Purpose
This policy acts as a guide to marking to ensure a commonality of expectation and consistency of approach throughout school.
Rationale
Marking is an integral part of the assessment process. Quality marking provides constructive feedback to children, focusing on success and improvement needs against learning objectives. This enables children to become reflective learners and helps them to close the gap between what they can currently do and what we would like them to be able to do.
Aims
· To acknowledge effort and attainment.
· To involve children in their learning, by giving regular verbal and written feedback so that all pupils know and understand where they are in their learning, where they are going and know how to fill the gaps.
· To give suggestions for improving learning.
· To correct mistakes and offer encouragement.
· To assess children’s learning against stated learning objectives.
· To involve children in their learning by providing regular opportunities for self and peer assessment within lessons.
· To provide time for children to respond to oral and written feedback and to discuss the improvements made.
· To involve children in whole group shared marking, appropriate to their age, which allows for discussion and analysis in a secure environment.
General guidance
· All children’s work will be seen and acknowledged by teachers and/or Learning support practitioners as soon as possible.
· Comments, whether verbal or written, should relate to the learning objective/curricular target/success criteria of the task. Task expectations must be made clear to the child before commencing.
· Comments should be positive and give suggestions on ways the child can improve.
· All spelling, punctuation and grammar errors are not marked in every piece of work but will be noted as a future teaching point. On occasions these errors may be underlined by the teacher/LSP/ HLTA or child and the correction written under work as part of a gap task. These will be highlighted depending on the year group. (see appendix on spelling errors)
· Marking, whether verbal or written, should be given regularly and as soon after the completion of a piece of work as is possible.
· Marking should be done in pen; this can be any colour.
· Quality marking is given to approximately one group (6 pupils) per day (see guidance on quality marking).
· Handwriting must follow school script (please see attached information in appendix on school script)
Please see appendix for the agreed symbols that will be used consistently across the school when marking.
Quality marking
· Quality marking is given to approximately one group (6 pupils) per day
· Marking should focus on both the successes against the learning objective and quality needs.
· Children must be given time to respond to the quality marking as soon as possible after it is given.
· When quality marking teachers/teaching assistants will:
i) Read the entire piece of work.
ii) Highlight examples of where the child has met the learning objective in green.
iii) Highlight next to an aspect of the work which could be improved in orange.
iv) Provide a focused comment, verbal or written, which should help the child to ‘close the gap’ between what they have achieved and what they could have achieved.
· Useful closing the gap comments are:
Ø A reminder prompt – How would David be feeling after Sam had run away?
Ø A scaffolded prompt – What was the monster doing? ‘The monster was so angry that he…’
Ø An example prompt – Choose one of the following to make your work even better or try and think of your own sentence.
i. James was a kind, likable boy with a great sense of humour.
ii. James was easily bored and liked lots of attention.
· Gap tasks
The purpose of the gap task is to close the gap in the child’s learning. In Early Years, KS1 and with lower ability pupils they should mainly focus on basic skill errors such as letter formation, practising punctuation, basic spelling errors, etc. In KS2 they may check pupils understanding which may be in the form of an additional question to answer, correcting a sentence, improving a sentence or challenging children with a next step. When a gap task has been completed by a child it must be marked, initialled and dated.
In Key Stage 2 this symbol will be used to represent ‘next steps’ and an appropriate next step will be written.
· Spelling Errors
Teachers will comment on spelling and grammar only in the following cases:
- if spellings and grammar were part of the lesson focus/objective;
- if it is a spelling/high frequency word, phoneme or aspect of grammar that the child should know; (year / ability dependent)
Reception
Phase 2 phonics/ VC/ CVC
Year 1
Phase 2/ 3/ 4 phonics
VC/ CVC/ 100 HFW words
Year 2
Phase 2/ 3/ 4 & 5 phonics
VC/ CVC/ 100 & 200 HFW words
Year 3
Phase 2/ 3/ 4 / 5 & 6 phonics
VC/ CVC/ 100 & 200 HFW words
Year 4, 5 & 6
Focus on work covered in SPAG lessons.
Stick, Mark, Boom!
We are trialling a new marking and feedback system called Stick, Mark, Boom!
At present this is running alongside our marking policy, enhancing what is already in place. By the end of the Autumn Term a decision will be made as to the effectiveness of this new system in improving learning.
For more information go to www.stickmarkboom.co.uk.
Monitoring arrangements
All members of staff are expected to be familiar with the policy and to apply it consistently.
Marking will be a focus of the SLT’s monitoring over the course of the year, and will be checked on a regular basis.
· All pieces of work must contain the date and WALT (We Are Learning To…).
/ Example WaltMonday 3rd February 2016
WALT (We Are Learning To)
I can write a simple sentence with a capital letter and full stop.
I can spell CVC words.
Years 5 and 6 will write the date themselves and then put WALT sticker underneath.
· All marking will be dated and initialled (a sticker in the front of children’s books will show the names and initials of who will be marking their work).
· Appropriate comments should be written on work in pen. These comments should also extend pupils learning. Where a comment has been delivered verbally, summarise what has been said.
· Staff and students handwriting should reflect school script, letters formed correctly and be unjoined or joined depending on the year group or ability of the child (see attached school script)
Early yearsL Learning Objective met / Early years
Needs improving/ nearly got
Year 1 during transition with highlighting the WALT
Learning Objective met
______KS1/ 2
Good work, correct answer, WALT achieved (highlight the WALT) / Year 1 during transition with highlighting the WALT
Needs improving/ nearly got
______KS1/ 2
Incorrect answers, needs improving, WALT not achieved (Highlight the WALT)
Gap task
Make sure gap tasks are also marked, dated and initialed.
· When a gap task is set children must be given time to complete it before the next lesson. /
Independent work
Supported work
Verbal feedback given
Group support
Next steps (KS2)
Peer support
Paired
Group
Spelling Errors
Reception
Phase 2 phonics/ VC/ CVC
Year 1
Phase 2/ 3/ 4 phonics
VC/ CVC/ 100 HFW words
Year 2
Phase 2/ 3/ 4 & 5 phonics
VC/ CVC/ 100 & 200 HFW words
Year 3
Phase 2/ 3/ 4 / 5 & 6 phonics
VC/ CVC/ 100 & 200 HFW words
Year 4, 5 & 6
Focus on work covered in SPAG lessons.
Underline the error in orange and as a gap task write it for children to copy/ practise.
nad
and and and in biro not orange / Dialogue Marking
This is where children respond to the comments made by the marker. This may include writing a response to a question, or a statement about how they feel about the comment
If children have not completed the activity because they were called for an intervention session for all or part of the lesson, this will be recorded as ‘intervention’.
pw – paired work
ps – peer supported
pa – peer assessed / Dojos
awarded
3DJs
At times a large percentage of the class may need more input on what has been taught so rather than individual gap tasks it may be necessary to address as a whole class, if this is the case use the following code to show this; WCTP – WHOLE CLASS TEACHING POINT
School script
Once a child can form each letter correctly, they will begin to learn how to join in handwriting sessions. During Year 2 they will then be encouraged to join letters in their daily writing.
Un-joined lower case letters
Capital letters
The alphabet joined (cursive)
Diagonal join to ascender
Diagonal join no ascender
Diagonal join to anticlockwise letter
Horizontal join no ascender
Horizontal join to ascender
Horizontal join from r
Horizontal join to s
Diagonal join from s
Horizontal join to and from f
Year 3
Joining b and p
Year 4, 5 and 6
Consolidation and practise of all the joins, refining style and speed.
Updated September 2016
Appendix
Examples of Closing the Gap marking Comments (Literacy):
Range of Prompts / WILF / What the child Wrote / Improvement Prompt (AA-A) / Scaffold Prompt (A-BA) / Example Prompt (BA)Why? Justifying a statement / Your letter explains your character’s feelings / ‘It was dismal’ / à Say why you thought this. / à Why was it a dismal time? Why did you hate being there? / à Choose one of these:
‘It was dismal because…
…I was bored all the time.
…I only had my granddad to talk to’
How? Giving more detail / Your story dilemma tells the reader what your character is thinking / ‘Nobody believed him’ / à Say how you think this made him feel. / à How do you thing Darryl felt about not being believed? Write an extra sentence that tells us. / à Tick how he felt:
…Angry.
…Annoyed.
______ß your idea.
Add something / Your account contains effective adjectives and adverbs. / The burglar ran towards the car park and drove off. / à Re-write this sentence using a better adjective for sad and an adverb here. / à Fill in the gap with an adverb:
The burglar ran ______ly towards the car park and drove off. / à Tick which adverb would describe how the burglar ran: The burglar ran…
Quickly?
Slowly? or
______ß your choice
Change something / Your description uses powerful adjectives / ‘He was a bad monster’. / à Think of a better word than ‘bad’. / à What kind of monster was he? Think of another word that means the same as ‘bad’ and write it below. / à Which of these words describes the monster better than ‘bad’:
Ferocious?
Evil?
______ß your idea.
Tell us more / Your story opening introduces the character. / ‘James went to school’ / à Describe what James is like. / à What type of boy is James – good, bad, excitable?
James was a ______boy. / Choose one of these to describe James character:
James was a kind, likeable boy with a great sense of humour. For instance…
James was often excitable and loud, like when he…
What happens next? / Your story has a clear ending / ‘At last the merman saw the mermaid’ / à End this story with a piece of direct speech. / à What do you think the merman said to the mermaid before they went home together? / à Write one of these or your own ending:
‘I love you’ said the merman and happily they swan away.
As they swam away, the merman said ‘______’.
Correct this sentence by putting in the capital letters and full stop.
my name is ben
My name is Ben.
Practise these letters
b b b ______
Can you use a different adjective to describe ? and put it into a sentence.
Can you think of a different connective to join your sentence instead of and?
Appendix
Marking Maths
If children are forming numbers or mathematical signs incorrectly then, a gap task must be set so they can practise forming it correctly.9 9 9 ______
+ + + ______
If children are not showing how they worked out the answer through a gap task they need to show this especially if it is part of the learning objective.
4 + 5 = 9
Show how you worked this out
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
When the Learning Objective has been met, next steps should be provided to move the learning on.
For example:
Now try: or ‘next time …’
43 + 29 =
57 + 36 =
(The child had completed 42+21 = ie not crossing the tens, the next step is crossing the tens, moving their learning on.)
Questioning results
How many more children liked sweets than chocolate?
What is the difference between the pencil and the ruler?
Which held the most?
Updated September 2016