Spelling errors in colleague's marking

[susannahmoodie]

I share a y9 English class with a colleague. All year I have been frustrated that he is not marking the work set (I teach 1/3 lessons and he teaches 2/3 but he books have only ever been marked by me. I have raised this with my HoD. Today I have taken the books in. He has finally marked a writing assessment but the feedback is littered with spelling errors, eg wrong use of 'their','explaination' and 'apostrophie'.

Wwyd? I dread to think what could happen if a parent saw and complained....but not used to this so unsure of protocol.

I feel your pain, but you need to point this out - bluntly if necessary. I have been overseeing things in our maths dept this term, and had to return a whole class set of reports where the teacher had, in every case, written "math's". I have no idea if he was embarrassed, as I did the deed electronically, but it was clearly not a one-off mistake given that the same error was in 28 reports. He changed them, but has never mentioned it, so I'm guessing he was slightly embarrassed after all...

Yeah I know I can't ignore it....awkward conversation though......

No way can you leave it, especially as it's English he teaches! Everyone has the odd off day, and I find after marking tons and tons of grammar papers my own grasp of language and spelling slips under the weight of terrible errors i'm viewing, but even so there, they're and their is a basic mistake that can't be left unnoticed. Just be blunt. Take him aside, show him the mistakes and ask him if he was especially tired that night, explaining that of course, you wouldn't want a parent to see them.