Rose Ferrero School
Week of: November 8-19, 2021
LCAP GOAL 2: PROFICIENCY FOR ALL – Promoting Self-Direction Through Better Feedback
When students get the right feedback at the right time, they move closer to becoming independent learners.
Every teacher desires students to become their own teachers over time. The idea that students develop self-direction—independent of needing immediate support from teachers—and the ability to solve their own problems is a recurring dream of teachers. But how do we develop independent, self-directed learners when we have so many other demands as educators? Interestingly, one of the most powerful strategies we have at our disposal to build student independence in their learning is through our approach to feedback. Feedback has the potential to double the rate of learning. A critical aspect of feedback is the quality of its delivery and use by teachers and students. The quality of feedback is increased when students are clear on expectations, when teachers take a coaching role, and when feedback is provided to students in class when they are learning information. Each of these quality feedback criteria, along with related strategies, are shown below.
Clarity
Ensure that students are clear on the expectations of success for varying levels of performance. Students need to know the difference between a 4-level and a 3-level paper. Moreover, students need to know what the key criteria are that make those pieces successful. Finally, the peer-to-peer influence of giving, receiving, and using feedback cannot be overstated. We need to ensure that students give each other accurate feedback. Starting with clarity is a surefire way to make feedback a mutual enterprise between students and teachers.
Explore exemplars: Provide students with work samples that incorporate a range of performance levels. Ask students to rank the work samples and share their reasons for ranking each one. Next, share your ranking and rationale and discuss the similarities and differences between your thinking and the students’.
Co-construct goals and criteria for success: Rubrics are often lists of answers students need to learn (e.g., add fractions with common denominators). In lieu of giving them the answers, present students with questions (e.g., how do we add fractions with the same common denominators?).
Reflect on progress: Use protocols that enable students to reflect on their growth over time. One powerful example is the “I used to think” protocol.
Teachers as Coaches
Walt Whitman once said, “be curious, not judgmental.” Or as Maria Konnikova shared in her book The Biggest Bluff, engage in “less certainty, more inquiry.” We can take a proactive inquiry stance by simply asking questions early in the guided practice and independent work time in the class. Engage with inquiry a little longer than you normally would. Here are three questions to use routinely in your roving around the classroom:
1. The Clarity Question: Where do you need to go next in your learning?
2. The Strategy Question: How will you get to the next place in your learning?
3. The Learning Question: How will you know if your actions worked toward your goal?
Initiating Feedback in Class
Feedback is most effective when it is provided when students need it, and that’s in the learning environment with their teacher and peers. To maximize the impact of feedback, consider the following daily actions.
Use entrance tickets: Instead of fretting about what happened after the fact, gain that information at the beginning and during class so that you can respond. Entrance tickets may include a question prompt to prime prior knowledge and a simple think-pair-share with the entire class.
Use the just-in-time fishbowl: Stop the class in the middle of guided practice or independent practice and select one student to come to the middle of the classroom. Ask students to circle around while you have a feedback conversation with the selected student. A few ways for students to feel more comfortable in engaging with feedback in public is to prepare them before the exercise by going through a few of the questions you will ask. Model the process first with you being the person in the fishbowl and students asking you questions, and then ask students to create collective norms to make sure that everyone feels safe in this process. Next, ask students to reflect on the process for giving and receiving feedback.
Use prior-to-exit tickets: Instead of ending class without knowing what students learned, gain that information two-thirds of the way through class, and enable students to support each other in meeting expectations of the learning goals.
Halloween Parade Resumes After the Year Without One
The annual Halloween Parade took place this past Friday with students and parents in attendance. All safety measures were in place as our students entered the parade to show off their costumes for this year.
Report Cards and Parent Conferences
As odd as it may seem, today marks the end of the first third of the school year, which brings First Trimester Report Cards and Parent-Teacher Conferences. Teachers: please refer to the table below for the exact timeline (and note that Aeries now closes on Sunday, November 14th).
Three Reminders for the Second Week of November:
1). Teachers: During a Rainy-Day Schedule, walk your students straight to the cafeteria and pick them up 30 minutes later. In addition, when relieved for a “break” (during recess), remember that these breaks are only 10 minutes long.
2). Teachers: Please remember to be outside on the yard for the 10 minutes of Yard Duty you share with your Grade-level Team. Sometimes we are short Pupil Supervisors, and we are counting on your presence out on the yard to keep our students safe. Thanks.
3). Teachers: Please remember to check your mailboxes periodically – at least once before lunch. And on that note, check your email from time to time as well. Thanks.