Let me give this statement some context – I am referring particularly to the 2nd half of the summer term when the cumulative end of year testing and record keeping demands hit their highest level.
So why am I advocating you to stop marking?….how can we stop marking you ask, and why do we need to stop marking – especially at this time?
It’s one of the busiest times of the school year – is that true? – well yes it is (Christmas is busy too but in a different way!). It is at this time of year that everything seems to happen at once and the workload seems to spiral out of all proportion.
So what sort of things are we faced with in this 2nd half of the summer term? – Here’s my list but naturally it will vary from school to school.
- End of year testing – Maths and Literacy in all aspects
- Test marking and grading (possibly even scaling if you are following the DFE system)
- Completion of every child’s tracking records based on test scores
- Report writing
- Day to day planning
- Clearing up your classroom
- Any other interruptions and practices like sports days and play / choir rehearsals.
And you have 7 weeks to get it all in !
The tasks in bold type are those that will have time and date limits on them and you MUST meet those deadlines.
This means that you will have “all on” (as we say in Yorkshire) to get those done – so what is the best way to approach things?
Organise what is important and for when:
The usual order for these things to happen is naturally progressive – so things start with the tests and then move through the marking, tracking records and then reports. In order for this to happen then your class must be in a position of having completed the curriculum. This is the reason why most tests are carried out about the middle of June so as to give firstly as much time as possible for the curriculum to finish and also allow staff to mark and collate information for the school. Tests are usually completed in 1 week.
Once completed you are now in the cycle of work as listed above and what you don’t want is to add to the amount of work by having marking as an extra burden!
Think and plan smart:
You need to accept that the work level is going to be high and that you will spend time at home ploughing through it – but if you plan ahead then you can reduce or even eliminate anything extra on top.
Having entered this “end of year” cycle, I am going to assume that you have completed the curriculum (you need to have done so that your children can access the tests!)
What you need to now have in place is a short teaching focus that you can put into place which is not affected in the event of interruptions or anything else that may impose itself on the teaching day – for example sports day practice – your class is the choir for the play etc.
If you were to choose a simple topic focus that doesn’t take too much day to day planning and takes very little marking then it is an ideal fit for these last weeks of the school year.
Here’s my tips for choosing and using such a topic…
- Make it simple and open ended…examples would be “superheroes, gardening and growing, designing a new playground, animals in danger”….you get the general idea.
- The topic should be cross curricular
- Teaching should be both at class level for important elements (it does not matter if this includes revision work) or for group tasks (practical work or collaboration to produce work)
- The work should aim to produce a finished article such as a report, book, design and / or possibly a presentation
- You should aim through your teaching to generate very little or no marking.
How to avoid marking… well the simple answer is you can’t – but that doesn’t help us here with all the workload in the background.
- Choose teaching input that is directly reflected in practical applications for your topic.
- Mark work during the lesson either from your desk or by moving around the classroom.
- End your lesson a little earlier and then get children to mark their own work or swop books and mark someone else’s.
- As this is an end of year topic there is no need to record attainment – although in your “continuous adaptive assessment” you may return in your teaching to areas of misunderstanding if necessary.
By using the methods above in conjunction with your selected teaching focus you can minimise the amount of planning and marking that is involved, whilst at the same time giving your class both challenging and engaging practical areas of applied learning.
Paperwork! Unfortunately this seems to be self generating and the associated workload does, at times, seem to have a life of its own. The end of the school academic year is particularly overloaded in this way as schools pull together all the final assessments and progress reports before the children move to the next year group.
It is a very busy time of year – but hopefully with a bit of forethought and planning you can reduce any “additions” to your workload and maintain a bit of sanity!
The summer holiday is, however, on the horizon and getting nearer every day – so keep smiling!