30 Day Reflection: Feedback Frenzy

This is the 14th day in a 30 day challenge from Teach Thought

Day 14: What is feedback for learning, and how well do you give it to students?


The feedback I typically give my students comes in written and oral form. Since my students usually writes 4-6 major pieces of writing a year, I depend heavily on peer feedback as well.

I typically give students verbal feedback one-on-one on the thesis statements, topic ideas, and first paragraphs of their pieces. I find that this method helps them make changes before they get too far into the writing process. Also, I think the one-on-one conversations are not intimidating to the students and helps me understand a student's thinking process.

Then I typically give lots of written comments on the first draft. After the students have revised their pieces, they turn the piece over to a peer for some peer feedback. I spend some time early in the year teaching my students how to give helpful feedback. I find students learn best what is strong writing when they are having to identify it in someone else's writing. For the final draft, I use a holistic scoring rubric only.

This structure of my system has worked well for me over the last few years. I have experimented with handwritten comments only, using Edmodo or Turn It In, or Word comment feature to give electronic comments as well. I always hope the electronic comments will help me return feedback quicker.

The main struggle I have is getting feedback on written assignments in a timely fashion. I call this the feedback frenzy. I have 167 students this year, a lighter load than last year when I had 178.  If I read and comment on each of their pieces and spend just 30 minutes each, that will take me about 83 hours to finish. As the kids say, "the struggle is real".  So, I will keep hunting for ways to improve the speed with which I give feedback. Maybe one day I will find the magic bullet.