10th February 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
It may seem obvious but tutors sometimes underrate the value of marking as a tutoring tool. Viewed, perhaps, as a chore, rather than an active method of improving your student, marking can quickly become seen as an extra burden in your busy life. But tutoring isn't the same as schoolteaching, our methods are different; individual and scaled to help a particular student with a particular issue.
While teachers must carry out marking outside of their classroom hours, at a distance from the student, tutors are in a great position to mark work in front of their student. In this way the student sees the marking process and hears your thoughts on their work as they occur. Instead of writing a few words you can use the points you would highlight as a tool for tuition; a springboard from which a whole lesson may derive. Marking in front of your student has three further benefits.
Firstly, it fosters a real sense of responsibility in the student for their work. They are far less likely to present hurried, below par homework if they know they will sit by you as you read and comment on it. Secondly, they focus more on the comments you make while reading through the essay rather than turning to the end to see their overall mark. And finally, the student is in a position to, either justify their work, or respond to your comments with further questions, deepening the learning experience.
So, marking can be used to provide real 'in-class' benefits for your students, increasing their awareness of the marking process and their sense of responsibility for their work as well as deepening the process of tuition.