Most teachers record a grade for each essay and move on. That gives a number but not a story. To understand whether a student is improving, you need to track the skills behind the grade.

An Inspector Calls is a good text for tracking because the same skills are used repeatedly across several tasks. Students write about characters, themes, context and structure, and each piece of writing offers a snapshot of how well they handle those elements. Over a term, the snapshots add up.

The challenge is keeping the tracking simple enough to maintain. A system that takes hours to update will be abandoned by October.

The approach below is designed to be light but informative.

Track skills, not only grades

A simple spreadsheet with a row per student and a column per skill is enough. After each essay, record a rating for argument, evidence, analysis, context and accuracy, using a consistent scale. A three-point scale is often more reliable than a ten-point one.

• Use the same skill categories for every essay in the unit
• Keep the rating scale short so it is quick to apply
• Add a single note per essay about the main strength or target
• Review the data at the end of each half-term
• Share a simple summary with students so they can see their own progress

Look for trends, not one-off results

A dip in one essay may reflect a difficult topic rather than a lack of skill. A steady decline in one column, such as context, points to something to address. Comparing across the class also helps you spot whether a weakness is individual or general.

This is where the tracking pays for itself. It tells you what to teach, not just who is behind.

Use the data in conversations

Students respond well to seeing their own progress. A short conversation that begins with "your evidence has improved since October, and the next step is context" is more motivating than a general encouragement to try harder.

The same data can support conversations with parents, heads of department and intervention teams, since it shows specific evidence rather than a vague impression.

Reducing the data entry

Entering skill ratings by hand is often the step that breaks the system. Tools like GraideMind score each essay against a rubric strand by strand, which means the data is generated as a byproduct of the marking. You still check the results, but you are not retyping them into a spreadsheet.

With consistent criteria applied across the year, the trends you see are more likely to reflect real changes in student writing.