The Student Room Group
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Higher English Marking

I have some concerns about my teachers marking methods:

Close Reading: Any close reading we've had we've been made to mark our own with the teacher telling you the rough answer. Which I don't see the point in as we don't get a clear view of how we're doing.

Essays: She marks our essays thoroughly and tries to improve them but she hadn't given us a mark for our 1st draft so again we don't know how we are doing and at the end of the day our attempts in the prelims and exams well essentially be 1st drafts.

And in the nicest possible way, she is quite arrogant. She has shown this slot and everyone in my class shares this view. I'm concerned that this attitude of 'what I do is always 100% right' will cloud her view my and other peoples essay.

Is this all normal?
Reply 1
Avatar for Inlineadam
Inlineadam
7
I can justify why your teacher does this.

I imagine she has a good few people in your class, and possibly another higher class.

Close reading papers take AGES to mark individually, so marking 40 + papers takes a ridiculous amount of time - and to be honest - your teacher has better things to do in their time, such as preparing work!

Our teacher basically done the same thing, gave us the marking scheme and gave a rough answer - you don't have to be a genuis to realise if your on the right track or not. If you've got the key points that the scheme wants, you'll get the mark.


As for the essays, this is similar to what my french teacher would do. By not grading essays, you are more inclined to work harder on them - basically if you were given 25/25 ,honestly, most people would just relax with the essays thinking their on the ball with them. Pick up on the points she mentions and improve on them.


Adam
Original post by Inlineadam
I can justify why your teacher does this.

I imagine she has a good few people in your class, and possibly another higher class.

Close reading papers take AGES to mark individually, so marking 40 + papers takes a ridiculous amount of time - and to be honest - your teacher has better things to do in their time, such as preparing work!

Our teacher basically done the same thing, gave us the marking scheme and gave a rough answer - you don't have to be a genuis to realise if your on the right track or not. If you've got the key points that the scheme wants, you'll get the mark.


As for the essays, this is similar to what my french teacher would do. By not grading essays, you are more inclined to work harder on them - basically if you were given 25/25 ,honestly, most people would just relax with the essays thinking their on the ball with them. Pick up on the points she mentions and improve on them.


Adam


Surely an overstement, if teachers were to actually try then they could finish marking much quicker. It other words- they are lazy!
Original post by animelover123
Surely an overstement, if teachers were to actually try then they could finish marking much quicker. It other words- they are lazy!


Utter, utter bull****.

No, your post doesn't deserve any better response than this.
Reply 4
Avatar for Armaros
Armaros
6
Original post by animelover123

Original post by animelover123
Surely an overstement, if teachers were to actually try then they could finish marking much quicker. It other words- they are lazy!


I can see close reading marking taking far longer than most other "traditional" scheme-based marking — in the words of the marking scheme itself "[it] is not a straightforward, mechanical task, but one which
requires from the marker a considerable element of judgement in all but the most straightforward questions – and these are rare". The marker has to separate "genuine comment" from the chaff, and then evaluate said comment's worth, and then translate that worth into marks, as opposed to cross-referencing the script and scheme and ticking if the same words come up. I think it would probably take an awfy long time on top of the teacher's other work
Reply 5
Avatar for Kiss
Kiss
2
Original post by animelover123
Surely an overstement, if teachers were to actually try then they could finish marking much quicker. It other words- they are lazy!


No, teachers have loads of classes to deal with. It may seem lazy, but it's helping you learn what you're doing wrong. Also, you can simply ask what you are doing which is right/wrong and get a decent answer from any good teacher.
Reply 6
Avatar for Inlineadam
Inlineadam
7
Original post by animelover123
Surely an overstement, if teachers were to actually try then they could finish marking much quicker. It other words- they are lazy!



WHat everyone else said, utter bull.

Marking close reading papers is VERY time consuming and takes alot of effort , ( for the reasons the others stated ).

Why do you think markers get paid a decent fee for marking papers?

English teachers don't receive that many papers becausing it's so time consuming, unlike other subjects.


Perhaps have a think about what happens behind the scences before branding your teachers lazy! They do ALOT behind the scences that you won't know about.
Original post by Inlineadam
WHat everyone else said, utter bull.

Marking close reading papers is VERY time consuming and takes alot of effort , ( for the reasons the others stated ).

Why do you think markers get paid a decent fee for marking papers?

English teachers don't receive that many papers becausing it's so time consuming, unlike other subjects.


Perhaps have a think about what happens behind the scences before branding your teachers lazy! They do ALOT behind the scences that you won't know about.


I agree that English papers take much longer to mark than other subjects but my teacher takes 3 months to mark a NAB, is that normal?
Original post by JaggySnake95
I have some concerns about my teachers marking methods:

Close Reading: Any close reading we've had we've been made to mark our own with the teacher telling you the rough answer. Which I don't see the point in as we don't get a clear view of how we're doing.

Essays: She marks our essays thoroughly and tries to improve them but she hadn't given us a mark for our 1st draft so again we don't know how we are doing and at the end of the day our attempts in the prelims and exams well essentially be 1st drafts.

And in the nicest possible way, she is quite arrogant. She has shown this slot and everyone in my class shares this view. I'm concerned that this attitude of 'what I do is always 100% right' will cloud her view my and other peoples essay.

Is this all normal?


If you feel you have a problem speak to the teacher, they won't know if you don't tell them. If they don't like it, at least you have asked.
Reply 9
Avatar for Nonie No
Nonie No
How perceptive of you all - with the obvious exception - to appreciate not only the time taken to trawl through a whole class set of 50 mark CR papers, but the theory behind self assessment!!!.
Current thinking is that students should see what they have to do to succeed, try to internalise it and use what they learn to improve next time.
Far more valuable use of time than slogging away 17/18 hours - that's what it takes - handing a paper back with a mark /50 only for the student to file it away with nothing more than a grin or a groan.
Been away a long time; how is Cambridge Unbeliever? Final year now?
Original post by Nonie No
Been away a long time; how is Cambridge Unbeliever? Final year now?


I was wondering if we might see a reply from you :p: It's going alright, thanks, although I'm having to fight the urge to substitute job applications in the place of actual work! More than ready to end the student lifestyle, now. :smile: Hope things are going well with you and your classes.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you