hi everybody!!

 

Can you tell me please how do you correct the writing tasks that you assign in your tests?? which activities or games you think are very effective??Do you ask your students to work in pairs to correct their own mistakes or do you just correct the most common  ones by yourself..? I would be grateful to get your feedback.(ideas,web sites,handouts..) Thank you in advance and have a lovely week -end.

Hi Lola,

 

I guess it depends on the type of class you teach. I teach a lot of classes preparing for exams so obviously I grade them according to the exam criteria, because that will help them excel   at what they are studying for. So in FCE/CAE/CPE I take into account CONTENT, COMMUNICATIVE ACHIEVEMENT (are the conventions of the task followed, does the work hold the reader �s attention, does it serve its communicative purpose e.g. to inform/complain, suggest/propose, does it communicate only straightforward or also complex/abstract ideas), ORGANISATION (are there various linking words, cohesive devices or organisational patterns, paragraphing, topic sentences), LANGUAGE (range and appropriacy of vocabulary, range and control of grammar forms, errors and to what extent they impede communication).

 

In lower levels the focus should probably be more on communication of the message rather than accuracy - notice the marking of written work in PET (especially the short one where 3 out of 5 are given for content, 2 for range and accuracy).

 

When giving a test I always grade and give written feedback myself, both on good and bad points in the students � writing. I correct errors in the text and write feedback under it.

 

 

My students are not exactly exstatic to write longish pieces of text (some are not that strond upon starting, too) so what we do sometimes in class is that we write a group work i.e. some students are supposed to write only an introduction, others - first paragraph, yet another group - ending etc. If I want to recycle some particular vocab (or linking words, or particular grammar exponent), I act as Cruella de Ville and make small cut outs with these words on them and distribute them to students (sensibly). They are supposed to use them in their text.

 

I rarely use peer-correction. Not that I doubt the method, the problem is that unfortunately not all the students bring their written work on time so it �s hard to organize ;-)

 

hope I could help, happy holidays,

 

joanna  

Excellent info from Joanna.

 

In English mainstream schools, the emphasis is very much on getting the students to respond to your marking.

For the actual marking, different schools have different codes, but a fairly standard one for basic errors is: underline the mistake and in the margin, write S for a spelling mistake, P for punctuation, T for tense. // for paragraphing. At the end of the assignment, you must give more detail about the content.

 

You must give praise as well as pointing out areas for improvement. Many schools have codes for this so that all teachers mark uniformly. For example PINS. P praise: your use of the past tense was excellent. I improve: you need to use more adjectives. Go back over your work and add adjectives : NS next steps: focus on ... blah de blah.

 

The students are then given time to do their corrections and many schools ask them to do this in green pens. Some schools ask the students to write a sentence on how they have responded to the marking. You then have to check that they have done all corrections and made any adjustments you have suggested. This isn �t done on every piece of work as it �s very time consuming.

 

Peer marking is strongly encouraged and viewed as empowering the students. 

 

ESL departments are expected to follow the same criteria as the rest of the school.  

Thank you Lola for your question and both Joanna and Cunliffe for your excellent and much appreciated feedback. 

I teach low achievers for whom it �s difficult to even express themselves in English. For that reason, I try to be lenient when it comes to marking so I encourage them to pay attention to the presentation (layout+capitalisation/punctuation and use of connectors) of the piece of writing (a letter, an argumentative paragraph,a diary entry, etc.).Out of ten, I dedicate 3 marks to content, 2.5 to ideas, 3 to language accuracy/structure and 2.5 to presentation. 

Thank you Cunliffe for pointing my attention to the PINS example. I really like the idea and feel like I should implement it.