Feedback is one of the most powerful ways to increase student achievement. This workshop will focus on what the research says about quality feedback, how feedback can focus on different needs, and how to use feedback as formative assessment. . It’s also important to touch on not only how to give feedback but how to receive feedback and find the value in it. Examples and strategies will be shared to help teachers give feedback that students will use. We will also look at student-to-student feedback, student-to-teacher feedback, and touch briefly on how to offer feedback to peers.

1. Starting the Conversation
About Feedback
Jennifer Smithers Marten
GT Coordinator/Online School Coordinator
Plymouth Joint School District
Plymouth, Wisconsin

2. All of the resources referenced in this
presentation can be found on my weebly
Feedback as a Teaching Strategy
http://feedbackasateachingstrategy.weebly.com/

4. Think-Pair-Share
What is your biggest frustration with giving
students feedback?

5. Why do I take the time to write comments on their papers?

6. The students who need it, don’t read it.

7. Even the good kids just flip through to find the grade.

8. A Little Bit of Research
(Butler, 1988)
• Students who received specific feedback
tailored to their performance showed
significant increase in scores (almost 30%)
• Students who received only letter grades
showed a significant decline in scores.
• Students that received both grades and
comments also showed a significant decline in
scores.

12. "The effects of feedback depend on the
nature of the feedback. Feedback can be the
information that drives the process or the
stumbling block that derails the process."
~ Susan Brookhart

17. 3-point conventions score measures
Punctuation
Grammar
Capitalization
Spelling
6-point composition score measures
Purpose
Organization
Content development
Sentence fluency
Word choice

18. ABOUT EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
WHAT WE KNOW

19. Evaluative Feedback
• Tells learners how they compare to
others
• Provides a judgment summarizing
the quality of the learning
• Is a direct result of summative
assessment

20. Descriptive Feedback
• Provides specific information in the
form of written comments or
conversations
• Helps the learner understand what
he or she needs to do to improve
• Is a crucial part of formative
assessment

21. Intervention Feedback
• Tells the student what needs
improving
• Gives enough information so the
student knows what to do next

22. Achievement Feedback
• Tells the student what was done well
• Praises the work or process, not the
student

23. Three Questions
Where am I going?
How am I going?
Where to next?
Hattie & Timperley (2007)

24. Task and Product Level
Indicates correct/incorrect
Needs more or different responses
Provides more/different information
Relevant to task
Builds task knowledge

25. Self- Regulation or Conditional Level
Helps students identify feedback themselves
Provides opportunities and awareness of
deliberate practice/effort
Develops confidence to pursue the learning

26. Self Level
Often used to comfort or support
Often directs attention away from the task,
process, or self-regulation
Praise should not be given as part of feedback.
It dilutes the power of feedback

27. Focused Listing
Step One: Take 5 minutes to brainstorm
examples of feedback you have used in your
classroom.
Step Two: Take 5 minutes to sort them into
Hattie’s and Timperley’s four levels.
Step Three: Do you see any patterns?

28. Just as a thermostat adjusts a room
temperature, effective feedback helps
maintain a supportive environment for
learning.
~ Dylan Wiliam

29. How Feedback Varies
Timing
Amount
Mode
Audience
Focus
Comparison
Function
Valence
Clarity
Specificity
Tone
Adapted from Brookhart, Susan (2008) How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students

30. Brainstorm: Feedback Variations
Random Name Selector
Think about what you teach.
What are some ways you already use this
feedback variation?
What are some new ways you could use this
variation?

31. Real World Examples
13 Concrete Examples of Better Feedback for Learning
Think-Pair-Share
Pick one example and discuss with a partner

32. Attributes of Effective Feedback
Clear
Builds Trust
User-friendly
Specific
Focused
Differentiated
Timely
Invites Follow-Up
Tomlinson & Moon, 2013

33. Questioning
Techniques
Closing the Gap
Feedback
•Feedback Starters
•10 Points for Giving
Constructive
Feedback
•Five Powerful
Questions Teachers
Can Ask Students
•Twelve Active
Learning Strategies
Feedback Forms &
Videos
I Like, I Wish, I
Wonder
•Four, Three, Two
•Bounce Card
•Glow and Grow
•SWOT Analysis
•Stars & Stairs
•Feedback Sandwich
•Feedback Sandwich
Scaffold
•P.A.T.S on the Back
•ABC Feedback
Model
Online Options
Voice Comments on
Google Docs
•Evernote
•Educlipper App
•Kidblog
•Schoolology

34. Student-To-Student Feedback
• Rubric to Decide on Appropriate Peer Feedback
– Rubric Source: Hattie, John. Visible learning (p. 149) ©2012
– Used with permission of Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group
• Pyramid - A 3D organizer that helps students contrast, reflect, and predict. It is a
great way to refocus in the middle of a lesson/unit.
• Kind, Helpful, Specific - would make a great wall graphic
• Five Simple Questions (Thanks to @mrkempnz & @JustinRushton for sharing this
via Twitter)
• Response Partners (from a school in Merton, England during my teacher exchange
in 1993)
• Empowering Students to Provide Peer Feedback

35. Peer-To-Peer Feedback
• Receiving and Giving Effective Feedback
• The Art of Feedback: 5 Tactics that Work
• Three Things to Do Before a Feedback
Discussion
• Building Trust Through Feedback

36. Getting Feedback from Students
Surveys
Reflections
Notes

37. If You Could Ask One More Question…

38. Austin’s Butterfly

40. "The most powerful single moderator
that enhances achievement is
feedback." ~ John Hattie

41. Let’s continue the conversation

42. Contact Info
• Twitter: @jenmarten
• Blog: teach from the heart
• Skype: jenmarten
• Websites: Feedback
Tech in the Classroom
• Linkedin: jenmarten
• Email: jmarten@tds.net