Marking and Feedback

So, this is an area of particular interest for me as a teacher. As a newly qualified teacher I found myself worrying about how much I should mark, what I should say and what parents expected to see. As I have gained both confidence and experience as a teacher I have spent much time looking for ways to improve my marking, in particular to ensure that students learn from it rather than simply seeing it.
One of the most common reactions to handing back a piece of work, particularly if it was a test or assessment, is the rush amongst students to find out their grade and then to compare it with their peers. Whilst this can be a positive experience and can boost confidence as well as showing progress or act as a means to motivate, does it actually engage students in the learning process?
The next challenge then is the role of comments at the end, and during, assessments and work:

• ensuring you have the time to do this justice
• ensuring the comment has meaning and not simply 'well done'
• making sure the comment identifies to students whether they have made progress
• identifying where students are in terms of their targets
• rewarding effort and praise
• enabling the student to respond to comments and concerns
• clearly showing the required next steps

As the list shows there are a number of things that would be useful and/or beneficial to see in marking feedback. This was my starting point. I am currently working on a traffic light centred system. The purpose of which being;

• identifying quickly for students through red,amber, green whether they are on track for their target grades
• providing a tick list of four effort options; ranging from off-target and no/minimal effort to excellent effort and engagement both in written and oral contributions.
• teacher comment and feedback: a small box for written comments and next steps
• a response box for students
• the ability to add an overall grade if required

I feared at first that this might become too time-consuming, but so far it is working well and providing quick, visible and obvious feedback for students. The next step will now be to get feedback from students about what I am doing.