UPDATED 09/12/16
Hillsgrove Policy for Marking and Feedback
Marking pupil’s work has two basic functions:
1. To celebrate pupil’s achievements and let them know when they have done well in relation to learning objectives and success criteria.
2. To help pupil’s learning move on by providing them with developmental comments that can be responded to and the subsequent progress monitored.
At Hillsgrove we use a variety of marking techniques and systems all of which are outlined in this policy. They are designed to be meaningful for pupils and manageable for teachers, HLTAs and Teaching Assistants.
Teachers consistently mark pupil’s work praising what has been achieved; identifying areas for development through feedback and then monitoring the responses to ensure that pupils have acted on the guidance given.
In written work the focus for improvement must always be about the impact on and the needs of the reader rather than the imperfections of the writer. This should be through interactive feedback and include suggestions, comments and questions around the clarity of the writing and follow the pattern of:
· Identify the progress against the SC – Green
· Opportunity to Develop and Improve - Pink Bubble
· Identify Next Steps
· Re-respond to Pink Bubble
Questioning should extend pupils’ thinking and enable them to be effective self-directed, resilient learners. When responding to pupils’ writing, discuss the content, vocabulary and grammar before the technicalities of spelling, punctuation and handwriting.
Writing needs an audience, the pupils must understand that the writer needs to constantly think about the reader, that writing needs to be read aloud to check clarity.
The successful elements of writing need to be made explicit so that the writer knows what they have done well. Writers need to understand that writing involves making conscious choices:
· Why this word / sentence type?
· What effect do I want to create?
· How do I make this clear to the reader?
A. Marking in Writing (Updated June 2017)
As per general policy, marking needs to be purposeful and have an impact on the writers.
As per school policy, three pieces of written work in books each week.
One deeper, more concentrated mark per child each week, to be given when the writers need it. Shorter, more surface marking will be given where appropriate for the writer. Peer assessment is to be used when this will benefit the quality of the pupils’ writing as well as at the end of a final, published piece.
Pupils will be given success criteria which focuses on elements to meet audience, purpose and voice and/or key GPV and spelling skills for their year group expectations.
Teachers will use ‘tag marking’ to tick and annotate where pupils have achieved certain expectations/objectives. This can relate to elements on the Success Criteria or longer term targets e.g those elements needed to meet the expected standard. (See Appendix 1)
Tag marking needs to demonstrate a balance of quick annotations of skills and also the commenting on the impact of the skill shown e.g
√Formal language √Modal verbs √multi-clause sentence
and
√Short sentence length quickly changes the mood √Emotive language affects the reader’s emotions √Subordinate clause presents both sides of the argument
If a pupil is securely and consistently demonstrating elements of the SC, these can just be double-ticked- pupils must be clear on what this means. √√
Pupils will write over time, editing and improving the quality of their pieces.
Edits must come from the child and not be overly teacher-led. To evidence this, pink marking comments must not give specific, direct instructions.
Teachers will use pink highlighter brackets around a section with a hand-written aside saying ‘spelling’, ‘tense’, ‘not cohesive’, ‘stronger emotive/formal/informal voice’ to enable children to know what to work on but they must do this themselves.
For Y1, early Y2 and Lower-Attaining writers, more direct support can be given where appropriate to ensure progress and accuracy.
E.g underlining the incorrect spelling or punctuation mark or more specific guidance e.g
–er and –ed needed
? not !
Purple pen will be used by the pupil to evidence independent error correction. Where spellings have been corrected with purple pen, these must also be written three times at the end of the word and added to spelling bag.
If Verbal Feedback is given rather than written prompts, brackets will be drawn around the section and a comment about the VF will be written
If pupils need to re-draft rather than just purple-pen correct a section, a pink bubble will be drawn for them to do this in. As above, comments need to be less specific to allow for more independence or VF can be written and given.
Or
VF given –order of ideas within paragraphs
B. Basic requirements: (Maths, Reading and other Core/Non-Core Subjects)
i. Work is marked in pupil’s books using green pen by teachers in 2 out of 3 pieces of work each week (Once to basic requirements and once to enhanced standards) and at their direction, HLTAs and Teaching Assistants.
ii. If pupils’ work is being marked with the pupils during or directly after a lesson it is sufficient to tick the work and write or stamp V/F (Verbal Feedback). This shows that the member of staff has discussed with the pupil what they have done well, what aspect they need to improve and to agree next steps learning.
iii. Consistent errors in Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation (VGP) need to be addressed. Those pupils will then be identified for specific focus group teaching within the immediate lesson. Future planning will be adjusted to take account of these gaps in learning.
iv. In mathematical work, arithmetical or conceptual errors will be corrected and misconceptions will feed into immediate adjustments to the lesson and future planning.
v. Green ticks should be used for correct responses and a pink dot should be used for incorrect responses or responses which need to be improved.
C. Quality marking requirements: Maths, Reading and other Core/Non-Core Subjects.
i. All teachers and pupils from Year 1 upwards will use a green highlighter to highlight successes within the work and with a specific celebratory comment next to the mark at the bottom of the work eg. good use of the bar model to show how many parts you are dividing into. Additional comments should refer to the learning objective and where appropriate, success criteria that have been used by the pupil to help meet the objective. It should also, where appropriate, refer to the targets pupils have.
ii. All teachers and pupils from Year 1 upwards will also use a pink highlighter to identify areas where improvements can be made and write a developmental comment next to the mark at the bottom of the work. This comment should refer to where improvement needs to be made against the learning objective and where appropriate, incorrect use of success criteria is evident. The comment should be constructive. It will often take the form of a question that the pupil can respond to verbally or in writing. It should also, where appropriate, refer to the targets pupils have. The teacher needs to follow this up with a comment on this before the next piece of work.
iii. Three times a week teachers will use more developmental marking in order to help move the pupils on and challenge their knowledge and understanding. This will take the form of a question inside a pink cloud where the pupil will be given the opportunity to respond in writing.
iv. There must be regular opportunities for pupils to contribute their thoughts and ideas about their progress, learning needs and what to do next. On-going feedback within the lesson as well as opportunities to respond through Assertive Mentoring.
v. ‘Redrafting’ is essential because writers don’t get everything right the first time. This should be specific to the focus for development highlighted in pink in the writing. Re-drafting is not about writing out the whole piece neatly.
D. Enhanced quality marking in Maths and Reading :
In order to help raise standards in writing across the school and give pupils an opportunity to improve their writing following feedback, teachers will use the marking strategy outlined below, on one piece of extended work in Reading, Maths each week.
Closing the gap marking –
The procedure is as follows:
Teachers read the whole piece of writing through first to get a sense of what the pupil has achieved
1. Highlight 3 places where the pupil has written the best aspects against the learning intention and indicate with an arrow/asterisk where improvement can be made
2. Extend the arrow to nearest white space and write a closing the gap prompt for the pupil to enable them improve their writing
3. Set aside time when the pupils can respond to the prompt
Types of prompt –
1. Reminder – for the most able. These might be deliberately open ended questions that prompt improvement
2. Scaffold – for pupils who need more structure. You may, for example write a sentence with key vocabulary missing for the pupil to complete
3. Example – LA ability pupils to choose an example you have written together
These prompts should be from the class teacher, HLTAs, TAs and Peers in order to develop pupils’ evaluative understanding of writing.
Peer feedback needs to involve:
· Re-reading the writing aloud
· Talking about the clarity of what has been written
· Identifying areas of success and areas for development
· Pupils should be clear on what the next steps are
Pupils should use post-it notes, highlighter pens and tape to identify these areas. The peer partner / teacher or other adult should encourage pupils to respond to these areas.
E. Success Criteria
Success Criteria Indicators are to be applied to books at the start of pieces of work, where new Success Criteria is relevant. Where Success Criteria continues from the previous day, this does not necessarily need to be attached a second time, however should be referred to in the marking. It is expected that Success Criteria should be used in core curriculum books a minimum of three times a week.
Success Criteria should be skills evidenced by clear markers set as expectations in tasks given and should be set for both the task and for Independence and Team working skills targeted to be witnessed in the lesson.
E.g.
KS1
DATE: MONDAYLEARNING OBJECTIVE: To be able to understand the value of the numbers one to twenty . / TEACH / CHILD / PEER
SUCCESS CRITERIA
I have ordered the numbers and put them in order – lowest to highest
I know and understand the value of each of the numbers
I worked independently using the steps on the Working Wall to help me order them
PUPIL COMMENTS / SELF ASSESSMENT
This should be about the learning /
KS2
DATE: MONDAYLEARNING OBJECTIVE: To créate and calculate algebraic equations. / TEACH / CHILD / PEER
SUCCESS CRITERIA
I understand that letters can represent numbers in an equation.
I understand the position of letters dictates the function and how to use brackets
I have peer assessed and checked the learning of another child on my table to ensure my whole group fully understand.
PUPIL COMMENTS / SELF ASSESSMENT
I have learned to…
I need help with…
What’s next…. /
F. Differentiation by age:
Not all of the strategies and systems outlined above are appropriate to all phases of the school and therefore this section of the policy outlines the expectations throughout the school.
· Foundation Stage – In Nursery and Reception, the teachers focus in giving oral feedback to the pupils but may write a comment with the pupil. The EYFS staff also write comments on recording sheets I-Pod as part of the process of gathering information for the Foundation Stage Profile.
· Key Stage 1 – In addition to the expectations of sections A and B above, teachers, particularly in Year 1 and with low ability Year 2 pupils, may write assessment comments on the pupils’ work that are not designed to be used by pupils but are there to inform the teacher of future planning needs. Teachers are not expected to utilise the closing the gap marking strategy unless pupils are at Level ‘b’ or above in writing. Section B comments may well need to be read to the pupil and it is at the teacher’s discretion as to how that is managed.
· Key Stage 2: Sections A, B and C are adhered to by teachers, HLTAs and TAs in Key Stage 2. For pupils operating below level 2b in writing it will not be expected that teachers use the "closing the gap" marking strategy.
G. Self evaluation:
Pupil friendly learning objectives are clearly written or displayed in pupils’ books. At the end of lessons, pupils are asked to mark next to it whether they feel they have met it by drawing: a smiley face, straight face or sad face (KS1) or putting a green, orange or red dot (Lw+ Writers) plus a review comment (Lw Writer in KS2). One piece of work a week in Reading, Writing and Maths will be peer marked, in order to develop children’s critical skills and to develop their ability to recognise more clearly what makes work at greater depth.
H. Presentation and accuracy:
It is expected that all teachers, HLTAs and TAs involved in marking ensure that their comments are legible, correctly spelt and are accurate. The quality of comments and presentation will influence the presentation and accuracy of the pupils’ work. This influence must be a positive one: Identify what’s good against SC – Improve – Plan Next Steps – Review Comment.
I. Monitoring:
Core co-ordinators and/or the Head of School and Deputy Head teacher will monitor the implementation of this policy - a maximum of twice per half term and a minimum of once per term. This will be done by tracking progress, identifying pupils from the progress made, monitoring books, conferencing those pupils and giving appropriate feedback to all concerned.