year 7 english marking

General forum for Secondary Education

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

hopeful5
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 10:33 pm

year 7 english marking

Post by hopeful5 »

Hi,

I am interested in hearing about what parents/teachers feel is the minimum amount of feedback needed by a child to be spurred on in a subject they enjoy and am very good at.
a) how should their work be marked and what comments could the teacher make to students to improve work.

If you teach English I would be particularly interested in your opinion.

Thankyou.
ourmaminhavana
Posts: 966
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:14 am

Post by ourmaminhavana »

Feedback can come in a wide variety of ways:
from peers either in pairswork or in a group situation
orally
in note form
marked throughout or at the end of a piece of work or presentation.
I think it's important to be aware of the fact that a teacher may be focusing on a specific skill during a particular task and may therefore not offer feedback/ mark incorrect other skills' areas.
Personally I always commented on something which the student had done well and then looked at an area for improvement, if necessary providing a detailed example of this at the end of a written assignment.
hopeful5
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 10:33 pm

Post by hopeful5 »

Thankyou very much for your reply.
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Post by Amber »

I teach English sometimes and would echo what ourman says - the teacher might be focussing on something specific so will mark accordingly. Most schools have a marking policy so there should be some standardisation between subjects - often an effort and an achievement grade. The former is notoriously hard to gauge but someone achieving consistently highly is not necessarily stretching themselves to do so.

If you are talking about creative work, then if someone was very able I would be quite picky, trying to get them to look for better ways of expressing themselves - use of figurative language, tones and shades, atmosphere etc. It is really hard to generalise. I would expect a high standard of spelling and grammar in an able pupil, though if the work was exceptionally creative and well expressed, I might let some small errors pass - this is down to individual children and pieces of work.

If you are talking about literature, I would be encouraging wide reading and looking critically at what they have read, then using their knowledge and skills to analyse texts. I am also a stickler for using quotes properly (indenting, quotation marks etc) and would want to see this done to a high standard in an able child. I would expect them to be making inferences from the text and might possibly downmark them if these were wrong, especially if we had discussed it in class; though again it is hard to generalise and in KS3 it is all a learning curve and one should not be too punitive. If points are backed up with evidence from the text, I would generally award marks even if these points were slightly off beam.


I think the key is always to be constructive in tone and to praise the positives (even when they are hard to find!) and then suggest how things could be improved. However, with often 30 in a class, sometimes one would choose to 'deep mark' say 10, and then just skim over the others, picking up the main points. Of course, you would have to make sure that the same 10 did not get the more thorough marking next time! Some schools have this as a policy to ensure that each child's work gets thoroughly looked at regularly, though I think it tends to happen more in primary schools.

I think from the tone of your question that you feel you are not getting enough/the right sort of feedback from your child's English teacher? Why not go in and have a chat with them? They will probably be pleased to explain the marking policy and how it relates to your child's targets.
hopeful5
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 10:33 pm

!

Post by hopeful5 »

thankyou Amber.
I have talked to the school and their policy is to not do marking, apart from half termly assessments.
My dc is doing well, brilliantly even and I can see she is well taught from the incredible work she has done in class. I am just wondering if dc would do better with greater and more detailed analysis of work.
ourmaminhavana
Posts: 966
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:14 am

Post by ourmaminhavana »

their policy is to not do marking?? :shock: :shock:

That's unbelievable. Apart from the assessments, do you mean they actually said that they weren't offering feedback on classwork in any way, shape or form? Marking is part of the learning process!! I would be extremely unhappy about this if I were you. How does your child know what she's doing right and where she could improve if no one tells her?
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Post by Amber »

Completely agree with every word ourman says! I have honestly never heard of this policy. And with huge respect, it is quite hard to judge whether one's own child is doing 'brilliantly' oneself - I would say your child does need some constructive feedback, and unless the half termly assessments are incredibly detailed, almost down to individual piece of work level, then I would say there is something missing here. I assume it changes as she goes up the school? It is unthinkable that she would be preparing for exams under these conditions. Does it extend to other subjects? Surely not.
hopeful5
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 10:33 pm

Post by hopeful5 »

so far my dc has not been party to any feedback of the half term assessments. I have been told that children take no notice of teacher comments and feedback is given in the lesson verbally.
I agree personally, I think they should be set writing tasks for homework which should be marked, with constructive feedback comments. But the work they get, seems to be, creating a 'plan' which they go through verbally in the following lesson. The teacher walks round the class and sees what they are doing during the lesson.
To some degree, I can see what they are saying but I think a bit more feedback would be better. And it is very interesting Amber and Ourman to see your points of view.
What do you think of their point of view?
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Post by Amber »

What do you think of their point of view?
Not much.

I would be interested to see a written copy of the marking policy. Sounds nice and easy for the teacher, is what I think.
ourmaminhavana
Posts: 966
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:14 am

Post by ourmaminhavana »

creating a 'plan' which they go through verbally in the following lesson

This is fine in itself for the occasional lesson, but the vast majority of lessons should not be like this and it's certainly lacking as an overall policy. I can't believe that this is what they stipulate as their policy. Was it the classroom teacher who said this or the HOD? As Amber says, I'd be interested to see a written copy of this.
Unfortunately a child is not going to learn if no one helps them to see areas in which they need to improve and this is going to involve far more detailed analysis than wandering round the classroom. :roll:
Post Reply