This NowComment activity focuses on teachers’ feedback to students. First, we build on the Insights about Feedback by identifying characteristics of ineffective feedback and having you annotate feedback samples to identify effective and/or ineffective statements. You will then view and annotate video transcripts of effective feedback, noting which insights about feedback are evident in the clips.

“To be effective, feedback needs to be clear, purposeful, meaningful, and compatible with students’ prior knowledge to provide logical connections. If feedback is directed at the right level, it can assist students to comprehend, engage, or develop effective strategies to process the information intended to be learnt. Thus, when feedback is combined with effective instruction in classrooms, it can be very powerful in enhancing learning.”

- John Hattie: Visible Learning, 2009

As John Hattie tells us, effective teacher feedback can have powerful effects on student learning. However, not all feedback students receive is effective. Certain types of feedback lead to negative consequences for students. The table below identifies characteristics of ineffective feedback, as corollary aspects to the Insights about Feedback

Examples of Feedback:

1. “That’s an interesting opinion—but remember our discussion in guided reading this morning about finding evidence in the text. What evidence can you give to justify your opinion that the wolf was afraid?”
2. “I like your choice of language in the second paragraph. I get a clear mental image of what it was like for Josh when he first stepped inside the space station. There’s one part, just here, that I don’t understand—I think it needs elaboration. You may need to go back to the website you’ve been using to get more information to ensure it’s clear to the reader.”
3. “I agree with the pattern that you have identified in the table. How could you prove that the rule you wrote works for all the values in the table?”
4. “You’re really great because you have worked hard to complete this task by applying this concept.”
5. “You described fraction strips using fractions and recognized the fractions have the same value. You also drew fraction strips that represent other equivalent fractions. To continue thinking about equivalent fractions, could you write two different fractions that are equivalent to those on the page without drawing pictures or using fraction strips?”
6. “Your understanding of this idea is much weaker than the other students in the class. You will need to redo the work to catch up.”
7. “Your design shows that you are clear about what you want to measure, and you have listed four factors that should remain constant in your test and one that will change. For your test to be fair, there is one other factor that must remain constant. You are planning to measure the time parachutes of different sizes take to fall to the ground. With this in mind, can you review your plan and think about what else needs to be constant? I’ll be back in a few moments to hear your ideas.”
8. “You are not paying sufficient attention to the features of narrative in your writing. Revise your work. ”

In this first video, you will return to Ms. Lozano’s classroom, where her fifth graders have just learned about arguments and counterarguments and are now using these structures in their own writing. Ms. Lozano’s instruction occurs within the predictable routine of a “writer’s workshop” setting (Calkins, 1994). Each session of the workshop begins with a mini-lesson focused on argument structure, which is followed by a period in which the students engage in independent writing, using what they learned in the mini-lesson to further their work, and soliciting feedback from peers as their writing develops.

Angie is independently writing when Ms. Lozano comes to sit beside her and engages Angie in a discussion about her work. After you view the video, you will review and respond to the annotated transcript.

In this second video clip, you will see Sarah Brown Wessling, a high school English teacher with a unique strategy for providing feedback for her students. In this segment, you will watch the brief video and annotate the transcript yourselves.

Teaching Channel Transcript of Podcasting to Personalize Feedback

Sometimes when students hand in a paper, I decide to offer them some personalized feedback by creating individual podcasts for them.

My preference right now is to read the paper through first, put little anchors, some little key words, and then I pull out my iPod, I put a little recording device in there and I push record and I talk to them.

Teacher: Comment #1, I really like the title here. I’m actually wondering if maybe just having a colon afterwards and defining this preservation a little bit more might be helpful.

I’ll offer them suggestions for revision or maybe I’ll read a sentence out loud to them so that they hear what it sounds like to me, and I will then ask them, “Is this what you wanted to sound like?”

Teacher: A rose exits from the ground, the stem gains multiple perspectives, the child that progresses. I don't know if you hear what I hear, but I hear the sentences starting very similarly so maybe think about changing the structure of the sentences.

When I first started teaching, I spent all of this time writing on these papers and writing on these papers. And I would give them to the students and then the ones who were really wonderful kids, but less conscientious, would just throw them in the garbage on the way out. And I decided well, I can change how I do this.

Teacher: Comment #10, preserve a style of thinking that is distinctive. I love your voice here. I love it so much I want it so much earlier.

This is not a teacher talking to a student. I want them to feel like it’s a writer talking to a writer, a reader talking to a reader, a thinker talking to a thinker.

Teacher: What if you tried to take out passive voice…

It takes the same amount of time. The only difference is I can say so much more in 15 minutes than I could ever write. And they listen to it.