There are always arguments about whether the daily “tick and flick” of jotters is really worth it. And no one needs reminding that there’s plenty of research out there on the benefits of using a range of feedback methods.
However, correcting the humble jotter has well and truly gone out of fashion - and I think it’s time it had a renaissance.
When I started teaching at the turn of the century, it was de rigueur to mark jotters. Every jotter. Every task. Every line. They would pile up on my desk and I would move them around a bit. I might put them in bundles of five to jumpstart my motivation.
Very few pupils ever read my comments. I knew this because they would make exactly the same mistakes the next time. The idea of “no more marking” came around and many of us got stuck into that. I’m skipping a lot here because this really was a revelation and I spent a good decade and a half in the pursuit of lots of wonderful practices - as long as it wasn’t marking jotters, obviously.
Fast forward nearly a quarter of a century and lo and behold, I have come back around to the idea that correcting jotters is not an idea worth putting straight into the bin.
I spent a huge part of my career dedicated to developing systems, sheets, booklets, folders and pretty ink stampers so that I could “evidence” feedback, and I tried lots of different things to get pupils to take my advice.
Then came an epiphany: why not go back to basics and use the jotter to move learning forward?
I now look at jotters as soon as I can after the lesson: it has become the one-stop-shop for one-to-one dialogue. I encourage pupils to write questions in it that they want me to answer but were too shy to ask in class, or to comment on why they have only written two lines for question three. I also write questions back to them that I expect an answer to in the next lesson.
Where does the time come from? Well, I decided a while ago that I have to spend time to save time. I do my best at the end of each day to go through as many jotters as I can. The rest, I mark when the class are working quietly on something and then I will go around the room and get as many as I can that way. I never, ever take jotters home.
For me, there are many benefits to marking jotters after every lesson. For a start, it’s not that much to mark if you do it every day. Pupils really appreciate that you have checked in with them and taken the time to see what they are up to. They also know that if you are checking the jotters regularly, there is no hiding place for them if they are stuck or just can’t be bothered.
Whole-class feedback
It is so good for highlighting issues before you get anywhere near the assessment stage, and brilliant for picking up on common errors and misconceptions if you want to use it for whole-class feedback.
You really get to know the pupil and their preferred way of working and I think this is so important: the quiet pupil who hardly says anything but presents their work thoughtfully; the chatty pupil who never seems to listen but has flashes of brilliance in their everyday jottings.
Most pupils I have come into contact with like the immediacy of the feedback in the jotter. They like that it’s all in one place - not in different booklets for different topics. They also like being able to look back over it before they head off to do that exact type of work again.
This was something I used to grapple with: do you give feedback immediately after a piece of work that you will maybe not revisit for a while, or leave it until you are back doing that kind of work again? Not a problem when you use the jotter for everything (and I mean everything) as they can look back over it all whenever they want. And so can you.
Reap the rewards
The jotters are kept in class, and this works out nicely as most homework is now done online. Parents get to see them at parents’ night and, of course, there can always be copies taken if information in the jotter needs to be shared.
I realise time is a huge factor in this and I’m a long-time advocate of giving teachers as much as they need to do their jobs.
This means reduced class sizes, fewer classes and more non-contact time. It means time built into the working week for marking for each class, every day. It means an acknowledgement that direct teaching is only a part of the job and that the other important parts - preparation, correction and feedback - are given the weighting in working-time agreements they deserve.
But in the meantime? Make marking the jotters a priority in the time that you do have. Reap the rewards of really knowing your pupils and what they are capable of. Get rid of the separate folders, booklets and the faff. Get the jotters out - and keep them out.
Sammy McHugh is a teacher of English who works in Scotland. She tweets @MsSammyMcHugh
