How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students

by Susan M. Brookhart

If the same message would benefit a group of students, providing feedback to the class or group can save time and also serve as a minilesson or review session. If you speak to the whole class when only a subset needs the feedback, you can use the students who have mastered the concept as the "more experienced peers," helping you demonstrate the concept or skill. Or you can pull a group aside to give some feedback while others are doing something else.

Examples of Good Choice of Audience Communicating with an individual, giving information specific to the individual performance Giving group or class feedback when the same minilesson or reteaching session is required for a number of students

Examples of Bad Choice of Audience Using the same comments for all students Never giving individual feedback because it takes too much time

four categories of feedback: Feedback about the task, Feedback about the processing of the task, Feedback about self-regulation, and Feedback about the self as a person.

Feedback about the task includes information about errors—whether something is correct or incorrect. Feedback about the task also includes information about the depth or quality of the work, often against criteria that are either explicit (for example, criteria from a scoring rubric) or implicit in the assignment (for example, a written assignment should be well written). Feedback about the task may include a need for more information (for example, "You should include more information about the First Continental Congress in this report"). Feedback about the task can also include information about neatness or format.

more powerful when it corrects misconceptions than when it alerts students...

One problem with feedback about the task is that it may not transfer to other tasks because it is specific to the particular assignment. In that sense, although it contributes to better learning for the task at hand, feedback about the task does not contribute to further learning

Feedback about process gives students information about how they approached the task, the relationship between what they did and the quality of their performance, and possible alternative strategies that would also be useful.

Feedback about the person ("Smart girl!") is generally not a good idea, for two reasons. First, it doesn't contain information that can be used for further learning, so it's not formative. Second, and more insidious, feedback about the person can contribute to students believing that intelligence is fixed.

Examples of Good Feedback Focus Making comments about the strengths and weaknesses of a performance Making comments about the work process you observed or recommendations about a work process or study strategy that would help improve the work Making comments that position the student as the one who chooses to do the work Avoiding personal comments Examples of Bad Feedback Focus Making comments that bypass the student (e.g., "This is hard" instead of "You did a good job because …") Making criticisms without offering any insights into how to improve Making personal compliments or digs (e.g., "How could you do that?" or "You idiot!")

Comparing work to student-generated rubrics Comparing student work to rubrics that have been shared ahead of time Encouraging a reluctant student who has improved, even though the work is not yet good Examples of Bad Kinds of Comparisons Putting up wall charts that compare students with one another Giving feedback on each student's work according to different criteria or no criteria

Students are less likely to pay attention to descriptive feedback if it is accompanied by judgments, such as a grade or an evaluative comment. Some students will even hear "judgment" when you intended description. Some unsuccessful learners have been so frustrated by their school experiences that they might see even an attempt to help them as just another declaration that they are "stupid.

However, there are some things you can do to maximize the chances that students will interpret the feedback you give as descriptive. First, give students lots of opportunities to practice and receive feedback without a grade being involved.

Second, make your feedback observational. Describe what you see. How close is it to the learning target? What do you think would help?

Examples of Good Feedback Function Identifying for students the strengths and weaknesses in the work Expressing what you observe in the work Examples of Bad Feedback Function Putting a grade on work intended for practice or formative purposes Telling students the work is "good" or "bad" Giving rewards or punishments Giving general praise or general criticism

Feedback should be positive. Being "positive" doesn't mean being artificially happy or saying work is good when it isn't. Being positive means describing how the strengths in a student's work match the criteria for good work and how those strengths show what the student is learning. Being positive means pointing out where improvement is needed and suggesting things the student could do about it. Just noticing what is wrong without offering suggestions to make it right is not helpful.

Examples of Good Feedback Valence Being positive Even when criticizing, being constructive Making suggestions (not prescriptions or pronouncements) Examples of Bad Feedback Valence Finding fault Describing what is wrong and offering no suggestions about what to do Punishing or denigrating students for poor work

Student response is the ultimate criterion against which you can evaluate your own feedback.

Your feedback is effective if it gets the following results: Your students do learn—their work does improve. Your students become more motivated—they believe they can learn, they want to learn, and they take more control over their own learning. Your classroom becomes a place where feedback, including constructive criticism, is valued and viewed as productive.

Written feedback is a genre all its own. Word choice matters. Tone matters. For example, consider these two comments written in the margin of a student essay: "You aren't clear here" and "I don't see what you mean here." Both intend to convey the same thing, but the first sounds more judgmental and the second, more descriptive.

Clarity is important; students need to understand the feedback information as you intend it. Students have different vocabularies and different backgrounds and experiences.

Examples of Good Feedback Clarity Using simple vocabulary and sentence structure Writing or speaking on the student's developmental level Checking that the student understands the feedback Examples of Bad Feedback Clarity Using big words and complicated sentences Writing to show what you know, not what the student needs Assuming the student understands the feedback

Deciding how specific to make your feedback is a matter of the Goldilocks principle: not too narrow, not too broad, but just right.

In either of these cases, students with good intentions who want to act on your feedback may end up doing counterproductive things.

It helps to use specific vocabulary in your written or oral feedback. "This is great!" is a nice, vague comment, but a better one is "This introduction to Moby Dick is great! It would make me want to read the book." Now the student knows what you thought was great and also why you thought so.

Examples of Good Feedback Specificity Using a lot of nouns and descriptive adjectives Describing concepts or criteria Describing learning strategies that may be useful Examples of Bad Feedback Specificity Using a lot of pronouns (this, that) Copyediting or correcting every error Making vague suggestions ("Study harder")

Tone can inspire or discourage.

Examples of Good Tone and Word Choice Using words and phrases that assume the student is an active learner Asking questions Sharing what you are wondering about Examples of Bad Tone and Word Choice Using words and phrases that "lecture" or "boss" Telling the student what to do—leaving nothing up to the student's choice Assuming that your feedback is the last word, the final expert opinion

An important point to keep in mind is that it's not kind to always be positive when some criticism is warranted or to take a coddling tone.

Word choice should be respectful of students as persons and position them as active agents of their own learning (Johnston, 2004). The words you choose as you talk with students will affect their identities.

Finally, sarcasm has no place in feedback.

Written feedback can be delivered in several different ways: Comments directly on the work, usually close to the evidence; Annotations on rubrics or assignment cover sheets; and A combination of both

For feedback on work that is scored or graded, annotatable rubrics or assignment cover sheets work well. Research does suggest students will be more interested in their grade than in the feedback, which is why practice work should not be graded. However, on final projects some students will want to know the reason for their scores or grades, and offering feedback can serve to explain how the grade was determined. Annotating rubrics and using cover sheets are both useful for projects, term papers, and other lengthy written assignments. Good feedback can inject some formative moments into otherwise summative assessments. It is especially useful if revising and resubmitting the work is a possibility or if a similar assignment is coming up.

Oral feedback involves all the word choice issues that written feedback does, but it also includes some unique issues. Where and when should you give oral feedback? You need to speak to the student at a time and a place in which the student is ready and willing to hear what you have to say. Individual oral feedback ranges more broadly than any other type of feedback, from the very formal and structured (student–teacher conferences) to the very informal (a few whispered words as you pass a student's seat). Group oral feedback—for example, speaking to a whole class about a common misconception—can also be helpful.

One difference is that when you are speaking instead of writing, you have less time to make decisions about how to say things, and

once you have said them you can't take them back.

Twin benefits of individual feedback are that the feedback can be specific to the student's particular learning needs and that the feedback is private. Giving feedback based on the particular qualities of a student's work means the information itself will be of maximum usefulness. Giving the feedback in private means that the student will not have to worry about what peers' reactions may be. Therefore, you help the student avoid some of the ego protection and face-saving that can get in the way of feedback.

Oral feedback is often a matter of opportunity—of observing students' readiness to hear it. A student on the way out the door to recess may not be thinking about the assignment you want to discuss; he may be focused on the games he wants to play or the friends he wants to talk with.

Here are some of the most common ways to deliver oral feedback to an individual student: Quietly, at the student's desk, while the rest of the class is working At your desk, either informally (asking one student to come to your desk) or as part of conference time when students systematically come to your desk to discuss their work At a specially scheduled out-of-class time, such as after school

"Quick-and-quiet" feedback is individual, extemporaneous feedback provided to students when you notice a need. As the name suggests, these feedback episodes are quick, often addressing one point (usually about the process the student is using for the work rather than about the task), and they are quiet interchanges. There is no need to broadcast to the whole class which particular difficulty one student is having.

Unlike quick-and-quiet feedback, in-class conferencing is not extemporaneous. In-class conferencing is planned, usually within a lesson that has students working so that individuals can meet with you one at a time about their own work. You and the student will have reviewed the work beforehand so you are both ready to discuss it.

For example, if many students made similar types of errors or need review on the same point, take some class time to do it. This can follow naturally after going over a returned test or other graded assignment.

The following are some of the most common ways to deliver oral feedback to a group or class: At the start of a lesson, summarizing your observations from the previous lesson At the beginning of a review or reteaching lesson, to explain why you are focusing on the same learning target again and to link to prior

learning and set a purpose for students During student performances, either live or videotaped When a test or assignment is returned, summarizing overall strengths and weaknesses

interest). One of the most powerful ways to focus a lesson that is an extension of a previous lesson is to provide some group feedback about the previous lesson's accomplishments.

If a class does not master a concept or skill as quickly as anticipated, or if a large portion of the class needs more practice, an extra lesson on the lesson's learning target or targets may be in order.

The difference between a review lesson conceived as feedback from previous work and a review lesson focused on the same learning target because you think the students need more work is a difference in "consciousness-raising." The difference is whether the students know that your decisions about what

they are doing today are based on your observations of their work yesterday. But that is a crucial difference. It communicates to the students that you paid attention, that you are offering them additional opportunities to improve, and that the point is their performance, not your lesson-plan agenda.

For some learning goals, especially performance-based ones, effective feedback is a matter of identifying something as it happens. For example, suppose students in a physical education class are working on basketball. They have done drills (dribbling, passing, and so on) and studied the

rules. The teacher decides it is time for the students to put it all together in an actual game. She assigns teams and begins the play. Her feedback as the students are playing the game helps them to be aware of their movements and strategies. She calls out this feedback orally, as the game is in play.