How to use feedback to maximize student achievement.

The Goal The purpose of this training is to provide participating teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to provide students with feedback in a manner that significantly increases student achievement.

Overview In today’s training session you will: Understand the importance of feedback, Explore types of feedback and how they apply to students of different ages and grades, Discover the components of effective feedback, and Design a plan to use feedback in your afterschool sessions.

Why Feedback? Turn and Talk: Turn to your partner and briefly share your thoughts on the feedback process and what you think makes it work. (2 min.) KWL Chart: Join your group with another group of two. Discuss your ideas and fill out the provided chart about What you know about feedback. What you want to know about feedback. (5 min.)

The Power of Feedback Researchers have stated that effective feedback has one of the largest impacts on student achievement (Hattie, 2009; Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Feedback has been associated with student percentile gains as high as 41 and averaging around 26 percentile points! These figures are based on thousands of studies. Student gains, however, are dependent on using feedback in the correct manner.

What is Feedback? Whether feedback is just there to be grasped or is provided by another person, helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent (Wiggins, 2012).

What Feedback is not. Feedback vs. advice. Feedback vs. evaluation. BASEBALL: Consider one of these two examples. Take your assigned topic and compare and contrast the two topics. Include the occasions in the afterschool program that they would be most appropriate. (3 minutes) Roll your thoughts into a ball and “pitch” it to someone else. Read your new thoughts and prepare to discuss. (5 minutes).

Components of Good Feedback Corrective in nature. Feedback should be designed to provide students with information about what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Timely. Feedback should be given within a short window after performance. Criterion specific. Students need information about their performance compared to the pre-determined standards of performance, not feedback about where they rank among other students (Marzano et. al., 2001).

Timely Feedback Feedback should be given in a timely manner BUT: Time should be spent giving students a chance to discuss their answers with each other. Time should be spent probing students answers to provide a deeper understanding of the learning standards. This gives students a chance to develop methods of providing “self-feedback” to themselves.

Amount of Feedback (Brookhart, 2008) Good amount Ineffective amount Selecting 2 or 3 main points to correct, allowing students to apply this to other things. Noting strengths as well as weaknesses. Enough to provide guidance and support. Correcting every error on the assignment. Commentary on weaknesses and errors, but little to no comment on strengths. Doing the work for them.

Providing Feedback in YOUR Classroom PAPARAZZI: A volunteer(s) will come up and select “media” members and answer their questions about feedback in their classroom. Questions may include: What does “timely” feedback mean for your students and their learning standards? What level of probing for understanding is appropriate for your students and their learning standards before they receive feedback? What level of discussion is needed for your students and standards before they receive feedback?

Practice A first grader is reading with you in a small group. During this reading, breaks are taken to probe for understanding. What kind of feedback should you give this student? What factors should be considered?

Factors WHAT IS THE LEARNING STANDARD? WHERE IS THAT STUDENT IN RELATION TO MASTERING THAT STANDARD? How much probing/discussion should be done? Was the student right or wrong? What corrective behavior does the student need to exhibit?

Plan Feedback, like many other things, has to be deliberately planned for to be effective. Should be partnered with pre-selected questions. Should anticipate mistakes and misconceptions. For example, if a student chooses a correct answer, I will provide ______ as feedback to reinforce this idea. If a student chooses a particular wrong answer, I will provide _____ as feedback to cause the student to make a particular correction.

Questions? Any questions? Comments? Concerns? Or anything else for the good of the group?

Summary Feedback is related to student achievement and can have a big impact on this achievement. Advice and evaluation, though important, are different than feedback. The components of good feedback are being corrective by design, timely, and criterion specific. Questioning/Probing and student discussion should be integrated into the feedback process. Should be pre-planned and deliberate.

Sources Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge. Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (200). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven keys to effective feedback. Educational Leadership,(70) 1, 10-16.