to think his book could have been marked since last november?

[MrsPotiphar]

am in process of drafting letter of complaint

1 hundred
I dont think that is ok
worksheets need to be in the book showing continual assessment adn that that there is some kind of progress

ie you did well here - reember to colour the sea in blue
next time
well done the sea is deep azure - nex time add some sunshine to get an a*
that kind of thing

My Ds's form tutor is geog and she is truly great v quick to mark h/w however she may be the exeption as other classes have young guy who wants to be "down with the kids". He puts his feet up on his desk and is a big hit with a certain element as he says that he is not paid to mark hw in his spare time so he wont do it. He has also told the same to other parents and he is almost challenging someone to do something about it. He seems to forget the longer hols he has and also forgets that other teachers fulfil the marking slots, the only consolation is he is not allowed near the gcse groups and has been demoted to teach younger kids as he is unsackable. I thought this nonsense with radical "right on" teachers died years ago as it was just this sort of attitude which f----ed up the state system in the 70's.

My ds had to drop his geography GCSE bcos of his shitty geography teacher.

She marked his work at a D my friend a geography teacher at another school had helped him do it......we went to see year head he asked the geog teacher to remark it(that must have caused her angst 2 lots of marking) she said if he double underlined his heading and mounted his pictures hed get a ......B!!!!

"she said if he double underlined his heading and mounted his pictures hed get a ......B!!!!"

omg

No that's not right- you cannot move up two grades like that! A more in depth analysis or a limitation of the methods used as part of the conclusions then maybe.

Funnily we had similar with ds' Geog book last year

"all my books are comment marked at least once a half term with students specific strengths and targets"

Well how amazing... I teach in primary, every day the children do at least one piece of literacy and one piece of numeracy plus one other subject, and so daily the work is marked, with comments showing the strengths and areas to improve at least 3 times a week in each subject. If it is a weekly subject like history or... geography, every piece has a comment on strengths and areas to improve - including spelling corrections.

(Sorry, just feeling the slight injustices here... we had to write comments even for those children who couldn't actually read them... Why? For Ofsted!)

I can see 150 students a day as well as teach GCSE and A level subjects with all the preparation and marking that they entail - so detailed half termly marking as well as regular weekly marking of HW tasks is perfectly reasonable imo.

Quite Lucy.

I've taught at both secondary and primary level. I know which is more labour intensive. However, I wouldn't ever imply that secondary teachers don't work as hard, of course they do! I was just playing devil's advocate.

To be honest, there would be no point marking primary work any less frequently - they have memories like goldfish and if it's not marked and returned immediately they've forgotten what they did (even from one day to the next!).

Haha Galena, that sounds like a few 15 year olds I know!

Its bad isnt it 2 grades for double underlining....he still dropped it cos hed have failed the exam cos her teaching was so poor.

I know nothing of secondary, but I think at primary level you should expect every piece of written work to be marked in some way and for there to be comments regularly. Effective marking is a huge deal in helping children to progress. In two ways - one it makes children who don't work without knowing someone is checking to do it, and for those who would work anyway it gives them comments to help them improve. I am constantly shocked to see children's books at friends' houses with weeks worth of unmarked work. It is one of the few things I would consider making a fuss about at parents evening.
Secondary could well be different, I accept that teachers have more classes worth of work to look at but perhaps one in three pieces?

I agree Little. I think it depends on the type of work as well, I think that all 'pieces' of work like essays and things that they have done themselves if you see what I mean should ALL be marked, but some stuff like copying off the board or taking notes etc doesn't need it.

I agree about straight copying - although at primary level question the value of lots of that, maybe a little intro, but since there shouldn't be lots of revision in primary level (a whole other can of worms waiting to be opened!) then it shouldn't be that necessary.

Ah, but at primary level straight copying is often the only way to get something legible in books. Often you compose a passage on the board together and then children copy it into books.

Those who cannot read/write independently get practise of writing without having to compose and spell.

However, it still needs detailed marking as the number of children who can actually copy accurately is minimal!