Making Choices for Effective Feedback

Laurian Phillips
Nov 16, 2009

Assessment is about more than just grading a test. If we truly want to find out what errors students are making and what errors there are in understanding, we must use effective and appropriate feedback when assessing student work. Formative assessment gives both the teacher and the student information about how the students are thinking and what they are learning in relation to the essential question.

Feedback strategies can vary in four ways: timing, amount, mo de, and audience. You need to think about when to give feedback and how often it should be given. As to amount, you should be careful to limit the number of ideas to give feedback on at any one time and how much feedback to give on any one point. Feedback may be oral, written, or visual. Feedback may be given individually or whole group.

According to Brookhart, "The purpose of giving immediate or only slightly delayed feedback is to help students hear it and use it. It needs to come while they still think of the learning goal as a learning goal - that is, something they are still striving for, not something they already did. It especially needs to come while they still have some reason to work on the learning target. Feedback about a topic they won't have to deal with again all year will strike students as pointless."

Examples of good feedback timing include returning a test or assignment the next day, giving immediate oral responses to questions of fact or student misconceptions, and providing flashcards which give immediate right/wrong feedback for studying facts.

One of the hardest decisions to make is the amount of feedback to give to students. As teachers, we want to "fix" everything that we see that is wrong. However, the right amount of feedback will not overwhelm students.

Examples of good amounts of feedback include selecting two or three main points about a paper for comment, giving feedback on important learning targets, and commenting on at least as many strengths as weaknesses.

Feedback can be given orally, written, or by demonstration. Some assignments lend themselves better to one mode than another. For example, reviewing and writing comments on students' written work, observing and commenting as students do math problems in massed practice or in pairs, and demonstrating to a kindergartener how to hold a pencil correctly.

Examples of choosing the best mode include using written feedback for comments that students need to be able to save and look over, using oral feedback for students who don't read well or if there is more information than students would want to read, and demonstrating how to do something if the student needs to see how to do something or what something "looks like".

Feedback is best used when it has a strong sense of audience. Feedback about individual work is best given to individuals and likewise, providing feedback to the class or a group can save time if there are many in the class that have the same errors in thinking. Examples of good choice of audience include communicating with an individual, giving information specific to individual performances and giving group or class feedback when the same mini-lesson or re-teaching session is required for a number of students.

Feedback can be a powerful impetus for student learning. It must be effective, thoughtful and well planned. Before any feedback can be given, think about timing, amount, mode, and audience. If feedback is planned appropriately and delivered with a helpful message, students begin to understand errors in thinking.

Source: How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students Susan M. Brookhart ASCD 2008.