How much thinking do you do before you give student feedback?
When I was in grade four I had a teacher tell me that I would have to work very hard if I wanted to be a writer when I grew up because my writing wasn’t very good.
That tiny sentence said in passing one day after I’d shared a story I wrote on my own, has stuck with me for all these years. When you give a student feedback, it sticks with them, even when you don’t think it will. You need to make sure your feedback helps them become better students and guides them without being ultra-judgy and destroying their self-esteem.
This can be a challenging task (especially when we’re overwhelmed with things to get done). Keep reading to find out how you can master the art of giving students feedback.
I cringe when I hear some teachers give feedback because it immediately takes me back to that classroom where all the pride I had about writing a whole story on my own became soul-crushing defeat and nothing would ever measure up. I truly believe I became a writer just to show that teacher I would.
You have to give student feedback the right way
Because the wrong way can actually damage your students (even without you meaning it to).
You’ve probably been giving feedback wrong. In fact, you might even dread giving students feedback because it takes up so much of your time. It’s challenging to come up with what to say. Well, that’s probably because you’re the one thinking about the feedback. But if you’re reflecting on the work more than the student, what is the point of the feedback? Let’s look at changing the type of feedback you give, adjusting when you give it, encouraging others to provide it, and understanding why quality feedback is important.
Give Student Feedback to Encourage Growth
Honestly, we have been doing this wrong for years. “You did a great job.” Um, that tells us absolutely nothing about how to improve. Feedback should encourage the student to reflect on their work. It should help students think of ways to improve it. This is guided by the teacher who can teach students more and more ways to improve, refine skills and do things “better.”
We have a set of Feedback Starter Prompts available for free. These are in a poster set that we use to help our students give each other quality feedback. Sign up for our email list to get regular tips and you’ll also get unlimited access to our Resource Library. Some of the prompts only work for specific situations or types of tasks.
There are generally a few different types of feedback.
Judgment
This is good/bad. Honestly, what student uses this to learn from? Nobody wants to take any feedback from someone who is just plain old judgy. It’s not helpful and while it can occasionally be used to boost a student’s confidence, it’s not useful in the classroom. It sounds like “You did a good job of using quotation marks.”
All About Me
Do you give feedback that starts with “This reminds me of when I…” What is your student really going to gain from that? While it might help build a relationship, it’s not helping the student learn. Use it sparingly. The feedback should be about the student, not you.
Statement
This is a statement about what has or has not been done. An example would be: “You used capital letters.” While it might be encouraging (especially if this student has been struggling with capitalization), it’s not especially reflective. It doesn’t encourage the student to change anything (good or bad).
The Thinker
This is our favourite. We ask a question that makes the student think about the answer. This way the student reflects and has to think. Sometimes it even helps us better understand why a student wrote/did something. They get a chance to talk about themselves-what student doesn’t love that?
Give student feedback with these prompts.
- What did you learn about ________ while working on this (project, assignment, task, etc.)?
- If you had more time to work on this (project, assignment, task, etc.) what would you (change, add, create, remove, improve)?
- What surprised you most when you researched _______?
- What advice would you give to someone doing this (project, assignment, task, etc.)?
- If someone was doing this project, what do you think they would need to know before they started?
- What was the most difficult/challenging part of this (project, assignment, task, etc.)?
- What part of this (project, assignment, task, etc.) are you most proud of?
- How has doing this (project, assignment, task, etc.) changed your views of/about ______________?
- What did you find most interesting about _________?
- Now that you’ve done ________, what do you think you’ll research/work on/learn about next?
- Explain why you chose to ___________.
- Can you tell me more about __________?
These are also available as a poster set that comes in colour or ink-saving versions.
Don’t Give Student Feedback at the End
When to give feedback is just as important as what you say. If you give students feedback after they finish their work, all you’re doing is giving them a comment. They can’t use that feedback to improve their current work-it’s already done.
Most students don’t take that feedback and apply it to new assignments. Give feedback to students AS THEY ARE WORKING, so they can apply that feedback immediately and change the trajectory of their work.
Don’t wait until the work is all done and then expect students to change their work. Why do it twice? Conference with students about longer projects as they move through each stage and give them individual attention.
Talk with students and ask them questions-don’t tell them HOW to do something on their work, but show them examples they can use to modify and improve their work. Maybe even throw in a mini-lesson mid-project if you have a few students struggling with the same thing.
Teach Your Students to Give Student Feedback
There is only one of you, so if you’re students are waiting for feedback from you, they’re going to have to wait. If you have your students giving quality feedback you have just outsourced twenty-five (dream class size) feedback comments in a few minutes.
We use the prompts as an anchor chart in our class until we know them well enough and they almost become like a routine in our classroom after presentations.
Ninja Note: One of our biggest pet peeves is “Two Starts and Wish.” In fact, my skin is crawling just writing about it. Basically the concept is that a student present something to the class and then the classmates “give feedback” by telling the present two things they liked and one thing they wish they’d done better.
First off, the feedback isn’t any good because it’s all judgy, judgy. Depending on who’s giving the feedback, the presenter either ignores it or feels idolized (or horrible) because it becomes a popularity contest.
Giving the presenter questions that require reflection and honesty, turns the tables so the presenter has the power of what they choose to answer.
Some of the best feedback has been given by students to students when doing critical thinking challenges. Not sure what those are? Read this blog post What About Critical Thinking Challenges?
If you have students who struggle with self-assessment, reflection or assessment in general, you might benefit from reading: How to Teach Students to Self-Assess.
Why is feedback so important?
Well, you’re a teacher. Your whole job means you are moulding these little people into creative, thoughtful thinkers who can learn all kinds of amazing things because you inspire them to do so. Feedback is important to them. They need your input. Remember, whether the feedback is positive or negative, it will impact them so choose your words (and watch your facial expressions) carefully and thoughtfully.
Not only do you want students to use the feedback you give to push them forward in their learning, but you also want them to learn that taking and using feedback is a valuable life skill that will help them throughout their lives whether they continue their education or learn on the job.
Back to that teacher who told me I wouldn’t be a writer. She was my least favourite teacher ever. Luckily I had two teachers in the two following school years that not only encouraged my writing, they actively assisted me in improving. They encouraged me and they still cheer me on!
Change how your students ask for feedback.
Recently a teacher told me a story about her class. When her students say “Is this good?” She replies jokingly and sarcastically with “no, it’s horrible,” or “oh, I can’t even.”
Um, what?
Then she explained she is teaching her students to ask better questions to get better feedback. There is an understanding in her classroom that if she responds with something crazy, it’s because she’s prompting them to ask a thoughtful question. Her students now ask questions like, “I’m working on getting the punctuation right with quotation marks. Have I used them correctly here?”
I was blown away. These are nine-year-olds asking these questions.
What is a feedback fair?
And if you’re impressed by the questions they ask, you should hear the feedback. I was lucky enough to join her for an afternoon. She was having a “feedback fair” with her class. Students selected items they were currently working on. Some were stories, some were projects and some were things like art assignments.
Every student was given a pad of sticky notes. Their job for about half an hour was to go around the room looking at the different things from various students to give feedback. Sometimes it was specifically based on what the person was looking for or the type of project. Sometimes they were questions for reflection.
It was amazing! After thirty minutes every student had a handful of useful feedback they could use to work on their projects. They took that feedback and got back to work incorporating some of the feedback as they went. By the time they finished their projects, they’d done this activity a few times and the finished products were amazing because students got plenty of feedback as they worked.
Best of all, their teacher didn’t have to come up with “comments” about the projects when they were finished. Students handed in their projects with all the feedback from the feedback fairs and the teacher compared to see what they had improved as they worked.
Genius!
Giving student feedback doesn’t have to be extra work.
Long story short, don’t wait until students have finished to give them feedback. Conference with them while they are working and encourage students to get feedback from each other as they work on projects. This is what we do as adults, so we shouldn’t be surprised when students are learning. Your students will surprise you with the types of feedback they give.
Did we miss something related to giving students feedback? Be sure to let us know what has worked for you, or what you have more questions about. Each time we work with a new group of students, we learn a little more about giving them feedback and teaching them to give each other quality feedback, too.
Leave us a comment with your thoughts (or some feedback).
