A pupil finishes an exam question. You underline an inaccurate sentence, offer a quick prompt and move to the next desk. Five minutes later, the sentence hasn’t changed.
The feedback was given. But was it used?
Live marking can help teachers identify misconceptions and respond while pupils are still working. It can also become a race around the classroom, collecting ticks and corrections without finding out whether anyone has improved.
Its value lies in what we notice, how we respond and what pupils do next.
The technique: a seven-step routine
There isn’t one correct way to live mark. This is a practical sequence for using independent practice to gather evidence, give feedback and make responsive teaching decisions.
1. Set the standard
Before pupils work independently, make success clear. Model the thinking, not just the finished answer.
In a Biology lesson on enzymes, for example, show pupils how to explain why a high temperature reduces enzyme activity. Draw attention to the active site’s changing shape and the effect on enzyme-substrate complexes.
An answer such as ‘the enzyme dies’ may sound plausible, but it doesn’t explain the science. Pupils should know the difference before they are expected to write independently.
2. Check before releasing pupils
Use guided practice to find out who is ready for the task. A well-chosen question, cold call or mini-whiteboard check can uncover uncertainty before the You Do begins.
Don’t treat a correct class response as proof that everyone is secure. Look for the pupils who struggled, the specific misconception they showed and what you’ll need to check again.
That information should influence where you go first when circulating.
3. Protect independent practice
Give a clear task, sufficient time and an expectation that pupils will make their own attempt. A timer can help with pace, but it isn’t the goal.
Avoid repeatedly stopping the room for minor corrections. Pupils need uninterrupted thinking time if we are to find out what they can do without help.
A quiet room may support that process, but silence alone doesn’t mean learning is taking place.
4. Circulate with a purpose
Start with pupils whose guided-practice responses suggested a gap, then check a deliberate range across the room. Don’t allow raised hands or proximity to determine every visit.
Look for two things. First, individual understanding: who can explain their answer, who needs a clue, and who is ready for greater challenge? Second, patterns: is the same error appearing in several books?
A quick tally or short note can help, especially when several misconceptions emerge. The point isn’t to create another tracking system. It’s to hold on to information that may influence your next teaching decision.
5. Give a prompt pupils can use
Imagine a pupil writes: ‘The enzyme dies because it gets too hot.’ Simply crossing out dies identifies the error, but doesn’t necessarily help the pupil understand it.
You might ask:
Is an enzyme alive? What happens to the shape of its active site, and how does that affect the substrate?
Then ask the pupil to improve the answer. If a question isn’t enough, offer a clue or model one step. Use the least support that helps and fade it when the pupil can continue independently.
Not every error requires immediate intervention. Sometimes the better decision is to let a pupil think, then return to check their work.
6. Respond to what the room is showing you
If one pupil is confused, an individual prompt may be enough. If several pupils have made the same mistake, consider a brief whole-class explanation, another worked example or a new check for understanding.
This is adaptive or responsive teaching. You’re not abandoning the learning goal. You’re adapting the explanation, scaffolding or subsequent practice in response to what pupils need.
Some misconceptions can be addressed during the task. Others are better revisited in the next lesson or planned into future practice.
7. Make time to improve and recheck
Feedback isn’t complete because it has been written or spoken. Pupils need an opportunity to do something with it.
Ask them to correct the explanation, redraft a paragraph or apply the same idea to a new question. Then check whether the response has improved.
A correction made with the teacher standing beside the pupil is useful, but the stronger test is whether they can apply the idea again with less support.
Where teachers go wrong
Even a well-established live-marking routine can look productive without telling us much about learning.
1. Ticks mistaken for feedback
You circulate, mark each answer as correct or incorrect and leave a few short comments. By the end of the task, you’ve visited plenty of books.
The fix: make the next action clear. If an answer is wrong, what exactly should the pupil reconsider? If it is right, can they explain why or apply the idea elsewhere? A tick may acknowledge work, but it doesn’t necessarily move learning forward.
2. Helping so much that pupils stop thinking
A pupil hesitates. You explain the answer, suggest the next sentence and stay until their work is correct. The page improves, but it’s difficult to know what the pupil could have done alone.
The fix: begin with a prompt or question, then add support only as needed. Give the pupil space to respond and return later. Independent practice should still involve independent thinking.
3. Spotting misconceptions but doing nothing with them
You notice the same error in several books and make a note to address it. The lesson moves on, and the misconception remains.
The fix: decide whether to respond now or later. Re-model the concept if the error is widespread, provide a targeted scaffold if it affects a few pupils, or use the information to shape the next Do Now. The evidence matters because it informs your response.
What does the research tell us?
The Education Endowment Foundation’s Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning guidance (Collin and Quigley, 2021) identifies three principles: lay the foundations through good teaching and assessment; give appropriately timed feedback that moves learning forward; and plan how pupils will receive and use it.
The third principle is particularly important. A comment in a book isn’t an improvement in understanding. Pupils must be able to interpret the feedback and act on it.
Hattie and Timperley (2007) describe three questions underpinning effective feedback: Where am I going? How am I going? Where to next? Often called Feed Up, Feed Back and Feed Forward, they help connect success criteria, evidence of progress and the next step. For teachers, that evidence can also inform responsive teaching.
Black and Wiliam (2009) place the use of evidence at the heart of formative assessment. Information becomes useful when teachers or pupils use it to make better decisions about subsequent learning.
Wiliam (2018) likewise places feedback within formative assessment, rather than treating a written comment as the whole process.
Timing also matters. Shute’s (2008) review suggests that feedback should be specific and task-focused, but immediate correction is not automatically best in every situation. The difficulty of the task and the pupil’s needs influence when and how feedback is most useful.
We should be careful about what these studies establish. They support effective feedback and formative assessment in general. They do not demonstrate that live marking, as a particular classroom routine, is always more effective than written feedback after the lesson or whole-class feedback. The method is not the evidence.
Try it in your next lesson
Choose an independent task where pupils are likely to make a recognisable misconception.
Decide what success looks like, use guided practice to identify anyone who may need an early check, and circulate with that information in mind. Notice both individual errors and patterns across the class.
Give a short, actionable prompt. Make time for pupils to improve their work, then check a second attempt.
Afterwards, ask yourself:
What did I notice? What did I do in response? What could the pupil do afterwards?
A page covered in ticks may look like evidence of feedback. But the real value of live marking isn’t how much we’ve marked.
It’s what pupils can do next, and how that information shapes our teaching.
References
Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (2009) ‘Developing the theory of formative assessment’, Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21, pp. 5–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9068-5
Collin, J. and Quigley, A. (2021) Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning. Education Endowment Foundation. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/feedback
Hattie, J. and Timperley, H. (2007) ‘The Power of Feedback’, Review of Educational Research, 77(1), pp. 81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487
Shute, V. J. (2008) ‘Focus on Formative Feedback’, Review of Educational Research, 78(1), pp. 153–189. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307313795
Wiliam, D. (2018) ‘Feedback: At the Heart of, but Definitely Not All of, Formative Assessment’, in Lipnevich, A.A. and Smith, J.K. (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Instructional Feedback, pp. 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316832134.003