very good work, though the arguments about the role of Shylock are quite simplistic. You should consider his reactions at the end of the court scene as well as at the beginning. I like your comparisons with modern racism would a production set in 1930s Germany be effective or distracting, do you think? Here, you are actually involving yourself in the pupil's writing, offering dialogue with him. I've seen in pupils' work books a the teacher writes a question arising from the work, and the pupil writes a reply. Such a dialogue isn't co but it happens it can become more enhancing than the original piece of work. This isn't only fuller and more helpful, it's actually different in kind to the other comments, because it involves itself with the content of the pupil's writing; it engages with his thought. This engagement, which can also be achieved orally by teacher s significant in several ways. It builds a response to discussion relationship in which the teacher is much more than an assessor and the pupil (therefore) much more than a passive recipient of nowledge and judgement. It differentiates, of course. Most of all it seeks to engage the pupil by respecting his opinions and butions. This is likely to enhance and extend the pupil's learning. It's also a predominantly positive comment. Consider your com- ments, or consider the three sample comments above. The first is mostly negative, the second is about half negative; the third is largely positive. Are you achieving at least parity between what the pupil will perceive as negative and positive? And do remember that hat may be intended as developmental support can look very like criticism to an adolescent. You aren't an adolescent, but don't you (even so) get tired of feedback which only focuses on weaknesses or "development areas Celebrating positive achievement (I particu larly like the way you and commenting explicitly on progress ("You are far better now at is not only good for morale and relationships but efficient in defining and building improvement in your pupils. All of this may seem fairly obvious, but in reality many teachers stop at the assessive or developmental level in their marking and it does seem to need a conscious effort to habitually move beyond it. Of course, it requires more work and you haven't time to always do it for everybody; but you could combine it with differentiation by rotation, as discussed in Chapter 6 We are making the point that assessment drives learning. We