Marking Work

[Guest]

Just interested to know how people mark work in Reception. I have a literacy book for example, and sometimes the children might be asked to write a shopping list in their books for a change (most of the time, writing etc. takes place in the role-play and of the children's own accord).

 

When a child has finished their piece of work, I date it, write a comment to say whether they could do the work independently or needed help, plus a comment to say what they could do or found difficult, e.g.

 

Could hear the sounds within words but found it hard to form some of the letters properly - t and s.

 

Then at the top or bottom of page I mark it with CLL writing point 5, for example.

 

Sometimes there are so many points linked to one piece of work it can be a bore to have to keep writing it all out for each piece of work. So I thought about making a worksheet which has the point scales typed in already at the top of the page to save me the time writing it out by hand. But then again, in my medium term planning and weekly planning I clearly state the points to be covered anyway, so am I making more work for myself? However, for parents and the Year 1 teacher, it is more useful to have that reference there, next to the work, if you get my drift.

 

My next question is then, do you use a highlighter pen and highlight when they have achieved the point on the written piece of work? or do you do what I do and keep a class list or write on an individual observation record and write when they have achieved the point then? Sorry for bad English..but writing in a hurry tonight.

 

 

 

Hope what I say makes sense.

[Susan]

I have to have the learning objective notated on my children's work--so might say to recall and record an experience. I do not put the ELG.

 

I also make a not of whether the work was independent but would not state anything that can be seen from the work itself so might say supported to hear sounds, writes unaided or supported to hear and write sounds.

 

We are also supposed to indicate how close the work comes to the child's target but I am much more likely to do this orally with the child and so our agreed marking code is VF.

 

Im not sure the year 1 teachers even look at the books!

[Guest]

My class have a workbook in which on occasion they do writing number work etc in. Our school's agreed format is to write "a" if a child has had adult support and we are supposed to write feedback on the piece of work - however this is not approriate for our Reception children and even our Y1's so if we have talked about the work with the child we just write "v" for verbal feedback. Sometimes i make a note of what the child has said whilst doing the activity if relevant - but i dont make reference to ELG's or stepping stones. I use these work books as a reminder when updating profiles but find i get far more relevant information from the observations and things collected from the children. I am lucky because my head allows me to do this and when work sampling doesnt ask for Literacy books etc from the Reception children!

[Guest]

For written work, i use a green and pink highlighter. Green means great and pink means think! I highlight great punctuation or joining words and one thing to think about (kind of a visual 2 stars and a wish) i dont write blah, blah, blah! i do it with the child beside me, it's really quick and they know what i want next time

 

i do write an i for independent work, s for supported or T for one to one. don't kow if that's any use...

[mundia]

Emily, as you can see everyone uses a different system. In my old school we had a whole school system which we expected to used simplified in reception.

 

WE used two concentric circles and an arrow for 'target' (which would come from the LO on the planning). the arrow would point right into the centre circle for target met; to the edge of the inner circle for 'almost met'; in between the two circles for 'working towards'; and on the outside of both circles. 'not met'.

 

In addition

we used the codes

T..teacher

OA other adult

I independent

S supply

 

 

We didn't write comments on every piece of work, better things to do with our time, but there was building pressure to write the LO on every piece of work, we talked about writing these out and printing them onto sticky labels and sticking them in, still time consuming for 30 children if you are the only adult..

 

Emily, it might help if you think about the main objective of the task so that becomes the focus of any written comments you make. so if you are writing a shopping list, is the focus that they know what a shopping list looks like (FSP point 7 writing); that they use their phonic knowledge to write words; write words from memory; or form letters correctly? From your more able children you might expect all of those things at this point in the year, but your less able may need to focus on just one.

[Guest]

I'm not in reception until September, but our marking policy is to "target assess" a selection of children for each task, eg. upper ability one day, middle the next, etc. and draw conclusions about next steps from there that can apply to that group. I suppose it's the equivalent of choosing a group of children to observe. This seems to be the way things are going with APP.

[Susan]

APP?

[Guest]

APP?

Sorry - Assessing Pupils' Progress - rumour has it that it will eventually take over from sats, along with single level tests. There's a section on it now on the renewed framework website if you're interested - under assessment - more for KS2 at the moment - already up an running in a few high schools. It's a bit like a snowball at the moment! It was a distant mention last September - we're now using it for maths/english.

Anything that ousts sats is ok by me!

 

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryfr...assessment/app/

Edited April 13, 2008 by Guest