Effective Feedback March 24th, 2015

Welcome! Okay, first things first, TIPsters… Check your Inbox! Please complete the survey in Google that has been previously been emailed to you. AFTER the Google survey, please complete the 3 question Survey Monkey that has been emailed, as well.

Today’s Goals Examine data and evaluate “Building Better Brains” Define “feedback” and explore the purpose and value of feedback to a learner Identify quality indicators of effective feedback Explore the connection between effective feedback and growth mindset Practice using effective feedback on authentic student work samples Look forward to May 18th – TIP 3rd Annual Colloquium

What is Feedback? “Feedback is an objective description of a student’s performance intended to guide future performance. Unlike evaluation, which judges performance, feedback is the process of helping our students assess their performance, identify areas where they are right on target and provide them tips on what they can do in the future to improve in areas that need correcting.” ~ W. Fred Miser, M.D. Chief of Residency, OSU School of Medicine Turn and talk…when have you had an evaluation? When have you had feedback When do you give or get evaluations….feedback? Critics vs. notes Summative vs. formative

What is Feedback? “Research has shown that effective feedback is an integral part of an instructional dialogue between teacher and student, (or between students, or between the student and him/herself).” From “Providing Students with Effective Feedback” Summative vs. Formative

What is Feedback? “Feedback is not about praise or blame, approval or disapproval. That’s what evaluation is – placing value. Feedback is value-neutral. It describes what you did and did not do.” ~ Grant Wiggins

What is Effective Feedback? effective feedback is descriptive not evaluative

What is Effective Feedback? In 1996, Pat Tunstall and Caroline Gipps developed a typology of teacher feedback by recording and classifying the feedback given by teachers to their students. They classified feedback as either: evaluative – involving a value judgment OR descriptive – describing what the student said or did, and providing guidance for improvement

Evaluative Feedback? Evaluative feedback involves a judgment by the teacher based on implicit or explicit norms. Evaluative feedback may take the form of: Approval: “That’s a good essay.” “You’ve done well.” Disapproval: “That’s not good enough.” Reward: Gold stars Punishment: “Write it out again.” Julie…..talking about gold stars…WHEN do we want this type of reward for students? WHAT is the purpose?

Descriptive Feedback Descriptive feedback: focuses on identified learning outcomes and makes specific reference to the student’s achievement. looks towards improvement. An example of descriptive feedback: “That’s a good introduction because you have covered the main points we discussed at the beginning. Now … which points do you think you should expand on?”

Judgment: Focused on Targets: A+ work Try harder next time Good essay Evaluative Feedback Judgment: A+ work Try harder next time Good essay Not strong  Descriptive Feedback Focused on Targets: Accurate work in discussing the main points. What can you now expand on? Your hypothesis is a useful proposal. How can you rewrite it as an if…then…statement? Process was correctly followed but you made a simple mathematical error in step 2. Remember to check your work. Feedback is about: Honing Revise and resubmit Polishing Continual improvement process For secondary teachers it is the difference between teaching a lesson for the first time to your first period and then what the lesson looks like during your last period of the day -You have refined it throughout your day based on the feedback you have received from your students.

An emphasis on evaluative feedback can affect how students feel about themselves. It can make the good students feel better (and possibly complacent) and the less able students feel worse (and the more sure that they will never be able to succeed.) How is this related to fixed vs. growth mindset?

Effective Feedback answers 3 questions 1) Where am I going? 2) How am I going? 3) How can I close the gap? If you walk away with nothing else…

Effective Feedback answers 3 questions 1) Where am I going? - a student has a clear understanding of the desired goal, a vision of the target 2) How am I going? - a student is given frequent and descriptive notes about his present position in relation to that goal 3) How can I close the gap? - a student is given guidance on how to close the gap between where he is going and how he is going to get there

The 3 feedback questions work at four Levels of Effective Feedback… Make this look better

Four Levels of Effective Feedback Task Process Self-regulation Self Here’s where we look at student samples….

Task “You’ve written the first thing first, but after that it becomes muddled. You need to go through what you’ve written, number the order in which things happened, and re-write them in that order.”

Task Please examine a student work sample and use the TASK level prompts to help determine what feedback you might give.

Process “You’re asked to compare these ideas. For example, you could try to see how they are similar, how they are different…How do they relate to each other?

Process Please examine a student work sample and use the PROCESS level prompts to help determine what feedback you might give.

Self Regulation and Direction “I’m impressed by how you went back to the beginning of the sentence when you became stuck on this word – but, in this case, it didn’t help. What else could you do? When you decide on what it means, I want you to tell me how confident you are and why.” Tundra.com

Self Regulation and Direction Please examine a student work sample and use the SELF REGULATION and DIRECTION level prompts to help determine what feedback you might give.

Self “This level of feedback is commonly subsumed under the notion of ‘praise.’ Praise the students by making feel welcome in your class and worthwhile as learners, but if you wish to make a major difference to learning, leave praise out of feedback about learning.” -John Hattie Must be purposeful…mold appropriate behaviors…refer back to Julie’s comments about gold stars

Best Practice Descrip-tive Action-able Under-standable Specific

Specific Adequate amount and detail: for the target to the student “Incorrect strategy.” “Very precise lines and points in your graphing, but remember to label your axes.”

Descriptive About the task process self-regulation “Nice opening sentence.” “Your opening sentence grabbed the reader with descriptive detail and introduced the mystery to be solved.”

Actionable Explains: what to do how to do it “It looks like you worked hard on your poster but it needs more detail.” “You have a good start with your review of the main ideas in the center of your poster. It would help to use the side panels to provide supporting evidence.”

Understandable Can be acted upon is specific is clear “Good presentation skills” “You engaged the listeners through your questioning strategy. Remember also, to make eye contact with your audience.” Add graphic

Written Feedback When feedback is given in writing, some students: have difficulty understanding the points the teacher is trying to make are unable to read the teacher’s writing can’t process the feedback and understand what to do next. Asking a student to tell you what they think you are trying to say to them is the best way to check this out.

Marks vs. Comments Findings from research showed that: Students given only marks made no gain from the first to the second lesson. Students given only comments scored on average 30% higher. Giving marks alongside comments cancelled the beneficial effects of the comments. Research conclusion: If you are going to grade or mark a piece of work, you are wasting your time writing careful diagnostic comments.

A few practical strategies Comment-only marking - provides students with a focus for progression instead of a reward or punishment for their ego (as a grade does).Comments should make it clear how the student can improve. Self Assessment - Reinforce the focus on redrafting and comment-only marking by insisting on seeing evidence of student self- assessment on their work before you look at it. Feedback Sandwich – Positive comment/Constructive criticism with explanation of how to improve /Positive comment Clarke (2001) – “When giving written feedback, teachers highlight two or three successes in the student’s work and one area where some improvement is necessary.” Some practical strategies for effective formative feedback to try out in the classroo (Adapted from Mike Gershon’s Assessment for Learning Tools)

2014-15 TIP Colloquium Guidelines Focus Question: Will students who have received Building Better Brains and Growth-Mindset Feedback improve beyond prior performances on academic tasks? Presentations Post-training TIPster planning Presentation Content