Teaching Resources > BEC > BEC Higher > Writing > Marking Ideas

Activities List

Marking Ideas

Remember to encourage your students to look for POSITIVE things as well as negative points - check their work this way yourself. Sometimes, it is difficult to persuade students to check their written work. Below are some suggestions for varying the focus and the activity.

Focusing students on their mistakes is useful preparation for the BEC Higher Reading Part 6 task too.

Before handing in written work

1. Change the correction focus
   

   Tell students to ONLY check their work for one of the following:

   Organisation
   
   Register and Style
   
   Grammar
   
   Vocabulary
   
   Spelling
   
   Punctuation

2. Focus on one or more areas
   Tell the students that you will be basing your assessment on ONE or MORE of the above areas, but not all of them at once. In this way, they will concentrate on these aspects before and during writing.
   
   
3. Give students checking time in class
   Give students 5 to 10 minutes in class before they hand in their written work and WATCH them check. This will give you an idea of how they go about checking.
   
   
4. Encourage experimentation
   Encourage students to experiment with new words and expressions by including them in their written work and indicating that they are experimenting by putting a question mark (?) beside what they have written so you, the teacher can comment.
   
   
5. Check from the end
   Tell students to check their work starting from the end. They read the last sentence, then the second last sentence, etc. This helps them focus on the details of each sentence, e.g. grammar, spelling, etc. rather than the overall sense, so should only be one stage in checking work.
   
   
6. Check students' plans
   Encourage students to make a plan and to hand it in. Before they do, get them to check through the plan and confirm that they have not omitted anything.
   
   
7. Peer checking
   Tell students to give their work to another student who should read the writing and ask questions in order to obtain more details, clarification, etc.

After handing in written work

1. No correction marks
   Make a copy of students' written work. Correct your copy and hand back students' copies with no correction marks. Tell students:
   
   
• which features are strong and weak (e.g. style, layout, grammar, etc.)
  
  
• how many mistakes there are (perhaps categorising mistakes into types) and tell them to find them and correct them
  
  
• to compare the two copies (their corrections with your corrections)
  
  
2. Use a correction code
   Use an agreed code for marking to indicate where mistakes are and what type of errors they are instead of always correcting mistakes for students. This will encourage students to think about the kinds of mistakes they are making and how to improve these areas. See Correction and Feedback
   
   
3. Correction time in class
   Give time in class for students to read through their returned work and to ask you for clarification. Make sure they correct any remaining errors and make a note of them.
   
   
4. A second correction stage
   Ask students to go through their written work again, make improvements and hand it in to you again. This way, you will make sure that they have actually looked at it!
   
   
5. Focus on good points
   Occasionally, do not correct your students' work for mistakes, but rather ONLY focus on the good points.
   
   
6. Peer comments
   When you give out the corrected work, do not give it back to the person who wrote it, but rather, give it to another student and ask them to comment / to say if they agree with your comments.
   
   
7. Return work quickly
   Always try to make sure that you return work in the shortest time possible otherwise it loses its relevance and impact.
   
   
8. Mistakes checklist
   Encourage each student to keep a lexical notebook which would include not only a checklist of mistakes they typically make, but also useful phrases and vocabulary which they have learned.
   
   
9. Use experience
   Make students aware that it is easier to write about an area of business which they are familiar with. They should use their own experience whenever possible.
   
   
10. Keep a record of progress
    Keep a record of your students' marks and progress and make sure that they do the same. They should feel encouraged as they see how much they are learning!