Marking work in the first term will help you get to grips with your classes quickly, and cut down your workload in the following terms. It is a basic rule of classroom management that regular marking helps discipline. It raises the status of what you are doing in pupils’ eyes and gives focus to what they are doing. It also allows you to monitor your teaching and see what you need to do to raise achievement.
Marking also keeps the pupils on their toes, especially if you do some quick marking as you go around the class. This will help discipline, as pupils will know they deserve telling off if not on task, and the process will be open and transparent. Follow your department’s marking policy, and offer brief phrases to aid improvement. From Year 7, get pupils to mark their own and others’ work using simplified mark schemes.
Try to mark all work each lesson for the first half-term. It will mean taking books in every day, or marking during lessons, but this will add value to pupils’ work. In the second half-term, switch to a two-week cycle to lighten the workload. By the end of the first term, you should have a clear idea of how it’s all going - for you and the pupils.
A build-up of marking creates real problems - pupils won’t value what they are doing, or have any idea how they are doing. Having to mark four or five pages of work for each pupil is overwhelming and unlikely to be done thoroughly. So don’t let it build up.
Roy watson-davis Roy Watson-Davis is an advanced skills teacher in the London borough of Bexley. Have you any useful tips to pass on? We pay for all tips published. Send yours to: susan.young@newsint.co.uk
