Providing Feedback

1. Providing Feedback A Research-Based Strategy for Increasing Student Achievement

2. Think in terms of coaching. Is your classroom an “assessment center” or an “improvement center”? • What is the purpose of providing feedback?

3. Feedback Informs Learning • “Actionable” feedback tells students what they are doing right or what they need to rethink or correct • Marzano refers to this as “corrective” feedback • Feedback is based on observations of students or on student work

4. What Works? • Telling your beginning driver that her trip home was wrong? • Telling your beginning driver that she can keep working on that trip • home? Marzano’s research says that simply telling students that their answer on a test is either right or wrong has a negative effect on achievement Marzano’s research also says that asking students to keep working on a task until they succeed appears to enhance achievement

5. Praise as Feedback • Motivational feedback may encourage or support the learner, but it does not offer suggestions for improvement • How might the comments “Good Work” or “Excellent” discourage a strong student from continuing to improve? • How are struggling students affected when others get praise and they never get this feedback?

6. Grades as Feedback • Research says that if teachers give students feedback and a grade on work, students ignore the feedback and focus on the grades • What does a grade tell students or parents about what the child knows and what the child still needs to learn? • ● How do grades (as opposed to feedback) provide information about student growth?

7. Descriptive, Actionable Feedback (or “Corrective” in Marzano’s words) • Is specific to the learning targets or objectives • Describes learning • Points students in a productive direction • Makes students aware of errors or areas for more thought • Provides next steps for specific action • Should always be specific to criterion—students should know where they stand relative to a specific target of knowledge or skill

8. How to Give Feedback “Actionable” feedback … • can be given to the class as a whole, to small groups, or to individual students • can be written or oral • should be timely More research: The more delay that occurs in providing feedback, the less improvement in achievement, especially in a test-like situation

9. Another Feedback Activity • Using the work sample from your classroom or a classroom at your school, • What does the student understand? • What misconceptions might the student have? • What would you write on the work sample or what would you share with the student in a conference situation? • What would be your next steps with this student be?

10. Feedback That is “Actionable”… • Helps students answer these questions: • Where am I going? • Where am I now? • How can I close the gap? • Provides opportunities for students to have ownership of their learning

11. Student’s Role in Feedback • Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback • Students can keep track of their performance as learning occurs • This can be in the form of self-evaluation • Consider student-led feedback • Rubrics can be effective in helping students self-assess

12. General Rubric for Information Marzano, page 100

13. General Rubric for Processes and Skills Marzano, page 100

14. Group Work Self-Assessment Student Self-Reflection Teacher Reflection

15. Elementary Homework Rubricfrom a primary school in Australia

16. High School Art Rubric RUBRIC: Ceramics: Shaped Bowl

17. Rubric Resources • Rubrics For Teachers | K-12 Rubrics and Assessment • RubiStar Home • Rubrics and Rubric Makers

18. Parting Shots on Feedback And what about when she just circles the question that’s wrong. And I don’t even know why it’s wrong. And we get it back and all it has is a B. What does a B mean? Mrs. McQueen takes about 6 weeks to get our papers back to us.