Giving Effective Feedback

We all know how challenging it can be to give and receive even the best-intentioned feedback. Here are some hints to improve your feedback to students (and maybe they’ll work in your personal life, as well! J).

We took most of these hints from “Why Giving Effective Feedback is Trickier Than It Seems” by Katrina Schwartz, who draws much of her information from Susan Brookhart, author of How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students.  You are welcome to read Schwartz’s blog, but if you are overwhelmed right now, you may want to read the Brooke/Bridget condensed version here J.

According to Schwartz, Brookhart, Brooke, and Bridget:

• Teachers must figure out what is worthy of feedback and when to give it.  This is also called finding the leverage point.  Too many teachers try to close EVERY gap in the student’s learning with one round of feedback. Instead, consider: What is the ONE change or strategy that will MOST greatly help the student to master the skill?  Focus on THAT skill or strategy, and you can add others later. 
• Imagine your supervising teacher telling you during student teaching ten things that you were doing wrong. You might have run as fast as possible away from a career in education.  Even worse, imagine your spouse giving you a list of ten behaviors you need to change!  

·      When evaluating  student work, descriptively praise the work’s strengths and then give 1-2 suggestions aligned with the learning target and success criteria.

•        Example: “Great use of evidence from multiple texts to support a solid claim.  How might you include more reasoning or elaboration to show your reader how your evidence supports your claim? For example, you could add some at the place I marked.” 

·        If a teacher gives feedback on aspects not aligned with the learning target, such as grammar errors on a science lab (not part of the rubric), then feedback becomes about pleasing the teacher and not about learning, according to Susan Brookhart.

o   While many of us can’t stand careless spelling or punctuation errors, if it’s not part of the rubric, it shouldn’t count against the student.  Save yourself valuable time and angst, and mark only rubric-related issues.

·       Give the feedback at a time when students can act immediately on it, not at the end of a unit or essay. Susan Brookhart says, “If they’re not going to be able to use it [feedback],” it’s a waste of time – yours and theirs.” However, delayed feedback can be useful if students are returning to the work to revise it. This extra review will help them to retain the information.

o   We always felt like teacher failures if we didn’t write extensive comments on summative assignments, but the truth is that most kids looked at the grade and either recycled or filed the assignment.  If the learning will continue, and students will revise or revisit, then give feedback, but if it’s a one-time assignment, just complete the rubric (even if you feel guilty).

·       Connect the feedback to an important future skill so that students care about it and understand how it might transfer.  Example: “Creating a stronger argument by considering counter-arguments will help you to ask for a new position or a raise at work, or ask your parents to drive you somewhere somewhere they don’t want to go!” 

o   Better yet, ask students how they see this skill transferring to the future—they may have even better examples.

·        Feedback such as, “Add more here” does little to help most students. It is better to provide sentence starters or meet with them to ask how they might add more. 

o   As an example, you could write, “Another concern is that…”

·        The best feedback is differentiated, as ALL students who struggle should also be held to high levels of thinking.  Sometimes we give lower-level feedback to lower-level students, which keeps them from growing.

o   Don’t fall into the trap of commenting on appearance or structure for your struggling students. Honor their thinking by commenting on it.

·       The ultimate goal of feedback is not only for the student to grow, but to help the teacher understand more about how the student is thinking. This allows the teacher to vary his/her instructional strategies to reach more students.

o   Giving the same repeated feedback quickly shows us that there is a common misconception we need to address (even if we've taught the concept brilliantly, but they somehow failed to learn it :-)).

·       Surveys of students show, according to Brookhart, that students want feedback they can use and the opportunity to use it.  The more practical and applicable, the better!

o   It’s kind of like teachers who say, “Give me a tip that I can use tomorrow in my classroom.”  Students also want immediately useful strategies for improvement.

Quick Check-Ins: Student Choice with Formative Assessments- Part 2

Classroom Scenario from Mike Anderson’s Blog:

“Across the hall, Chris’s colleague Aaron Hall is also using choice for a quick check-in. While Chris offered choice to allow students to differentiate according to challenge level, Aaron is going to use it to differentiate based on interest and background knowledge. His class has been studying the human body in science, and he wants to see how well students understand how body systems work together. He offers students the choice of four similes to complete: “The human body is like a (sports team, grocery store, jazz band, or coral reef) because __________.” Students are encouraged to pick a simile that will best help them demonstrate some of the key ideas they have been studying.”



Ideas for Implementation:
1.”Practice, practice, practice.”
Sometimes providing choices to students can be overwhelming because they don’t know what to choose. Making this type of assessments part of your classroom routines can help kids get the practice they need. It might be a good idea to have a menu of formative assessment choices that kids can go to if they get stuck or don’t know what to choose.


2. “Don’t force it.”
There might be a time that one type of assessment is appropriate to get the data you need from you students. Don’t force something to provide choice if it doesn’t makes sense to you or your students.


Strategies for the Classroom:
1. “Alone or Together: Students will list questions they have about a topic being studied. They can brainstorm questions either alone or in a small group, whichever they think best.”

Bridget and Brooke say:

If students are working alone and aren’t comfortable asking questions in front of the class you could let them record their them on a sticky note or a sheet of poster paper. This strategy could be used in pairs up or groups of 3. Many times if groups get too large, there are only a few people actually thinking and making meaning.

2. “Highlight an Example: If students have been working on a variety of problems or examples, at the end of the period they choose one. You decide what the focus will be: One they are proud of? One that was hard? One they aren’t sure about? Students can explain their choice, jotting a sentence or two on a sticky note and attaching it to the problem.”

Bridget and Brooke say:

We really like this strategy for three reasons. One, it’s a great way for kids to determine their level of understanding. Two, it’s a great way for kids to reflect on their learning in a quick and simple way. Three, it’s also a great closure activity. One suggestion we would make is to have the kids write their example on the sticky note along with a reason why they chose this example and then hand it to you on their way out the door. This way you have what you need right in the palm of your hand and you have a fairly good understanding of where kids are feeling successful or challenged.

Quick Check-Ins:Student Choice with Formative Assessments

Classroom Scenario from Mike Anderson’s Blog:

“Chris Ward’s fifth graders have been practicing long division for most of the period. While some understand it well, others are still struggling. Tomorrow, Chris wants to offer appropriate choices to enable students to practice what they need, so today she’ll use a quick check-in—a simple formative assessment—to determine those choices.There’s a dilemma here, however. If she uses an assessment targeted at the middle of the group, she’ll miss key information. She already knows that some students can easily compute 453/7 and others will find it overwhelming. So she offers students a choice. She writes three problems on the board—453/7, 625/5, and 4,357/18—and says, “For today’s math exit ticket, you’re going to choose a division problem to help show where you’re at. There are three on the board for you to choose from, and you may also create your own. Solve a problem that feels just right for you—one that is challenging enough to give you a push and that you think you can solve successfully. This will help me plan for tomorrow.” Offering a variety of problems, she gains a broader understanding of how she can set up tomorrow’s math work to be appropriately challenging for everyone.”


Ideas for Implementation:
1."Create good choices. Choices should align with learning goals and success criteria. They should resonate with students—matching success their varied interests, needs, and abilities. These check-ins should involve light prep on your part and about the same amount of time for students to complete."


2. “Help students choose well. Give students some guidance about which choice might be best without overly directing them. A teacher might say, ‘Think about which of these choices will best help you highlight your understanding of the topic we are learning. For example, you might choose one that matches your interests.’ Another example of what a teacher might say is, ‘If one of these problems seems to match up with how you’re doing on the topic, you might pick that one. If you think making one up will best help show your level of understanding, that also might be a good choice for you.’”


Strategies for the Classroom:
1. “Key Idea, Question, or Challenge: Students write a key idea they’ve learned, a question they have, or something they’re finding challenging.”

Bridget and Brooke say:
Using the scenario above, a teacher could ask kids what was a key idea or way of solving this math problem. Kids could ask a question about the steps to solving this type of math problem. Or, students could explain how challenging solving the problem was. 

Based on their choice of how they express their understanding you will find that it's a bit easier to inform your instruction for the next period. To help students choose well, you may have them try another way of expressing their understanding if they are using one of the three choices more than once or twice. For example, "I see you've been asking a lot of questions about what we've been learning. Have you considered writing down a key idea or something you find challenging?"

2. “T or V: Students can choose to summarize information using either a T-chart or a Venn diagram, whichever will best help them communicate their understanding.”

Bridget and Brooke say:
Using the classroom scenario, the teacher could use the Venn Diagram to have students compare the different fractions OR create a T chart that has the equation on one side and the steps to solving it on the other.

Since T-Charts and Venn Diagrams ask kids to do different thinking skills (categorizing and comparing respectively), you might find it interesting to see why and how they will categorize or compare. This gives kids a way to show you their perspective on the learning they have done. It can show you where kids may need support, too.