I for one, as do others within the teaching profession, get sick and tired of writing the same old, same old on our feedback after a piece of marking. As a result of this, noticing that after hours ( sometimes many of which, when you make the mistake of taking them home to mark in front of the TV) of marking, you realise not one bit of notice has been made. This can be VERY frustrating and even annoying at times, when a pupil makes the same mistakes over and over again. So what is the point in marking? A key question when feedback isn't being taken on board!
Well, it is a necessary part of the whole process of teaching and learning, and should be something that enhances our pupils experience and ultimately help them make the required progress in our lessons. The fact is, we need to find a way which:
A) suits you
B) suits your pupils
C) should not be 'too' time consuming
So after some research from a variety of sources, I came across D.I.R.T. (Dedicated and Improvement Reflection Time). I remember giving it a go some time last year, and in all honesty thought what's the point - and gave up on it. Maybe because I hadn't bought into it, so in that respect, my pupils didn't.
However, come September, with a reinvigorated passion and excited to get things up and running in my classes, I started to to look at D.I.R.T with a new set of eyes.
In languages, I feel that we always tend to have to wait near the end of a unit to have a meaty piece of work to mark (at least near the end of a half term), as the pupils need to build up their linguistic of knowledge of new vocabulary and recycle the grammar to use these in the new context. However, once you give feedback on this marvellous piece which your pupil has created, what then? Well, we used to have a pupil comment where they would regurgitate what went well, and what they need to do to improve. So where was the evidence of them taking this advice on board? where had they gone back and extended their sentences with a greater range of connectives, and included justifications? There wasn't. So I decided to trial D.I.R.T with my classes. The first time I trialled this was for a performance management observation.
"Are you mad?", I hear you cry.....but alas I am not.
I had marked a piece of work with my able year 9 on the topic of health and lifestyle, and pupils had to respond to my feedback and improve their work accordingly. They were given the whole lesson to do this. The starter activity focused on them responding to their feedback, making sure they analysed WWW (what went well) and Even Better If ( EBI) showing they had taken on board what they require to do. They then set them selves a target for that lesson, and how they were going to achieve it.
When it came to the improvement, I wrote questions (to help them structure their paragraph - and tailored the grades to this) and hinted at the range of resources available to them (C3B4ME).
I found that pupils responded well to this type of activity, because they wanted to achieve the best grade possible, were clear on the success criteria to do so, and tried their best to provide the necessary range of language in their work:
Connectives
Reasons
Opinions
Adjectives
Time phrases/tenses
Intensifiers/Infinitives
Adverbs
Negatives
Through the use of literacy mats, the word wall and resources already in their book, they were able to achieve this.
Then using the peer assessment mat, pupils were able to analyse each others work methodically, and in detail. They were given the sentence starters to help them create worthwhile pointers and examples for how to improve. This means pupil voice was more in depth and a massive step up form the usual 'it was good' or 'you wrote a lot'.
I have now rolled out these peer assessment mats and D.I.R.T across the department, and are laminated for easy and quick use in lessons where appropriate! We give a lesson for pupils to reflect upon and improve their work, and in-between marking, comments and questions are given which are used as a quick and differentiated starter for pupils to respond to ( I am using a trusty two stars and a wish stamp to achieve this). OOOSH! Also a verbal feedback stamp is used, where pupils note down in another colour what they need to do to improve. 'Every little helps'.
All in all, D.I.R.T is making an impact in lessons and pupils ARE responding to and acting upon feedback (and I got a good for the obs :))
Well, it is a necessary part of the whole process of teaching and learning, and should be something that enhances our pupils experience and ultimately help them make the required progress in our lessons. The fact is, we need to find a way which:
A) suits you
B) suits your pupils
C) should not be 'too' time consuming
So after some research from a variety of sources, I came across D.I.R.T. (Dedicated and Improvement Reflection Time). I remember giving it a go some time last year, and in all honesty thought what's the point - and gave up on it. Maybe because I hadn't bought into it, so in that respect, my pupils didn't.
However, come September, with a reinvigorated passion and excited to get things up and running in my classes, I started to to look at D.I.R.T with a new set of eyes.
In languages, I feel that we always tend to have to wait near the end of a unit to have a meaty piece of work to mark (at least near the end of a half term), as the pupils need to build up their linguistic of knowledge of new vocabulary and recycle the grammar to use these in the new context. However, once you give feedback on this marvellous piece which your pupil has created, what then? Well, we used to have a pupil comment where they would regurgitate what went well, and what they need to do to improve. So where was the evidence of them taking this advice on board? where had they gone back and extended their sentences with a greater range of connectives, and included justifications? There wasn't. So I decided to trial D.I.R.T with my classes. The first time I trialled this was for a performance management observation.
"Are you mad?", I hear you cry.....but alas I am not.
I had marked a piece of work with my able year 9 on the topic of health and lifestyle, and pupils had to respond to my feedback and improve their work accordingly. They were given the whole lesson to do this. The starter activity focused on them responding to their feedback, making sure they analysed WWW (what went well) and Even Better If ( EBI) showing they had taken on board what they require to do. They then set them selves a target for that lesson, and how they were going to achieve it.
When it came to the improvement, I wrote questions (to help them structure their paragraph - and tailored the grades to this) and hinted at the range of resources available to them (C3B4ME).
I found that pupils responded well to this type of activity, because they wanted to achieve the best grade possible, were clear on the success criteria to do so, and tried their best to provide the necessary range of language in their work:
Connectives
Reasons
Opinions
Adjectives
Time phrases/tenses
Intensifiers/Infinitives
Adverbs
Negatives
Through the use of literacy mats, the word wall and resources already in their book, they were able to achieve this.
Then using the peer assessment mat, pupils were able to analyse each others work methodically, and in detail. They were given the sentence starters to help them create worthwhile pointers and examples for how to improve. This means pupil voice was more in depth and a massive step up form the usual 'it was good' or 'you wrote a lot'.
I have now rolled out these peer assessment mats and D.I.R.T across the department, and are laminated for easy and quick use in lessons where appropriate! We give a lesson for pupils to reflect upon and improve their work, and in-between marking, comments and questions are given which are used as a quick and differentiated starter for pupils to respond to ( I am using a trusty two stars and a wish stamp to achieve this). OOOSH! Also a verbal feedback stamp is used, where pupils note down in another colour what they need to do to improve. 'Every little helps'.
All in all, D.I.R.T is making an impact in lessons and pupils ARE responding to and acting upon feedback (and I got a good for the obs :))
updated_slip_ks3_and_4_january_2015.docx |
peer_assessment_mat.pptx |