Some pupils complaining about assessment marks?

[sweetnsuga123]

I am a trainee secondary teacher. I have marked some ks3 assessments and had the marks checked and verified with my mentor and their marks are also the same if not slightly better than their last assessment marks so I know I'm on the right track.

I gave them back to two classes and some pupils have tried to challenge me on the feedback I have given even if they have achieved a top mark and I have had to explain to them why I gave them that target and some have still tried to argue back even if they haven't done the target.

Am I being unreasonable or is this not right and rude from the students? Fair enough if they want to ask why they got a certain target but surely they shouldn't be trying to argue back to me when I have marked them correctly and verified with my mentor that my marking is correct?

Aw, bless.

Students will argue over anything. Helping them to understand the marking criteria and what they need to do to meet it is important.

Were they “arguing” in a reasonable way? I don’t think respectfully challenging a teacher on their marking is necessarily a bad thing. I’d much rather that than they ignored it.

This would probably be a discussion better had with your mentor who knows the children in question.

Depends on how it’s done. There’s usually some ‘miss you only gave me one mark for Q7, but Johnny got two for the same answer!’ type queries. (‘Yes, Johnny put the correct units’ ‘oh, ok’).

‘Miss you’ve marked this wrong, I deserve more marks, I’m going to complain to the actual teacher’ is rude.

I am also a trainee teacher and had something very similar with my top set Y9 scene class after end of term assessment last term.

I think that yes it's partly because they are very motivated and keen to get every mark. But in my case I think it's also because they can tell that I'm a bit uncertain and try things on with me that they might not with another class.

I think you just have to do your best not to get involved in any discussion with them. Just insist that they respond to feedback. Maybe talk to your mentor or head of dept about exactly how to phrase this.

I think you just have to do your best not to get involved in any discussion with them.

I really don’t think that’s good advice for motivated students who want to know where they’ve gone wrong. If you think they’re time wasting, get them to come at lunch time.

Just think how you’d feel if your mentor gave you a grade you thought was too harsh but wouldn’t discuss why they’d given it and just told you to respond to the feedback. That doesn’t lead to students who actually want to do well in my experience. They just disengage.

Caveat being if the students are being rude. Then discuss it with them on your terms as per the behaviour policy.

One thing I’ve done a lot, which helps, is to get them marking their own work (or each other’s) using the proper schemes. That helps them to get used to what the marks are awarded for. That may or may not work well depending on what your subject is.

What subject OP?

When I go through an assessment I share the markscheme with the students (put it on the board when we go through the papers) so they can see what they need to do to get the extra marks. Get them to write in corrections in a different colour so when they’re revising for the next one they can see model answers. For example in music GCSE essays they need to make a point and then provide a musical example. Without the musical example they only get one mark, with it, they get two. They need to see model answers sometimes for this to make sense. For coursework style assessments I share the markscheme with them whilst they’re working on the project so they always know what they are required to do. Also sometimes teachers make mistakes when marking 100 test papers (I know I do!) so if you have made a genuine error then give them the mark. There’s nothing bad about admitting a mistake

Say you'll talk it over with them after school on Friday.

Sorted.

English mark schemes are a matter of opinion a lot of the time. Even the most experienced senior markers will disagree over awarding. I'd agree to discuss it individually with students who want to make an appointment. The yoof have grown up with thinking their voice needs hearing on every matter. If it'd legit then correct it as Noble says. If it's challenging you for other reasons then you can deal with it in private.