Itchen Abbas Primary School Feedback Policy including Pupil Editing At Itchen Abbas Primary School, we consider that a professional approach providing feedback is an essential aspect of the Teaching and Learning process. All children are entitled to regular and timely feedback on their learning which provides them with specific guidance on how they can improve. We also believe that wherever possible, children should be directly involved in the marking and feedback process assessing their own work wherever possible, identifying their own next steps in learning and editing their work to improve it. Aims and objectives The purpose of feedback to children is to help them know how well they are doing and their next steps in learning. Feedback needs to make a difference to their learning and progress and help them identify what will make the biggest difference to their learning. For teaching to be effective, it is vital that feedback and marking enables the teacher to identify next steps in learning and this is used to inform future planning. When children are being introduced to new learning, in the apprentice stage, teachers marking will include more detail to guide children in improving their work. As children progress through the phases and become competent and expert, the level of direction provided to children on how to improve their work will decrease as children are expected to demonstrate a higher level of independence and competency. We mark children's work and offer feedback in order to: provide a basis both for summative and for formative assessment, to check understanding and misconceptions provide the on-going assessment that should inform our future lesson-planning show that we value the children's work, and encourage them to value it too boost the pupils' self-esteem, and raise aspirations, through use of praise and encouragement, especially for effort and resilience offer the children specific information on the extent to which they have met the lesson objective, and/or the individual targets set for them engender independence and a sense of responsibility in the children promote self-assessment, whereby the children recognise their difficulties, and are encouraged to accept guidance from others share expectations support children in taking risks and challenging themselves Principles of marking and feedback We believe that the following principles should underpin all marking and feedback: Teachers will note errors that are made by the children and use this to inform future planning. The process of marking and offering feedback should be a positive one, with pride of place given to recognition of the effort and resilience of the child. Feedback is the dialogue that takes place between teacher and pupil, ideally while the task is still being completed and should relate to the lesson objective and the learning process. Teachers use marking and feedback to express and maintain high expectations and standards. The child should be able to read and respond to the comments made, and be given time to do so. Where the child is not able to read and respond in the usual way, other arrangements for communication will be made. Where verbal comments are given a
summary of key points should be included as a record, with the letters VF (verbal feedback) alongside (see below). Comments, where used, should be appropriate to the age and ability of the child, and may vary across year groups and key stages. Feedback may also be given through peer review and in group sessions. Feedback will help a child to identify their next steps in learning Marking will always be carried out promptly, and will normally be completed before the next lesson in that subject (although this may not always be possible for longer pieces of work). Staff other than the teacher will initial any work they mark. Implementing the marking policy Teachers will make records of next steps and misconceptions for individuals and groups. This will inform the next lessons work. These records are kept and used to assess progress. Deep marking is not required when these records are being made but success criteria achieved will be ticked on their work. Teachers will only accept work once it has been presented to a sufficiently high standard, checked for accuracy or edited. Children should be encouraged to assess their work ahead of final marking by editing, checking and judging it against the success criteria where appropriate. The extent of the teacher's response to a piece of work is determined not by the number of errors found in it, but by the teacher's professional judgement. Consideration is given to what a particular child is capable of, what the next learning stages involve, and what should now have priority. Children may self and peer asses work, but the teacher must always review this marking; this does not necessarily mean adding an additional comment. Stickers, stamps, star cards, wow certificates and Golden Fish can be used as recognition of good attitudes and / or effort. Independent writing will be indicated on the child s writing to assist in assessments. Independent Work what does this mean for marking and feedback? For assessment purposes, children need to be able to demonstrate their ability to write and work independently. Writing is independent if: It has been independently edited and / or evaluated by the child. This may be in response to self, peer or group evaluation It is produced by children who have independently drawn on classroom resources such as dictionaries, thesauruses, word banks, classrooms displays, books or websites for support or ideas It is informed by clear learning objectives and limited success criteria which are not over detailed and do not over aid children. Writing is not independent if: Edited as a result of direct intervention by a teacher or another adult, for example where a child has been directed to change specific words for greater impact, or where incorrect or omitted punctuation has been indicated Produced with the support of electronic aids that automatically provide correct spelling, synonyms, punctuation or predictive text Supported by success criteria that are over-detailed and over-aide the pupils. Success criteria should still be used for independent work but should not over-scaffold what to include or where to include something in their writing. However, were a child needs to be supported and is making errors, this should be corrected through marking and feedback. This piece of work will therefore not be considered independent for the objective which has required a teaching point to be addressed. Marking Guidelines Verbal feedback has the greatest impact on progress. Where verbal feedback has been given, a VF will be written at the point on the child s work. Comments wherever possible should be positive, constructive and pertinent. These will be specific, encourage thinking and action and use language appropriate to the child s age and ability. Picture cues can be used where needed.
When giving written feedback, teachers will use red ink, LSA s will use green, and supply teachers (or PPA cover) will initial work they have marked. Children will use purple pens for self / peer review, editing and improving their work and responding to marking. Marking and feedback will relate to the learning objective, success criteria and learning attitudes Children will be active in assessing their own and other s work by identifying what they have done well and what they need to improve on. Teachers must model high standards of English and good cursive handwriting in line with the school handwriting scheme in their marking and feedback. Effective feedback in Mathematics includes: Right answer Wrong answer X Dots will be used if there are a large number of errors Reversed digits should always be corrected Correct naming of units should be emphasized (i.e. 21cm, 100ml etc.) VF to indicate that the work has been discussed teachers can include a record of teaching points where it has been modelled to the child Good presentation will be expected, including one digit per box and decimal points on the line (not in a box of it s own) Teachers will write out a model example of how to complete the work correctly Teachers will annotate around the children s work, pointing out precisely what error has been made Children should not rub out incorrect answers but to make their corrections in addition. This helps the teacher assess the learning There is evidence over subsequent lessons that major misconceptions have been addressed with comments from the teacher recognising this Effective feedback for writers in all subjects including cross-curricular links Before writing (this will mostly be verbal feedback whilst children prepare for writing) Have a clear purpose for writing. Develop a viewpoint through talk. Hearing, interacting with and retelling well-written models that use features the child needs to use in my writing. Role play being the writer. Have a personal / small group big hitting improvement target that the child understands and receives guided tuition on. During writing Building success criteria, writing scaffolds and investigating exemplars for the working wall. Draft and redraft orally as a whole group, in small groups, on my own and eventually in my head. As writing progresses, explore emerging examples together (visualisers, Digi cameras, ipads). See and hear how the teacher writes, reviews, redrafts and thinks aloud the choices s/he makes as a writer. After writing Share the writing with each other and whenever possible, with a reader for whom it is intended. Role play being the recipient reader responding to their writing. Make space for writers to express what they are proud of in their writing. Give oral and written feedback to small groups or individuals connected to their targets. Use props to ensure redrafting has a tight focus and is specific: punctuation police, word choice glasses, spelling spyglass etc. Written comment marking from the teacher or Teaching Assistant needs to promote thinking and action. Editing Editing is a vital part of the feedback process and essential for reaching age related expectations in writing. All children are expected to edit their writing before handing it in to their teacher for marking. This includes cross curricular writing.
To enable this, teachers will: Include sufficient time in their planning for quality editing and proof reading across the writing journey. Model how to effectively edit and teach the specific skills of editing. Provide tool kits on the children s tables to assist them in their writing. This will include word lists relevant to the unit, topic and high frequency words (as appropriate to year group), grammar checklists, dictionaries and thesauruses. Use post-it notes to identify sections/ paragraphs in work to be looked at more closely. Use frequent and short teacher inputs to read a section from a child s work, discuss what is good about it then children to edit their own writing to incorporate. Support children in spelling correctly. In KS1 a red dot will be put underneath the incorrect spelling. In KS2 a red dot will be put in the margin. Children will be responsible for correcting their spellings through the use of word banks and dictionaries. Children are required to become more independent in correcting their own spelling in the Spring and Summer terms. Display the writing learning objectives taught within the phase and support children in using this to edit their work. Techniques the children could use for editing include: Before handing in any piece of writing for marking, the children need to ask Is this ready for my teacher? and Is this ready for my audience? This will include them checking against their expectations for writing, targets and success criteria. Success criteria may have been developed by the children with the teacher. Success criteria will be recorded in the children s books. Children will proof read their work for spelling errors by reading backwards, from the last word to the first. Children will have opportunities to test out their writing on other children will take longer to reflect on their writing. Children will use Monkey Talk to check their writing for sense (cover ears, read writing out loud). Purple editing slips will be used a piece of purple paper will be put over the paragraph to be edited. Dot it don t dodge it! Children will put a dot by words they are uncertain how to spell as they write. once their first draft is complete, they will go back and check those spellings. Spy glasses and punctuation police will be used to help children edit for grammatical and spelling accuracy (spy glasses children will have glasses to wear, punctuation police use either police badges or police hats). Using these techniques can put children in the correct frame of mind for careful checking. Peer editing can be effective in helping the children identify next steps in improving their writing prior to teacher marking. Marking and feedback will follow the above principles of quality feedback and will follow the agreed marking and feedback codes) see Appendix 1 and 2 Policy agreed by staff - June 2017 Policy ratified by governors - July 2017 Review date July 2019
Otters and Foxes Feedback Codes Red = class teacher Green = other adult P Punctuation Correct your punctuation. G Grammar Your grammar needs to be improved.. Spelling Correct your spelling error // New paragraph Consider your paragraph structures x Incorrect Correct your answer. VF Verbal feedback given An adult talked to you about how to improve your work.
Squirrels and Hedgehogs Feedback Codes Red = class teacher Green = other adult P Punctuation Correct your punctuation. Finger Space Remember to leave a finger space between words.. Spelling Correct this spelling. - - - Phonics Use your phonics buttons to help you spell the word. // New paragraph Start a new paragraph. x VF Incorrect Verbal feedback given You have made a mistake, correct it. An adult talked to you about how to improve your work.