Marking & Feedback Toolkit
A CEFR-friendly analytic rubric, a correction code students can learn, peer review routines and ideas for faster, more useful feedback.
1. An analytic rubric (score out of 20)
Use it for any task. Give a score from 0 to 5 in each area and one comment per row.
| Area | 5 | 3 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task | All points covered, fully developed, right length | Most points covered; some underdeveloped | Key points missing or off-topic |
| Organisation | Clear paragraphs, logical order, varied linking | Paragraphs present; linking a little repetitive | Little organisation; hard to follow |
| Language range | Wide vocabulary and structures for the level | Adequate range, some repetition | Very limited, repetitive |
| Accuracy | Few errors; none affect meaning | Errors present but meaning clear | Frequent errors that block meaning |
Score Task first. A beautifully written answer that misses half the task is still a weak answer.
2. Correction code
Underline the error and write the code in the margin. Students correct it themselves. Teach the codes in one lesson and use the same ones all year.
| Code | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Sp | spelling | recieve |
| WW | wrong word | I made a photo |
| WF | wrong form | He is very success |
| T | tense | Yesterday I go |
| Agr | agreement | She don't |
| Art | article | The life is hard |
| Prep | preposition | depend of |
| WO | word order | I like very much pizza |
| P | punctuation | comma splice, missing full stop |
| ^ | something missing | I went ^ cinema |
| ? | meaning not clear | |
| Reg | wrong register | Thanks a lot! in a formal letter |
3. Peer review routines
Two stars and a wish. Readers write two specific strengths and one suggestion. Ban "good" and "nice": comments must point to a sentence.
Checklist swap. Partners use the self-check list from the task page and tick each item they can find in the text.
Highlight the structure. Readers highlight topic sentences in yellow and examples in green. Missing colours show where to improve.
4. Faster, more useful feedback
- Focus. Correct one or two areas per task (e.g. articles and linking) instead of everything.
- Comment on the next step. "Add an example to paragraph 2" helps more than "good ideas".
- Rewrite time. Give ten minutes in class to act on feedback. Feedback that is never used is wasted time for both of you.
- Error logs. Students keep a list of their corrected mistakes. Before each new task, they read their top five.
5. A one-to-one writing conference (5 minutes)
- The student reads the first paragraph aloud.
- Ask: "What's the main idea here?" and "What's the best sentence?"
- Agree one change together.
- The student writes the change during the conference.