MARKING CREATIVE WORK

After children write their work ,the teacher has to look after children's work and give own comments after going through marking.
What is marking? It is the direct process of indicating what has been done correctly or incorrectly in the pupils crits or exercise work.
Creative work is children's own composed piece of writing.
Therefore marking children's composed piece of writing is done through the marks,symbols or signature the teacher show on the children's work as an indication that had gone through it.
The benefits associated with marking are ,it provides feedback regarding the children's effort . The teacher realise the success or failure of own efforts and requires the knowledge of the results for children's progress on the part of the children as removal of anxiety stress and examination stress.The kept up to date is a provision of immediate feedback which can help both teachers and parents to make decisions on the child's performance.Moreover the pupils have conformation and reassurance that the teacher is highly organised. However if not propery handled it can be a discouragement of learning through repeated failures . Anywhere marking is time consuming.
Significant issues about marking should focus on the linguistic ability of the child .Awarding a mark should be focus on the linguistic competency . There is need for regular discussions with individual to allow adequate feedback on performance .
The length of creative work differs from grade to grade ,for instance middle to upper grades their work most improve a little to feel the need of learning.
Infants about 3-5 lines
middle grades about 10-20 lines
upper grades about a page and half.
After awarding a mark write constructive criticism ,for example 60% Good improvement but too many errors ,for example 3%Good length but try to revise your work.
☺A comment like good or poor work to a child ,a child simply looks at the work and close the book then throw it away.
There is need to praise verbally or non-verbally. Help how do you help when marking indicate areas needing attention, indicates areas needing attention ,like spelling or grammar.
Guide ,by suggest ways of improving study techniques read widely to improve .Encourage things are getting better ,improvement has been noted. It shouldn't be a match -hunting exercise looking at the bad part of the essay where one is always penalising the pupils.But inform tell the child ,if the work is above or below examination standard. Marking of creative work should be done outside working hours to avoid disrupting when in contact with children.It is inadvisable to be done when on mentally or physically tired as affected by such factors like fatigue or irritation.
INDICATION OF ERRORS IN CREATIVE WORK
First let your class familiarise and understand your marking symbols ,like sp-spelling ,gr-grammar.A tick √ is used for something positive ,for instance good use of vocabulary or good use of phrase or facts.The tick should be above the phrase or point of interest. For a whole paragraph a tick should be in the margin in centre meaning a number of good words have been used.
An × is not allowed ,its not advisable .- is a negative way of communicating with a child. Circling is normally used in mathematics not in languages.Instead a line at the bottom indicates the part which is wrong for example E~glish for English.
A joining sign mis-spelling for misspelling ,a stroke is used to seperate two words which have been joined together for example I am/going to town. The child should encouraged to cancel the wrong parts with line using a pencil. Discourage use of brackets ,for unclear materials use a question mark.
Scoring should be according to mark category ,scaling of marks are subject to teacher's assessment of the class. At last upper grade level marks are awarded for othorgraphy.The level of error density determines the final mark.
RANGE COMMENTS
90-100% Very good linguistic ability no gross errors.
75-85% Good -very Good linguistic ability with few major errors.
50-70% Fair and fairy good language , but few major errors.
30-45% Unflat to uncertain language.
±25% Broken language and frequent errors.
Reference
Combes ,B.(1998)Successful Teaching A practical Handbook.

Gwarinda, T.C.(1993)The Practice of Teaching .