1. A Research-Based Strategy for Increasing Student Achievement
Providing Feedback
A Research-Based Strategy for Increasing Student Achievement

2. Think in terms of coaching.
Is your classroom an “assessment center” or an “improvement center”?
What is the purpose of providing feedback?

3. Feedback Informs Learning
“Actionable” feedback tells students what they are doing right or what they need to rethink or correct
Marzano refers to this as “corrective” feedback
Feedback is based on observations of students or on student work

4. What Works?
Telling your beginning driver that her trip home was wrong?
Telling your beginning driver that she can keep working on that trip
home?
Marzano’s research
says that simply telling
students that their
answer on a test is either
right or wrong has a negative effect on achievement
Marzano’s research also
says that asking students
to keep working on a task until they succeed appears to enhance achievement

5. Praise as Feedback
Motivational feedback may encourage or support the learner, but it does not offer suggestions for improvement
How might the comments “Good Work” or “Excellent” discourage a strong student from continuing to improve?
How are struggling students
affected when others get
praise and they never get
this feedback?

6. Grades as Feedback
Research says that if teachers give students feedback and a grade on work, students ignore the feedback and focus on the grades
What does a grade tell students or parents
about what the child knows and what
the child still needs to learn?
● How do grades (as opposed to
feedback) provide information
about student growth?

7. Descriptive, Actionable Feedback (or “Corrective” in Marzano’s words)
Is specific to the learning targets or objectives
Describes learning
Points students in a productive direction
Makes students aware of errors or areas for more thought
Provides next steps for specific action
Should always be specific to criterion—students should know where they stand relative to a specific target of knowledge or skill

8. How to Give Feedback “Actionable” feedback …
can be given to the class as a whole, to small groups, or to individual students
can be written or oral
should be timely
More research: The more delay that occurs in providing feedback, the less improvement in achievement, especially in a test-like situation

9. Another Feedback Activity
Using the work sample from your classroom or a classroom at your school,
What does the student understand?
What misconceptions might the student have?
What would you write on the work sample or what would you share with the student in a conference situation?
What would be your next steps with this student be?

10. Feedback That is “Actionable”…
Helps students answer these questions:
Where am I going?
Where am I now?
How can I close the gap?
Provides opportunities for students to have ownership of their learning

11. Student’s Role in Feedback
Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback
Students can keep track of their
performance as learning occurs
This can be in the form of
self-evaluation
Consider student-led feedback
Rubrics can be effective in helping
students self-assess

12. General Rubric for Information
Scale: 4= excellent; 3=good; 2=improvement; 1=unacceptable; 0= no judgment possible
4 The student has a complete and detailed understanding of the information important to the topic
3 The student has a complete understanding of the information important to the topic but not in great detail
2 The student has an incomplete understanding of the topic and/or misconceptions about some of the information. However, the student maintains a basic understanding of the topic
1 The student’s understanding of the topic is so incomplete or has so many misconceptions that the student cannot be said to understand the topic
0 No judgment can be made about the student’s understanding of the topic
Marzano, page 100

13. General Rubric for Processes and Skills
Scale: 4= excellent; 3=good; 2=improvement; 1=unacceptable; 0= no judgment possible
4 The student can perform the skill or process important to the topic with no significant errors and with fluency; the student understands the key features of the process
3 The student can perform the skill or process important to the topic without making significant errors
2 The student makes some significant errors when performing the skill or process important to the topic but still accomplishes a rough approximation of the skill or process
1 The student makes so many errors in performing the skill or process important to the topic that he or she cannot actually perform the skill or process
0 No judgment can be made about the student’s ability to perform the skill or process
Marzano, page 100

14. Group Work Self-Assessment
Student
Self-Reflection
Teacher Reflection

15. Elementary Homework Rubric from a primary school in Australia

16. High School Art Rubric
RUBRIC: Ceramics: Shaped Bowl

17. Rubric Resources Rubrics For Teachers | K-12 Rubrics and Assessment
RubiStar Home
Rubrics and Rubric Makers

18. Parting Shots on Feedback
And what about when she just circles the question that’s wrong. And I don’t even know why it’s wrong.
And we get it back and all it has is a B. What does a B mean?
Mrs. McQueen takes about 6 weeks to get our papers back to us.