When we only give a grade as part of our feedback, students
routinely read only as far as the grade.
Peter Johnston
Accurate 21/02/14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqh1MRWZjms
Ron Berger
• The nature of effective critique
• The value of re-redrafting
The story of Austin’s butterfly
Evaluative
Increase
decrease
Feedback
Descriptive
Feedback
Increase Descriptive Feedback
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One of the biggest challenges for
teachers is finding enough time to
give individual students enough
quality descriptive feedback.
Descriptive feedback helps students learn more.
Keep it specific and easy to understand - part of an ongoing conversation.
Used it in comparison to samples and exemplars.
Decrease Evaluative Feedback
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For those with low self efficacy evaluative feedback can actually be demotivating.
"Grades cause an emotional reaction – either positive or negative. Feedback causes you to think
and engage, which is reflective learning.“ (Dylan Williams)
When receiving a poor evaluation, Male students tend to blame the school, the test, or the teacher:
"The system is stupid." Whereas female students tend to blame themselves: "I am stupid."
In both cases most students experience negative emotions and a sense of failure and are, in fact,
discouraged from trying harder.
Negative evaluations can launch a downward spiral
Teacher
feedback
Peer
assessment
Maximise your feedback
without going into
meltdown
By teaching students how to compare their own
work and that of their peers to models, exemplars,
and samples of quality, the teacher actually
multiplies descriptive feedback using two other
sources – self-assessment and peer-assessment.
Self assessment
and target setting
Tackling the underlying forces of
successful formative feedback
Teacher
feedback
Meta-Cognition:
• Thinking purposefully
• Gaining self-distance
• Recognising destructive inner voices
• Growth vs Fixed mind-set attitude
Peer
assessment
Examples:
• Of real projects with feedback still included
• Videos – Austin's butterfly is an absolute
winner
• Role play some feedback with another class
member or teacher
• Get the group to practice ‘talking on task’ to
drum up ideas
Self assessment and
target setting
Routine and repetition
• DIRT: dedicated improvement and
reflection time
• Return to old feedback
• Re-use language
Plan in time for
reflection:
especially if you
have worked hard
to provide
individualised
formative
feedback!
Dedicated
Improvement
Reflection
Time
Be prepared to have emotive conversations – if they are cross
or sad because of their feedback its because they care.
(What's in it for me?)
Make the benefits of peer assessment clear:
• If you can help others to progress you will grow and develop yourself
• Seeing someone else's efforts makes us view our own more objectively
• You are helping someone else – altruistic actions make us feel great
Train students to do it well:
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Ask students to assess the quality of the peer assessment they receive
Have a comments bank on the wall
Model the language yourself
Don’t settle feedback that’s not useful – encourage students not to either
More Feedback Please!
(But not more work)
Glow and Grow highlighters:
Yellow = you have met or
exceeded expectations
Green = room for improvement
Return work with symbols that
meant one of three things:
• This work is better than
previous work.
• This work is not as good as
previous work.
• This work is of the same quality
as previous work.
plan peer assessment and selfassessment opportunities, for
example with 'pair and share'
opportunities during class questioning
Write a note to students
struggling that encourages
them to press on
Correct common
errors to the whole
class. Correct
personal errors in
private
Feedback Can Take the
Form of Altered
Teaching
Traffic Lights
green moving forward confidently
yellow moving forward cautiously
red stopped
Ask students to email
feedback to each other
More Feedback
Please!
train children over time to
assess their own work
and the work of others,
and develop an
appropriate language
Print a correct
answer/example so
that students can visit
it to measure their
progress
Give quick brief
feedback as soon as
possible
Supply information about what the learner
is doing, rather than simply praise or
criticism
Dart boards
The inner circle was = “right on,” the next
circle = “working on it,” and the outside
circle = “needs
improvement.”
Model its use, use it as a group, and
then, when students are ready, use it to
peer and self-assess.
Watch for incorrect
answers or
misconceptions and gently
point out the flaws
provide children with clear
success criteria to help
them assess the quality of
their work