As much as I find the term ‘learning journey’ teacher-speak, it refers to tracking the improvement of students. This can only be a good thing, especially if students are able to do this themselves.
Here is a brief appraisal of how the current practice of teachers might lend themselves themselves to tracking students’ progress:
Notes on using the Markbook so far this term:
For parents evening, it allows me to give more precise data.
It shows me which students are able to access the higher-level criteria.
Main change to using Markbook this term:
My main change this term is giving students a chance to re-do work that did not access the higher-level criteria. This can be done in one of two ways:
a) Students add extra work (either in completing more, or in adding missing evaluations and the like).
b) Students add linguistic additions to work. This can be indicated with circles or (more ideally) highlighters.
Logistical issues:
a) Finding time and a place to mark work. A cold classroom, for example, is no place to mark for a length of time. Equally so, managing pastoral matters eats into marking time, and can make such extended concentration either improbable (or even impossible).
b) Transporting work. Rubric-based work is (for me) ideally completed on paper separate to that of their books. It is difficult to transport more than 60 books between school and home unless I fancy counting that as a workout.
c) Responding to late work. My students are, I feel, remarkably good as meeting deadlines. Moreso, there are very few, if any students, who perpetually miss deadlines. I believe this is because there is a clear purpose to such work, and any tardiness in its delivery is quickly addressed.
d) Supporting the response to targets. Some students require specialised support to address targets. In this instance, the work set for the class should be independent so that individual time can be given to the student. For me, this is often in a library-based lesson or a Units of Sound lesson.
Aims for start of next term:
To improve the remarking of responses to targets.
To improve the planning of marking (rather than ‘all day Sunday!).
