How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students (Mindmap by Ryan K.)
The Micro View
Chapter 2: Characteristics of the Feedback Message
Feedback Strategies
Timing
Amount
Never delay feedback beyond when it would make a difference for students
Comment on only 2 or 3 points for a paper
Do not make comments longer than writing assignment itself
Do not correct every mechanical error.
Comment only on points related to learning objectives
Mode
Do not give feedback that the student cannot understand
Oral
Written
Give oral feedback for students who do not read well.
Use written feedback when students need to save comments to refer to later.
Audience
Know your students. Talk to them!
Purpose
To show students that you value their learning
To give detailed feedback to the appropriate students
Do not use the same comment for all the students.
Take the time to give individual feedback
Reteach a concept that most of the class misunderstood. Communicate with students that what you are about to say is feedback, not a new lesson.
Return assignments and tests promptly. Return a test the next day.
Feedback Content
Focus
Task
Processing of task
The ability of students to direct and control their learning.
Self as a person
Feedback information. Is something correct or incorrect?
Correct misconceptions rather than point out lack of information
How to approach the task
Generally not a good idea
"You are a smart girl!"
Instills the false notion that intelligence is fixed within the mind.
Shows the connection between a student's thinking process and his results
Do not give criticism without showing how to improve
Comparison
Measure student work by a standardized rubric
Do not compare students' work with the work of other students because it destroys the motivation of unsuccessful students.
Compare a student's work with his past performance. Provide individualized comments that show improvement.
Function
Feedback has no purpose if a student cannot use it to improve.
Describe what you observe in the student's work. Be as objective as possible.
Identify strengths and weaknesses in student work
Valence
Be positive in feedback by showing how student work is correctly aligned with the learning objectives.
When you point out something wrong, make sure to offer suggestions for improvement.
It is not helpful to point out something wrong and offer no suggestions for improvement.
Be constructive when you criticize.
Criterion for effective feedback
Students learn and improve
Students become more motivated to learn
Students welcome constructive criticism because it is viewed as productive
Chapter 3 -- Feedback: The Micro View -- Written Feedback
Clarity
Use simple sentence structures
Make sure that students understand feedback
Do not use big words and complicated sentences
Do not write to show what you know. Write to show what the student needs.
Do not assume that the student understands the feedback
Specificity
Do not make feedback too broad or too narrow
Give conceptual feedback about big ideas. Do not restrict feedback to small details
Give guidance but do not complete the work for the student
Be specific enough. Do not be vague.
Tone
Ask questions
Do not lecture the student in written comments
Spark curiosity and thought
Be fair to all students in your tone of comments.
Make your comments like a flashlight in a cave. You shine the light around and show people the way out of the cave.
Where to write Feedback
On written work
Annotations on rubrics
Annotations on assignment cover sheet
Chapter 4 -- Feedback: The Micro View -- Oral Feedback
Ways to deliver oral feedback privately
Quietly at the student's desk while everyone is working
At the teacher's desk either informally or by formally asking every student one at a time to come to your desk to discuss work.
Scheduled out-of-class time, such as after school
Be careful about using "after school" conferences for oral feedback because this kind of thing could be interpreted as detention.
Ways to deliver oral feedback as a group
At the beginning of class, summarize observations made from a previous class
At the beginning of a review lesson, explain why you are focusing on the same material and learning target.
Give oral feedback after student performances, either live or videotaped
Summarize overall strengths and weaknesses when a test or assignment is returned.
"Feedback isn't 'feedback' unless it can truly feed something."
Chapter 5 -- Feedback: The Snapshot View-Feedback as an Episode of Learning
Spend the first day of class talking about learning objectives and why they are important. On the first day of class, teach that students are responsible for their own learning.
Principles of effective feedback
Helps to clarify what good performance is
Allows for reflection in learning
Gives high-quality information to students about their learning
Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning
Gives opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance
Gives information that helps teachers to improve lessons
Teachers should learn something about students when teachers observe students. When an episode of feedback happens, both students and teachers should learn something about what the students need to be learning.
When students complete assignments, make sure that students show their thinking.
After a teacher learns what a student needs to do, the teacher should then be able to provide the next logical step to take. The student should then be able to perform that logical step.
Chapter 6 -- Feedback: The Long View - Does Feedback Improve Learning?
Students will learn from feedback only if they get a chance to use it. To help students use feedback, make sure that they can use it soon after you give it.
Do not give feedback with the mentality of using it "next time" because "next time" will be too far away.
Students will not memorize the feedback that you give them, so you need to use feedback as soon as possible.
Deliberately plan lessons that will allow students to use feedback immediately.
Strategies for Helping Students Use Feedback
Modeling how to give and use feedback
Show students a piece of your own work that you improved as a result of getting feedback
Teaching Self-assessment Skills
If students can evaluate themselves, then they can "own" their feedback.
Teaching Peer -Assessment Skills
Be careful about social embarrassment
Peer Assessment of Class Presentations
After you have one class presentation, make sure you have another one later on so that students can use the feedback given during the first presentation.
Make sure that students are familiar with the rubric.
Do not ask, "What do you think of this presentation?"
Give the rubric to the students ahead of time as a guide to help them with their presentations.
Ask students whether or not a presentation met certain criteria
Be clear about learning targets and criteria for good work
Whatever an assignment is becomes the learning target for students, in a real sense
Feedback must apply to what students did, not to what they should have done.
Assignments should have certain characteristics
Require students to use the content knowledge or skills specified in the lesson's learning target or longer-term learning goal.
Require students to use the cognitive process specified by the learning target.
Specify the criteria for good work
Provide students with complete and clear directions
Have "Kid-Friendly" Rubrics
Make rubrics in language that students can understand
Ryan K. note -- make a rubric for you as the teacher and make a simpler rubric for the students
Design lessons where students use feedback
Students should be able to see how each assignment helped them to improve. If they do not know, then point it out to them.
Help students to see how they have improved as a result of feedback.
Giving feedback when returning a test or an assignment
Always go over a test before you move on to the next unit.
Feedback is not truly "feedback" unless it truly feeds something.
If you do not give feedback in a timely manner, students will learn to ignore feedback.
For multiple choice tests, you could give a feedback chart that allows students to mark why they missed a question and what they can do to learn what they do not understand in the test.
Chapter 8: Adjusting Feedback for Different Learners
Successful Students
Successful students will do self-assessment without being prompted
Do fall into the trap of thinking that successful students do not need your feedback. They need constructive feedback just like anyone else.
Describe the positive qualities of the student's work.
A successful student can always learn more.
Struggling students
Help struggling students to see what they are doing, not what they have not done.
Offer one suggestion for improvement. Do not give an overwhelming number of suggestions.
Give small steps for improvement, not big steps. Small improvements over time are much better than the student feeling overwhelmed and giving up.
If a student does not understand the first time, do not simply repeat what you just said. Use different words.
Give necessary scaffolding.
English Language Learners (ESL)
The main feedback problem for ESL students is to hear and understand feedback.
A lot of feedback is usually couched in academic language that the student does not understand.
The main feedback problem for teachers of ESL learners is the assumptions that teachers make before feedback is given.
A student may understand a concept but may not be able to express it in correct English.
Feedback is useful only if a student understands it.
Suggestions
- How well can the student understand classroom discussions?
- How well does the student speak English?
- How well can the student use academic English?
- How well can you understand what the student says in English?
- How well does the student use English grammar and sentence patterns?
Keep in mind the subject matter. Some subjects are easier to illustrate visually than others.
Reluctant learners
These students think themselves to be failures anytime they receive feedback.
Pay attention to your tone of feedback for these students. The natural tendency is to point out everything that is wrong in a piece of work.
Do not speak negatively to unsuccessful students and speak positively to successful students. Be positive to all students.
Many times, reluctant students ignore feedback because it gets blocked by the overall message of judgment. Make sure that your feedback is not simply "noise" with no meaning.
If you cannot find much good in an assignment, then you should focus on the process that the student used to complete the work. Always speak truth in your feedback.
Give positive feedback even about small improvements. Think about how the student has improved from the previous assignment and comment positively about it.
Chapter 7: Content-Specific Suggestions for Feedback
Elementary Writing
Do not focus on correcting only mechanics. Focus on the thought process of the student.
If you correct all the mechanics and do not focus on the student's thinking process, then you have corrected the paper for the student and have left no work for the student to do.
Secondary Writing
Giving feedback to writers requires knowing what successful writers do. Good writers give logical interesting topic sentences and then support those topic sentences with details.
Textbook Comprehension in Social Studies or Science
When grading chapter comprehension questions, do not imply mark answers right and wrong. Ask questions and suggest strategies.
"Where can you read more about this question in this chapter?"
"Do you see any order to these questions?"
"What is the question asking you to do?"
Content-Area Project Assignments
Writing a paper is not simply "looking up stuff." Instead, writing a paper means developing a thesis, interpreting information, and organizing information to support that interpretation.