After seeing a post on Friday about tip, think and challenge marking on TALK Bridgewater I was reminded of the resource I’d created with 15 ideas for Marking, Feedback and DIRT for a CPD session and was inspired to update it a bit.
So I’ve updated it with 3 new approaches and have included it here for you to download – 18 Ideas for Marking, Feedback and DIRT. A full presentation ready to go with links to the original source of any images.
Whilst I’m on the topic of marking, feedback and DIRT here are my top 5 tips
Choose your assessment objectives – Remember you can’t mark everything so decide on what it is you want to assess before planning, that way then you know what it is you want to look for in your marking.
Make it manageable – Yes stick to the school policy but find a way that limits how much you do outside of school and that puts onus on the students. It’s for their benefit after all. Peer and self assessment? Feedback grids? Marking stickers?
Mark in class – Now I don’t mean sit at your desk and let the students get on with it, but when students are on task, read their work and have discussions with them about where they are at present and what they can do to improve what they’re working on. Feedback grids for extended pieces of work are marvelous for this, simply highlight achievements in one colour and areas to improve in another, simply tick off the improvements once complete.
Make sure the students have time to respond – factor DIRT or reflection or whatever else you call it into you planning. It’s essential students have time to read, reflect and respond to all those hours of writing you’ve done. Make sure they spend longer responding to your feedback than you took giving it.
Experiment – you won’t find what works best for you and your students without experimenting a bit. I’ve done this hell of a lot of this over the past few years and have just about found what works for me and my classes. Although I will admit what works for one class doesn’t necessarily work for others; there’s certainly some mix and match going on.
Now I’m no guru when it comes to marking, feedback and DIRT but I spend a lot of time doing it, so these are just a few of my thoughts on the topic. What’s your approach to marking and feedback like? Any other tips or ideas I should add?
