Using Excel to cut marking time
As a HoD of a few years experience, it's difficult not to become more acquainted with Excel and all its wonderful offerings(!)
An idea started to develop in my mind after a blog post from Mark Miller a long time ago that documented how to use mail merge in Word for feedback; it seemed like a very useful concept- generating statements from the push of a button. As years rolled by and I found myself writing frighteningly similar things across my pupil's mock papers -added to a little bit of whole class feedback and the theory linked with that- the idea of generating statements (especially for the language papers) was a possibility.
Given the banding of the mark schemes and the formulaic approach to marking, it became clear to me that when pupil landed in a particular band, there were basically only a very few things that the pupils needed to do in order to move to the next band.
When you look at the banding for the AQA papers and the types of things the pupils need to do, it's predictable:
An idea started to develop in my mind after a blog post from Mark Miller a long time ago that documented how to use mail merge in Word for feedback; it seemed like a very useful concept- generating statements from the push of a button. As years rolled by and I found myself writing frighteningly similar things across my pupil's mock papers -added to a little bit of whole class feedback and the theory linked with that- the idea of generating statements (especially for the language papers) was a possibility.
Given the banding of the mark schemes and the formulaic approach to marking, it became clear to me that when pupil landed in a particular band, there were basically only a very few things that the pupils needed to do in order to move to the next band.
When you look at the banding for the AQA papers and the types of things the pupils need to do, it's predictable:
This is the paper 1 feedback matrix, and an example of what the feedback looks like.
When I checked with colleagues and friends that had marked for AQA, I was confident I could move forward with generating feedback for classes and year groups.
It's a simple process: rather than looking up a number or a grade, a mark for a question looks up the right feedback statement. Once the marks are in the tracker, you can then use mail merge to move the data from Excel into Word.
If you're interested, the tracker, feedback sheet and a video tutorial is at this link. I'd be interested in your thoughts/feedback/adjustments!
Thanks for reading,
Andy
When I checked with colleagues and friends that had marked for AQA, I was confident I could move forward with generating feedback for classes and year groups.
It's a simple process: rather than looking up a number or a grade, a mark for a question looks up the right feedback statement. Once the marks are in the tracker, you can then use mail merge to move the data from Excel into Word.
If you're interested, the tracker, feedback sheet and a video tutorial is at this link. I'd be interested in your thoughts/feedback/adjustments!
Thanks for reading,
Andy
Four Things I've done to alleviate the strain on my team
Disclaimer: I've made loads of mistakes this year, and made more than my fair share of mess-ups that have probably impacted negatively on my team! However, I believe passionately in looking after my team, and listening to them when things are unmanageable. It is with this in mind that I am writing this post as a reflection of some of the more positive things I've done this year for my team.
1. Communication and timescales
At the beginning of the year, we launched a new curriculum across the board. We changed content, coverage and the nature of assessment (as well as how we'd be reporting to parents- happy to share if anyone wants me to). In the process, I made a monster of an Excel Spreadsheet mapping out every week in the year, assessments, Parent Evenings, data deadlines and so forth. As a HoD- this is extremely useful. As a classroom teacher that just wants to know what to bloody well crack on with each week- not so much. I soon realised that I was cracking on in my merry way with my own classes, I realised that the team was, really, none the wiser as to what the hell was going on. Compare Exhibit A with B and C in the slideshow below this post. I don't mind reproducing the same information in different ways- many of my team have commented that they find B and C especially helpful, for example. I think it's important to never lose sight of life for people with more classes and higher teaching loads, and be sensitive to what they need to focus on planning, marking and teaching.
2. Feedback
Some might see this as lacking strength or clarity, but I genuinely believe it is better to seek feedback from people on how things are going (as long as you get your data at the appropriate time...) We had a Teaching and Learning Review week, and my school - brilliantly, in my view - allow their HoDs to set the timescales and agendas for the week. As I manage a team of around 25 - including 3 NQTs and a couple of teachers only a few years in - I wanted to get some ideas about what it's like to be in my team as-
- An NQT
- An RQT
- Someone with a TLR
- Someone with a heavy teaching load but no TLR
Yes, some of the feedback can be hard to hear, but it's like choosing whether to take a penalty in a shootout: I'd dislike myself more for not doing it. From this, I was able to reflect on the amount of assessments, workload and general burden some of the new - although well-meaning - initiatives had on the team. This enabled me to reflect on whether some of these things were absolutely essential (one example was tracking whether reading logs and Bedrock Learning had been completed- yes, useful for me as a HoD to have in case of discussions with parents, but 99% of the time it's the classroom teacher having those conversations anyway, and in any case, I can look on Bedrock or Accelerated Reader to get a view of this anyway). Another piece of feedback I received was around sporadic communication and 'too many emails all over the place;' I thought I was ok in this regards, but one ingenious tool I have since used is Padlet: this is basically an online noticeboard that you can link and pictures to. Now, if I send an email to the team as a reminder of something which needs to happen, I'll pop it on Padlet as well.
3. Time
I think a lot of leadership is about managing insecurity, and some of the worst examples of this I have seen are people that have a scheduled CPD time or meeting time, and fill it to hear their own voice and indeed justify their own position. Most weeks, we have 90 mins of dept time or so. I will only ever insist on using it if there is something we have to do together in the room, such as moderation or discuss something as a team: where possible, I will always give my team time. Professional trust is the future in schools, and I feel strongly about that.
4. Resourcing
As a LitDrive CPD Coordinator, I'm often pushing that on the team, but also, I think it's vital to share and encourage others to do the same. If I dip into a class and see something really great, I'll also ask people to send something round as a way of encouraging that kind of culture (it's also nice to give a confidence boost that something someone has done is worth sharing across the team). If there is something more specific I'd like to be completed in a certain way, I will make a resource myself and send it round (such as the I do, we do, you do document from Stuart Pryke, or the Starter for 6 Excel spreadsheet from Adam Boxer.
Using #thewritingrevolution to extend explanations
Since being in my current post, I've been struck by how students of all abilities have been obsessed with learning a collection of quotations from each of their texts alongside the AO2 terminology for these quotes; they then proceed to shoehorn these into any question by hook or by crook. I cannot begin to state how much I hate this approach; yes, knowledge of the texts is good- but, for me, it's not useful when it's devoid of any meaningful link to the text as a construct. By lobbing quotes in without a plan or any sense of a coherent argument/take on the text, I think they're leaving themselves open to criticism. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that simply learning nine quotes and then tying them back to any question imposes even more cognitive load on the students in an already stressful situation.
So, I've been hammering them with the following strategy since January:
1- Begin with a hypothesis: this must include the word 'explores' and preferably the words 'vehicle' or 'mouthpiece' but don't worry if you can't. A question about Fred in A Christmas Carol might lead to the following hypothesis- Dickens, writing in a time of substantial inequality, uses A Christmas Carol as a vehicle to explore the link between money and happiness. Within this, Fred serves as a useful mouthpiece to signify to his readership that the relationships he has with his loved ones are every bit as important to his happiness as his money.
2/3/4/- each of these paragraphs need to focus a moment/relationship/argument about Fred- it can be chronological or simply in the logical sequence that they think best makes their point (I think this needs another, separate post). Within here, I've used the stems here to help them develop this, and have been slowly withdrawing them ever since.
5.- Conclusion- I've used this wonderful article here to instruct them on this
However, the most recent mocks have still exposed some issues with the depth of their responses; they've shown me they can plan and think things through more, and they've also shown me that they can introduce and conclude appropriately. However, a recent Twitter post reminded me of the incredible Writing Revolution book- a book I have used in the last couple of years, but need to have a real re-read of this Summer. I like the simplicity of the 'because, but, so' conjunctions to deepen and extend explanations. Whether or not you think I have made a mockery of this, I'd be interested on your thoughts on what's below. I love the model, but I think by offering a wider range of things to say, I'll be able to drive to the core purpose of what I'm trying to achieve: for the students to 'hang in there' and give me the little bit more- whether it be an AO1 opinion/knowledge type point, unpicking language (AO2), or perhaps both...
I'll let you know how this goes- thinking of using in conjunction with @Xris32's wonderful 200 word challenges to start off...
So, I've been hammering them with the following strategy since January:
1- Begin with a hypothesis: this must include the word 'explores' and preferably the words 'vehicle' or 'mouthpiece' but don't worry if you can't. A question about Fred in A Christmas Carol might lead to the following hypothesis- Dickens, writing in a time of substantial inequality, uses A Christmas Carol as a vehicle to explore the link between money and happiness. Within this, Fred serves as a useful mouthpiece to signify to his readership that the relationships he has with his loved ones are every bit as important to his happiness as his money.
2/3/4/- each of these paragraphs need to focus a moment/relationship/argument about Fred- it can be chronological or simply in the logical sequence that they think best makes their point (I think this needs another, separate post). Within here, I've used the stems here to help them develop this, and have been slowly withdrawing them ever since.
5.- Conclusion- I've used this wonderful article here to instruct them on this
However, the most recent mocks have still exposed some issues with the depth of their responses; they've shown me they can plan and think things through more, and they've also shown me that they can introduce and conclude appropriately. However, a recent Twitter post reminded me of the incredible Writing Revolution book- a book I have used in the last couple of years, but need to have a real re-read of this Summer. I like the simplicity of the 'because, but, so' conjunctions to deepen and extend explanations. Whether or not you think I have made a mockery of this, I'd be interested on your thoughts on what's below. I love the model, but I think by offering a wider range of things to say, I'll be able to drive to the core purpose of what I'm trying to achieve: for the students to 'hang in there' and give me the little bit more- whether it be an AO1 opinion/knowledge type point, unpicking language (AO2), or perhaps both...
I'll let you know how this goes- thinking of using in conjunction with @Xris32's wonderful 200 word challenges to start off...