Summer week 6

Mentor materials

Putting effective marking and feedback into practice

Learning intentions

Your ECT will learn that:

• Before using any assessment, teachers should be clear about the decision it will be used to support and be able to justify its use

Your ECT will learn how to:

Make marking manageable and effective, by:

• Recording data only when it is useful for improving pupil outcomes.

Topic introduction

In their self-directed study session and mentor meeting last week, your mentee extended their knowledge of planning effective and manageable marking and feedback.

In this final session of Module 4, you will help your mentee build on learning from last week and across the module as a whole. You will also work with your mentee to revisit and complete the self-assessment audit for Module 4 to evaluate their learning at the end of this module.

Research and practice summary

There is no Research and Practice Summary for this session, in which you are working with your mentee to refine their practice and revisit the Module 4 audit at the end of the module.

If you wish to refresh your knowledge of the Module 4 research, you may choose to refer back to specific aspects of the previous Research and Practice Summaries

Meeting activities

This session is an opportunity for you to work with your mentee to deepen their learning in this module. As in previous sessions, you should tailor your use of the Theory to Practice activities below in response to the learning needs of your mentee and to the context of the phase and specialism in which they teach.

Review 5 mins

1. Start this session by briefly following up on the actions that your mentee set at the end of last week’s session. Ask your mentee to summarise:

   1. what they did
   2. the impact of this on pupil learning (including how they are evaluating this)
   3. what they will do going forward to build on these actions

2. Clarify the Learning Intentions for this session with your mentee.

Plan 5 mins

Ask your mentee to reflect more broadly on how they have begun to put their learning from last week’s sessions into practice in their own assessment of pupils’ work/learning. Encourage them to highlight where they have tried out new strategies or adapted existing approaches being used. Ask your mentee to articulate how the approaches they are trying out reflect best practice as captured in the Early Career Framework. Where appropriate, encourage your mentee to connect their learning and practice to the assessment policy and agreed practices in place in your setting.

Theory to Practice 35 mins

Analyse artefacts

Work collaboratively with your mentee to analyse a selection of their pupil assessment artefacts (this might include marked assessments, exercise books, learning records or any other records relevant to their setting).

To support this activity, you could:

• explore strengths in current assessment and feedback practice
• work together to identify opportunities for further development

Scripting / rehearsal

Select a piece of pupil work from the artefacts analysed and support the mentee to draft the written or verbal feedback that they would now give on that work.

To support this activity, you could:

• if appropriate, ask your mentee to practise sharing this feedback, with you playing the role of the pupil
• discuss how your mentee might alter the feedback depending on pupil characteristics (e.g. confidence, motivation, age or prior attainment)
• help your mentee to reflect on the quality of their thinking by making connections to the Early Career Framework and the research and practice summaries for this module
• highlight particular strengths in your mentee’s approach

Discuss / sharing of practice

Discuss with your mentee how the assessment policy in your setting requires teachers to record pupil assessment data.

To get the most from this activity, you should:

• highlight to your mentee that data should be recorded only when it is useful for improving pupil outcomes
• explore how assessment data collected in your setting is used to improve pupil outcomes
• show your mentee how you manage pupil assessment records
• share strategies you have developed to make the process of generating and recording pupil data more efficient

Collaborative planning

Work with your mentee to put into practice approaches to marking and feedback, perhaps using a ‘live’ assessment that they (or you) are currently working on.

To support this activity, you could:

• encourage your mentee to deliberately try out strategies discussed in this module and to ‘think aloud’ about the choices they are making as they do so
• do the same, so that your mentee can hear, and learn from, the thinking process that informs your approach to assessment and feedback

Next Steps 5 mins

Return to the Module 4 self-assessment audit that your mentee completed at the beginning of this module. Ask your mentee to self-assess against the criteria listed. Celebrate those instances where they have made progress since the beginning of the module. Support your mentee in action planning around any areas still identified as requiring further support. Ask your mentee to record these actions in their Learning Log, if they are using one.

This is the final session of Module 4. There are no further activities for this module.