Download ALS Marking Guidelines

ALS MARKING GUIDELINES
Adjustments for marking coursework, in-class tests, exams
and other timed assessments.

2016 - 17
These Guidelines are for consideration when marking the work of a deaf or hearing impaired student,
a student with dyslexia, dyspraxia, semantic pragmatic disorder, acquired dyslexia or any other
student with specific learning differences (SpLDs) whose disability affects language processing and
written academic English.
Whilst language-based errors may not be a barrier to demonstrating knowledge,
understanding and ideas, in certain subjects where assessment criteria include language
expression, these Guidelines should not compromise competence standards or academic
judgements on them.
These adjustments do not apply for group projects when it will be expected that component
members of the group will engage with each other and work to their strengths. However, if there is an
individual written assessment within the group project then the MGs do apply.
Reading a student’s work:
1. Fast-read for content
2. Ignore any grammar, punctuation or spelling mistakes
3. Focus on the student’s knowledge, understanding and ideas
4. Try to look beyond the student’s language-based mistakes in the text
5. Do not actively penalise the student for language-based errors, only competency-based
ones
Oral presentations:
1. Consider the presentation environment to reduce distractions
2. Mark for content rather than performance
Giving Feedback
Some students will not be able to see their own errors in print and believe that what they have written
is correct; therefore, the nature of feedback is important. Constructive feedback will be of greater
benefit for reflection and future learning than negative feedback, which can be difficult to understand
especially when couched in innuendo or used as part of complex sentence constructions.
SpLD students learn well from modelling, so giving a correct example is useful feedback.
Chris Scholes Additional Learning and Disability Support (ALS) Marking Guidelines (MGs)
Whilst some dyslexic and SpLD students have oral strengths and can do well in VIVAs or
presentations, there are those with spoken language difficulties who have problems with word
retrieval, long hesitations, mispronunciations and speaking in incomplete sentences. They could also
experience difficulties in sequential ordering of ideas for a presentation in exactly the same way as
with their written work.
Some students who have experienced brain injuries can develop a form of acquired dyslexia whereby
the injury affects cognitive processes and these could manifest in some of the ways described above.
 Verbal feedback should always be followed up with written feedback using simple sentence
constructions. Positive verbal feedback will often be forgotten whereas negative verbal
feedback has a tendency to be remembered. The students will respond emotionally to
negativity and this does not enable reflection or improvement. The ALS Tutor will help the
student to focus on what should be done rather than what should not be done
 Constructive written feedback can help to develop academic writing and if the student shares
this with the ALS Tutor, strategies can be worked on to improve future performance
 Avoid innuendo, double negatives or commenting on what should not be done. Plain English,
using simple sentence constructions to say what should be done, is easier to process and
understand. eg Rather than ‘ You should not leave out…’ say ‘Include’. Double negatives
particularly can be hard to process. Eg Rather than ‘That concept is not unfamiliar to me…’
say ‘That concept is familiar to me…’
 Highlight some examples of common errors when marking coursework so that the student can
work on strategies with the ALS Tutor to improve future work. eg sentences may be too long,
language too informal or expression too convoluted
 Highlight a specific problem with sentence structure and provide an example that models good
practice. eg ‘The OPMH team failed to retain engagement to provide timely preventative
guidance which is a dilemma in using the least intrusive intervention approach…’ could be
better written as ‘The Old People’s Mental Health (OPMH) team closed the case and so failed
to provide timely preventative guidance. This is a dilemma in using the least intrusive
intervention approach…’ If possible, highlight instances where the student has used correct
syntax for comparison
 Identify an example of organisation or structuring difficulty and specify how this could be
improved. eg your paragraphs are too short to develop points adequately; or links between
paragraphs are not clear. This can be worked on with the ALS Tutor to improve future work
 Where relevant, highlight some examples where references have been omitted or used
wrongly and give a correct example to model good practice
 If the student seems to misinterpret assignment briefs or questions, or goes off at a tangent
writing about irrelevant ideas, then specific mention of this in the feedback will benefit future
learning. The ALS Tutor can focus on these SpLD characteristics and help the student to
develop interpretation strategies such as using the SQ3R technique.
Chris Scholes Additional Learning Support and Disability Services (ALS) Marking Guidelines (MGs)