Classroom Instruction That Works
Providing Feedback

Think of a time when feedback made a difference in your learning.
What did the feedback look like and what difference did it make?

Generalizations from the Research:
Providing Feedback
#1
Feedback should be corrective in nature.

Generalizations from the Research:
Providing Feedback
#2
Feedback should be timely.

Generalizations from the Research:
Providing Feedback
#3
Feedback should be specific to a criterion.

Generalizations from the Research:
Providing Feedback
#4
Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback.

1. How do the teachers in the video provide feedback that is a) corrective, b) timely, and c) specific?
2. How do the teachers in the video involve students in providing their own feedback?
3. How have you used these or similar types of feedback with your students?

Recommendations for Classroom
Practice: Providing Feedback
#1
Use Criterion-Referenced Feedback
One way is to use rubrics to clearly express to students the knowledge and skills they are supposed to learn and the traits of the expected performance.

Recommendations for Classroom
Practice: Providing Feedback
#2
Focus Feedback on Specific Types of Knowledge
Information
(Declarative Knowledge): e.g., vocabulary terms, facts, details, generalizations, principles, concepts
Processes and Skills
(Procedural Knowledge): whether a student can perform a skill or process without error and with fluency

Recommendations for Classroom
Practice: Providing Feedback
4
General Rubric for Information (Declarative Knowledge)
Performance
Level
Performance
Description
The student has a complete and detailed understanding of the information important to the topic.
3
2
1
0
The student has a complete understanding of the information important to the topic but not in great detail.
The student has an incomplete understanding of the topic and/or misconceptions about some of the information.
The student understands very little about the topic or has misconceptions about most of the information.
No judgment can be made about the student’s understanding of the topic.

1
0
2
3
4
Recommendations for Classroom
Practice: Providing Feedback
General Rubric for Processes and Skills (Procedural Knowledge)
Performance
Level
Performance
Description
The student can perform the skill or process important to the topic with no significant errors and with fluency.
Additionally, the student understands the key features of the process.
The student can perform the skill or process important to the topic without making significant errors.
The student makes some significant errors when performing the skill or process important to the topic but still accomplishes a rough approximation of the skill or process.
The student makes so many errors in performing the skill or process important to the topic that he or she cannot actually perform the skill or process.
No judgment can be made about the student’s ability to perform the skill or process.

Recommendations for Classroom
Practice: Providing Feedback
#3
Use Student-led Feedback
Peer Feedback Self-Assessment

 Criterion-referenced feedback
(in terms of specific levels of performance relative to the learning objectives) is better than simply providing students with a percentage score.

 Provide feedback throughout a unit of instruction and as soon after individual assessment events as possible.
 Delayed feedback = less improvement in achievement.

 Simply telling students answers are right or wrong has a negative effect on achievement.
 Best feedback involves an explanation of what is correct and incorrect about their responses.
 Providing this type of feedback and asking students to keep working on a task until they succeed leads to higher levels of achievement.

 Students benefit from participating in peer- and self-assessment.
Teachers can help students learn how to give feedback to themselves and others by providing students with templates that structure this feedback.

 What have you learned about providing feedback?
 What questions do you have about providing feedback?
 What changes will you make in your practice related to providing feedback?
 What is one specific technique or method you can implement right away in your classroom?