If you’re a primary teacher then there’s no getting around the fact that a large chunk of your work time will be taken up with marking. But there are lots of things you can do to mark more efficiently to save yourself some time and provide your students with valuable feedback.
Here are our top 10 marking hacks for primary teachers:
Having books ready to mark at the correct page can really help streamline the marking process. Have each group of children pile their books open on the correct page, leaving one to act as the bookmark. Place this last book so that the left-hand page sits on top of the right-hand page of the rest of the pile. Close the majority of the books so that the offset book acts as a bookmark. Close the remaining books to create a neat pile. Now, when you come to mark, you can easily access the work you need without having to flick through dozens of pages.
Flip flap books are a great way to streamline your marking process.
Instead of marking each book individually, read through a selection of the work, taking into account different ability groups within the class. Then, you can spend five minutes at the beginning of the next session giving the class group feedback on the assignment. Highlight what went really well and address any common misconceptions.
Instead of going through each page or worksheet in its entirety, gather everything in a pile and mark one question at a time. This is particularly helpful for subjects like Maths where you might need to look up the answers as you go along. If you mark one question at a time, you don’t need to stop to consult your answer guide constantly. You can just whizz through each question in one go, then move on to the next. This method is also helpful to easily identify any common misconceptions or gaps in understanding.
Marking can be much more effective when children can recognise and take ownership of their mistakes. To do this in a fun way, challenge children to find their own errors. For example, instead of highlighting where the mistakes are, ask them to identify, for example, five punctuation errors or three incorrect calculations. This will, in turn, help them develop the skills to edit and correct their own work as they go along in the future.
Encouraging children to spot their own mistakes is a fun way to help them take ownership of their work.
Another way to help children take ownership of their work is to employ peer or group marking during the lesson. The added bonus is you not having to do it after school! Leave some time at the end of the lesson for children to either swap their work with a partner to mark or for children to mark their own as you go through the answers as a class. Most children love playing teacher so this activity is usually a winner all round!
When marking a piece of work, keep in mind what the learning objective is and use that as your main marking focus. It can be tempting to highlight every spelling mistake or punctuation error you spot, but if it’s not helpful to assessing what it was you were wanting the children to learn then don’t waste time slogging through every little mistake.
You don’t have to wait until the work is all completed before you start marking. Go round the class as children are working and mark anything they’ve already completed. You might not get it all done but it will help make a dent. It also has the added benefit of providing children with instant feedback they can use to support their learning for the rest of the session.
Marking during the lesson can drastically reduce the time you spend marking after class.
On a similar theme, you don’t need to wait until you have a large block of free time to start your marking. Setting aside a few shorter chunks of time during the day can go a long way to reducing the time you need to spend on marking outside of school hours. Set a timer for 15 minutes during your lunch break and do as much as you can. Once the timer goes off, set it aside for later and have the break you need. It may not seem like long but it will make all the difference when you come back to it. Take a few books with you to a staff meeting and use the few minutes where you’re invariably waiting for the meeting to start to get a few pages marked. Or come into work 20 minutes earlier and dedicate a small chunk of your morning to catching up with that never-ending pile. These small chunks will make the task seem less daunting when you come to your dedicated marking time.
It can be really handy to develop a code for marking to speed up the process. Instead of writing, for example, ‘Spelling’ in the margin, use ‘SP’. For ‘You need a new paragraph here’ write //. Use C to signal that they need a capital letter and FS for full stop. Developing your own marking code that both you and the students are familiar with can drastically increase the efficiency of your marking.
There’s no doubt about it: marking can be a real slog sometimes. To help keep yourself motivated, set yourself a reward for when you’ve finished. Whether it’s a favourite snack, a glass of wine, an episode of your favourite Netflix show or going to a gym class, make sure you give yourself a treat to help keep you going. You’ll mark faster and more efficiently if there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Do you have any marking tips for primary teachers? Share them with us in the comments!
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