With students in the middle of exam season and at the end of their tether with exam stress, our marking workload is currently at its peak. How can we survive the next few weeks when, if you’re like me, you’ve got thousands of last minute essays coming in from year elevens and year thirteens at the same time as you’ve got KS3, year ten and year twelve trials?
I’m actually asking myself the same question!
The only way I’ve found is to mark smart, not hard.
We’ve got to know which corners we can cut and which we most definitely can’t. More than that, we need to make sure that what we actually do is effective: otherwise we’re busting a gut for nothing.
We’ve all had that experience already, I guess. The one where we spend forty minutes marking a coursework draft, only to receive an identical piece of work as the final draft. Devastating!
So what can we do when there’s a need for speed?
I think that having a system that works for us is what matters. Not everyone marks the same way or even works the same way – to be honest, isn’t it best that students get a variety of different marking styles anyway? That way at least some of them will suit them personally!
This is my system:
- Write short pointed comments, specific to the student as praise: “Really great use of adjectives!”
- Don’t waste time spending ages writing down improvements, summarise them on the front of the book; that way it’s easy for everyone to find.
- Cross out these targets when they’re met to show progress.
- Blow bubbles! (See my previous post to explain this one…)
- Finally, have a shorthand for common errors:
- T = Tense Error
- Sp = Spelling Error
- Gr = Grammar Error
- // = Paragraph
- P = Punctuation Error
We can master marking and make it manageable!
Promise… 😉