Book look process

1. Jo Adkins
The Geography Book Look
The week arrived of the scheduled SLT Book Look for the geography department.
Determined to make this a staff development opportunity, the session began with
a very productive discussion on effective marking. We then had the opportunity
to moderate, as a group, a set of year 7 books. All teachers present, quickly saw
examples of excellent marking and student engagement but we also began to
realise how to maximise student progress through feedback. This highlighted
some interesting points. Yes, we need to celebrate top marks but at the same time
we need to provide further challenge to ensure future progress. Yes, telling the
students they had produced a piece of ‘good’ work was encouraging but telling
them ‘why’ it was good is much more useful to their future progress. Yes,
peer/self-assessment is useful to helping students realise what they need to do
but if they make mistakes in this task it is up to us to moderate their marking and
ensure its accuracy.
We all aim to make a significant difference to our students’ progress and engaging
them in feedback is definitely having an impact in the classroom. The rigorous
marking conducted by the geography teachers was a pleasure to view but reading
the students’ feedback and seeing them make progress over time will drive us to
make further improvements in our marking.
We’re left wondering now, how students ever made progress without engaging in
marking. The days of ‘tick and flick’ have certainly been put well and truly to bed!