Mike’s Blog
Strategies, Ideas and Insights for Teachers and Leaders
Category: Feedback and Marking
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Create a strengths chart and instantly cut hours off your marking workload
Instead of spending time thinking about the strengths demonstrated by a piece of learner work, create a chart containing a wide range of strengths appropriate to the subject or subjects…
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Spend twenty minutes doing this and you’ll have a tool that will speed up your written feedback for the entire year, and beyond
When we judge a piece of work we do so through a set of expert lenses. These lenses comprise the different categories we associate with the subject in question. For…
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How can you unlock the secrets of the checklist to power up the impact of your feedback?
You can use feedback checklists to train learners to more accurately assess, improve, and refine their own work. They are a tool you can teach learners to use and which,…
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Stand on the shoulders of giants with your learners and use this to change how they think about the feedback you give to them
One way we can minimise any perceived threat learners might attach to receiving feedback is by having them assess famous people’s work. This involves them critiquing work created by experts…
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A simple psychological hack that can instantly change how learners perceive your feedback
Some learners struggle to engage positively with feedback. They may see it as an attack and choose to disengage. This can be due to past experiences, self-perceptions, or wider attitudes…
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What is pre-emptive feedback and how can it be a gamechanger in your classroom?
I would wager that in most activities the teacher knows in advance most of the feedback they are likely to give. This is because they are the expert, and they…
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Getting learners to implement your written feedback: demonstrating competence
This is where we give learners opportunities to demonstrate competence to us, or one of their peers, during a lesson. It means planning sessions in which these opportunities take centre…
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How to use the two fundamentals of teaching you rely on every day to improve target implementation in your classroom
Sometimes, learners will really struggle to implement your targets. They may not understand them, may find the process of change difficult, or may find it hard to visualise how their…
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Why creating activities with target implementation in mind can be a gamechanger for your classroom – and your workload
Why not structure your planning so that learners have the chance to implement their targets during the following lesson, and to do so through an appropriate activity? For example, a…
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How a simple sheet of A4 paper can completely change how learners think about implementing the targets you give them
Take an A4 sheet of paper and divide it into three columns. At the top of the first column write ‘Date’. At the top of the second write ‘Target’. And…