How common is ‘over-marking’ for teachers?
Our 18th interview for the 100 Women Series is with Lola Ogutuga, a secondary school English and performing arts teacher.
Podcast Summary
In this episode, you can hear Lola and Teacher Toolkit founder, Ross McGill:
- explore what great teaching was to Lola as a student and is now as a teacher
- the importance of building relationships
- explains her largest burden as a teacher
- define what Lola’s current priorities are around her career and why
- discuss what books and audiobooks they are both about to begin.
Listen (10 Minutes)
Reduce marking workload
In a follow-up conversation with Lola we asked: You mention in the podcast you struggle with over-marking. Is there a strategy or marking approach you’ve tried out or implemented to help reduce your marking workload?
“I have used many strategies to try to decrease the time I spend marking books but in English, it sometimes seems like the marking of essays or creative pieces is never-ending. Two techniques that have really worked for me is live marking because it reduces the number of books I am marking and gives me a clearer idea of where students are in their learning in the lesson.
Additionally, yellow box marking, which is an idea I came across in Ross McGill’s book Mark. Plan. Teach. The concept of focusing my comments and feedback on one area of a student’s work is something I had never thought of. I used to think I had to mark everything and for a long time, I did. No one ever corrected me and soon it became an expectation I felt I had to meet. Yellow box marking has assisted me in providing clearer and more concise feedback to my students because I am zooming in on one area. This has reduced the time I spend marking and contributed to more effective responses from my students.”
You can find out more about Lola and follow her on Twitter.
