Teacher Talk Blog | Using face stampers to motivate and mark

How I use face stampers to motivate and mark

Cliquez ici pour la version Française de cet article

I’ve recently been using the new traffic light colours 3 faces stamp set for my CE1 classes. I use for our tests and the faces are a really nice way of indicating the student’s attainment level and providing feedback - smiley face (green ink), straight face (could do better) (orange ink) and sad face (you can do better!). As our school does not grade this level, as we consider CE1 classes as starters for English classes, it is encouraging for students to see the colourful faces on their work and invariably it motivates them to continue or improve their effort in learning English.

I also use the small ‘3 Faces Self-Assessment stamp’ in my semester report. This stamp is has all the faces in one small image (whereas the faces stamp set above you use individually). I use this stamp one of two ways, either I colour in the appropriate face for each student competences and performance for each semester or after each unit lesson the students colour in themselves as a ‘can do’ checklist. This is important for student motivation and can show to parents the objectives set for their children.

To view the product pages for these stamps - just click the appropriate image shown above. The 3 faces design is also available in a larger size in both red and blue ink - click here to view.

Mdm Jane is an English Primary school grade teacher living in France. As well as teaching English and Chinese, Mdm Jane is a mother of 3 young children and therefore has the challenge of juggling the needs of home life and her career. As a 'true believer' in the power of reward stickers and stamps in the classroom, she writes for the Classroom Capers Blog to share her experiences and ideas with other teachers.