Any tips on efficient marking practice?

[Esker]

I'm a secondary English teacher, NQT, and right now my marking is absolutely drowning me!
I've taken tips and advice from others in my department eg using proformas with success criteria, which can be ticked instead of writing targets out in full every time, but even with this I am struggling. (Note the timing of this post- just going to bed at 2am after marking a set of books).
Any tips on marking / what kind of work is quick to mark / how you can best get pupils go show progress would be very welcome!

Make sure pupils respond to your marking otherwise there's no point - get them to do it in a different colour pen so it's obvious to everyone (inc you'd head of dept and ofsted!) they've done it.

What does your school marking policy say? We aim
For roughly 1/3 self assessment, 1/3 peer assessment and 1/3 quality marked teacher assessment,

You do get quicker with practice, I promise, but marking is time consuming.

Does your school have common marking code, e.g. P =punctuation, etc.? If not, then suggest at least a departmental code. Obviously this is not correcting but indicating room for improvement, which then becomes a target.

How to show progress? When writing a significant essay, say a text reposes, get them to write the introduction and two body paragraphs. Take it, indicate areas for improvement. This needs to happen very quickly, but as it's only three paras, it's no sweat. Photocopy and keep for when they do the final draft so you can comment on progress. students will re-draft 2/3 paras, but not a whole essay.

Do the same with Q and A. Have them answer 3 questions, take them in and mark, return for completion of the task. return by next lesson.This saves you from marking 15 questions, many done badly, and allows the child an achievable opportunity to make good. They should complete the task on the same paper so record of improvement is evident.

Other progress can be shown against the last formal reporting of a level, e.g. reading/writing. Better? Arrow up ^, the same >, below, upside down arrow.

Cynical old lag English teacher answer? Stickers. & cunning timing.

Obviously, the stuff you have to mark properly, you have to mark, but the stuff that's just SLG being twitchy & looking for things to 'audit' for their own PM targets, you don't.

You need:
'Verbal feedback given' stickers, 'Two stars & a wish' for peer assessment, & a couple of smiley face stampers for completed tasks. All of these are applied by the students, not you! Get them to award each other effort grades/merits - they're usually terribly scrupulous.

Make good use of Extended Learning Tasks, & Booklets for homework - cobble one together from TES or Teachit worksheets for each scheme of learning. Generates less marking - it's not sitting there in their books looking like you should've close marked it. Better yet, persuade your HOD to sign up to an online homework site like doddlelearn.

Discreetly build in a 'non-marking heavy' week for each year group, each half term, to stagger things a bit - year 9 might be spending much of a week watching & discussing the film version of their Shakespeare play, so that gives you a breather in which you can catch up with their books in those evenings.

Never waste a lesson in which you aren't actively teaching - so if year 10 are getting on with a controlled assessment or exam practice in timed conditions, use that lesson to 'flick & tick' year 7 (or year 11).

All of this frees up time so that when you do need to spend 8 hours marking one set of top set year 11 essays, the rest of the books are looking respectable & you can set aside the weekend with a clear conscience to do justice to them!

It gets easier .

Thanks everyone for your suggestions- I will try them out.

Annoying conflicting messages from LG at the moment telling us to make sure books are marked within an inch of their lives and then telling us to 'calm down' when we show signs of stress about keeping up!

They say they want depth, but as far a I can tell, they just want to see as much red pen as possible to show that the books are being checked...

I'm making sure the kids respond every time though. If I'm going to mark it, they're bloody well going to reflect on it!!!

I work as a supply teacher and so get to see many schools and numerous subjects and the marking I see is unbelievable ( I mean in terms of so much of it, and so much depth) - looks like the regular teacher is at it all the time, particularly in primary where peer marking is not so easy. I always mark the work for the classes I take, but even that is exhausting so I can't imagine how tough it is for the regular teachers - completely relentless.

Use symbols for phrases you have to keep writing - kids then have to write out phrase and say what they need to do to improve on that. Eg @ means provide evidence for the statement, # means no own knowledge used here. You provide a key on board, kids write out and say she what piece of evidence/ own knowledge could have improved answer. Quicker to mark, yet provides basis of discussion on how to progress. (Works for me in history - we similar marking issues eg no right answers etc). Good luck

Another tip is when walking around the class always carry a red pen/marking stamp/stickers - whatever you use.

Mark as you talk to the students about their work so it reduces the amount you need to do when you do the 'big mark' etc.

I am Maths so this is very easy to do as I can mark questions as I see them answer them - may not work so well for English.

what is the schools policy? Ofsted have said today that they "don't expect to see extensive written feedback on pupils work" are you doing more than you need to?

When I work in primaries I always mark the work done that day, and follow the policy of the specific school - books are always so extensively marked it does make me wonder how on earth teachers can do that in the time they have - it does seem excessive - surely saturation marking should not be necessary for the DC to make progress?

www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/17/ofsted-tells-teachers-what-not-to-do-in-effort-to-dispel-inspection-myths

Show your school this to start with.

Also an NQT (although in science so not as marking heavy I expect) I have implemented a lot of what has been listed - I colour code targets with stickers and put them on a ppt for students to copy, use codes (our school has whole school literacy marking codes which save so much time) and I mark/stamp as verbal feedback as much as possible in the lesson. Also peer assessment wherever possible and writing their own targets for improvement.

The other thing I have done is schedule in my marking to frees. It's on a rota so that everything is marked within 4 hours of teaching time. I have split it up so marking heavy classes are separated and I know what needs doing every week. Also means I can easily schedule in "make a difference" time and I know when purple pens need to be given out on the way in. I am sticking to it religiously and it has made marking so much less stressful!

Been teaching English in secondary for best part of a decade and echo all the advice above.

-Marking policy and get kids to mark their own work with it.

• criteria cover sheets on all major work which then goes in a neat folder, making ex books more for note taking.
• fewer written tasks, more full in boxes sheets, speaking and listening, drama weeks etc on rotation to pace yourself
• peer marked homework ie spelling tests, vocab or spag exercises or long term projects, or pre reading and research for next lesson.
• equal amounts self//peer/staff marking.
• one homework per month on responding to marking so they write out corrected spellings x5 etc.

-pupils have a ten minute tidy before they hand in books- stick in sheets, date, title, underline work etc, label work 'notes for x essay; final draft in neat folder' etc and give themselves effort grades and targets

• plan of marking one formal reading/writing/speaking/drama assessments and ex books once each per class per half term on rotation.
• never bring home more than one hours marking on a Sunday and none any other day; stay later at school if you have to but relax when at home, or you can feel like its endless

at typos. Feeding DS with other hand!