WB is text talk for “Write Back”. I learnt this from reading scribbles in the corners of exercise books or screwed up bits of paper I had confiscated, and last year I started using it when I was marking exercise books.

Quite often when I’m marking I will ask a question, which might be as simple as, “Why did you skip 3 pages in your exercise book?” or something a little more complex, like, “Are you enjoying your History lessons?” I founnd that these questions were very rarely answered, almost as if the pupils thought it was a purely rhetorical device, perhaps designed to remind them they were doing something wrong.

However, when I added a WB I started getting answers. I didn’t even have to explain what WB meant: if they didn’t know, someone on an adjacent desk would soon enlighten them. I have had some interesting back and forths with pupils in the past year, just from these two little letters. Try it!