Clare El-yorby
There are few teachers who haven’t found their evenings and weekends hijacked by a never-ending pile of marking. With different coloured pens, highlighters and symbols to use, spellings to correct and reflection comments to write, it is no wonder that marking has become an unmanageable task. Could whole-class feedback empower teachers to refocus on the three main principles of effective marking: that it should be meaningful, manageable and motivating (Richardson et al., 2018)?
Why use whole-class feedback?
Deep marking individual books, as is the practice in many schools, takes up a lot of teachers’ time with little impact on pupil outcomes, as there is rarely time within the busy school day for pupils to read and respond to the comments made. Too often, monitoring of marking focuses upon the length, frequency and quality of written comments, rather than the impact that these have had on pupil progress. Whole-class feedback is an effective and efficient way to move learning forwards, either verbally or through the provision of written instruction highlighting common areas for development.
Whilst whole-class feedback still requires teachers to review each piece of work that has been produced, the time taken to make a note of common misconceptions and areas for improvement is significantly less than that spent on deep marking. This allows teachers to focus on the ‘what next?’ element of marking, planning how they will move the learning on or recap areas of learning that need to be consolidated. By providing whole-class feedback, teachers can instantly assess how children have responded to their feedback, rather than looking back at each book to mark children’s responses to their initial marking, which reduces teacher workload further. This also enables them to decide whether pupils are ready to move on or whether the current concept needs further explanation.
In addition to reducing teacher workload, whole-class feedback provides many benefits to pupils. Where the feedback is provided in response to ‘in the moment’ marking, taking place within the lesson, it can prevent the development of misconceptions – there is nothing more demotivating for a child than spending a lesson working on something that they believe they have understood, only to be told the following day that their work was all wrong. Whole-class feedback, when given verbally, often leads to rich class discussions, which can help to engage pupils, allow them to learn from each other, deepen their understanding and empower them to take greater responsibility for their own learning.
What does whole-class feedback look like?
When marking, it is important to consider the purpose – what are you doing it for? Are you focusing on editing the quality of pupils’ writing? Identifying misconceptions? Assessing how well a concept has been understood and the depth of knowledge that has been gained? Whilst a written response in a book would tend to focus on just one of these, whole-class feedback can be used effectively for all of these purposes.
Whole-class feedback can take many forms. It might be provided after reviewing the work produced after a lesson has taken place, or as a result of ‘in the moment’ marking. A quick verbal ‘mini-plenary’ may be used to draw pupils’ attention to a common misconception. A more in-depth conversation allows pupils to explore a concept in greater detail, while a whole-class written task or feedback sheet encourages pupils to demonstrate greater independence in responding to the feedback provided.
The timing of feedback should be considered carefully, and it should not be seen as a ‘one off’ event within a lesson. Feedback can be effective when provided during a lesson, at the end of a lesson or some time after the lesson has taken place (EEF, 2024). When provided during a lesson, whole-class feedback can quickly eliminate misconceptions from developing and becoming embedded. It can also encourage children to take greater responsibility for the quality of work that is produced, providing instruction and time for them to review the quality of their written work. Feedback provided at the end of the lesson can be used to acknowledge the progress made by pupils, to encourage pupils to reflect on their own learning and to address misconceptions that have arisen within the lesson. Providing feedback after a lesson has taken place, once the teacher has had the opportunity to review the work produced, can be used to review common errors and address misconceptions through explicitly re-teaching.
It is important to note that not all children need to share the misconception for whole class feedback to add value to their learning; reflecting on the mistakes others have made can be an effective way of reinforcing what not to do and consolidating learning (Riches, 2024). It is therefore unnecessary for teachers to spend time producing individual tasks to evidence that they are moving on the learning of all pupils.
Is whole-class feedback enough on its own?
There is a common misconception in teaching that the more time you spend marking, the better teacher you are, and some teachers can be reluctant to relinquish their pens, highlighters and stickers for fear that it will be thought that they’re not working hard enough. When implementing a whole-class feedback approach, it is important to change teachers’ mindset with regards to marking – the marking itself isn’t what is valuable, it is the feedback that is provided and how effectively this moves learning on. This can be done far more efficiently when provided to the whole class at once.
It is true that infrequent or patchy marking can lead to poor assessment of pupils’ work and can leave pupils’ feeling that their work isn’t valued as it isn’t looked at (Sherrington, 2022). It is important to remember that, with whole-class feedback, all work is reviewed – it just isn’t written on. The feedback provided can and should still acknowledge the progress that pupils’ have made, showing them that their work is valued. Pupils will experience a far greater sense of achievement when praised verbally with a genuine smile than they will from a sticker, a smiley face or a hastily scribbled ‘Well done!’
A common concern when implementing a whole-class feedback approach is how it will be scrutinised by those carrying out monitoring activities. It is important to note that the Ofsted School Inspection Handbook states that Ofsted will not ‘use work scrutiny to evaluate teachers’ marking’ or ‘specify the frequency, type or volume or marking and feedback’ (Ofsted, 2024). Senior and middle leaders should mirror this approach in their monitoring, looking for evidence of learning moving on in pupils’ editing and improvement of their own work, as well as misconceptions having been addressed in work produced in future lessons.
Whole-class feedback, when used effectively, can be meaningful, motivating and is far more manageable than providing individual written feedback. Teachers’ time is precious and should be spent on tasks that will have the greatest impact on pupil outcomes – using whole-class feedback enables them to do this.
References:
Ofsted. (2024). School inspection handbook. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-eif/school-inspection-handbook-for-september-2023 [Accessed 1st July 2024]
Riches, A. (2024). Whole class feedback – A short guide to making it work for you. Available at: https://www.teachwire.net/news/whole-class-feedback-a-short-guide-to-making-it-work-for-you/ [Accessed 1st July 2024]
Sherrington, T. (2022) Marking. Optimising the impact: workload ratio. Teacherhead.
