I have spend my lovely Saturday afternoon doing marking! While I must say that everyone had performed much better in this PBT test there is something that disturbs me pretty much.
I still find pupils not showing proper working despite numerous reminders in class. This means that quite a handful of pupils still use the top down approach and scribble their working all over the space provided. They did not use the left to right approach, writing line by line on how they arrive at the answer.
This time round, I still award working marks to the pupils but I am afraid in official exams I will have to follow strictly to the marking scheme. I know in some cases that other teachers do deduct some marks from pupils. The reason is that since it is a practice where marks are not recorded down, teachers want to allow pupils to understand the importance of showing proper working.
As such this results in some confusion, parents will wonder "Why this teacher never deduct marks while others do or why last time never deduct now in exams marks are deducted." Do your think that I should deduct marks even for practice to set things right from the start? Parents, I would like to hear from you. You can email me your feedback to Low_kiah_wee@moe.edu.sg
Thank you.
