RAG to riches!

Sorry for the awful title - couldn't resist it!

This is simply a follow up to last week's post (found here) about RAG123 marking....

Quite simply this approach to marking has been such a revelation to me that I can't shut up about it. Two weeks in and I still can't see a downside...

Key points:

• Books are rated Red, Amber or Green for effort and 1, 2 or 3 for understanding after EVERY lesson. Ideally students self assess this and you then review.
• Limited extra formative comments/corrections can be made but the emphasis is on keeping the process quick - remember that you can make a note and talk to a specific child or group in the next lesson rather than writing a big response.
• A full class set should take between 5 and 15 minutes depending on the class size and the number of extra comments you make.
• The books don't have to be reviewed on the same day, just before the next lesson.

Benefits seen for pupils:

• Students REALLY value the feedback. They read a lot into the RAG effort grades and appreciate the differences between working hard to make progress with a difficult topic (e.g. G3) and cruising with an easy one (e.g. R1).
• All but the very least engaged/most challenging students respond to low effort grades by increasing effort without the need for sanctions/rewards - those that participate in low level disruption reduce and stop this because they want to "get a green today". Other actions would need to be taken for the most challenging, but they stand out so much more they may come round with a bit more time.
• Effort put into covered lessons is much higher when the class know that their work will be reviewed before their normal teacher sees them again. As a result covered lessons are more productive.
• Students become more aware of the effort levels they are putting in and how that links to their understanding - they see success, want more of it and continue to try harder.
• Students know that if they write a comment or question their teacher will see it and can respond either verbally or in writing in the very next lesson - student/teacher communication improves massively.

Benefits seen for staff:

• It actually reduces workload!! 
• It's so much easier to find a large number of 10 minute marking slots in a week than it is to find a block of 2 hours to detail mark a class set of books.
• Much better understanding of what each individual student has actually DONE in each lesson - makes a big impact on planning for the next lesson and differentiation becomes more specific.
• Faster response to student misconceptions/misunderstandings or lack of effort minimises the negative effects and maximises class progress.

Negatives:

• I've still not found ANY!!
• To date I know of around 20 people doing this and not a single person has said it harms their workload or doesn't benefit the students.
• In fact so far EVERYONE who has tried it has only seen benefits both for themselves and their students!

In the last 2 weeks I've had my usual HoD timetable of 22 lessons, plus I've observed and fed back on 9 lessons from across my department meaning that my workload should have been stretched really thin. However by using RAG123 I've ended the week with ALL of my class books marked after every lesson and I've not taken a single book home to mark.

I encourage everyone - just try it, even if it's just for one group initially. If you don't see a benefit within 3 lessons with that group please let me know - I need a more balanced view of this!!

All comments/feedback welcome as always! 

RAG to clean up marking

Marking and feedback is a perpetual challenge for a teacher. We've done lots of work developing this in my department but a lot of that has been on processes for checkpoint feedback - something that happens once every few weeks. We've come a long way as a department but the ongoing conflict between good marking and the time taken to do it always tugs at the wrong side of the work/life balance

However in a fantastic example of how Twitter can spark ideas and contribute to ongoing CPD I read this post recently (as recommended by Alan Patel in this string of tweets...)

I really liked the colour coded dots idea described in the post - but it didn't feel detailed enough - is amber due to lack of understanding or lack of effort? Then it occurred to me that we already have a marking guide in my department that we use for homeworks. Colours (Red, Amber Green) are used to indicate our view of the effort made, and numbers (1,2,3) are used to indicate accuracy/understanding shown. As such G1 is excellent effort and understanding where R3 is little effort and no understanding. Note it is possible for students to work really hard and not understand (G3), or to fully understand but put no effort in (R1) - these are important distinctions.

A trial was born
For the whole of last week I decided I would mark all books after every lesson using RAG123 codes. The emphasis was on a quick temperature check, perhaps an extra comment/correction here or there. As such a full set of 30 books takes between 10 and 15 minutes.

I'm keen to emphasise that at the start of the week I was not sure if I could sustain this, or if it was worth it. Thoughts like "15 mins per lesson, that's over an hour for 5 lessons worth" kept creeping in - had I bitten off more than I could chew?

However I know many primary colleagues routinely mark everything that their class produces in a day - if it's possible for primary why not for secondary?

I thought is was worth a try to see if it was even remotely possible. I'm a HoD - I teach slightly fewer lessons than the rest of my department - If I can't make it stick I certainly can't suggest the rest of the department try it! (For reference though I tried this in a week that I'm also carrying out our school's lesson observation round - as such many of my PPA periods have been taken up with obs, feedback or paperwork associated with this.

Alongside me @robewilliams79 also tried this, and he teaches a full timetable. He has been just as successful and is just as positive about this.

Once I'd done the first round of RAG123 marking in each book I explained the process to the students and from then on they have been scoring themselves with a RAG123 at the end of each lesson (often with a comment to explain why they have given themselves that rating). I am now just reviewing their self assessment and agreeing/disagreeing as needed - with occasional comments of explanation as appropriate.

Time to do it
I'm surprised to say it's actually quite easy to fit this in to a working week!

Firstly the fact it only takes about 10-15 mins for a full set means that it can be squeezed in at various times of the day. Unlike an extended detailed marking session that might take 1 or 2 hours of concentration this can be done in any 10-15 minute window you find during the day. For example I found myself with a spare 10 minutes before registration on Tuesday so whizzed through my year 9 books. I dashed through my year 11 books in an otherwise unused dead 15 minutes between the end of the school day and a staff briefing. On Friday I rounded off the week by doing 3 sets of books inside 45 minutes (I was interrupted 4 or 5 times during that) - This meant I have zero marking to do this weekend.

I am actually finding that the short, sharp nature of this allows me to make much better use of my PPA time or other fragments of hours that dot around a working week. Also the satisfaction of knowing that all books are 100% up to date is massive.

Quality of feedback
You're probably thinking that RAG123 isn't detailed enough feedback for the students to find useful? However because I've seen their work each day I can react directly with my planning for the next lesson, or with an extra comment or two. For one student who managed to fly under my radar and do almost no work in one lesson (despite outwardly giving the impression of working) I could make sure I gave him some real focus in the next.

Vitally because it's instant it's not about reviewing habits or errors that have compounded over a period of time - it's about responding quickly, with timely interventions to ensure things stay on track.

It also makes a real marking dialogue possible as the students know that you can respond quickly. This is a great example of a dialogue this week as a result of this process...

Her initial self assessment of G2/3 - my response and question, her response and my follow up all happened within 24 hours! This is not the only example.

Pupil view
This is simple - they love it! The speed and directness of this simple feedback connects to them really clearly. I've found it's really motivated groups that can be guilty of cruising a bit. When a group of students arrive saying "I'm definitely going to get a green today" and "yeah me too" you know you've made a connection.

One group were being a bit distracted so I reminded them mid lesson that at the end I was going to ask them to RAG123 their work. I just asked them to consider if they felt they would be able to honestly write G or even A if they continued with their current effort level. The final 25 minutes of that lesson saw a marked increase in effort across the class.

Long view
Clearly one week is far from a detailed trial but the benefits seen in that week make me want to keep going and share it further. So far for me the benefits appear to be:

• Improved attitude and motivation across all of my KS3 and 4 classes
• Improved depth of understanding of what each student has done each lesson - a real eye opener!
• Faster reaction to mistakes and misconceptions evident in written work
• Faster reaction to students cruising or opting out of aspects of lessons
• My planning has improved & become more closely targeted as a result of better understanding of the student's progress and understanding
• Better use of time during the day as spare 10 minutes can be used effectively for marking and feedback.
• In a 50 minute PPA period 3 sets of books can be reviewed and feedback given!
• Feel generally happier about workload as the pile of marking is much less daunting

Downsides are relatively few - think it just needs a commitment and a decision to do it. Note I'm not saying that all books have to be marked on the same day as their lesson, just that they should be given a RAG123 before the NEXT lesson with that group - depending on the timetable that could give a few days to find the 10-15 minutes in. Admittedly it may not always be possible to do this after every lesson, but missing the odd lesson is less significant if the pattern is there that most lessons are marked.

Is that all the feedback they get?
No - the plan is still that students continue to get feedback in the form described in this post at least once per half term. This means that in addition to the RAG123 marking I need to find time to do a more detailed mark/feedback once every few weeks - but as I'll have seen the books regularly I already know this will be quicker as I'll already have a much better view of the progress that each student is making. In addition we already have a departmental approach to feedback from all tests and assessments to give formative guidance from them, which adds to the mix of feedback (described in this post).

Overall view
In case you hadn't spotted I'm sold on this - for the first time ever I'm actually enthused by marking - it's become both interesting, worthwhile and relevant. It's moved from something I had to do to something that I want to do. It also makes me reflect on my lessons more effectively as I can instantly get an accurate view of what they actually did as opposed to what I thought they did, and I can link it more closely to the decisions I made during the lesson.

Right now I actually don't see a downside to this - bizarrely marking more often is not more work, it just sounds like it!

As always all comments welcome... add them here or use the #RAG123 hastag in twitter.

Make it visible - colour coding progress

As John Hattie says "Know thy impact" If you don't know what I'm talking about see this video or get a look at one of his really interesting "Visible learning" series of books....

Progress walls
We've previously done this for year 11 but this year we're making the progress of all our classes visible... every classroom now has a progress wall, and on it is a really clear summary of the progress that each class taught in that room.

With a tweak to our departmental spreadsheets we have made it easy to print out these colour charts for all of our classes. The colours represent the most recent assessment grade or level vs target. We use colours to avoid the issue of students worrying about others either seeing their target or their assessment levels. It gives an easy way for staff and students to see both their latest status and their progress during the year. They look like this...

This KS3 example illustrates that some students in this class are well above target, some on target and others well below target. It provokes powerful discussions about what students will do next to improve. I've even had a student who has a well above target blue colour code in their first assessment ask if another colour can be added so they can go beyond blue! (Purple is in the pipeline!)

Progress over time

It  becomes even more powerful when more data is present - You can see from the yr 11 one here that in general the class has made good progress between the two tests shown. 

In fact even when you look at a large part of the year group the colours allow a good judgement of progress, and easy selection of those that appear to be stationary.

The students like it
The next example here is a completed version from last year, the format is a little different as this one was done by hand rather than automated for the current ones. (note this is in advance of the final grades; 95% of this class met or exceed target in the end)

You can see that progress isn't always linear and isn't always secure. That's fine so long as a discussion is had and the students know what to do to improve - this kind of thing has to be integrated with good feedback and support.

Publishing a new sheet with a class always generates a good discussion in the room - the students always want to see what colour they are and then want to talk about next steps. It's also a great thing to refer to when reminding students on the need to revise or do homework!

Visibility helps for staff too - it helps to focus the mind if one student is clearly not making the same progress as others.

If you don't do something like this already then I urge you to give it a go - I suspect the more visible you can make progress the more progress you can make.

As always, all comments welcome...

Creating a departmental focus

In any book about leadership there will be something about establishing a shared ethos and sense of purpose. This needs to be something that unifies the activities of the team and allows all tasks to be aligned to this common goal. Having done a few straight Teaching & Learning posts recently I thought I'd return to the departmental leadership side and share how this shared sense of purpose has been established in my department and how we use it to shape our departmental activities.

The long term aim

In the very first department meeting I ever ran I stated my long term aim for the department:

"We are going to be the best maths department in the country."

This type of statement instantly sparks discussions about how that would be measured, and how you might know if you've got there...

However, for me the important thing is the aspiration to get there rather than the detail of the assessment. Frankly when I arrived in the department we were that far from being the best in the country the minutia of how you'd choose the best 10 out of the top 50 wouldn't have mattered. What mattered is that starting from this aim it allows us to look at all aspects of our practice and ask "what would this look like in the best maths department in the country?" From there it becomes easier to prioritise improvement actions that are all aimed at taking steps towards this "best in the country" position.

A central theme - reinforced as often as possible

This long term aim is repeated on all of the core documents I circulate around the team. It's also at the top of our departmental noticeboard.

Much is said about using classroom displays to improve learning - we're trying to use the noticeboard in departmental office/resource base to help focus our activities and develop our professional practice...

(Big thanks to Rob Williams @robewilliams79 - our departmental Teaching & Learning leader who put this board together)

Priorities first

On the right of the display you can see the the departmental priorities in yellow. A clearer view is here: 

I establish these priorities at the start of each year. They are on the front cover of our departmental handbook, and I reissue/revisit them in a departmental newsletter at least every term to clarify progress towards our targets and what our next actions are. These priorities are essentially steps along our route to achieving our long term aim. The bottom half of the sheet as seen above gives more supporting information about what a "best in the country" department might look like in terms of student, staff and school outcomes. From there I break down specific goals towards these outcomes over the next 3-5 years. From there we get to even more specific goals for the coming academic year - which are what drive the priorities.

The important thing is that all of this is coherent - it has a central purpose and everyone involved can see the how the steps we are trying to take relate to the overall aim. Everything we do in the department should be supporting one of the priorities. I encourage the team to assess any task they are asked to do against the priorities and to challenge anything that doesn't have a direct link to progress towards these goals.

Focusing in on a key aspect

Just as a classroom display should be updated regularly to maximise benefit, the central section of our departmental board changes focus during the year. Before the summer it was aimed at AFL (an area we wanted to improve), and we're now extending that towards another big push on feedback and marking in general (which still includes AFL):

Central to this display is our work scrutiny/book review sheet. The bits of string then fan out to extra information & examples for each aspect. This extra info can be a clarification of our policy:

Alternatively the extra info could be hints & tips from blog posts or similar:

Fundamentally we're trying to make sure that not only our focus is clear, but we're trying to make sure the department have the tools required to deliver on the key targets.

Managing student focus

To make sure we give appropriate focus to students we are also using the walls to track what we're doing. Having identified at-risk students (based on a combination of underperformance, potential for overperformance, or being part of a particular vulnerable group) we have picture cards made up and laminated. With them laminated we can use drywipe pens to write on key notes, groupings and actions as needed. The current focus group are posted on the resource base wall so that all in the department know what is happening.

How do you share aims, vision, goals or targets

This is just the way I've done it - but I'd be really keen to hear about other ways departmental vision is shared and common ethos established. As always - comments & thoughts are very welcome....

Getting reflections started

It can be a real battle to get students to reflect on their learning or on feedback given. Sometimes it's because they don't really know what to write, and other times I think it's because they don't know how to get started or how to form the sentence...

Give them something to start with

I've found fantastic responses when students are given the first part of a sentence to complete - it's like it just unlocks the door to reflection for them...

I put the following slide up on the screen and ask the students to pick 1 or 2 sentences to copy & complete. This could be done mid lesson or at the end. Sometimes I discuss the responses verbally with the students as part of the lesson, otherwise I use them as something to respond to and establish a dialogue with while marking books. Given these starting points I've found that the quality of responses is usually really good.

(A quick health warning here - the content of the picture is NOT mine originally. I picked it up somewhere on the web, liked it, tried it and found it to be really useful. However I've forgotten where I got it from originally. Based on the powerpoint file I believe it was put together by someone called Julia Fardy - thanks Julia! Really not looking to steal someone else's work here but it's so useful I want to share it! - if anyone wants to claim credit for this I'll happily reference properly...)

Progress tweets

Something else I've found useful is to ask students to "tweet me about their progress" - currently they don't do it actually on twitter, just write it in their books, but long term I'd like to think we can get to actual tweets.

The first time I ask a class to do this I usually have a prompt like this:

(This slide is mine but I'm sure others use progress tweets as a concept)

However they soon get used to it and now with my classes I can just say "do me a progress tweet" and they give me some useful feedback.

Interestingly the 140 character limit seems to spur them into actually writing more effectively than a basic "What went well". Again sometimes I will discuss them verbally, or use them as part of a dialogue in marking. It's also really nice when the students come up with a few #hastags that relate to the lesson or key words.

Instant plenaries

Both of these ideas can become instant reflective plenaries that can be bolted into a lesson with minimal planning. Particularly useful if a lesson has taken an unexpected turn off piste and your planned plenary wouldn't work any more.

Key point though - it's vital to show the students that you value their comments by discussing/responding to them - otherwise they'll stop putting any effort in and the comments stop being so valuable.

Give them a try - they're well worth a go.

All comments welcome as always.