In last week’s newsletter, the Secret Teacher explained how exam marking worked prior to the pandemic, with in-person markers meetings allowing teachers to work together.
Today, in part two of a three-part series on exam marking, they take a look at how things have changed.
When we went back to marking last year, the big change was the markers meeting didn’t happen in person.
All the markers were required to watch a video, and I was really, really surprised when I was told that would be the way to do it.
I thought I wouldn’t be able to mark and would really, really struggle, because it’s that in-person discussion, and that time you spend together marking, that allows you to get that clear understanding and go away and do your marking accurately.
That was my thought initially, but I decided I’d have an open mind about it and see how it goes, and I was really surprised. I thought there were actually benefits to having the video, as opposed to the discussion, because there’s a big presentation before we actually get down to looking at scripts.
The senior team take you through samples and they talk you through, and that was useful to have as a video, because you could then go back and forward and do it at your own pace, and do it in your own living room and be completely comfortable in your own environment.
