Summary of research by Shirley Clarke
Marking
 Marking has essentially 2 functions:
- to provide an assessment record
- to provide feedback to the child
 Feedback needs:
- to be based on clear learning objectives/success criteria
- to take account of pupil self-evaluation
- to highlight where success occurred and where improvement could take place
- to be in a form which is accessible to the learner
- to give strategies for improvement (often oral), if this is beyond the means of the
learner
- allocated time in which to take place or be read
- some focused improvement, based on feedback, to take place
 Problems that exist:
- Teachers feel that they should be marking children’s work as a measure of their
worth: for accountability purposes, rather than to give feedback to the child. The
purpose of marking should of course be to give feedback to the child about their
work
- Teachers feel that the quality of their feedback is measured by how much they have
written on the child’s work. Research shows that too much information is
inaccessible
- Teachers feel that oral feedback is vital, but somehow not valid in the same way as
written marking
- Teachers feel that even young children who cannot read the marking should have
comments on their work, again to justify the feedback given to the child
- Teachers feel guilty if every piece of work is not marked thoroughly
- Teachers wonder whether their marking really makes any impact on children’s
progress: a soul destroying experience
 Children believe that the purpose of marking is for the teacher to find out what they have got
right or wrong, rather than for their own benefit.
 Marking should be focused around the learning objective and success criteria rather than
superficial, limited features.
 Token comments at the bottom of work praising effort do not fool children because the
grades/rewards/spelling correction etc tell the children the ‘truth’ about their work.
 Children often cannot understand or read the teachers handwriting or comments – who is the
marking for?
 Children are rarely given time to read marking comments.
 Children are rarely given time to make any improvement on their work because of the teachers
feeling of pressure to get on with the coverage.
 Comments on children’s work should:
- relate to planned learning objectives
- be legible and clear in meaning
- recognise children’s achievements
- indicate the next steps in children’s learning
Bexley Primary Mathematics Team
Summary of research by Shirley Clarke
Questions to ask
 Can children read your marking comments?
 Can they understand your marking comments?
 Do you allow time fro them to read your marking comments?
 Do you allow time for some improvement on the work to be made before moving on to the next
activity, or do you expect the child to be able to transfer your improvement suggestions
to another piece of work in a new context?
 “Time needs to be built into lessons for children to reflect on marking and to respond to it”
(SCAA 1997)
 If learning is our prime concern then we cannot afford not to give children time to read and act
on feedback /marking.
 “For assessment to be formative the feedback information has to be used” (Black and Wiliam,
1998)
 Marking away from children has less value than incorporating in lessons modelling of quality
and specific improvements, followed by self and peer evaluation and subsequent improvements
 It is extremely effective to model success and improvement and compare quality using
contrasting examples of anonymous work
 Child marking and paired marking work but need training
 Before children mark each others work they should focus on their own so they are confident in
reflection
 Getting children to take ownership of their marking is a slow process which begins with teacher
modelling, shared marking and the teachers own quality marking against the learning objective:
- What do they like about the work?
- Identify success against the learning objective
- Identify where improvements can be made against the learning
objective
 Children (Yr2+) can identify successes against the learning objective then share them with a
partner or the class. This raises self-esteem and motivation to continue to improve work.
 Next, children can identify 1-2 successes and 1 place where work could be improved against
the learning objective and success criteria (pink for tickled pink and green for growth!). The
teacher then adds an improvement suggestion at the end.
 Next step, as above but children make an ‘on the spot’ improvement.
 Children can repeat the process as pairs to find successes and improvement together. Children
sometimes find this difficult at first.
Additional resources
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Examples of marking policy (Shirley Clarke)
Improvement prompts (Shirley Clarke)
‘Marking and Feedback’ by East Riding (Jeanne Mundy)
Links to AfL principles, especially 5 and 7 (‘is sensitive and constructive’ and ‘promotes
understanding of goals and criteria’) – Assessment Reform Group
Bexley Primary Mathematics Team
Summary of research by Shirley Clarke
Success and Improvement marking strategy
1. Showing success – the teacher finds 2-3 places in the child’s work which link with the learning
objective and highlights/circles/underlines them. All children should receive the same number.
2. Indicating improvement – a symbol, such as an arrow, is used to indicate precisely where on the
work improvement could be made. The improvement is then made at the end of the work.
3. Giving an improvement suggestion – the teacher writes this to help the child know how to make the
specific improvement (see improvement prompts)
4. Making the improvement – classroom time should be given asap for the children to read the
successes and improvement suggestion and to make their improvement (max 10 mins e.g. first thing
in the morning or at the beginning of the next lesson)
 Three types of improvement prompts:
- The reminder prompt is simply a reiteration of the learning objective (most suitable for
more able children)
- The scaffolded prompt involves the teacher deciding what she would like the child to write,
then finding a way of handing it back to the child (a question, a directive or an unfinished
sentence)
- The example prompt models a choice of possible improvements, but asks if the child has
an idea of his or her own. This is extremely successful for all children, especially average or
below average children.
 Teachers need to say explicitly what the child could do to improve the work or the child simply answers
the teachers questions.
 Introduce the strategy by using work from last year or another class.
 Discuss and find successes and improvement area against the learning objective together as a guided
group or whole class.
 Children as young as Year 2 can find successes and improvement.
 Improvement suggestions (scaffolded prompts):
- Elaborating and extending (‘Tell us more…’)
- Adding a word or sentence (‘Add one word…’)
- Changing the text (‘Find a better word…’)
- Justifying (‘Why?...’)
Key features
 Marked work consists of only a few marks on the paper, indicating very clear successes and improvement
needs
 Cuts marking time considerably
 Gives highly accessible information to the child, requiring no reading or interpretation or remarks
 MUST be linked to the learning objective and not secretarial skills
 All children must receive the same number of successes and improvements (2+1)
 Whole school policy developed?
 USE of the feedback is vital. As the codes are so accessible, time will be quite short and targeted (max
10 mins?)
 Is used for distance marking.
 If it is difficult to find 3 highlights, face-to-face marking is needed as the task was inappropriate or not
enough work was generated.
 It can be difficult to use in mathematics with closed questions, especially if all questions are answered
correctly, but can use the arrow (improvement) as an extension. It works better with ‘Using and Applying’.
 Can’t mark every piece of work this way (school policy?)
 When children are making their improvements, children needing face-to-face attention can be seen.
 The quality of the child’s improvement depends on the quality of the ‘closing the gap’ comment.
Bexley Primary Mathematics Team
Summary of research by Shirley Clarke
Golden rules for children marking with a response partner
1. Both partners should be roughly the same ability, or just one jump ahead or behind,
rather than a wide gap
2. The pupil needs time to reflect on and check his or her writing before a response
partner sees it
3. The response partner should begin with a positive comment about the work
4. The roles of both parties need to be clearly defined
5. The response partner needs time to take in the child’s work, so it is best for the
author to read the work out first. This also establishes ownership of the piece
6. Children need to be trained in the success and improvement process, or whatever is
being used, so that they are confident with the steps involved
7. Children must both agree the part to be changed
8. The author should make the marks on his or her own work, as a result of the paired
discussion
9. Children need to be reminded that the focus of their task is the learning objective
10. The response partner should ask for clarification rather than jump to conclusions
11. The improvement suggestions should be verbal and not written down. The only
writing necessary would be the identification of successes an the improvement itself
12. It would be useful to role-play response partners in front of the class, perhaps
showing them the wrong way and the right way over a piece of work
13. It could be useful to do this two-thirds of the way through a lesson, so that children
can make the improvement and continue writing with a better understanding of
quality
Our Agreement on Marking Partnerships
We decided that there were some rules we all needed to keep. When we become marking
partners we all agree to…..
 Respect our partner’s work because they have done their best and so their work should
be valued
 Try to see how they have tackled the learning objective and only try to improve things
that are to do with the learning objective
 Tell our partner the good things we see in their work
 Listen to our partner’s advice because we are trying to help each other do better in our
work
 Look for a way to help our partner to achieve the learning objective better by giving
them a ‘closing the gap’ activity to do
 Try to make our suggestion as clear as possible
 Try to make our suggestions positive
 Get our partner to talk about what they have tried to achieve in their work
 Be fair to our partner. We will not talk about their work behind their backs because we
wouldn’t like them to do it to us and it wouldn’t be fair.
Bexley Primary Mathematics Team