Success Criteria and Marking Policy At Eyres Monsell Primary School, we recognise that children need guidance throughout a lesson in how to improve their learning. We provide this guidance through: a learning intention so pupils know what they are learning small steps (success criteria) which highlight the key features that will make the learning successful. marking of the work opportunities for reflection and feedback (RARs) Marking has two essential functions: To provide an assessment record. To provide clear feedback to the child. Marking is a waste of time if it has no impact. Marking should praise, but also give guidance, consolidation and challenge. It may help to think of next steps marking as INTERVENTION MARKING. The teacher steps in to support, consolidate, accelerate or challenge. If we think of Intervention Marking as a continuous process of formative assessment. 1 Marking can intervene to SUPPORT 2 Marking can intervene to CONSOLIDATE 3 Marking can intervene to ACCELERATE 4 Marking can intervene to CHALLENGE In this way, children are not doing ten questions which are obviously too easy for them, nor are they struggling with problems they can t access. For future lessons, marking can inform both teacher and pupil about attainment, therefore shaping the next lesson and activities provided. The characteristics of assessment that promote learning: It is embedded in a view of teaching and learning of which it is an essential part. It involves sharing learning goals with pupils. It aims to help pupils to know and to recognise the standards they are aiming for. It involves pupils in self-assessment. It provides feedback which leads to pupils recognising their next steps and how to take them. It is underpinned by confidence that every student can improve. It involves both teachers and pupils reviewing and reflecting on assessment data. (Inside The Black Box 1999 Black and William) 1
Aims Our aim is to follow the seven key strategies (Shirley Clarke) to enable active learning to take place by: Creating a classroom culture where all involved see ability as incremental rather than fixed Involve pupils in planning appropriately pitched content and meaningful context Clarifying learning objectives and establishing pupil generated/pupil owned success criteria Enabling and planning effective classroom talk and worthwhile questioning Involving pupils in analysis and discussion about what excellence consists of not just meeting success criteria Enabling pupils to be effective self and peer evaluators Establishing continual opportunities for timely review and feedback from teachers and pupil, focussing on recognition of success and improvement needs, and provision of time to act on that feedback. Who is involved: Pupils to be active and engaged participants in their learning to understand how I know if I have been a successful learner (small steps/success criteria) to understand what is successful about my learning and what are my next steps to be able to edit and improve my work to self-assessment and mark my work to help a friend / peer know how to improve their own work Teachers to ensure children know how marking, feedback and success criteria support their learning to use marking to identify the gaps in children s learning and scaffold their teaching sequence to address these, through the use of success criteria (small steps) to identify where a child has demonstrated a skill, strategy or positive feature and celebrate this to help children understand the appropriate standards of work, for their age and ability to follow a consistent approach across the school, so children and staff apply the same principles to actively involve children in their learning and to move them on through the use of RARs to use a range of feedback including verbal and written to inform assessments as to where a child is at and where they need to move to next Leadership Team (including Head teacher and Governors) to monitor and evaluate the marking across the school and its impact, to ensure a high standard of marking and feedback is maintained modelling good practice to staff and pupils provide support, guidance and training to ensure a consistent approach is maintained to review the marking policy every two years, ensuring it remains effective and appropriate. to agree the principles and systems of marking and feedback to be used across the school 2
Learning Support Staff marking in line with the Learning Intention, commenting on assistance given follow the policy and practices of the school Supply Teachers and Trainee Teachers are required to follow the policy. All work completed by supply teachers should be acknowledged e.g. tick and supply written to note cover teacher. Most marking has very little impact on children s progress. (Shirley Clarke, Active Learning through Formative Assessment) Teachers role in Marking and Feedback The teacher s role in marking is to evaluate the quality of pupils improvements in the light of future planning, marking only minimal comments on the work, because the meaningful feedback has already taken place verbally, so teachers are marking less. Where teachers still mark in depth, it is more effective to do this for pieces of work in which skills are applied or brought together. Pausing lessons to model success and improvement will interrupt pupils unnecessarily if their work is a big application task. Provide continual, regular feedback so children know how they are progressing. Success Criteria ( Small Steps ) By referring to success criteria, or what are called small steps at EMPS, supports learning by: pupils are able to evaluate their progress while in the process of completing a task or activity, and then evaluate their achievement on completion; peers are able to provide feedback to other pupils at strategic points while they are in the process of completing the task or activity; the teacher is able to provide feedback which pupils can act on to improve their performance. Small steps provide children with the key features to focus on for their learning, to successfully demonstrate and improve their skills. Small steps can be: generic to remind of the key features needed for the activity or task simply as a reminder e.g. To punctuate my work. To use a range of structural features detailed to scaffold the learning and prompt for the usage of the skill e.g. To use commas in a list. To use adjectives to describe my setting. At the end of the lesson, the small steps should be colour coded (highlighted) in pink if the criteria has been successfully demonstrated or achieved, or green if not sufficient progress or evidence has been seen. If a step / criteria is in green, this should then form the basis of the feedback marking (next step / RAR). 3
Small steps should be: visual in Foundation Stage and Year 1, linked to the KTC pictures for consistency. written steps in Y2,3,4,5,6. Y1 teachers may want to consider written alongside visual, depending on the activity and / or ability of the child. When should small / steps be used? Small steps should support all recorded learning in books, to support learning and prompt intervention marking. Teachers should draw out in their marking, features of the small steps children have been successful in and those that need more support. Generic small steps should be used for any learning task, that may form part of work independently assessed for curriculum coverage. Cold and hot writes (Talk4Writing), should not have any small steps used, as these are completely unaided writing tasks. School Based Values Small steps should be age appropriate language, so a child understands what they need to do, to be a successful learner. Small steps should aid the child to talk about what they need to do and to reflect on what they have achieved in their learning and what their next steps are for improvement. This further embeds the school values of honesty, reflection and aspiration across learning. Examples of small steps 4
Expectations for marking All pieces of work in books should be at least acknowledged in line with the approaches listed i.e. either through teacher marking, peer marking or self-assessment, prior to the pupils books being returned. This ensures children received regular feedback and can act upon feedback in their books. Detailed marking should occur by the end of each week. Stage not age is the key to effective marking. Guidance Teachers should share the meaning of their marking (consistently throughout the school) with the children throughout the year (marking codes displayed in each class). Work should be marked regularly and must be marked before being returned to the pupils but not necessarily by the teacher and not always in the same detail. Plenaries should be used during the lesson to allow children time to reflect, and opportunities to improve their work throughout the lesson and not only at the end. Marking will usually relate to the learning objective of the activity, shown in the title where possible and double ticked in the work / recognised when achieved. Children should be given time to review marking of their work as a planned activity as often as is practically possible, either self or peer assessment. Children should use an identifiable symbol (a smiley face) to identify where they have taken note of a previous marking comment, to highlight their self-reflection to the teacher. Children should be made aware of the learning objective and success criteria at the beginning of the activity or at an appropriate point in the learning journey. It is good practice to co-construct the success criteria with the children. Where basic errors are made that do not relate to the learning objective teachers will mark as appropriate. See Marking Codes. Where possible work should be reviewed directly with the child, particularly when working with guided groups. Feedback should be positive and constructive, relating to existing learning objectives / success criteria and identifying the next step where appropriate. Staff will use a wish (green pen) when providing feedback, which children must respond to (see marking strategy for types of prompts.) Staff will highlight good evidence in pink (Tickled pink) and recommendations for improvement in green highlighter (green for growth). Children will adopt this approach when peer and self-assessing identifying good evidence in green pencil crayon and recommendations for improvement in pink. Pink and green highlighters are also available for written work for KS2. Occasionally it may be necessary to note why a child has been unable to complete a piece of work e.g. illness, absent, intervention. All marking should be done in green and pink pen. Where practical activities take place, a written LO and note and / or a photograph should be included to show learning has taken place. Literacy and cross curricular writing There must be regular, planned opportunities for writing throughout the curriculum and throughout the week (a minimum of 3 writing opportunities in Literacy time and at least 1 longer pieces of writing per week through topic led work). 5
Make marking criteria explicit - attention should be drawn to the specific literacy features that the teacher will be looking for e.g. through use of success criteria. Mark selectively not every feature needs marking all of the time. Prompt and praise. Literacy marking is more than proof-reading and should draw attention to style (such as sentence structure, tense, connectives) in addition to spelling and punctuation; comments should be constructive and should offer specific advice. Expect active involvement from pupils Provide immediate feedback where possible. Comments made at the point of writing are not only more beneficial to pupils but also reduce the marking load; marking work with the pupil facilitates dialogue about the work and encourages pupils to articulate the reasons for their language choices; returning work while it is still fresh in the pupil s mind means that the comments are more meaningful and more likely to be acted upon. Mathematics There should be clear responses from the teacher. Incorrect answers should be shown with an x. Asking to children to explain mathematical thinking and understanding is a key strategy for maths response work. This should be done through the wish. Response work has obvious value in maths in terms of doing corrections the same lesson or the next day. Children should respond to these. Comments from teachers should be focussed, diagnostic and reveal checks about subject knowledge. Foundation Subjects For foundation subjects there should be evidence in topic books of teacher, peer and self-assessment. Comments written in the topic books by the teacher or pupils should reflect how children were successful in achieving the success criteria (LO). Children should be given opportunities to feedback their comments about other children s work in the topic books throughout the year. Homework should be marked in accordance with the Homework Policy. Success and Improvement marking strategy Key principles for how we can identify where a child has been successful: 1. Showing success the teacher finds the places in the child s work which link with the criteria established in the learning intention and / or success criteria and should double tick with pink pen (KS1) or highlighter (KS2). 2. Indicating improvement a symbol, such as a green 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 (RAR) the teacher writes this, in green pen, to help the child know how to make the specific improvement (see improvement prompts) This can be in the form of a question, a prompt or a reminder, but the child should be asked to further demonstrate a skill, practise a skill or apply their skills and knowledge further. 4. Making the improvement (RAR time) 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). This time is known as Read and Respond (RAR). 6
Improvement Prompts 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, whole class or independently. Children as young as Year 2 can find successes and improvement independently. 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?... ) Alternative Ways of Sharing/Celebrating a Child s Success Openings of lessons Mini-plenaries eg Why is this good? (Refer to success criteria) Plenaries and use of visualiser Celebration Assemblies Learning Hero Achievement Awards Displays Key features of an effective marking policy 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 and followed 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, verbal 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. 7
Can t mark every piece of work in depth (minimum 2 per week expectation) 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. Supply and Teaching Assistants Where learning is being led by a teaching assistant such as HLTA, leading intervention groups / guided group within the class etc, the work / learning should be marking in line with the policy as set out above. For supply teachers, we expect an acknowledgement of the work such as a tick and supply written. Teachers should acknowledge with initials, any marking undertaken by another adult / member of staff. Monitoring The Senior Leadership Team and staff will moderate marking throughout the school to ensure continuity and adherence to school policy. Interviews with children will be used to check their understanding of the policy. These may be carried out by the Senior Leadership Team and Governors. In monitoring the policy we ensure it is followed robustly and is having a measurable impact on pupil progress and children s understanding of their work and how they can improve. 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 Guidance for Peer / Self Assessment: Peer and self-assessment have a key role to play in marking and feedback. They empower 8
children to take control of their learning. In line with AfL strategies, within most lessons children should have opportunities to assess their progress (or that of others) against agreed success criteria. Our teaching and learning policy reflects the need to be explicit about success criteria so that feedback can be specific and meaningful. It also acknowledges the need for clear modelling and training of children in how to peer and self-assess meaningfully, and that time is planned into lessons to make improvements. Some successful peer / self-assessment strategies include: - 2 stars and a wish - Traffic lights systems - Thumbs up / thumbs down - use of green (positive) and pink (development) highlighters - or any developed as appropriate to the activity. (Refer to Shirley Clarke, Formative Assessment in Action Chapter 5 ) 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. 9
Marking Code Marking codes for children and staff for use in the lesson and in retrospect, to be displayed within the classroom : CT TA ST CW P I V Sp Guided work with teacher Guided work with Teaching Assistant plus TA initials Supply teacher Whole class work Paired work Independent work Verbal feedback given Spelling will be underlined in green and correct spelling rewritten above. // New paragraph (in green pen) Grammar / Punctuation corrections highlighted ^ Letter / word omitted 5 Correct orientation for number reversal X V In maths for wrong answer Write in margin when visualiser has been used Double tick next to where objective has been clearly met. Small smiley face drawn in margin where staff or child identify that a previous marking comment or success criteria step has 10
been achieved / improved (Y2-6) W Wish next steps, responsive comments Stars (minimum of 2 per piece) to show positive feedback Poor presentation Arrow highlights specific place to improve? pupils intention / work not clear Children should initial or acknowledge all marking comments to show that they have read them. 11