Mentor materials
Make marking manageable and effective: working with colleagues
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to:
Learn How To make marking manageable and effective, by:
- Recording data only when it is useful for improving pupil outcomes.
- Working with colleagues to identify efficient approaches to marking and alternative approaches to providing feedback (e.g. using whole class feedback or well supported peer- and self-assessment).
Activities
Reflecting on learning (10 minutes)
Discuss either the lesson observation, the video or ECT reflection agreed in the last topic.
- What was successful?
- What could be better?
- What will the ECT do next?
Record data only when it is useful for improving pupil outcomes (15 minutes)
Suggested dialogue for mentors:
Many teachers report that they spend a considerable amount of their time recording data. In our school, we need to input data [insert school policy here]. On top of this, you might be recording your own information. What information are you recording?
Mentor to elicit whether ECT is recording lots of data entry, such as homework marks.
Read the following together:
It has been argued that assessment is undermined by the confusion between learning and performance. It is important to be aware of the difference between these things:
- Learning: A lasting change in behaviour or knowledge.
- Performance: A temporary change in behaviour or knowledge which can be observed and measured.
If we assess pupils in a lesson and they all show us that they know exactly how respiration works, there is no guarantee that they will know it in the following lesson, week or month. We must be clear that in individual lessons we draw inferences about learning from performance; there is always the possibility that a person can perform well without deep understanding or long-term learning about a concept.
To come to more reliable conclusions about the learning that has taken place, we must look at patterns of performance over a number of assessments.
Take a look at the example below, demonstrating how a teacher will assess respiration over the course of a half term:
- Lesson 1: Introduce respiration
- Lesson 2: No assessment activity
- Lesson 3: Exit ticket on respiration
- Lesson 4: No assessment activity
- Lesson 5: No assessment activity
- Lesson 6: Multiple choice quiz on respiration
- Lesson 7: No assessment activity
- Lesson 8: No assessment activity
- Lesson 9: Multiple choice quiz on respiration
- Lesson 10: No assessment activity
- Lesson 11: No assessment activity
- Lesson 12: End of unit written assessment on respiration
The teacher will be able to draw on the pupil performances from all of these assessments to form valid and reliable conclusions about what the pupil has learned about respiration.
The data we collect from assessments only needs to be recorded if it contributes to building up this pattern of performance over time and can be used to improve pupil outcomes.
Together, look through the ECT’s unit of work/sequence of learning. The ECT should explain when they had planned tasks that they would record data from. Together work out:
- Will recording the data improve pupil outcomes?
- If no, then the ECT should not record the data
- If yes, then decide how the data will be recorded.
Preparing to work with a colleague (10 minutes)
Suggested dialogue for mentors:
In the next part of the topic, you will work with a colleague to identify efficient approaches to marking and alternative approaches to providing feedback. We’ve got ten minutes to prepare.
- What efficient approaches to marking can you think of that you might want to steer your colleague to discuss?
- Marking codes
- Live marking
- Self-Assessment
- Peer-Assessment
- What alternative approaches to providing feedback might you want to steer your colleague to discuss?
- Peer feedback
- Whole class feedback
- Verbal feedback
What specific questions might you want to ask?
Some examples:
- What are the biggest workload killers you try to avoid?
- How do you avoid them?
- What is your best assessment hack?
- What do you really think it’s worth spending time on?
- How do you make self- and peer-assessment really effective?
Working with a colleague to identify efficient approaches to marking and alternative approaches to providing feedback (20 minutes)
For this section, work with your colleague to identify efficient approaches to marking and alternative approaches to providing feedback. You can use Handout 11.2 to record your ideas.