How do you mark long pieces of work?

[ohhelpohnoitsa]

I am an experienced teacher and mark for several exam boards. I am interested to see HOW teachers mark. I have Yr13 Mock exams to do tonight - 20 of them. Will take me about 4 hours I imagine, with feedback written that they can learn from and recording of marks. After 15 yrs teaching I am wondering if everyone marks like me? Do you read every single word or do you skim? I really do read each and every word, making judgements on sentences and paragraphs as I go. This is extended writing and often I re read paragraphs to get a better gist. I do this when external exam marking too. Does everyone or is there a secret skim read skill I am not in on?

Have you seen Daisy Christodoulou's work on comparative judgement? It could revolutionise essay marking and be such a time-saver.

thewingtoheaven.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/comparative-judgment-21st-century-assessment/

Thanks for the link. I have just had a quick read. It does sound useful. Sadly toigt i have to mark against thw exam board criteria and agree totally with your article - the rehearsed ones will score well whilst the mavericks with gem sentences hidden lengthy paragraphs of waffle will score lower because though correct, might not be on the mark scheme. Dcs are asleep; time to tackle it head on.....

Comparative judgement is something in really interested in too.

In the meantime though, I've found it's much easier and quicker to mark long A-level pieces in Word using comments sni go along and a text box at the end with general feedback on the whole piece. The students can always read my writing too, and I can save the documents to bring up later. I know it sounds like a faff but it's really not and has saved me lots of time whilst providing more useful feedback. I don't do it often though - maybe once every few weeks. In between they do self and peer assessment so that I'm not being handed awful, rushed essays (I'm not the biggest fan of peer assessment but it has its uses).

I don't usually give grades but I do talk to the students individually about whether they're on track.