Marking school work

[Floatyboat]

So apparently the teaching unions think marking should not take place due to "health and safety". Surely this is straying into the territory of unhelpful disruption rather than constructive engagement with the government's wish to help kids.

There are so many work arounds to do it safely. Wait 48hrs to mark, wear gloves, wash hands etc

Given they are arguing this I can't help but think the unions are simply being unreasonable and not actually taking a balanced view.

This has come from government advice initially. I think the HSE might have something to do with it, not sure though as they've decided it's not safe to work.... funny that

If the union advice is followed it's a blanket ban.

Luckily, for those that it affects and can read, it won’t be.

@ChloeDecker

So you also think the advice is unreasonable?!

i just think a top down blanket ban on marking is ridiculous and undermines the unions wider aims.
Good job staff can follow their union guidelines and follow the government ideas on books then rather than what someone wants to say on Mumsnet.

How does the hand washing work then? I mark a book, wash hands, mark the next book, etc etc? But I don't have a sink in my room. I am not taking (potentially contaminated) books home, I will stay at school to work till I'm finished.
Or, I mark a full class so picking up/cross contaminating anything that might be on there, and somehow do an hour of marking without ever touching my face? And then walk to the toilets opening doors etc.
Gloves would make no difference.
I'm marking everything online just now, maybe older students could continue to email photos of their work or something like that.

OP you are starting to sink now. Why don't you go back and have another look at the government guidance about what to do. The way forward here is clear and sensible. You are making problems and issues where there literally aren't any.

I can give verbal feedback in school and then send writtrn feedback - they are all on teams/google classroom by now anyway (secondary).
In offices in the "real world" will something be typed up by one person and then passed round everyone else in the office's hands before being signed?

Oh have just clocked who the OP is. Quelle surprise.

Floatyboat One might be forgiven for thinking that you want there to be a blanket ban, so it is another thing to criticise teachers and unions with. Surely not?
Just as well the advice is not what you keep pretending it to be.

Just leaving these here y'all

The Michaela school in London more or less got rid of marking a few years ago. They do whole-class feedback instead. Their results are stellar so it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm.

Most marking is probably a waste of time.

By the way----here in Japan, parents are mostly responsible for marking their kids' own homework! (they give you an answer key).

If parents want all the "multiplication sums" type stuff to be marked, there is nothing to stop them from doing it themselves as long as an answer key is provided.

If parents and teachers decide that it is helpful to mark at least SOME work (say, extended pieces of writing, where I agree that some "close" feedback can be really helpful, and a professional teacher is probably required to do the marking), one solution is for parents to scan the work and send it to the teachers, who can then mark it digitally. Zoom and other platforms have functions allowing you to do this. You can use a digital pen or just a touchpad and typing input. I use an online tutor and we have used these kinds of functions.

But frankly, if COVID19 becomes a springboard for questioning the endless piles of marking that teachers are expected to do, that might actually be one really good outcome. Marking the odd piece of work is probably good, but most marking serves no purpose and whole-class or individual feedback is usually a better use of teachers' time.

Brilliant response user. I agree 100%

Why are you talking about books? The marking of books?

None of my ds's work that they've done online, in the last 8 weeks, has been marked.

I think that's incredibly poor.

Because that's what the OP was about!

@Oblomov20

It's not good, no. Feedback is important. If you feel able to raise with the school, do raise it politely. That said, capacity to support remote learning will decrease soon as children return to school, so it's unlikely they will start doing more remote marking at this point.

But the OP is about the guidance for classes returning to school. Unions have asked for reassurance that we won't be expected to mark books. I think this is very reasonable, and I'm very much pro schools returning. If we want this to be a success, we need to take all reasonable steps to prevent spread of the coronavirus. Giving verbal rather than written feedback is a very reasonable step.

Oblomov20 speak to your child's school about their feedback policy during remote learning. They really should have provided some feedback by now.

The OP is trying to stir up conflict about health and safety for all when schools start phasing back though

It’s not just schools doing this... Waterstones are going to quarantine any books customers touch for 72 hours before returning them to the shelf. All supermarkets have been encouraging people not to touch stuff unless they plan to buy it for ages now.

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/18/waterstones-plans-to-put-its-books-under-a-72-hour-quarantine?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1589868274

It's not just about books though. The guidance says no marking. Maybe (hopefully) it meant no making of books but was poorly phrased.

I think the op is overthinking this! I am quite sure teachers have ways of assessing without physically collecting in books and marking them. Surely they can call out the answers and let the dc mark their own?

Teachers, I am an HCP mostly working in the community. Normally the notes are left in the patients' homes but we aren't doing that now so that we don't have to touch paperwork that has been in their home. So we write up the notes in our car right after and bring them back to the office.

No it doesn’t Floatyboat. The whole paragraph refers and states to the marking of books. The concept of possession in sentences is something you might want to review.

People keep saying the union advice to not mark is based on government or HSE guidance. I've had a look but can't find this to be true. Can anyone find the original government advice to not mark or are people just making it up?

It’s 24 hours for cardboard/paper maximum that Covid19 can live. For year 10/12 books could be dropped into a box/crate . Then isolated for 24 hours before marking, then back in the box for 24 hours before placing on students desks before class starts. Teacher rather than self marking, for those age groups will be necessary for some lessons.

Obviously placed on desk wearing new gloves that are immediately thrown away.

surely younger ones who are still learning to write need to be putting pen to paper and get feedback on what they're doing.
Most kids aren't going back to school though so do you want worksheets posted out weekly and returned to schools weekly then marked and posted back out to the kids? I wouldn't do weekly trips to the postbox to deliver work for school to return weeks later