An Interactive Markbook for Year 7…How to use it! R. Carter-Evans
Richard Carter-Evans (Head of Mathematics at Pontypridd High School) created this markbook for the Mathematics department at PHS, for the year 7 groups. The additional files etc…have all been created to make the job of teaching a little bit easier by enabling teachers to store additional support content in the same place.
The buttons around the side of the ‘term plan’ take you to various resources that accompany the markbook and additional resources found by teachers using this resource in their own schools can be placed in the folders that are linked to each week on the plan.
PLEASE NOTE: You will need to have the ‘Analysis toolpak’ and ‘VBA analysis toolpak’ installed in order to run these sheets correctly. These might have been installed initially when Excel was installed for the first time but, if not, you will need your original MS Office disk.
To install them, select ‘Tools’ , then ‘add ins’. Put a tick in the two boxes next to each toolpack.
Initial set up
· When you unzip the markbook folder there will be a directory structure set up.
DO NOT ALTER THE STRUCTURE OR MOVE FILES AROUND WITHIN IT!
· The excel files and word documents have hyperlinks set up for navigation purposes. If you move the files, around you will break the hyperlinks and the sheets will not work as they were designed to. Some users may be asked if they wish to ‘update links’ on the opening file – click ‘don’t update’.
· The first file you should open is the Excel file – “Interactive Markbook for Y7 NGfL.xls”
· This file has hyperlinks to all the other files.
· You may get a message about the macros at this point. Macros are visual basic programs written to make the software work. Microsoft warns about viruses – this is a standard message whenever macros are used in a spreadsheet and is nothing to be concerned about on this resource. Select ‘Enable Macros’.
· You have to enable the macros to allow the software to work properly. If you still get messages from Excel Security saying that your security is set too high for macros, you will need to start Excel, then on the toolbar – TOOLS – MACROS – SECURITY and set it to medium or low. Then close the software and reopen it.
Setting up the Markbook
· The first thing to do is to navigate to the master sheet and put in your pupils details. I use this to store all the data passed on by our primary schools and our key assessment data (e.g. NFER standardised score, KS2 TA and breakdowns, CAT scores, Fisher Family Trust Data etc…)
· You can either copy this from your school data management system (SIMS or similar) or type it in…the hard way! You will need to use the “unlock all” button to unlock the cells for data to be typed or pasted into.
· Once typed in the data should be available in all sheets on the markbook.
· It is now simply a matter of getting used to the software and putting it to good use…instructions follow!
The Assessment Sheet
· This is probably the most useful of the datasheets available. It is an electronic markbook that will level and rank order groups based on assessment data input.
· The key point about this is that you MUST look at your assessments and decide on a level range for the assessments e.g. this assessment ranges from level 3 to level 5.
· Then you must decide “cut off” percentages for each particular half level. Then enter these percentages at the bottom of the assessment column and the sheet does the hard work for you…
· You input the maximum marks for the assessment in the yellow box and then enter your marks. The sheet rank orders and calculates each persons ‘nominal’ level for that assessment and sets a target level…
· You can also adjust the weightings for each assessment in the “30% 60% 10%” boxes. Change these values as you need to. Think about “Classwork provides the highest levels, a homework during the module of work provides the next highest levels, a test straight after a taught piece of work provides the next highest levels and a summative test at the end of a half term or term provides the lowest levels…a KS3 level should be a ‘best fit’ of classwork, AO1 Work, test and end of year test…be careful with the weightings and percentages and be sure you can justify your reasoning when awarding levels…
The Attendance sheet
· This sheet is useful if you don’t have electronic registration (or you don’t trust the system you have!)
· Input the day and dates of the times you see the classes first and the sheet will fill in the rest…
· Then it’s simply a case of entering a 1 for present and a code for an absence…
The Behaviour / Reward Sheet
· This sheet is useful if you don’t have electronic registration (or you don’t trust the system you have!)
· Input your codes for each reward / offence and the sheet sums the details, so you always have an up to date record of each student’s behaviour.
· You can change the codes if you need to in the code boxes shown…
The Terrible Timer…
· This sheet was written during a very boring INSET course when the deputy head delivering the course said “never set a time for work to be finished as 5 minutes…because 5 minutes never means five minutes…” with this sheet 5 minutes means exactly 5 minutes!!!
The rest of the worksheet is self-explanatory…if you need to ask then use the email address at the front of this document to contact me). I will endeavour to answer simple queries
Any feedback is gratefully received as it will help me improve the software ()…there may be updates in the near future depending on feedback!