this session.

• Choose one and deliver the best one back to the group.

• What have you taken from this session, what will you be trying/ moving forward with on your return?

‘Teaching Backwards’ Andy Griffiths and Mark Burns

‘The Confident Teacher’ Alex Quigley‘The Secret Of Effective Feedback’ Dylan Wiliam www.sandagogy.co.ukhttp://headteacherguru.com@Teacher Toolkit LtdUKEdChatDavid Didau (@LearningSpy)DFE website