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.
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