“Here is how close you are to the knowledge or skills you are trying to develop, and here’s what you need to do next.”

Good formative assessment gives students information they need, to understand where they are in their learning (the cognitive factor) and develops student’s feelings of control over their learning (the motivational factor).

All suggestions for delivery of effective feedback are based on knowing your students well.

When using any strategy think about how the student will

Hear Feel and Understand the feedback

If studying facts or simple concepts then immediate information about whether an answer is right or wrong is needed

For learning targets that develop over time, wait until you have observed patterns in students work, then give suggestions about next steps.

.........when he or she is thinking about the work!

Written Oral Demonstration Conversations with the student – questions What are you noticing about this? Why did you decide to do it this way? Individual – tells a student you value their

learning Group - provides opportunities for wider

reteaching.

1. Focus on Work and Process

Describes the students work, comments on the process the student uses and makes specific suggestions for what to do next. The suggestion should move the work closer to the target e.g.

“you are showing you understand the concept, now, can you rewrite that sentence so it goes better with the one before it?

2. Relate Feedback to the Goal Describe where the student is in relation to the learning

goal. This helps the student decide what the next goal should be. Help the student see their progress and point out the processes or methods that were successful.

“I see you checked your work this time. Your computations were all correct, too! See how well that works?”

“ It is good to see you have spelt all the terminology correct and have linked your ideas together to form an explanation”

3. Try for Description, Not Judgement

Certain students are less likely to pay attention to descriptive feedback it is accompanied by a formal judgement, like a grade or an evaluative comment. This is especially the case for unsuccessful learners.

Point out improvements over their previous performance, even if those improvements don’t amount to overall success on the assignment.

Then select 1 or 2 doable next steps – after the next round of work. Give feedback on his success with those steps, and so on.

4. Be Positive and SpecificBeing positive means describing how the strengths in a student’s

work match the criteria for good work and how they show what that student is learning.

Your tone should Indicate that you are making helpful

suggestions and giving the student a chance to take the initiative.

“you have described the issue well. Some more detail would be helpful. You could add more explanation about the benefits of recycling, or you could add more description of what should be done in your neighbourhood. Which suggestion do you plan to try first?”

FEEDBACK PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Take as many opportunities as you can to give students positive messages about how they are doing in relation to the learning targets and what might be useful to do next.