TM4T Using Your System 3.2.6.1 - Admin Work - Elves

Here is a detailed guide to using Elves for administering homework.

'Elves' may be good elves - co-operative students - or bad elves - students who agree to help you as an alternative to other sanctions eg detentions.

It's worth maximising this presentation, watching it slide-by-slide and making sure you understand what's going on here..

In other words: you should seek to get as much of the administration involved in marking (counting books, checking absences, sanctioning no-work, etc) done by students - typically students in a different class to the work being marked. In order to do this, you should simplify matters (for example numbering books) so the process can be done by the youngest students (putting books in numerical order is a lot easier than alphabetical order).

This TM4T method - a bit extreme, I know - has the following benefits:

a) It directly involves the students in the administration and management of their own learning

b) It entirely separates the administration elements of the activity from the teacherly - feedback - element

c) It is ruthlessly efficient in terms of identifying students who have missed learning and/or should be sanctioned.

This last point may or may not be important in your particular school, but its deterrent value should not be underestimated. Assuming you have a timely supply of elves, you can be confident that every student knows that it is pointless to try to skip homework, "lose" books etc - you will spot them  and deal with them immediately.

e) You have time to assess and feedback properly. The books are open at the correct page and are in the correct order for marking.

For the marking itself, you may be able to use marking codes and other techniques to save time in the marking itself. More here.