RAG123 as defined by the students

Our head of maths has done a piece of work recently on RAG123 that I think I just have to share...

Firstly if you've never heard of RAG123 then look here for my original post on it, and then see here for all the others I've done...

Pupil voice
So far with RAG123 I've seen teacher definitions of what R,A,G mean, and what 1, 2, 3 mean, and we've occasionally had a go at doing a student oriented set of descriptors. However it surprises me to admit it but we've never previously asked the students to define it themselves!

With my stepping up to SLT this year I have had the pleasure of welcoming and line managing a new HoD to run the maths department. Simon Preston arrived at our school, inherited RAG123 from me and then he embraced it and used it for a while. Then he had a brainwave that is so obvious I don't know why nobody had thought of it before... He asked the students to define their understanding of all the RAG123 ratings...

Simon did this by issuing a sheet like the one below and asked the students to fill in the boxes with a description of what types of work or attitudes warranted each rating. Notably he didn't just ask them to define R, A, G and then 1, 2, 3, but he got them to define all 9 combinations of letters and numbers.

What did the students say?
I have been fascinated by the responses that the students gave. Having collated their inputs and drawn together the common themes Simon has compiled the following grid, which for me now seems to be the definitive RAG123 rating grid.

I think the nuance that the students have highlighted between R2 and R3 in the root cause for the low effort is really interesting. Also like the A1 "just enough". Overall I am really pleased by the clear linkage between effort and understanding. It all comes back to the basic position where students on 3 for understanding need clear input from the teacher to move them, and those on R for effort also need a decision from the student to improve.

Involving parents
Also this week we held a parent information evening for our yr 11 students where we were briefing them on revision techniques and ideas to improve home-school partnerships. This RAG123 grid was shared with parents and students in this session. We suggested that parents could work with students to RAG123 their revision processes at home in order to help figure out whether a session was effective or not. This was really well received and we have had several positive comments from parents about this giving them the tools to help review progress with revision, particularly in subjects that they have no expertise in.

Have you done something similar?
The idea of asking the students is so obvious I'm amazed I or someone else haven't already done it - does anyone else have a similar student perspective on RAG123? If you have I'd be really keen to see it.

Once again - if you've not tried RAG123 you don't know what you're missing in terms of building linkage between marking and planning, building dialogue with students and the promoting growth mindset type linkages between effort and progress. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

A ragging birthday!

Time flies!

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote my first blog post about RAG123 (find it here) which followed a single week trial of an idea that seemed illogical... Mark more often, but write less, improve feedback and reduce workload. Remarkably it worked - students responded positively, I felt more in control of my marking workload and my lessons were more effective. I still haven't taken a single pupil book home to mark since I started RAG123 over a year ago, but ALL of my books are marked up to date.

I've since written loads of posts on RAG123 (all found here), and tweeted prolifically on it over the past year. I know I am guilty of being a bit evangelical about it, but I do feel justified in my enthusiasm. The evidence suggests that using this approach to marking and feedback (and planning) really does have a beneficial impact both on the students and the teachers involved. I get fantastic feedback like this on a regular basis:

No going back!

As I know I can be a bit biased on this throughout the year using and developing RAG123 I have regularly asked for negative feedback or stories of people that have tried RAG123 but stopped. From the responses I have received there are only a couple of people that have stopped once tried. In these cases it was never because they didn't think RAG123 was beneficial, it was due to some external factor such as illness or a change in role. In all cases where someone said they'd stopped they followed up with a comment that they would start again as soon as their circumstances allowed. I remain open and receptive to constructive criticism of rag123 and want to retain balance on it. To be honest though negatives only really come from people who have never tried it, or haven't really understood the idea. To date the overwhelming evidence is that once you try it you will see such benefits that you won't want to go back. 

Going national and international
As well as individual teachers using RAG123, there are whole departments adopting it, and I know of a couple of schools that have adopted RAG123 as a central part of their marking policies (one has even reported it to me as a contributing factor in their schools journey out of special measures). I'm constantly being contacted by people who are sharing it within their departments, their schools or via teachmeets across the country. In fact it's also gone international, and not just in English speaking countries. I know it's been translated into Welsh (#COG123), and also is in the process of translation into Swedish...
 

So... a year later what have I learnt?
I've written, thought and learnt a lot about RAG123 over the past year. While the core idea remains exactly as described in the original post, there are a number of subtleties that I have seen and picked up over the last year. I've probably tweeted most of them at some point or other, but it's also about time I shared them all in one place. Along the way there are a couple of confessions I should make too...

Top 10 tips to get the most out of RAG123:

1. There are no strict rules for RAG123! Each teacher should take the core principle and make it work for them, their students, their school, their workload.

It makes no real difference if you use the colours or numbers for understanding or effort. It also doesn't matter if you need more than 3 levels for each aspect to fit with some other system (I know of at least one RAG1234 system being used, and there is also a RAGB123 out there). Actually you could call it anything, ABC123 would work just as well

However I do personally think colours are emotive and therefore can add to impact, which is why my preference remains RAG for effort as that's the bit I want the students to identify with the most (though for a cautionary note on colours see point 5).

2. While the process I put forward for RAG123 involves marking every day, there is no actual necessity to mark every day or every lesson. However without a doubt the more often you can manage it the more effective it will be.

Personally I try to RAG123 between every lesson but don't manage it all the time (still true even now I'm on an apparently empty SLT timetable). What you gain from doing it after every lesson is the opportunity for RAG123 to feed into planning for the next lesson, thereby improving differentiation and the impact of the next phase of teaching (for more on RAG123 as formative planning see here). I now find it much harder to plan if I've not had chance to RAG123 my books.

3. It's the 2 dimensional nature of RAG123 that brings its strength. Separating effort (student controlled) from understanding (teacher influenced) is really important.

If a student is not trying then even the best teacher will struggle to help them learn. Conversely if the student is working as hard as they can but not learning then it is the teacher that needs to do something different. This is why it's simply not the same as a plain traffic light assessment of understanding (more on that in this post). Highlighting the impact of their effort is important to students and makes direct links with other powerful things like growth mindset.

I often get asked how to measure effort, or how I decide exactly what constitutes a "green" "amber" or "red" effort? My answer is always the same - the rating should be scaled to the message you want that individual student to receive. If you think they're cruising then it's amber, if they're going flat out then it's green. It doesn't matter that one student has done half a page vs another doing four pages... If you know from the lesson that the half page struggled and persisted the whole lesson then it's green, if the four pages are all well within the ability of the student then it's amber. The brightest, best behaved students can certainly get reds if they are cruising (and they really don't like it so improve almost instantly!).

4. RAG123 doesn't and can't completely replace more detailed feedback, and I've never said that it should. Students need this, you still need to write extra at times. To help this it's good practice to aim to write an extra comment in 10-15% of books each time you mark. This hardly takes any extra time and after a week or so you can easily cover the whole class. Alternatively perhaps that feedback is verbal - which is fine too, though fails a little fouler of the dreaded "evidence for inspection". For me if you and the students are able to talk to an inspector about the feedback given (verbal or otherwise) and how it helps them to improve then that's perfectly valid feedback, but I do acknowledge that it takes a bit of confidence to fly without the safety net of written evidence. 

5. There is likely to be a colourblind student in every class group.... This was a big penny that dropped part way through the year, and I give thanks to @colourblindorg for the pointers on this. Clearly this causes tension for a system that has colours at its heart. However there is NO barrier to using RAG123 with colourblind students so long as symbols (e.g. "R", "A" or "G") are used and not simply coloured blobs/dots or even different coloured ink. Colourblindness is a big limitation for the various "purple pen of progress" or "green for good, pink to think" concepts that abound across teaching policies and #chat discussions. Using different coloured pens becomes irrelevant if colourblind students (and teachers) can't reliably tell the difference.

Colourblindness can render unlabelled R,A,G unintelligible to an average of 1 student in every classroom

The key message here is that all RAG123 posters, stickers, guidance must always have a way for colourblind people to distinguish between the colour designations - simply labelling R, A, G does this perfectly. Colours are still powerful and useful for the non-colourblind majority so I'm still in favour of using colours, but it's important we make them accessible to those that can't distinguish between them.

Just labelling R,A,G as shown above retains full accessibility for colourblind students.

6. RAG123 is absolutely a leap of faith, and sceptics take a lot of convincing!
Perhaps my biggest confession here is that despite sharing RAG123 nationally (& internationally) and even having it adopted by whole schools in other parts of the country I have not yet got it embedded across my school, or even widely used outside of the maths department.

The reasons for this are many... Perhaps I have been  being a little more shy about pushing RAG123 within my school with people who may not be actively looking for new ideas (compared to people at teachmeets, on Twitter or reading blogs who are clearly looking for and open to new ideas). There's also the fact that until September I was 'only' a head of maths and my influence only reached so far within school. Even now I'm on SLT there is someone else on the team that has the clear remit of improving marking and feedback and I don't want to step on their toes. I've spoken to them about it and actually they like the idea, but can't quite build it into a whole school position yet due to other priorities. While I do find this a little frustrating I want to emphasise that this is not a criticism of my colleague(s) across my school. They are all working immensely hard and have a real desire to do the best for the children in our care, they simply choose to do this in a different way to me and I have yet to fully do he hard sell on RAG123.

This also in no way suggests that I don't have faith in RAG123. Personally I feel my teaching would suffer massively if I had to stop, and think most people's teaching would benefit from adopting it, but I also recognise that change is difficult and it's not easy to try something like this. I know I'm not the only one that faces this challenge, Damian Benney who is the author of probably the second most read blog about RAG123 is a Deputy Head at his school but has struggled to get colleagues to try it, as detailed here. We're both completely sold on RAG123, and have had success sharing it across the country but changing minds more locally can be really hard.

7. Students need support with RAG123 to make the self reflection aspect meaningful. I've written before about how difficult reflection is so won't go into it again for this post (find more here and here), however I will emphasise that the provision of sentence starters or other scaffolding to prompt more meaningful comments really does help. It's also vital that students are given the time in lesson to review and respond to comments - if you don't demonstrate it's important they won't treat it as important.

8. Relating to the last sentence in the paragraph above... Marking & reviewing books as regularly as using RAG123 allows becomes a really powerful way to demonstrate to the students that you care what they do every lesson. This is a big point and shouldn't be underestimated. There are groups of students who don't like RAG123, when you ask them it's usually because they have nowhere to hide in terms of effort. The vast majority of students REALLY like RAG123, when you ask them it's because they know for certain that the teacher is taking an interest in what they do each day.

9. Even bad RAG123 is still quite good. I'll be absolutely honest, compared to the examples I've seen on Twitter my own practice of RAG123 is nowhere near the level that some people have adopted. In all honesty I don't know where some of the teachers that do this find the time to do anything other than school work, maybe they don't? The detail some go into with RAG123 marking is almost to the level you'd expect from a more traditional marking methodology. For me this is awesome but a little overwhelming and I wouldn't want others to think that if they can't sustain that level they are doing it badly.

What I do know is that my books are basically marked and I know the students in front of me extremely well as a result of talking to them in lessons and using RAG123 with them regularly. I also know that the lessons I plan are tuned to the progress that the students make each lesson, and therefore the marking that I do isn't pointless (see more on my thoughts about pointless marking here). I'll gladly argue my case that the progress students make is evidence that my marking and feedback is effective, even if it only results in a better planned next lesson rather than reams of written evidence in books. This will be a contentious point for many, and some may disagree completely, but that's true of so many aspects of teaching.

10. RAG123 as with all good teaching simply comes down to promoting good levels of effort from the students and good planning from the teacher. Initial users of RAG123 will often ask if a student can get a R1 (low effort, excellent understanding), or a G3 (high effort, low understanding). The answer in both cases is of course they can. For me the effort ratings should provoke the students to question what they are doing (can they try harder, can they maintain their current effort across a sequence of lessons) and the understanding should provoke the teacher to question their support/extension/differentiation for the student or planning for the class as a whole.

RAG123 and the future
So a year in and what's next. For me it's simply keeping using RAG123, I would be a worse teacher without it; I know other users feel the same. 

Sceptics will often ask for evidence that it works before trying it. I understand this but am also frustrated by it. I've tried to put together some evidence (see here) but it gets confounded by other factors, and as a result the relatively small sample size and other influences makes this limited sample ripe for taking shots at in terms of robustness of data. To accumulate enough hard data to support it (with a robust control group for comparison) would take a spectacularly long time and frankly I think it's simpler than that...

• RAG123 costs nothing - there are no subscription fees!
• RAG123 can be started and stopped overnight, all it takes is a decision to do it.

As such I'll reiterate the challenge that I issue whenever I present this at a Teachmeet... Try RAG123 with a class for 2 weeks. If you don't see a benefit then stop... If you do stop then that's absolutely fair enough, but please get in touch to tell me why as I'm keen to understand if it has limitations! Similarly if you find it useful then please spread the word by challenging others!

Comments are always welcome, happy Ragging!

Pointless marking?

This post is written in response to a "Thunk" from @TeacherToolkit - see here.

What's the point in marking?
Perhaps a reason that it seems nobody's answered this 'Thunk' before is that it's a bit obvious; we all know one of the basic tasks in a teacher's workload is to mark stuff. When non-teachers go on about long holidays, only working from 9 till 3 and all the standard misconceptions, teachers will universally include marking in the list of things that take up time around the taught lessons. However, if we put the preconception that marking is just a part of a teacher's being to one side, what is the actual point of it? Who gains from all this time spent? Do we do it because we want to, have to or need to? Also, is it done for the students or for the teacher?

What if we all stopped Marking?
I'm a fan of thought experiments, so let's consider a system where there is no marking at all - what would we lose? Let's take it slightly further for a second - no assessment at all by the teacher.

For the sake of argument, with no marking or assessment the teacher's role would look something like this:

At the end of each lesson the teacher would have to decide what to teach in the next lesson based on an assumption of what's been understood. Here you would need to consider the fact that an intended lesson goes through a series of filters between inception, planning, and delivery, and then again from delivery to reception and recall:

Filters from intent to recall…

1     The original intention becomes filtered to the actual plan by what’s possible given constraints of timetable, school, students, staff, resources, etc.

2     The planned lesson becomes filtered to the lesson actually delivered by real life on the day, something not quite going to plan, students not following the expected route, behaviour issues, interruptions, teacher's state of mind, detail of choices on the day, etc.

3     The lesson delivered is filtered to the lesson actually received by prior knowledge, attention levels, language/numeracy skills, cognitive load, method of delivery, etc.

4     The lesson as received is filtered to the lesson recalled by the influence of other factors such as other lessons/happenings after the event, levels of interest, and so on.

You will also see that I've separated the later 3 stages between Teacher's view and Student's view. This is important - the teacher with deep subject knowledge, knowledge of the original intention and plan, and sight of a bigger picture for the subject is likely to perceive the lesson in a different way to the students. In fact the 'Student's perspective' row should really be multiplied by the number of individual students in the class as the experience of one may well be very different to others. (Also note for reference that if the lesson is observed then there would need to be a whole extra row to cover the observer's point of view, but that's another discussion altogether...) Basically what I'm saying here is everyone in the lesson will have their own unique perspective on the learning that took place in it.

How accurate are your assumptions?
As a teacher delivering lessons with no assessment and no marking you would have to rely entirely on your assumptions of what the students receive and recall from each lesson. An inaccuracy in one lesson would likely be compounded in the next until the intended learning path is left behind entirely over a period of time. I'd suggest only the most arrogant of teachers would attempt to argue that they could keep a whole class on track and keep lessons effective without any form of marking or assessment, and frankly they'd be wrong if they tried.

Open loop control
Basically without assessment and without marking, we are using what would be called an open loop control system in engineering terms. A basic toaster is an example of a device that uses open loop control. You put the bread in and it heats on full power for a period of time, and then pops up. The resulting toast may be barely warm bread, perfect toast, or a charred mess. The toaster itself has no mechanism to determine the state of the toast, there is no feedback to tell the toaster to switch off before the toast begins to burn. To improve the system we need to close the loop in the control system; we need to observe the toast and take action if it's burning. Closed loop control is really what we want, as this uses feedback to adjust the input, which takes us to the Deming cycle...

Deming cycle = Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA)
Dr W. Edwards Deming pioneered the PDCA cycle in the post WW2 Japanese motor industry. His work on continuous improvement and quality management has become prolific across engineering sectors, and he is generally regarded as the father of modern quality management.

PDCA is simply a closed loop cycle, where you Plan something, Do it, Check if it did what you wanted it to, and then Act in response to your checking to develop things further. The ideal is this then leads into another PDCA cycle to deliver another improvement, with feedback being sought on an ongoing basis to adjust the inputs.

As I trained in engineering and became Chartered Engineer in my career before switching to teaching I have always seen a series of lessons as a series of PDCA cycles. I plan a lesson, I deliver it, I find some way to check how effective it was, and I deliver another one. In my best lessons I manage to incorporate a number of PDCA cycles within the lesson, adjusting the content/activities in response to the progress being made.

Marking helps us to create a closed loop system.
The model with no marking or assessment is open loop. It would rely so heavily on making assumptions about what had or hadn't been learnt that it would become ineffective very quickly for the majority of classes.

By reviewing what students have actually done in a lesson we can determine how effective our teaching has been. We can make adjustments to future lessons, or we can provide guidance and feedback direct to the student to correct misunderstandings. (note there can be a vast difference between what has actually been done and what we think has been done both at an individual and a class level)

As a result of this need to close the loop an absolutely vital role for marking is to provide feedback to the teacher on the impact of their lessons. (As John Hattie says - "know thy impact").

Is it regular enough?
Note that if marking is the only form of feedback a teacher gets then it needs to be done regularly enough to have an impact on their teaching. Between marking cycles the teacher is running an open loop system, with all the issues that this brings with it. As such we either need to mark regularly enough to keep the PDCA cycle as short as possible, minimising the time left with an open loop, or we need to build in some other form of assessment.

Other assessment
Gaining feedback within a lesson or within a marking cycle is where AFL in its truest sense comes in. Through assessment that takes place during lessons the PDCA cycle time is reduced right down - the teacher gets feedback outside of the marking cycle, meaning changes can be made either within lesson or for the next lesson. I'm not going to discuss AFL in detail here as this post is about marking, but this is why AFL is so important, particularly if you have a long cycle time on your marking. (note for the purposes of this discussion I'm drawing a distinction here between AFL techniques deployed in lesson with students present, against marking where a teacher is reviewing work when the students are elsewhere - I appreciate there can be and should be an overlap between AFL and marking, I'm just ignoring it right now)

RAG123 shortens the closed loop

You may have seen my other posts on RAG123, if not see here for a quick guide, or here for all of my RAG123 related posts. I'm sure those of you that have seen my other posts will probably have been waiting for me to mention it!

For me the key thing that RAG123 does is to shorten the marking cycle time, and that's one of the reasons that it is so effective. By reviewing work after every lesson (ideally) you augment any AFL done in lesson, and can plan to make sure your next lesson is well aligned to the learning that took place in the previous one. More on RAG123 as formative planning is in this post.

Marking for the student

I'm guessing by now that some of you will be getting frustrated because I've hardly mentioned the other purpose of marking - giving feedback to the student... After all teaching is all about learning for students!

From a student's perspective I think marking can be about many things depending on their relationship with school, that subject or that teacher. Sometimes it's about checking they've done it correctly. Sometimes it's about finding out what they did incorrectly. Sometimes they engage deeply, sometimes they dismiss it entirely (or appear to).

If we go back to closed loop vs open loop control for a moment then a lack of marking leaves the students functioning in an open loop system as well as the teacher. In engineering terms their control system needs feedback, otherwise they could go off in a direction that is nowhere near correct. Just like a tennis player benefits from the input of an expert coach to help them to develop their game, a student benefits from the input from an expert to help them develop their learning.

Hit and miss

In truth though I think marking as a direct form of feedback to a student is far more hit and miss than teachers using it for feedback on their own practice. Depending on the quality of the marking and the level of engagement from the student this could range from really informative to utterly pointless. Sometimes the best students are given poor feedback, or least engaged students fantastic feedback, arguably both are pointless. Also what seems like fantastic and detailed feedback from a teacher (or observer's) perspective could easily be ignored or misunderstood by a student. 

This potential for ineffective marking/feedback is why it is so important to try and establish dialogue in marking; again we're looking for a feedback loop, this time on the marking itself. However I'm keen to highlight that in my view dialogue doesn't always have to be written down. Discussion of feedback verbally can be much more effective than a written exchange in an exercise book, just like a face to face conversation can be more effective and result in fewer misunderstandings than an e-mail exchange.

In summary

To get back to the original question... The point of marking is to give the teacher feedback on their lessons, and to give students feedback on their learning. Both are vitally important.

The best marking has impact on the students so it changes what they do next. Good marking highlights to students that what they do is valued, highlights aspects where they have succeeded, and areas/methods to help them improve. 

However the very best marking should also have impact on the teacher and what they do next. It's not a one way street, and we have a responsibility as professionals to adjust our practice to help our students maximise their learning. For example perhaps Kylie needs to develop her skills at adding fractions, or perhaps Mr Lister needs to try a different way of describing fractions to Kylie so she understands it more fully.

In short, if you are marking in a way that doesn't change what you or they do next then you're wasting your time...

This is just what I think, of course you're welcome to agree or disagree!

Managing with colours - SLTeachmeet presentation

These are the slides I presented at #SLTeachmeet earlier today. Click here

The info shared in the presentation picks up on aspects covered in these posts:
Using measures to improve performance

Using seating plans with student data

RAG123 basics

As always feedback is always welcome...

RAG123 is not the same as traffic lights

I've written regularly about RAG123 since November 2013 and since starting it as an initial trial in November I still view it as the single most important thing I've discovered as a teacher. It's now absolutely central to my teaching practice, but I do fear that at times people misunderstand what RAG123 is all about. They see the colours and they decide it is just another version of traffic lighting or thumbs up/across/down AFL. I'm sure it gets dismissed as "lazy marking", but the reality is that it is much, much more than marking.

As an example of this uncertainty of RAG123 at a surface level without really understanding the depth I was recently directed to the Ofsted document "Mathematics made to measure" found here. I'd read this document some time ago and it is certainly a worthwhile read for anyone in a maths department, particularly leading/managing the subject, but it may well provide useful thoughts to those with other specialisms. There is a section (paragraphs 88-99) that are presented under the subheading "Marking: the importance of getting it right" - it was suggested to me that RAG123 fell foul of the good practice recommended in these paragraphs, even explicitly criticised as traffic lighting and as such isn't a good approach to follow.

Having read the document again I actually see RAG123 as fully in line with the recommendations of good practice in the Ofsted document and I'd like to try and explain why....

The paragraphs below (incl paragraph numbers) are cut & pasted directly from the Ofsted document (italics), my responses are shown in bold:

88. Inconsistency in the quality, frequency and usefulness of teachers’ marking is a 
perennial concern. The best marking noted during the survey gave pupils 
insight into their errors, distinguishing between slips and misunderstanding, and 
pupils took notice of and learnt from the feedback. Where work was all correct, 
a further question or challenge was occasionally presented and, in the best 
examples, this developed into a dialogue between teacher and pupil. 
RAG123 gives a consistent quality, and frequency to marking. Errors and misunderstandings seen in a RAG123 review can be addressed either in marking or through adjustments to the planning for the next lesson. The speed of turnaround between work done, marking done/feedback given, pupil response, follow up review by teacher means that real dialogue can happen in marking.

89. More commonly, comments written in pupils’ books by teachers related either 
to the quantity of work completed or its presentation. Too little marking 
indicated the way forward or provided useful pointers for improvement. The 
weakest practice was generally in secondary schools where cursory ticks on 
most pages showed that the work had been seen by the teacher. This was 
occasionally in line with a department’s marking policy, but it implied that work 
was correct when that was not always the case. In some instances, pupils’ 
classwork was never marked or checked by the teacher. As a result, pupils can 
develop very bad habits of presentation and be unclear about which work is 
correct.
With RAG123 ALL work is seen by the teacher - there is no space for bad habits to develop or persist. While it can be that the effort grading could be linked to quantity or presentation it should also be shaped by the effort that the teacher observed in the lesson. Written comments/corrections may not be present in all books but corrections can be applied in the next lesson without the need for the teacher to write loads down. This can be achieved in various ways, from 1:1 discussion to changing the whole lesson plan.

90. A similar concern emerged around the frequent use of online software which 
requires pupils to input answers only. Although teachers were able to keep 
track of classwork and homework completed and had information about 
stronger and weaker areas of pupils’ work, no attention was given to how well 
the work was set out, or whether correct methods and notation were used.
Irrelevant to RAG123

91. Teachers may have 30 or more sets of homework to mark, so looking at the 
detail and writing helpful comments or pointers for the way forward is time 
consuming. However, the most valuable marking enables pupils to overcome 
errors or difficulties, and deepen their understanding.
Combining RAG123 with targeted follow up/DIRT does exactly this in an efficient way.

Paragraphs 92 & 93 simply refer to examples given in the report and aren't relevant here.

94. Some marking did not distinguish between types of errors and, occasionally, 

correct work was marked as wrong.

Always a risk in all marking, RAG123 is not immune, but neither is any other marking. However given that RAG123 only focuses on a single lesson's work the quantity is smaller so there is a greater change that variations in student's work will be seen and addressed.

95. At other times, teachers gave insufficient attention to correcting pupils’ 

mathematical presentation, for instance, when 6 ÷ 54 was written incorrectly 

instead of 54 ÷ 6, or the incorrect use of the equals sign in the solution of an 

equation.

Again a risk in all marking and RAG123 is not immune, but it does give the opportunity for frequent and repeated corrections/highlighting of these errors so that they don't become habits.

96. Most marking by pupils of their own work was done when the teacher read out 

the answers to exercises or took answers from other members of the class. 

Sometimes, pupils were expected to check their answers against those in the 

back of the text book. In each of these circumstances, attention was rarely paid 

to the source of any errors, for example when a pupil made a sign error while 

expanding brackets and another omitted to write down the ‘0’ place holder in a 

long multiplication calculation. When classwork was not marked by the teacher 

or pupil, mistakes were unnoticed.

With RAG123 ALL work is seen by the teacher - they can look at incorrect work and determine what the error was, either addressing it directly with the student or if it is widespread taking action at whole class level.

97. The involvement of pupils in self-assessment was a strong feature of the most 

effective assessment practice. For instance, in one school, Year 4 pupils 

completed their self-assessments using ‘I can …’ statements and selected their 

own curricular targets such as ‘add and subtract two-digit numbers mentally’ 

and ‘solve 1 and 2 step problems’. Subsequent work provided opportunities for 

pupils to work on these aspects. 

The best use of RAG123 asks students to self assess with a reason for their rating. Teachers can review/respond and shape these self assessments in a very dynamic way due to the speed of turnaround. It also gives a direct chance to follow up by linking to DIRT

98. An unhelpful reliance on self-assessment of learning by pupils was prevalent in 

some of the schools. In plenary sessions at the end of lessons, teachers 

typically revisited the learning objectives, and asked pupils to assess their own 

understanding, often through ‘thumbs’, ‘smiley faces’ or traffic lights. However, 

such assessment was often superficial and may be unreliable.

Assessment of EFFORT as well as understanding in RAG123 is very different to these single dimension assessments. I agree that sometimes the understanding bit is unreliable. However with RAG123 the teacher reviews and changes the pupil's RAG123 rating based on the work done/seen in class. As such it becomes more accurate once reviewed. Also the reliability is often improved by by asking students to explain why they deserve that rating. The effort bit is vital though... If a student is trying as hard as they can (G) then it is the teacher's responsibility to ensure that they gain understanding. If a student is only partially trying (A) then the teacher's impact will be limited. If a student is not trying at all (R) then even the most awesome teacher will not be able to improve their understanding. By highlighting and taking action on the effort side it emphasises the student's key input to the learning process. While traffic lights may very well be ineffective as a single shot self assessment of understanding, when used as a metaphor for likely progress given RAG effort levels then Green certainly is Go, and Red certainly is stop.

99. Rather than asking pupils at the end of the lesson to indicate how well they had 

met learning objectives, some effective teachers set a problem which would 

confirm pupils’ learning if solved correctly or pick up any remaining lack of 

understanding. One teacher, having discussed briefly what had been learnt with 

the class, gave each pupil a couple of questions on pre-prepared cards. She 

took the cards in as the pupils left the room and used their answers to inform 

the next day’s lesson planning. Very occasionally, a teacher used the plenary 

imaginatively to set a challenging problem with the intention that pupils should 

think about it ready for the start of new learning in the next lesson. 

This is an aspect of good practice that can be applied completely alongside RAG123, in fact the "use to inform the next day's lesson planning" is something that is baked in with daily RAG123 - by knowing exactly the written output from one lesson you are MUCH more likely to take account of it in the next one.

So there you have it - I see RAG123 as entirely in line with all the aspects of best practice identified here. Don't let the traffic light wording confuse you - RAG123 as deployed properly isn't anything like a single dimension traffic light self assessment - it just might share the colours. If you don't like the colours and can't get past that bit then define it as ABC123 instead - it'll still be just as effective and it'll still be the best thing you've done in teaching!

All comments welcome as ever!

RAG123 user survey - the results!

I posted the RAG123 survey a few weeks ago and have now collected enough responses for it to be meaningful.

Don't know what RAG123 is? see here and here.

In total 40 people responded, which I know is fewer than the number that are actually using RAG123, but it represents those that saw the tweets about the survey and found the time to complete it - for which I am grateful as I know time is precious. 40 isn't a massive number, but it's enough to draw some conclusions on...

A quick health warning - these are the results of 40 responses - any statements made refer to the views of this sample only and shouldn't be extrapolated to wider populations. Also this was a USER survey - I've not got data from non-users, that wasn't part of the exercise. I'll also be clear that one of the responses is me - I'm a RAG123 user after all.

Profile of users
I was worried at one point that lots of people I communicate with about RAG123 appear to be departmental leadership of SLT. It made me wonder whether it is truly sustainable for a mainscale classroom teacher, however 50% of respondents are classroom teachers...

Profile of RAG123 users by job function

85% of respondents first heard about RAG123 via twitter, 5% heard from others in their school, and the final 5% are Rob Williams and I, who did the first trial at our school in November.

Subject coverage

The majority of respondents teach maths (60% if you include those who also teach another subject), and the next big group is science (25% if you include all who mention science). Humanities had 5% and the remaining few are individual teachers of other subjects.

Respondent's subjects

I wouldn't want anyone to draw a conclusion on this that RAG123 only really works for Maths and Science. Notably the two blogs/twitter feeds that have been pushing this idea are mine (Maths based) and Damian Benney's (here - Science based), as such it's hardly surprising that there is a bias here. What I am pleased by though is the fact that other subjects are represented, including the notable "Whole School." I do know from twitter exchanges that RAG123 has been used in MFL, Music, and a some other subjects too - it just happens that they didn't complete the survey.

Part of doing this survey was to collect some info on who was using RAG123 so we could share tips and best practice more directly. Users that included their twitter ID have been sorted by subject and can be found in these lists.

Impact on pupils

That's what we do it for after all!!

An overwhelming 82.5% report an improvement in either effort or attainment, or improvements in both. 10% are new RAG123 users and felt it was too soon to detect any changes, and the remaining 7.5% report no change on the part of the pupils.

Reported impact on pupils following RAG123 introduction

Impact on workload

One of the things I found when I started RAG123 was it improved my workload, I was interested to see what others thought...

Impact RAG123 has had on perceived workload

55% state their workload has decreased, 32.5% say there has been no change, and 12.5% state an increase.

Notably of those reporting increased workload all but one recognise improved pupil effort and attainment (the remaining one response is a "too soon to tell"). In the write in comments all of those with an increased workload are still very positive about RAG123. For example:

"Although I am not perfect at RAG123 and still have to do STAR, it has made marking so much quicker and actually I like doing it."

"My dept and I were sceptical and only did it cos u kept tweeting no negative feedback yet!!!! But we are sold!!"

In terms of where it has had biggest impact, 68% mention marking, 53% mention Dialogue and 60% mention planning (as these don't add to 100% you'll realise that many mention more than one of these!)

Best things about RAG123

This was a free text bit of the survey and the responses ranged from a few words to much more detailed. I could try to pick and choose best bits, but in all honesty it's best just to see the full text cut & pasted in here:

Picking up on misconceptions at source and the value pupils place on such regular marking. Also the way that informs your planning. Impossible to say just one.

Dialogue and relationships with students

Although my work load has increased as I am now taking books in every lesson for checking RAG123, it is a positive increase. I am able to judge how well my lesson has gone straight away. I can use the RAG123 to set targets more effectively and cater better for the individual. As a result DIRT happens every lesson now which I hope will pay off with regard to progress over time and stickability. My students are responding positively to me monitoring their progress so closely and a better dialogue has been established. If I find a smarter way of recording targets in exercise books so there is clear signposting of what is going on for observers, my workload should decrease in the future.

Informs future planning

The simplicity of it and the ease of use.

There are many best things, and the only downside is setting aside the time every lesson to make sure students do their part in it.

Marking is very quick. Pupils marking their own work a real game changer.

I know where everyone is after every lesson and can therefore plan for this in the next lesson. No one slips through the net; misconceptions identified readily (with more certainty than other AFL techniques) - there's nowhere to hide! No chance for bad habits to develop.

Communication with students

You can fully track progress of the whole class. I can identity misconceptions earlier and check students motivation.

Improved dialogue with students

Simple self assessment

It helps me identify what is not making a piece of work G1 and able to then identify where to improve.

Enables frequent marking and formative feedback.

Ability to plan effectively the next lesson and show progress.

quick whole class overview of progress and understanding

The students know that I am looking at the books very regularly and can write me messages that I will read.

I also get them to hand in their books in RAG123 piles so I can start with/spend more time on the students who need more help.

Students are getting used to assessing their own understanding, which I think will help with their revision.

I feel like I know my students better and what they have understood

Makes sure the kids complete their work - being able to keep on top of exactly what they are doing

No more marking guilt and amazing dialogue with students.

The ease, and the fact you know where the kids are after each lesson

quick feedback

Much more informed about planning. Kids love it and whilst I'm not sure any improved attainment is down to this I am convinced improved effort is. Combining it with pupils marking their own/each others work with green pens. We mark in red.

RAG123 is quick and extremely effective. I have mini dialogues with students in their books and can see patterns in behaviours as well and spot misconceptions quickly.

The best thing and what has helped me the most is being able to manage my marking load better. We have weekly book checks, one week yr7 and yr8 and the next week, yr 9 and 10. Before I was always in a mad panic about these. Now I know that although I may not be doing great at following the latest marking policy, my books are marked and feedback is there. (Especially those which I have still kept on top off!!) I know I'm not RAGging properly as I'm trying to squeeze too much feedback in, but it's much better than the paragraphs I wrote before! 

planning for next lesson, allows me to monitor how the students are doing on a regular basis. They self-regulate their effort often.

student focus on their own progress and effort

Checking work after each lesson and before the next one!

The opportunity to have dialogue with pupils. They enjoy doing it too..

Pupils are excited to read and respond to my feedback each day. The impact it's having is worth the extra effort!

It's instant and instantly useful. Supports using LO/SC in all lessons.

I know how everyone is doing and what they need to do to improve or correct misunderstandings.

Quick, easy for both learner and teacher. gives you indication on how class doing, useful for ensuring tailor made lessons.

Regular monitoring, review link to lesson objectives, planning response better informed.

Simplicity, focus on student involvement and it's evidence based system.


The easiness of marking. It helps me to keep on top of it. I now feel a lot more knowledgable about all of my classes.

The worst things about RAG123

For balance I also need to include all of the negatives - this is an unedited cut and paste of "the worst things" - I'll try to address some of the comments in another post:

It can be a pinch if you have parents' evening/meetings after school. Can be overcome though!!

That more people aren't using it!

Nothing! What I want to do is print the RAG123 criteria on a sticker and have it at the front of exercise books. That way I can then have the success criteria on the board linked to 123 which is something I have not yet been doing. I also need to get students to improve their justifications which will come once I have linked the RAG123 criteria to the success criteria.

Colleagues' reactions when you say you mark after every lesson.

Have to remember to mark after every lesson for it to be effective

Nothing

The students who don't mark work or RAG it. 

Those who just go for A2 every time to save actually thinking. Part of the reason that we are going to try red/orange/yellow/green so you are above or below half way.

Having so many books around at school, because I am not tidy and when I lose 1 book (no doubt student put in wrong pile) I have to look for it as I know that they handed it in. (Student then says oh yeah I forgot I have it because I didn't hand it in - grrrrr)

Not sure yet

It doesn't encourage students to make subject specific comments

Needs to be done very regularly.

Sometimes hard to summarise effectively into RAG123 categories

effort grades, personally I don't use them. Grading effort is unreliable.

Not found one yet.

not too sure yet

We also have to give SWANS feedback at least every three weeks, so I have to do that as well as RAG123.

It is sometimes difficult to get the books marked before the next lesson but it's worth it

Some students really don't like it"

Marking the books everyday

Making sure you do it before you go home...

Not sure yet

Still struggle to find time to mark after every lesson - but I put that down to pastoral responsibilities - those pesky kids and parents stop me doing most things when I plan to!!!

If I set homework then I miss a lesson or two with some classes. Maybe I could think about giving separately homework books, but my experience with these has not been good.

The pressure I feel when I've had a bad week and fallen behind. Have five lessons out of six most days, and sometimes struggle to RAG everyday before the next lesson. This is because I've not got it right yet, but I get very stressed and then fall even more behind!!

Need to make more of a glance and RAG123 thing. Have started timing myself now!!!

Doesn't work if you can't keep up checking every lesson - I've fallen victim to this.

students overestimating their understanding

Probably feeling the pressure to check after every lesson, especially when there are after school commitments like parents evenings etc

I have found that it doesn't lend itself to every lesson. 

I sometimes struggle to find the time for the students to do it properly so it ends up being rushed.

Daily expectation! We have probably gone a step too far with it! Setting individual questions, activities even card sorts etc. Viewed as an investment in next lesson rather than a quick response to previous. We are worried about sustainability though.

Sometimes harder to use in English where you're not always working on something as discrete as maths.

Can't think of any. It's easily the best thing I've done in my teaching career.

No real.negatives. some year 11 boys just sat A1 as it relates to breaking bad!

It doesn't record the volume of quality verbal feedback given in maths - but then neither do other written systems, the major issue with ofsted's version of marking and feedback monitoring.

Apathy of some to look at the benefits. Mainly, "you got this from twitter!" What do Ofsted think, well now I know.

I sometimes struggle to mark books every day. Especially on one week where I teach 4 days without a free period or lunchtime or after school.

So there you have it...

There is a bit more analysis to do, and I still need to sort out the top tips bit - there are some gems in there. However I wanted to get this post published this weekend...

Notably for me all of the worst bits are things people struggle with, not reasons to stop. Yes it can be difficult to do every day, yes it takes time for students to respond to it - we need to train them in how to use it and learn how to use it ourselves.

Still sceptical of RAG123? Give it a try!!!