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Guest Author: Nisreen Mohamedali

Nisreen Mohamedali is an Associate Assistant Principal and Head of Psychology and Sociology at a secondary school in Nottingham. LinkedIn

Since 2016, live marking has been an integral part of my classroom practice. As a teacher of both GCSE and A Level Psychology and Sociology, I know first-hand the challenges that come with live marking- particularly when dealing with extended written responses and essay-based tasks. Like many other social science teachers, I’ve also taught across a variety of subjects at Key Stage 3  including Geography, History, and Religious Studies, so I fully understand the diverse demands across the humanities spectrum.

And yet, despite these challenges, I’ve found live marking to be one of the most transformative tools in my teaching toolkit. It allows me to give immediate, actionable feedback, helps students improve their understanding on the spot, and significantly reduces my out-of-hours marking load.

In this blog, I want to share why live marking works, how I’ve made it practical across different contexts, and how to overcome some of the common challenges that teachers raise.

Why Live Marking Matters

Feedback is only as effective as its timing and relevance. According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), feedback is one of the most impactful interventions for improving pupil progress- especially when it is timely and specific. Live marking offers exactly that.

Live marking also plays a powerful role in developing metacognitive skills- helping students to think about their own thinking. When students receive feedback in real time, they’re able to make immediate connections between what they’ve written and how it could be improved. Rather than simply reading a written comment days or weeks later, they’re prompted to actively reflect, ask questions, and apply suggestions in the moment. Over time, this helps students to internalise success criteria, self-monitor more effectively, and become more independent in assessing the quality of their own work. It moves feedback from being a passive process to a collaborative dialogue which supports long-term learning, not just task completion

As Dylan Wiliam says, “feedback should be more work for the recipient than the donor.” Live marking helps strike that balance.

My Experience Across Subjects and Key Stages

Having taught a range of subjects and key stages- from knowledge checks in Key Stage 3 to 30-mark essays in A Level Sociology- I’ve seen how live marking needs to be adapted, but not abandoned, depending on the subject and task.

For essay-based subjects, live marking doesn’t mean reading a whole essay during the lesson. Instead, I focus on:

• Reviewing students’ plans, introductions, or one key paragraph
  
• Checking their use of key terminology
  
• Providing quick prompts: “Add a counterargument here” or “What’s your evaluation point?”
  

One of the biggest benefits is that you get higher quality work when it eventually comes in for marking. By correcting misconceptions or refining structure live, students can adjust and improve their response while they’re still writing. This means that when I later collect and mark that work, I’m not using up my time correcting basic misunderstandings but can focus on helping students progress to the next part of the mark scheme, such as developing more nuanced evaluation.

These small but focused interventions have big impacts, especially when you know your students well and can anticipate their common pitfalls.

Common Concerns- And How to Tackle Them

It’s completely understandable that some teachers feel hesitant about live marking. Over the years, I’ve heard a range of concerns raised in CPD sessions, department meetings, and training days. So let’s explore those common challenges and how they can be overcome.

1. “My class is too big-  I have 32 students!”

You don’t need to live mark every student in every lesson. I work strategically: using my seating plan and prior data, I choose a focus group for each session- students who need support, are new to a concept, or are working below target. Over a week, I rotate who I mark live. Quality over quantity.

2. “Class behaviour doesn’t always allow for it”

Behaviour routines matter. When live marking becomes a norm, students are less likely to see it as disruptive. In fact, I’ve found it improves focus as students know I might stop by and give feedback at any moment, which raises accountability.

One practical tip: think about your positioning in the classroom while live marking. Angle your body so you still have visibility of the rest of the class as this helps maintain a presence and avoids the feeling that you’re “off duty” while working with an individual. Alternatively, you can ask students to bring their work to the front or to a designated marking station, allowing you to give focused feedback while keeping your eye on the wider room.

If I notice recurring issues as I circulate, I’ll pause the task, clarify an instruction, or re-model a key part of the answer. This responsiveness helps prevent misunderstandings spreading across the class. 

3. “I don’t have time- it takes too long to get around everyone”

Time is a valid concern. That’s why I embed live marking into the lesson structure itself. I rely on the “I do, we do, you do” model. Through scaffolding, modelling, and clear success criteria, students become more independent and confident, freeing me up to circulate and offer live feedback during the independent phase.

4. “I already circulate- what’s the difference?”

Circulating is essential- but intentionality is the difference. Live marking isn’t just checking that students are ‘on task’. It means reading a section of their work, giving clear, constructive feedback, and in some cases, even writing directly in their book. That feedback might be verbal or written- but it’s always meaningful.

5. “I teach an essay based subject/ A level- live marking doesn’t work with long answers”

This is where smart sampling helps. You can look at a student’s point-evidence-explanation chain, their conclusion, or their plan. Often, students make repeated structural or content-related errors so identifying one issue early helps them avoid repeating it across the whole essay.

Practical Tips for Effective Live Marking

Here are some strategies that have helped me make live marking manageable and impactful:

• Know your students: Use data and seating plans to prioritise feedback for those who’ll benefit most that lesson.
  
• Focus on a manageable section: Don’t aim to mark everything- target a paragraph, plan, or opening statement.
  
• Track your marking: Use a simple tracker to note who you’ve live marked each week to ensure coverage over time- I annotate my seating plan.
  
• Use scaffolds: Sentence starters, model answers, and writing frames reduce repeated clarification requests- this frees you up to circulate and live mark.
  
• Signal feedback: You can use stamps or brief written prompts to indicate that live feedback has been given. I often circle words that need to be replaced with key terms, underline phrases that need rewording, or add question marks to prompt students to clarify or develop a point. These visual cues are quick to apply and easy for students to act on during the same lesson.
  

Final Thoughts

In my experience, live marking is not a magic bullet- but when embedded well into the teaching and learning cycle, it becomes one of the most powerful forms of formative assessment. It has helped my students progress faster, gain greater confidence, and develop a clearer understanding of what success looks like.

If you’re hesitant to try live marking, start small. Trial it with one class, or with a specific type of task. Over time, you’ll develop a system that works for your subject, your students, and your workflow.

The feedback we give doesn’t need to wait until the end of the week. Live marking brings that feedback into the moment- when it matters most.

References: 

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/feedback

Embedded Formative Assessment- Dylan Wiliam