Purposeful marking means you are in control of why you are marking.

It means you have a clear purpose directing your efforts.

A purpose you have decided in advance and that matches your wider motives.

It may seem incongruous to talk about purposeful marking because to describe such a practice is also to suggest its opposite – marking without purpose.

At first glance this seems a strange process to imply because surely all marking is driven by something, even if it is just the will to see where learners are at and then return their books to them, fully marked?

I would distinguish purposeful marking as marking in which some prior thought has been exercised by the teacher regarding why they are marking, what they are marking for, and how they intend their marking to have an impact.

This differs from marking that is perfunctory or marking that is just part of the daily grind.

It need not differ by much, and often it won’t.

The key difference, though, is that the teacher is controlling and defining their actions in pursuit of a specific goal.

Let’s look at some examples.

• Teacher A takes in a set of learner books. They have a lot to mark but what they are really interested in is an extended piece of work completed a few days ago. The task was designed so pupils would produce material covering most of the learning from the previous few lessons. This is what the teacher focuses on, spending ninety percent of their time analysing and giving feedback on this piece of work.

• Teacher B wants to know whether their class is ready to move on or whether they need to spend a little longer looking at translation of shapes. They set a piece of work on the topic that gets progressively more challenging, take in the results and mark these. As they do, their focus is on identifying what percentage of the class have moved through the material quickly and accurately.

• Teacher C has noticed several misconceptions coming up in lessons. They set a piece of work designed to test which learners are labouring under these. They take the books in and mark them, with the express intention of spotting who is working under the misconceptions and where this is most evident.

In each of these examples, the teacher’s marking is driven by a specific purpose.

This helps them to focus their efforts, elicit the information they want and take precise action in response.

For example, Teacher C knows which learners they need to intervene with. And they know that this intervention should focus on teaching away from misconceptions.

Purposeful marking is no great trick, then.

It is simply about being mindful.

When you mark – and perhaps also when you plan the work you will eventually mark – choose an overriding purpose to animate your efforts.

This will increase the effectiveness of your marking by focussing your attention on useful areas.

It will also increase your efficiency because the purpose you select will drive and shape your behaviour, helping to channel your effort.

Five further examples of purposeful marking

• Marking in which the teacher’s main aim is to see whether learners have successfully implemented their targets.
• Marking in which the teacher intends to give feedback that tells learners what to do in the next lesson.
• Marking designed to identify how effectively the teacher has taught the present topic.
• Marking in which the teacher is looking for gaps in understanding, so they can intervene and close those gaps before they grow any larger.
• Marking intended to elicit information about who needs a higher level of challenge, and who is OK at the current level.