Marking (English is particular. Any SEBD knowledge even more appreciated)

[blueemerald]

I was wondering if anyone could help me with marking. I finished my NQT year last year so still quite new to teaching. I work in a very small (40 students) secondary school for students (boys) with SEBD.

I just had an observation and got good with outstanding features, which I am happy with, and my main target is marking.

Marking is something I struggle with and this coupled with our students' low work rate (although this is improving) makes it pretty tough.

I was wondering if anyone had any books/articles they would recommend or tips to share?

WWW/EBI feels clunky and clumsy to me and two stars and a wish is a bit childish?

Well I teach mainly 6th form students and I use 2 stars and a wish except I call it a target not a wish. Www/ebi is just the same really, what you call it isn't important it's the quality of the feedback that is important surely?

Make sure the target/ebi is specific and written in language which is accessible. Also make sure the students have a chance to respond to your feedback eg redrafting a chosen section with your target in mind, then perhaps some meta cognitive work on how they have improved it. Don't overcomplicate things too much.

We STAR mark: Strength, Target, Action, Response.

Strength - I tend to praise what is there - find one thing they've managed to do, even if it is attempting the task! Target - something that will help them develop; action - something to do right now in their response.

This gives clear room for progression, along with a written response from the student that shows that they have engaged with what you've written. It doesn't have to be detailed or long, sometimes I just give them a high frequency spelling error to correct x 5.