English Correcting (School)

MrJones1973

Just a quick request for advice.

I have a fifth years honours (about 23) and a Sixth year honours (28)

Working class area

I have only just begun giving fifth years essays as I just completed a Poet and enough of Macbeth to start essays. Should I be giving them a full essay every week? Should I correct every Essay?
The problem is I also have sixth years so if I give them an essay once a week then its nearly 50 essays a week of 4 A4. That's a lot of correcting
I have other classes to prepare and other stuff to do in school but I don't want to feel Im letting kids down.

happywithlife

Don't know anything about English but as they are both honours classes could they peer correct with a marking scheme projected onto the board? It might help make them aware of how the mechanics of marking works

notdarkyet

I would slow it down. Get them to plan an essay at home; review this in class and then work on the opening paragraph. Correcting 30 opening paragraphs isn’t so daunting a task and the quality is likely to be better.
They can continue one paragraph at a time or, depending how well they’re doing, a section (perhaps 3 linked paragraphs).

Lindy17

Also an English teacher, being honest I haven’t cracked it. I’ve fifth and sixth year honours classes. My sixth year class has some weaker students and majority will not do work unless prompted- from sept to midterm I gave them a composition question a week and corrected it with formative feedback rather than a grade. Some students will take this feedback on board and you will see improvements, with a grade students have nothing to aid them going forward. To revise the single text I give them a quick quotes test once a wk say 10-13 quotes on the test, it doesn’t take long to correct. My fifth years are on act 3 of Macbeth so their hw varies, for example for act 2 got them to write a summary three tweets per scene picking out the main ideas. In one act I’d generally get them to do at least one extended writing task that links to paper one I.e diary entry from Macbeth, newspaper report on murder of Duncan. I think it helps them to see a connection to the work they’ve already done on language genres and paper one. I get them to work in pairs and do act revision quizzes and peer assess, quotations test at the end of each act.

However being honest I do spend a LOT of time correcting! I think it’s the nature of the subject at senior cycle in ways. I also have third year and second year groups and the emphasis is on feedback also for their collection of texts!
I think peer assessment works well with juniors but can be harder with senior cycle if there’s an extreme level of difference like in my class.

However if you are going to try do it watch a five minute video called Austin’s butterfly with them. It’s available on YouTube and it highlights how valuable peer assessment can be in an easy and very visual way. If you’re in a digital school I have heard of some teachers recording verbal feedback on essays etc for students. Wouldn’t work ok my school.

MrJones1973

Thanks for that.
Not a bad idea to link in single text with Paper one. It allows student to be creative. I need to plan better in that dept-homework. I do think about 3 hours a week is the max any teacher should have to correct, as it eats into preparation time. I too, also wonder how much kids get from it?
If you have kids of your own you physically dont have the time for more. Weill I dont!

MrJones1973

notdarkyet wrote: »

I would slow it down. Get them to plan an essay at home; review this in class and then work on the opening paragraph. Correcting 30 opening paragraphs isn’t so daunting a task and the quality is likely to be better.
They can continue one paragraph at a time or, depending how well they’re doing, a section (perhaps 3 linked paragraphs).

But how many hours a week do you spend correcting in total?

Lindy17

I don’t have kids myself but I always think if I did it would be so hard to juggle the workload! You’re right classes always go better when well planned so it is frustrating to sacrifice planning time. I do spent longer than three hours per wk correcting, I would love to reduce it. Christmas exams this week so I’ll be correcting for the foreseeable 😶

Mullzo

MrJones1973 wrote: »

Just a quick request for advice.

I have a fifth years honours (about 23) and a Sixth year honours (28)

Working class area

I have only just begun giving fifth years essays as I just completed a Poet and enough of Macbeth to start essays. Should I be giving them a full essay every week? Should I correct every Essay?
The problem is I also have sixth years so if I give them an essay once a week then its nearly 50 essays a week of 4 A4. That's a lot of correcting
I have other classes to prepare and other stuff to do in school but I don't want to feel Im letting kids down.

I think it's in poor taste to mention the type of area you work in as if it would affect the standard of work handed up to you. Surely it would be better to say sub standard teacher, particularly as you are asking for advice on how to correct with such a basic principal as how long to spend on it. If at any stage once you finish your pdge, you are wondering how long to spend at it, and the answer isn't until it's done correctly, then in my humble opinion you shouldn't be put in charge of preparing youth for anything.

LaLa2004

Mullzo wrote: »

on how to correct with such a basic principal

Ah leave the poor principal out of it.

evolving_doors

Mullzo wrote: »

I think it's in poor taste to mention the type of area you work in as if it would affect the standard of work handed up to you. Surely it would be better to say sub standard teacher, particularly as you are asking for advice on how to correct with such a basic principal as how long to spend on it. If at any stage once you finish your pdge, you are wondering how long to spend at it, and the answer isn't until it's done correctly, then in my humble opinion you shouldn't be put in charge of preparing youth for anything.

Ok mullzo. I'm not quite sure what you're at, but that thread is old.
Just let it go.
Closed thread
Mod