LEARNING TO LEARN
Figure 2 : green dot marking for punctuation and grammar only
Figure 2 shows a dyslexic student who is very anxious about his spelling . For him , I used green dots for all errors other than spelling . He has two errors on the same line – one for a missing comma and one for a missing apostrophe . His misspelling of specific I have corrected for him . This meant that his work was not returned to him with a large number of green dots ( for spellings ) that he would not have time to correct in the lesson and not necessarily remember at a later date . He could spend the time working on something more manageable and less overwhelming , for example , remembering ( and noticing ) when to use a capital letter for months of the year – the third green dot .
There were , of course , pupils who had only a few technical errors , thus few green dots . I therefore set them a SMART extension task that usually focused on one aspect of grammar in a specific place within their writing , such as “ vary sentence openings ”, “ change the beginning of five sentences that begin with ‘ I ’” or “ find four places where you can use a semi colon rather than a comma ”. Again , this more mathematical approach to improvements was received ( mostly ) with enthusiasm . It meant that everyone was working on something that was challenging – or that they had missed in their first attempt at writing – but was different from their neighbour .
Over the course of the project , I adjusted the green dot and marking codes methods in a variety of ways resulting in a range or responses and successes – the full report details them . I cannot unequivocally say if my pupils ’ literacy skills improved because of green dots . Certainly , for some , they have a more solid idea of where to use an apostrophe or that when they proofread they must check particularly for capital letters for proper nouns . Both classes ’ end of year examination scripts showed evidence of redrafting and proof reading and both classes gained higher marks than the classes of equivalent setting . Yet , this is not proof that my intervention was the cause of this . These skills may well have developed after a year of school and maturity anyway . I would like to think that the green dot marking did assist many students in improving their writing skills and this is certainly true for some pupils . Undeniably , the most valuable aspect of this project is the fact that it created a dialogue between teacher and pupil about my marking , whether pupils wanted – or found helpful – green dot marking and whether their literacy improved is secondary . They began reflecting on their own writing process and had to become more independent and reliant on their own skills to gain more marks in writing tasks .
Kath joined Berkhamsted in 2006 and has been teaching English for 19 years . She is also the community service co-ordinator at Berkhamsted .
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