Thursday 19 October 2017

Poster: Maths Written Feedback Comments

marking feedback policy maths thatboycanteach
Many teachers will still be operating in schools where feedback policies require a certain amount of written feedback. Some schools have begun to adopt no-marking policies but these are in the minority; most teachers, in order to follow policy, have to provide written feedback: marking.

For primary teachers, this is fairly simple in English but is a little trickier in maths. My team and I sat down and analysed a selection of marking comments which we found in maths books and reduced them to question/statement stems. We tried hard to make them as succinct as possible in order to make the task of perhaps having to mark 30 books a little less onerous.

When I put these maths marking comment stems on Twitter some people pointed out that these comments were things that we should be planning into our daily lessons, and they are right. Many of the ideas are to do with reasoning and problem solving - something we should be giving all children the opportunities to engage with on a very regular basis. So, these comment stems come with a multiple purpose: plan maths activities using them, and if required, use them to provoke thought in children who have finished the work you planned for them.

Of course, I would always advocate that much of this kind of 'feedback' is provided in lesson, so these comment stems aren't just for writing - they're for giving verbal feedback too. I have found that sometimes verbal feedback is forgotten - making a quick note (just a few words) in a book might just be enough to jog a child's memory, meaning they won't have to wait for the teacher to come round again for another explanation of what they need to do. Written feedback during lesson time can be useful for this purpose - the fact that these comments are only a few words long makes this more manageable.

Another point some have made is that it isn't necessary to write one of these in every book - it isn't (although some policies may require it). If all children need the same comment (unlikely), then these comments can be provided whole-class, perhaps by way of writing it on the board.

A final note on the comments themselves: there are quite a variety - some pertain to mistakes made, others are intended to challenge further; all are supposed to make children think and to help them to improve their understanding in maths.

For the record: my own school's feedback policy does not require teachers to provide written comments (although they are allowed) but we recognise instances where they are useful and productive. Our maths policy also states that problem solving and reasoning activities should be part of daily lessons.

Click here to download the poster and the editable Word document of the 30 statements

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