30 Day Challenge: Day 14: Feedback.

Day 14: What is feedback for learning, and how well do you give it to students? 

Feedback is any information given to a student in response to work done. It can be written, verbal, or body language. This last is why it's so important to be aware of our body language when reviewing student work--including facial expression. A student who sees utter revolt or contempt on the face of his teacher while that teacher reads his work is utterly undercut, and no matter what is later said by the teacher, he will remember that look or initial reaction.

Giving timely feedback is something which is hammered into preservice teachers as they progress through teacher college, but it isn't enough for it to be timely. It must be timely, relevant, and constructive. We can't just identify where a student went wrong, we must also show them how do it correctly next time. To do anything less is as useless and almost as damaging as purposely shattering their self-confidence.

The student will become frustrated and angered at the teacher--worse, they will think of themselves as stupid and unable to do the work. "If it's so obvious that the teacher just marked it wrong," the student will think, "and didn't bother to tell me how to fix it, then I must be to stupid to get it right." If the feedback isn't productive, then the teacher is failing to help the student grow and learn, but is instead cropping and stunting the growth of the student.

I am always growing in this department. As a social studies teacher, there were many times that I was simply attempting to tackle a massive pile of work which needed graded. All to often I skipped altogether giving extended (or even any) feedback. As someone who prides himself on being reflective, I now know that I assigned too much work to my students to complete; there were ways aside from what I used that could have been utilized to ensure understanding.

As an Academic Interventionist, I am much better at giving feedback; albeit mostly oral. As I don't grade any work, I instead discuss success with my students. I work with them to improve and learn from their mistakes by demonstrating or working them through the issues they are having.