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As a beginning teacher, I remember grading my student essays and marking up the margins with comments, asking questions, probing for more, and then assigning the grade. I spent an inordinate amount of time as an English teacher grading essays like this. Then I would hand them back; my students looked at the grade, and very few paid any attention to the comments I had made. We quickly moved on. What I had done was the equivalent of an autopsy. The final product had already been completed, and I hadn’t built in the time or the expectation to go back to revise or to improve it. I had invested a lot of time and energy giving feedback and writing really thoughtful comments at the most ineffective time in the learning process—after it was over.

Here’s a scenario that I am seeing more people revert to in hybrid, virtual or remote to try and fit it all in with less time:

• Teacher teachers a lesson
• Student receives an assignment
• Student is expected to do the assignment
• Student submits assignment
• Student receives grade for completing the assignment
• Move on

A gentle reminder: This is not teaching. This is evaluating.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for evaluation, and it needs to happen sometimes, but it shouldn’t be confused or substituted for the learning process. When we only focus on the end result, we fail to communicate to learners the importance of sharing ideas early, receiving feedback, and revising to improve.  If we don’t honor the learning process, we communicate a fixed mindset where they either get it or we don’t, and learners often fail to see how the work has value to them personally.

Many will say this takes more time. You are right. You can’t cover it all and go deep. You have to prioritize the goals and identify what matters most and focus on that.

I love this provocation from a teacher that I saw on Twitter:

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It sounds so simple and effective and we know that this would not only save time but also improve the quality of the learning. Innovation in education is not just about adding; it is also about subtracting. Instead of teachers taking on the assessment and the giant workload providing feedback after the school day, carving out time during the day and building in structures for feedback builds a sense of connection, purpose and ownership:

Here are 3 ways for students to get and give meaningful and timely feedback:

Self Assessment:

When students are clear about the learning goals and criteria for success, they can self assess their work and take ownership of the process. Checklists and rubrics can be really helpful, especially if they are co created and the students have a clear grasp of what is expected of them. Creating time and building the routine for this practice is critical to understand where they are and determine next steps.

Peer Feedback:  

Although self assessment is important, we may not always see the big picture and can benefit from other perspectives. Peer feedback provides opportunity to get new ideas and illuminate blind spots. Some simple structures can help students (and adults) provide kind, specific , and helpful feedback such as Wows and Wonders, critical friends protocols where students identify a question for feedback and their peers ask clarifying questions and provide feedback. This process is helpful for the students getting and giving the feedback. As everyone becomes clearer about the learning targets and discusses the work in relation to it, everyone learns to improve.

Teacher Feedback:

This is usually the most common type of feedback but it takes a lot of time to give feedback to all of your students and is not always timely or useful if all the work falls on the teachers. 5 minute conferences can be a really powerful way to check in with students and provide timely meaningful feedback based on their needs.  Teachers who are remote might use breakout rooms to meet with a few different students or small groups each day to check in. If you are in person you can call students up while others are working or giving each other feedback.

If we go back to the initial scenario and make time for learner-centered feedback practices,  it might look something like this:

• Relevant and authentic learning goals are shared including why the leaning goals matter and how it connects the learner and the context
• Success criteria and models of success are explored
• Students identifies questions, ideas and connections based on learning goals
• Students self assesses (along with teachers and peers as necessary) and identifies the learning path based on learning goals, context, and resources available
• Students engage in a variety of meaningful learning experiences (reading, writing, problem solving, hands on experiments, video tutorials, collaboration)
• Students shares ideas with peers, teachers, and other experts and solicits feedback
• Students revise ideas and create something new and better, repeating as necessary
• Students conferences with teacher for feedback based on learning goals and to determine next steps
• Student demonstrates learning and growth based on learning goals
• Student is evaluated based on the goals and learning targets
• Student reflections and lessons learned are applied to new problems and ideas, and growth is documented along the way.

Meaningful feedback is not the same as a grade or an evaluation. Feedback is information for the learner about where they are in relationship to the goal or target to help them get there. If we can prioritize the learning goals and only assign meaningful work, we can make the time for students to go deep, get feedback, revise and do something meaningful.

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