To expect books to be marked at least once in ten weeks

[Cabbagesandcustard]

DD started secondary school at the beginning of Sept. In some subjects (geography, science) her teacher has not taken in / marked her book once since then. Is this normal / acceptable? Or should I be on the phone to the school having a moan?
School is rather a closed shop: they don't seem to encourage parent-teacher contact apart from at parents consultation evening and it can be hard to know who to contact. Year Head? Head of Dept?

I don't mark homework. Homework is self-assessed (I read out the answers) and then they give me their scores. However, I teach a core subject and have to mark each set every 3 weeks. Another local school in the county don't mark any books ever, but do in depth marking on assessments. I would definitely prefer that and think it would be far more useful.

I'm incredulous that some books at secondary would not be marked at all and I definitely think I would complain about it.

Do bear in mind that a secondary Geography teacher might teach virtually every child in the school who studies the subject. That might mean marking 300 books every 2-3 weeks, on top of GCSE assessments (likely to be full exam papers every half term in most schools these days). It really isn't as simple as it seems.

I'm a secondary school teacher, and we are expected to mark 3 pieces per half term (2 classwork, 2 homework). Policies do vary from school to school, but once in 10 weeks seems very limited.
I would contact the head of year via email, outlining the specific subjects you have concerns about. They should be able to give you information on the policy for that year group and liaise with teachers to follow up any gaps.

In my school (secondary) we only mark assessments, skills/exam practise and homework.

We do do a lot of other assessment tasks in class informally which help us to gauge where students are at.

Marking is only meaningful if students do something with it though. Jotter marking will only have an impact if teacher is then asking students to review and act on feedback - otherwise it's marking for markings sake.

At senior level there's a lot more marking geared towards skill building for exams.

Link below explains more.

www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/summaries/rsassessment.asp

YANBU to expect some sort of feedback in 10 weeks so I would definitely enquire and ask how the students get feedback.

I teach a non-core subject (so Yr 7-9 just once a week, so I see 9 different classes a week plus all exam classes) yet I still give a written target for them to act on every week. I must add that I do all my lesson planning in the school holidays. If I didn't, I would do each class once every three weeks, as per my school policy.

Should say 2 homework, 1 classwork sorry!
I am a head of year as well , and do spend time chasing up gaps in marking if there are concerns, as sometimes gaps in marking happen unfortunately.

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/level-workload-expected-teachers-not-improving-schools-it-wrecking

That's their job, Trifle

trifle, I wouldn't be an English teacher for all the money in the world! Kudos for managing it all.

Actually, winters, the teacher's job is to teach. Marking is one way of assessing learning and enhancing teaching, but it isn't always the best.

No, a huge part of a teachers job is providing assessment.

Conceded, in some subjects that won't be written feedback, but if the children are doing written tasks then they should be marked!

Assessment is definitely part of the job. But there are many, many forms of assessment other than marking books. And lots of them are far more accurate.

Okay so do tell?

Winters: It's an element of their job. That doesn't mean it is okay for expectations to be unreasonable. As I said in my post, most schools are struggling to recruit teachers even in non-core subjects. There are reasons for this.

Marking a child's book in ten weeks is not in any way an unreasonable expectation. At all.

Winters: That depends on many factors, including how many students you teach, how much detail you are expected to include, what level of planning for your lessons you are expected to do, what other duties you have. I don't disagree that it doesn't sound unreasonable on the surface of things but you are wrong to be so definite about it, as you lack context.

No, I'm sorry - unless the context is that the teacher is signed off sick and they've had a stream of supply!

That's completely out of order.

Winters: Are you a teacher?

Yes

I think that is s poor and would raise it.
I teach 340 kids / fortnight in 12 seperate groups. They all get in depth written feedback at least once a month ( thet would be for those classes i see 3x a fortnight), more often for others.
Of course there are lots of other ways of assessing understanding and progress, but it is also about showing the kids that you mind about the quality of their classwork and hl, and personally i think peer and self assessment does not do that sufficiently well.
I stay at school for 90 mins after school, finishes every night, one meeting, one club, three data entry/ discussion with colleagues/ mark/plan and then Mark/plan 2-3 hours/ night mon-thurs and about 5-6 hrs at the weekend, workload is easily manageable if you keep on top of it

You can't fatten a pig by weighing it.

While assessment is important, it's just the weighing part (unless it's instant assessment for learning - and that doesn't usually involve marking).

Teaching is what matters, assessment is a part of it, but nowhere near as important as the workload suggests.

Marking is ridiculous in primary. And red pens? Pfft! Red pens are in the dar ages! We use multiple colours nowadays, but not red...

I would imagine winters is SLT...

But assessment isn't just about 'weighing', it's about 'fattening.' It's about providing feedback in order to improve.

No assessment of written work for 10 weeks is unacceptable. Lots of posters have explained how assessed work is often kept in folders rather than books though.

One example - conversations with students are a million times better.

If a child incorrectly answers a question I look at the answer and try to figure out where they went wrong. They may misunderstand something about the concept we are studying, they may have misunderstood the question, they may have simply used the wrong words in their answer. Based on what they have written I try to figure that out and give them a pointer on how to improve. They then try to interpret what I have written. If the answer is correct, I say well done and set an extension question, but the answer may have been copied from a classmate, given by a parent is found on the internet. They don't gave a clue what they are talking about but I think they do.

In contrast, by talking to the child I can ask 'why do you think that?' if the answer is wrong and their error is usually revealed immediately. I can explain the right way to think about it, or how to interpret the question or how to word their answer, and if they don't understand what I'm saying they ask immediately. If the answer is correct I am sure it is theirs because I have seen that they didn't have help. And then I can ask 'why do you think that?' and check their deeper understanding and ability to communicate their ideas, or ask a new question which extends their thinking.

I am literally amazed that you (as a teacher) think that marking is an accurate and effective way of assessing learning and ensuring progress.

Rosy for me, that would be no work/ life balance.

I agree with the OP that there ought to be something in the books that indicates the teacher has looked at them in the 10 weeks.