Not too long ago, "feedback" from teachers was synonymous with a few words scrawled across the top of student papers or projects to justify grades. Brief, general comments such as "great job" or "needs a bit more work" were delivered as a kind of postmortem, when usually it was too late to make improvements or other changes. To avoid this backwards approach, perhaps we should change the term "feedback" to "feed forward."
The Tools to Persist
The "feeding forward" approach provides language that reinforces a growth mind-set. When information on progress is timely, specific, accurate, and focused on improvement, it has the greatest chance to positively affect the learner's end performance. Research (as cited in Black and Wiliam, 2009) found that 60 percent of students made significantly greater improvements when feedback was not tied to a grade. For students, grades signal the end of a project; specific, encouraging comments that "feed forward" actually nurture hope for improvement and second chances. This approach to feedback gives the learner a reason to persist!
In planning any lesson, Rick Wormeli says it's essential to ask, "How will students get feedback on their learning, and how will feedback inform my lessons?" (2010). Feedback is an essential part of any lesson, but it does not have to take the traditional note-in-the-margin form. Comments that "feed forward" should be substantive and based on standards, whether those standards are academic or behavioral. Learners want to know how their work matches up to a quality end product or performance. Substantive, standards-based comments, rubrics, performance indicators, and checklists help learners (and teachers) plan next steps for relevant practice and rehearsal. Wormeli explains that "when teachers put up a flag, declaring the presence of errors, and give students whatever tools they may need to find and correct their mistakes, we instigate active learning that endures" (stenhousepublishers, 2012).
Peer-to-Peer Pointers
Some of the most powerful feedback that students receive can come from peer-to-peer interactions. Once the dialogue moves beyond the basic ("This is good.") to the analytical ("Why did you include this?"), students will begin to value the opinions of their classmates. However, most students do not ask these types of questions on their own. They must be taught to provide quality feedback. Statements like "How does x support y?" or "The most convincing part of your argument is …" catalyze focused reflection. Students can generate their own prompts by turning rubric criteria into questions that guide feedback sessions. One of our colleagues has students critique a sample of student work (from the previous year) to come up with general questions to apply in their feedback sessions. By having the students take ownership of the process, the feedback will be better received.
Even a well-structured feedback session can unravel. Spending the time early in the year to walk students through the process, provide them with specific examples, and highlight good instances of peer feedback is key. As the school year goes on, the students will get more adept at the process, especially if they reflect on the types of feedback that were most useful. Do they prefer detailed descriptions of what is wrong, or is a simple, underlined sentence with the note "Awkward" sufficient? Developing this metacognition helps students advocate for the ways they learn best.
When learners can measure their progress against a standard, they are much more capable of communicating their learning needs to teachers. At any point in the lesson, teachers can use a variety of whole class response strategies (thumbs up/down/sideways, clickers, four corners, exit slips) to quickly take a pulse on student understanding. These student self-assessments provide just-in-time information that fuels future adjustments to instruction.
Student Opinions on Feedback
At the center of a feed-forward approach is who we are feeding: students. When we asked a freshman class their thoughts on feedback, the overwhelming majority said they preferred learning from peers. Natalia said that "friends will explain things to you in words you can understand." Lily said that other students "can spend one-on-one time with you, while a teacher can get distracted by a whole class of students." Josh felt that he learned best from teachers who didn't make him feel bad about getting the wrong answer, but instead made him feel good when he eventually got the right answer. These simple statements remind us that students want feedback systems that are personalized, clearly aligned to standards, and engineered for growth to help them take the next steps.