Assessing on the go!

The marking pile adds up quickly so any way to reduce that pile in my office at the end of a long day was worth exploring.

Having refreshed my memory of marking ideas via Mark, Plan, Teach from @TeacherToolkit I thought I would make more of an effort to ‘mark as I go’ in class.

What did I do?

I didn’t wait to the end of the lesson to mark/assess work and worry about progress!

I made a conscious effort to actively move around the room during a lesson – taking a pen with me and leaning over shoulders all the time, discussing work with learners and leaving comments on their work, circling things, highlighting and giving learners small chunks of quality feedback on their work as I went.

Did I see impact?

I found that learners made more meaningful adjustments to their work in the lesson compared to marking books prior to the lesson and asking them to read and act on feedback written for them.

Impact on my routine/practice?

From next term my primary feedback/marking will be done this way…with ‘after hours’ marking reserved for end of project feedback that we’ll focus on as a class in lesson.

Quick quizzes in Google Forms

What did I do?

I love google apps for class, so many amazing things you can do. These Google Quiz forms are so easy to make (very like survey monkey) but have amazing range, you can create multiple choice questions, yes/no, questions based on images or videos you embed! And all the responses are collated in a spreadsheet for you. They can be self marking if you remember to click ‘quiz’ and enter the correct answers – and they’ll give learners feedback ! Awesome!

I used them as end of lesson 5 question assessments (digital exit ticket is you will). Learners quickly adapted to the routine that every lesson would end with them taking a short quiz. The quizzes would give them personal feedback on each question and I set them to link them to videos, drawings or reading based the answers they failed to get right.

Did I see impact?

Students were very keen to test themselves at the end of lessons, and on top of this they really appreciated the feedback which allowed them to correct misconception immediately. Powerful stuff!

Impact on my routines/practice?

Next term I intend to continue to develop the use of the quizzes, and the level of differentiation I can build into these (for example answers to questions can lead learners down differing routes based on predesigned ‘levels).

Great video here shows you how easily you can set them up !

Peer assess with clear criteria

What did I do?

I’ve always thought that peer assessment can be an easy win in the assessment game but its pointless and useless if you didn’t give learners clear criteria to assess against. In design and technology lessons this term I (‘we‘ really as I co teach with an amazing Art teacher) designed peer assessment which would be quick to deliver but allow us to differentiate with instructions and criteria shared with learners.

We made use of my resources too – as they make self and peer assessment clear and obvious to anyone looking in your books/folders and we wanted to showcase that although neither of us is DT trained we are still making sure learners are getting some solid classroom practice!

Did I see impact?

Students were keen to use the colourful resources, which meant they were keen to peer and self assess work. We had to be quite vigilant in making sure students used criteria we gave them, but their keenness to use the colourful slips was a good starting point.

Impact on my routines/practice?

Given the engagement we fully intend on continuing to use the resources but equally making better use of criteria based assessment. Grouping based on the criteria we give them might be the next tweak!

Highlight and circle with colour

What did I do?

This is such a simple way to assess work! Grab two/three colours (I used Green and Amber – occasionally red) either highlighters or standard pens. Now grab your students books/folders and highlight/underline what you like or what is good in green, then do the same for things which need to be reviewed with the amber pen! Next lesson share a key to the colour coding with your students and have them review and amend their work. Great for making them think a little more about their improvements!

Did I see impact?

Students could see areas of positivity in their work quickly, which created a buzz in the room I don’t tend to hear when giving feedback in other ways. They were quick to compare ‘green’ and ‘amber’ with their peers (again something they’re not always keen to do). I think the greatest impact was in raising engagement levels – learners were more keen then usual to look at their work and see what went well and then look at what could have been better.

Impact on my routines/practice?

It’s something I will continue, perhaps using for end of module assessment in order to maintain learners interest in reviewing and improving their work. It’s a little more time consuming than other options so is likely best used at the end or mid point in a module.

Plenty food for thought on the never ending assessment and feedback train – hope by reading this you’re given ideas to perhaps try in your own class.

Published by Paul

Teacher | Author | Lead Practitioner View all posts by Paul