General Principles and Purposes

 

The marking of any work will be undertaken as a positive exercise.

The intention may be to:

• Affect improvement in some aspect of the child’s work
• Recognise effort and overall quality
• Aid further academic development

 

At the start of the lesson, the learning objective will be communicated with the children in age appropriate ways. Usually the teacher will make reference to the WALT and WILF, and these will be displayed in prominent positions in each classroom. When asked children should be able to explain the learning intention. Marking will always reflect, assess and reinforce the learning intention of each session.

 

                        WALT: We are learning to…(the objective of the session)

                        WILF: What I’m looking for…(the success criteria)

 

Marking is seen to be a teaching and assessment technique for the benefit of the child, and to inform the teacher’s planning. Praise will always be given when appropriate, but will be qualified with a comment so that the child understands why praise has been given.

 

It is not always necessary to write a comment, there will be times when pieces of work seen by the teacher or teaching assistant will simply have an initial, date and/or a symbol, to show the child that the work has been read and assessed as appropriate. When a more qualitative comment is written, this will be written by the class teacher and it will be linked to the WALT that was communicated throughout the session.

 

As part of the self- assessment process, on some occasions children will also mark their own work, alongside their response partners. This process helps them to become successful learners. The success criteria for achieving the learning goal will have been discussed beforehand. This is considered to be a valuable exercise and will be encouraged as much as possible as children progress through the school.

 

The marking comments made by staff will first and foremost reflect and reinforce the learning intention of the session. While presentation, punctuation, and spelling are very important, and a minimum standard is expected, these may not always be referred to within the marking comments. Occasionally marking takes the form of a discussion between teacher and child. When this occurs, a DWC (discussed with child)will be written with the work discussed.

 

As a response to marking throughout the school children will begin to consider the checking of corrections as part of their learning experience. They will need to be taught how to edit their work and have frequent opportunities to do so, either teacher led or independently. When the teacher corrects spellings there will never be more than 5 spellings underlined for correction. If words have been given there will be an expectation that they are correct in the work. Redrafting is an expected and important practice but is only truly valuable if pupils are taught to check for weaknesses themselves and learn from past experiences.

 

 

Marking and assessment in the Foundation Stage (F1) occurs through the use of planned observations. The staff listen to children talking on their own, interacting with others and telling them what they have done. They ask children questions and note down responses. They continually make judgements about the work pupils produce and record significant progress.

 

What will Marking look like?

 

 

 

The symbols are not used for every error in a piece of work and will only highlight areas for concern.

 

They will be displayed in classes for children, staff and parents to refer to.

 

 

DWC                                                   Discussed With Child

 

* with comment                                   Extra instruction for a child to respond to   

 

 

 

 

This symbol shows where an improvement/prompt comment has been made.

 

 

 

Line under selected error                   Indicates spelling mistake

 

 

Wavy line                                            Drawing attention to the child to help him or her make improvements.

 

 

Insertion sign                                     Indicates missing word or letter

 

 

Double oblique  //                               Indicates a new paragraph is needed

 

 

Teachers mark to objectives using appropriate signs and symbols for each year group.

 

 

Other marking includes;        Peer marking using grids and post notes.

 

                                                Self evaluation grids

 

                                                Self marking to WILF

 

                                                Verbal comments between adults and children.

 

 

 

 

T.Burn and D.Welch Jan 07

 

To be reviewed Jan 09