Using Feedback to Grow Learners
What is the nutritional value of your feedback?
Shifting from CORRECTING to INFORMING
Misconceptions About Feedback
2. Detailed correction is effective feedback.
Both of these essentially give students a summary of their growth -- creating a a closure to learning. Detailed corrections tell students what went wrong, but they do not tell them why it went wrong. These corrections generally result in nearly no growth on future assignments.
What Guidances Will Enhance the Nutrition of my Feedback?
- Some students will look seriously at the feedback on graded work, but many will just look at the grade.
- In the typical classroom sequence of learning activities, by the time a graded assignment is due to be turned in, the optimum time for feedback has passed. It is too late.
- Students experience grading as evaluation and judgment. To be most effective, feedback must be experienced as information and description.
- When a teacher "fixes" all mistakes or copyedits written work, the student does not get an opportunity to figure anything out.
- Students can revise work according to teacher corrections without actually understanding why the corrected versions are better.
- Effective feedback describes types of strengths and deficiencies in work and suggests strategies the student might use to take next steps.
What Types of Feedback Help Students Get Stronger?
Some Feedback Practices in BCS
Reflections as Self-Assessment
Students use Google Forms as reflection on a group project. The graphs and responses helped students compare their expected grade to their own comments about their effort. This helps students identify gaps and next steps for group progress.
Feedback Groups
After a short formative assessment, sort work by student proficiency level. So, for example, Mr. Lunsford recently gave a quiz that involved calculating the measures of angles, and he created four proficiency groups. The first group got everything correct and showed their work. Another group got most of everything correct, but didn't show their reasoning/work. A third group got one of the two problems right, and all had the same misunderstanding on the second problem. The fourth group missed almost everything. During a review day, he asks for each group of students to come out into the hall so that he can personally give feedback.
Growth Comments
Place specific comments on drafts of papers so that students know how to improve. These comments tell students what they need to do to meet the learning targets and criteria for success. Even on final evaluations, Mr. Miller will put grades on the back of papers or next to a specific comment to ensure that his comments are read, and that students don't just look at the grade and ignore everything else.
Other Feedback Ideas
Need support with feedback or other aspects of the instructional framework? Reach out to your literacy coach.
Kathy Bonyun
Charla Greene
Rebecca Johnson
Laura Mayer
Kenny McKee
Dawn Perez