Marking to support exam technique and literacy

This week I was at the most amazing school improvement meeting all about literacy across the curriculum. The really quick and simple win that I took away from it was this simple peer marking technique to support literacy and exam technique.

1 - Get the students to choose 5 different coloured pencils.

2 - Assign the 5 colours to 5 different things as below:
  • Colour 1: Underline the key question words in the question.
  • Colour 2: Underline the key words in the answer.
  • Colour 3: Underline the connectives in the answer.
  • Colour 4: Underline the examples given in the answer, to support the answer.
  • Colour 5: Underline the words from the question that appear in the answer.
Picture
3 - Benefits for the students:
  • Identifying the question type that requires answering.
  • Identifying what is missing in their answers.
  • Simple self/peer assessment technique to allow them to see what they have included.
  • Linking the extended writing to what is needed to gain the higher marks.


I tried this with some of my science students this week, they were able to pin-point exactly what was missing from their answers and what type of answer was required in the first place.
When I have some examples of student work with this done I will add pictures of it here.