1. Assessment for Learning (AfL) Unit 3: Formative Feedback
Assessment for Learning is about using information to improve learning. Quality feedback is an essential element of this.
Unit 3, therefore, focuses on giving pupils formative feedback to help them take the next steps in their learning. It examines the principles underpinning effective feedback and will enable you to make your ongoing feedback more informative and beneficial to pupils.

2. Learning Intentions In this session, we are learning to:
know what is meant by high quality formative feedback;
know the steps needed to provide high quality formative feedback in your classroom; and
understand how formative feedback can affect pupils’ learning.
For this session, the learning intentions are as follows:
to know what is meant by high quality ‘formative feedback’;
to know the steps needed to provide high quality formative feedback in your classroom; and
to understand how formative feedback can impact on pupils’ learning.

3. Activity 1a Effective Feedback
To begin today’s session, I’d like you all to get into groups of three.
(Give each group Activity Sheet 1: Feedback Statements.)
Read through these feedback statements and then decide which are effective and which are not.
Record your decisions on the sheet by placing an ‘E’ in each box containing an effective feedback statement.
(Allow 5 minutes for groups to make their choices.)
Now that you are all finished, which statements did you all feel were effective, quality feedback?
Which were not? Why?
(Allow time for discussion and explanations for their choices.)

4. What do we mean by Formative Feedback?
‘Feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid comparisons with other pupils.’
– Inside the Black Box, Black and Wiliam 1998
Based on this activity, what have you identified as the characteristics of quality feedback?
(Allow discussion, then click to show quotation.)
This is a definition of formative feedback from Black and Wiliam.
How does it fit with your own thinking?
What makes feedback formative?

5. Characteristics of Formative Feedback
Feedback should give pupils:
evidence on where they are now;
the desired goal; and
some understanding of how to close the gap.
According to the quotation, what defines feedback as formative is the presence of comments on quality and advice on how to improve. That being the case, then these are the three elements that all formative feedback should contain:
evidence on where the pupil is now (this is their success as it relates to the agreed criteria, which we discussed in the previous unit);
a definition of the desired goal; and
practical strategies to close the gap.
Note that it’s this advice on how to improve that is critical, as to be truly formative, the feedback must inform the next steps in the learning process. Suggesting they work harder isn’t enough. Formative feedback needs to point them towards how to realise the improvement and reach the goal.

6. Timing of Formative Feedback
Give feedback during the learning.
Allow time for improvement.
Too often feedback given comes too little, too late, or too vague.
If we make sure our feedback includes the three elements just discussed, then we eliminate the risk of our feedback being vague.
But what about the timing? When should we be offering the feedback?
(click)
Ideally, formative feedback should take place during the learning.
You can give feedback as pupils work on a task or assignment. The learning doesn’t have to end when they’ve submitted their work. Instead, you can extend the learning process by offering feedback and allowing time for them to make improvements.
Give your feedback, then let them go away and try to follow the advice to improve their work.
This allows the pupils to take the feedback on board and immediately:
make efforts to close the gap; and
realise the improvement.
This is more effective and productive to the learning experience than end-of-task feedback measures (usually summative), which require pupils to remember the feedback and apply your recommended strategies to a future task.

7. Activity 1b Formative Statements
For this activity, please get back into your groups and look again at the statements on Activity Sheet 1.
(Pass out a copy of Activity Sheet 2: The Sorting Sheet.)
Read through these again, but this time I’d like everyone to think about the three characteristics of formative feedback, which we just reviewed, and identify which statements on the sheet qualify as formative. Then record these on the sheet using an ‘F’. Alternatively, you could highlight those you feel are formative.
(Allow 5 minutes for groups to make their choices.)
Now that you are all finished, which statements did you all feel were formative? Why?
What about those statements that you previously labelled as effective? Do you see a match between these and those you labelled as formative? Are there any that you originally indicated as effective that you now want to re-evaluate?
(Allow time for discussion and explanations for their choices, then provide them with the correct answers, which are marked on Activity Sheet 3: ‘Facilitator’s Statement Sheet’.)

8. Why Is Formative Feedback Important?
It focuses on improvement.
It de-emphasises competition.
It improves motivation and learning ambition.
Let’s talk about why formative feedback is so important.
(click)
Let me start by asking you a question: Who marks or grades every piece of work or activity their pupils produce?
What’s the ratio of marked activities to unmarked activities? 80:20? 50:50? 25:75?
I ask because many of us put a lot of time into marking pupils’ work, and this is useful for improving the learning. (click)
But the question, in terms of AfL, is: Does a mark help the pupil?
Research tells us the answer is NO. For example, telling a pupil that they scored 4 out of 10 tells them that they are not achieving, but it says nothing about how to do better.
Also, over-emphasis on and over-use of grades and marks can create a competitive culture in your classroom. Research indicates that this leads to high achievers becoming complacent and low achievers becoming demotivated.
You may remember hearing this in Unit 1’s training, when we discussed Carol Dweck’s work on students’ motivations. She found that feedback in the form of gold-stars, grades or place-in-class ranking focuses students on performance rather than their learning.
As a result, learners actively avoid risk and extending themselves during new learning, to ensure they secure the reward.

9. Types of Feedback Oral Feedback Given during the lesson or activity
Personal and immediate
Interactive (two-way)
There are two types of feedback that may be given to pupils: oral and written.
(click)
Oral feedback is usually given during the lesson. Written feedback tends to be given after a task or homework.
Oral feedback can be underestimated because it is informal, but it can be a very powerful and effective tool.
This is especially true for younger pupils, because it is personal and immediate.
It’s also interactive, allowing pupils to respond and participate.

10. Effective Oral Feedback
Activity: Pupils cut out, order and glue pictures of a story in sequence.
We are learning to sequence events.
Success criterion: the pictures will be in the same order as in the story we read.
You are getting better at cutting out. Well done!
Good girl, you have glued that picture very neatly
Have a look at this slide and try to determine which of these examples represent effective oral feedback?
(Allow time for everyone to discuss.)
The statements ‘You are getting better…’ and ‘Good girl…’ are not formative because they are not focused on the learning intention and success criterion.
You can still give pupils statements like this, as they are useful as person-focused encouragers, but they can be distractors in terms of formative feedback and could lead the rest of the class, who overhear them, to think it’s the cutting out that is important.
On the other hand, the statements ‘Good strategy …’ and ‘Well done …’ represent formative feedback, as they indicate what the pupil has achieved in terms of strategies for sequencing, and they give a prompt that helps direct the pupil to the next step.
When offering oral feedback yourself, remember to relate the feedback to the learning intention so that pupils do not get confused about what they are learning to do.
Well done. I see you have got the first picture in place. What happened next in the story?
Good strategy, you have cut out all the pictures first so you can shuffle them around and change your mind

11. Focusing the Feedback
‘I recognised things in myself like commenting about the handwriting and spelling, when I should be commenting on the learning intention. It’s been a real revelation to me. I’m aware of it all the time now and when I hear myself starting to say “you’ve left a capital letter out there”, I stop really quickly now and go back to talking about the learning intention.’
– A teacher from S. Clarke’s research project
Even when we know how to offer feedback correctly, it’s difficult to break old habits.
This quotation is a comment from a teacher who took part in Shirley Clarke’s research. She reflects on her feedback and how relating it to the learning intention helps her to remain focused on:
what she wants the pupils to learn; and
how she can help them.
There are some other specific strategies we can use to help keep us right. We will discuss these strategies later.

12. Types of Feedback Written Feedback tends to be:
after the task is complete
comments only
The second type of formative feedback is written feedback. (click)
As I said earlier, written feedback tends to be given after a task or homework. (click)
Also, there is a very strong argument for making written feedback comment only, (click)
which we’ll talk about in a minute.

13. Learning from Feedback
Do you allow time for your pupils to read your comments?
Do you allow time for your pupils to make improvements to their work?
Can pupils read and understand your marking comments?
(click)
As we discussed earlier, formative feedback must focus on and reflect the learning intention, provide explicit information on progress, and offer guidance on how to reach the desired goal (click).
Have a look at these questions (click).
and think about how you would respond given your current written feedback methods (click).
(Pause to allow time to read.)
When we discussed the timing of feedback, I explained the importance of the first two questions. For pupils to benefit from the feedback we offer, we must allow them time to process the comments and improve the piece of work or the learning for that lesson.
But the last question here is also extremely important and something we must consider.
Studies show that pupils often do not read the comments we write, particularly when these are paired with marks. But it might surprise you to know that when they do read them, often pupils cannot understand the marks we give or comments we write. How can pupils process and use the feedback if they don’t understand it in the first place?

14. How Do Pupils Interpret Your Feedback?
Develop these ideas further …
‘Teachers expect you to know what they mean in comments.’ Year 10
‘It would be good if teachers wrote how you could improve your work more.’
Good work …
‘‘Good’ doesn’t help much – he’s just saying that it’s not really very good. I’d like it if he just told the truth.’ P4
‘If I get a ‘good’, I don’t often know what I’ve done good.’ Year 8
You must try harder …
‘I get ‘try harder’ a lot, but it doesn’t really help me do any better.’
Here are some typical examples of feedback teachers have given. Below each of these are comments from actual pupils.
In these quotations, we can see that pupils are asking us to be specific about what they have achieved and then give clear advice on how to improve.
These feedback statements, and others such as ‘Well Done’ and ‘See to Your Punctuation’, are just too vague to be helpful.

15. A Controversial Question About Marking
Which is most effective in helping learners improve?
Mark or grade only (for example 4/10 or B+)
Mark or grade and comment
Comment only
(Click)
When it comes to the type of marks we offer pupils, which type do you think is most effective for improving learning?
(Allow a few minutes for discussion.)

16. Comment-only Marking is the Best Way to Help Learners Improve
Groups of pupils given:
Improvement
Interest in Subject
+ for high attainers
– for middle or low attainers
Marks or grades only
Nil
+ for high attainers
– for middle or low attainers
This table shows that written feedback in the form of comments only is actually the most effective method for improving learning. This is because when comments are paired with marks, pupils tend to ignore the comments because their feelings of achievement or failure have already been reinforced by the mark.
What is the first thing pupils look at when they receive marks with a comment? (Allow time for suggestions.)
And what do you think is the second thing they look at? (Allow time for suggestions.)
The truth is that the first thing a pupil will look at is their mark.
The second thing they will look at is their neighbour’s mark.
Often, pupils do not even read the comment. This means that even when we get the comment right (we’ve made it instructive to improve learning), pupils are unlikely to act on it.
The findings on this slide substantiate this. They are from two Israeli studies referred to by Black and Wiliam. But this was also a key finding in the King’s College research and is backed by findings in a range of countries.
Note that, although it’s not necessary to apply comment-only marking to every piece of work it’s a strategy that you should build into assessment to improve and benefit the learning process.
Pupils will still need summative marks or grades from time to time, but have we and our pupils become over-reliant on them?
Marks or grades + comments
Nil
Comments only
30%
+ for all groups
Research findings, Black and Wiliam,1998

17. A Strategy for Written Feedback
Find two successes against the success criteria.
Find the part of the work that has most scope for an immediate ‘jump’ (not simply the worst part).
Write a short prompt telling the child exactly what to do to this part of their work.
Provide time for them to read, process and respond to your prompt.
This slide is a framework for providing written feedback.
This is only one approach. You can use it as often as manageable.
You can use it alongside other types of assessment. You should explain it to your pupils before you introduce it as a strategy.
First, find two successes. By identifying two successes, you are showing pupils where they are now: where they have achieved success in relation to the learning.
Then, identify an area of the work that they can immediately improve. This might not be the ‘worst’ aspect of their work. You should identify an achievable and realistic goal.
Next, give them a prompt on how to improve. A prompt gives them a practical strategy to close the gap.
Finally, remember that you need to give pupils time to improve.
You don’t have to write huge amounts; you can use symbols instead. Examples of structured feedback that you may already be familiar with are ‘two stars and a wish’ or ‘tickled pink and green for go’.

18. Prompts for Improvement
A reminder prompt: this is most suitable for able pupils.
‘Say more about how you feel about this person.’
A scaffold prompt: scaffolds the learning for pupils who need more support than a simple reminder.
‘Can you describe how this person is a ‘good friend’?’
‘Describe something that happened that showed they are a good friend.’
An example prompt: this can be extremely successful with all pupils, but especially with average or below average pupils.
‘Choose one of these or your own: “He is a good friend because he never says unkind things about me”, “My friend is a friend because he never tells me lies.”’
– Shirley Clarke
When it comes to closing the gap between where a pupil is in their learning and where we want them to be, there are three types of prompts to use with formative feedback that promote improvement:
reminders
scaffolds
examples
These also help you to differentiate your support.
Here is an example of each. Reminders are the least supportive type of prompt, the most basic instruction on how to improve the work or learning.
Examples are the most supportive type of prompt, the most explicit, instructional and illustrative statements of how to improve.
You should select which to use, based on your pupils’ needs.

19. Emma, what were the isolated variables that caused the rusting?
Reminder Prompt
Learning Intention: to be able to isolate variables in a controlled test.
‘The nail rusted much more in dish 2.’
Emma, what were the isolated variables that caused the rusting?
Here’s another example of a Reminder Prompt, but this time in the context of the AfL process – showing the learning intention, pupil work, feedback prompt, and re-submission of the work or improvement in learning.
‘The isolated variables were water and air – these must have been the causes of the rusting.’

20. Complete this with a powerful adverb:
Scaffold Prompt
Learning Intention: to use dialogue to give the reader an impression of character.
‘Emil smiled and whipered, “Put it in your pocit.”’
Complete this with a powerful adverb:
Emil smiled …
Here’s a similar example using the Scaffold Prompt.
Notice that although the pupil made multiple spelling errors, the teacher’s feedback prompt overlooked these mistakes and instead only addressed the learning intention of developing character. Hence, the feedback wasn’t to ‘Improve Spelling’.
‘Emil smiled slyly’

21. One of these volcanoes is named …………..
Example Prompt
Learning Intention: To identify patterns of volcanic activity
– ‘There is a chane of voclanos in the meditranan sea they from a line.’
Vesuvius
Stromboli
Name one example:
One of these volcanoes is named …………..
And finally, here’s an example of the Example Prompt feedback process.
As before, the teacher has kept the feedback related to the learning intention rather than the typing or spelling errors.
‘Sir I like Etna best.’
‘One of these volcanoes is named Etna it is near a city called Naples.’

22. Prompts for Improvement
Activity 2
Prompts for Improvement
Now that we’ve seen the definitions for and examples of the three types of prompts used in formative feedback, it’s your turn to spot them.
(Pass out Activity Sheet 4: Classification Worksheet.)
I’d like you to get back into your groups. Read through the feedback statements from the previous activities, and this time classify them under one of the three prompt types: reminder, scaffold or example.
Record your decisions on the worksheet provided. Please note that not every statement qualifies as a formative prompt.
(Allow five minutes for groups to make their choices.)
Now that you are all finished, which statements did you classify as Reminder Prompts, Scaffold Prompts or Example Prompts?
(Allow time for discussion and explanations for their choices, and then provide them with the correct answers, which are marked on the Facilitator Statement Sheet you used in the previous activity.)

23. Final Tips and Reminders
To deliver formative feedback:
relate the feedback to the learning intention and success criteria;
identify where success has occurred;
set a goal for improvement;
show where and how improvement could take place;
allow time for pupils to make improvements; and
start small.
That’s the end of this unit. Here are just a few thoughts to take away with you.
The last bullet is particularly important as you all try to implement this in your classrooms.
You will not be able to give detailed oral or comment-only written feedback on every piece of work.
To begin, you could:
try choosing one occasion a month for comment-only marking Or
spread the load by focusing on one group of pupils at a time.
Whichever approach you implement, using a formative approach can make your ongoing feedback more informative and beneficial to pupils.