Occurs During Learning: the second characteristic of effective feedback

For those that know anything about formative assessment, this second characteristic of effective feedback is a necessity.  In this section Chappius asserts that:

Feedback can encourage students to see mistakes as leading to further learning if you plan time for students to take the actions suggested, before asking them to demonstrate their level of achievement for a mark or grade.  The time we spend giving feedback may be wasted if we do not build in time for them to act on it. 

For this to work optimally, the classroom climate has to shift so mistakes are welcomed in as much as they result in opportunities for further learning.  They provide information about miscommunication, missteps, and gaps; all of which can be corrected with further instruction and practice.

Because feedback can be time intensive, it is so important to use it effectively.  Time must be built in.  Nothing is more important than ensuring that students have learned the material- not coverage, not a pacing plan.  Nothing.  I like to move quickly, so to remind myself of this idea, I am printing out a turtle to hang on my back wall.  This way I will see it while I am teaching and remind myself to slow down, model, check for understanding, reteach (if necessary), give students adequate time to practice and improve.  And then, only then, move on.  Anything worth teaching is worth teaching well. 

Photo from fredsharples

Directing Attention: the first characteristic of effective feedback

Chappius offers a key question in this section: "Can this student take action on the basis of this comment?" (pg.60).  Inherent in this question is differentiation.  Some students in the class may be able to take action, but can this, individual, student on whose paper the comment is written take action.  By "this comment" Chappius is pointing back to her earlier statement that effective feedback should point to success, which is genuine and specifically linked to intended learning, and/or point to intervention, which should "identify a correction, describe a specific feature or quality that needs work, or point out an ineffective or incorrect use of strategy or process."  Does the feedback I wrote on the paper do this for my students?  Does it provide each with information about what he/she did well and what he/she needs to do next?  Or do I just try to give them enough information to justify the grade that they were given?

This last question gets to the heart of the verb of Chappius' key question: "take action."  Students need to be given opportunities to take action- what formative assessment is all about.  If the feedback does not create opportunities to take action, the feedback is worse than worthless- it is a waste of time.

Strategy 3: Offer Regular Descriptive Feedback

Chappius gives 5 characteristics of effective feedback:
1. directs attention to the intended learning,
2.  occurs during learning,
3.  addresses partial understanding,
4.  does not do the thinking for the student, and
5.  limits correctives to what students can act on

Taken together, these five characteristics are a useful distillation of much of the other reading I have done in the area of feedback.  Since Chappius lists Brookhart as a source, this does not come as a surprise. However, I do want to take the time to visit each of these five in turn to see what additional insight I can glean.

Photo by Phil Roeder

Highlighting Work that Misses the Mark

Yes, yes, I have heard it before.  It is important to show models of the learning target so students are able to conceptualize what the finished product will/should look like.  However, based on the reading I have done over the past several months, there seems to be some disagreement when it comes to sharing weak or poor examples of a learning target.  Some say that weak examples are unnecessary and serve no real purpose for students who should be focusing on quality.  Contrarily, Chappius asserts that showing students models of weak work helps them to understand problems to avoid.  I do not make a habit of using models of poor work, but after thinking about Chappius' argument, I can see how it can be helpful.  However, I think it is only helpful if students are actively engaged with understanding, evaluating, and explaining what makes one sample weak and another strong.  If they are able to explain what makes a certain writing piece weak or less effective, they are more likely to avoid similar shortcomings in their own writing. 

Starting a New Book: Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning

I have recently begun reading Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning by Jan Chappuis and am finding it quite informative thus far.  The seven strategies are organized under Where am I going?, Where am I now?, and How can I close the gap?.  In and of themselves, this grouping is not unique to Chappuis, nor does she assert that they are her creation.  However, what I am appreciating thus far is her clear organizational structure that is aiding in my ability to make connections among the texts I have read by seeing them within Chappuis' organizational framework.  So far,  I have only covered the first two strategies (provide students with a clear and understandable vision of learning target and use examples and models of strong and weak work), but I already can see how the elements are fitting together.  I will follow-up with additional postings to track my progress through this book, but in the meantime, I wanted to leave by sharing a link to a webinar created by the publishing company to cover the Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning.

Enrich and Reteach

An Arizona elementary school structures their schedule around incorporating formative assessment school-wide through their Enrich and Reteach program.  Based on this video, I believe Popham would consider them a level four school.  The aspect I appreciated is that it created enrichment for students who needed it; it is not only those who are behind who need help.  Students who are above grade level can easily get bored with grade level curriculum and the reteaching that occurs of that curriculum.  Another aspect that seems to come out of the process was reflective conversation by the grade level team as they compare their assessments and determine who is best to run the reteaching.

Moving On Up: level two formative assessment and students' learning tactic adjustments

In W. James Popham's Transformative Assessment, he outlines his four levels of formative assessment; today I want to focus on level two, which "deals with students' use of formative assessment evidence to adjust their own learning tactics."  Although teacher do play an important role as a facilitator in level two, the students are the ones who make the decisions through gathering evidence, evaluating performance indicators, and modifying any learning tactics that should be changed.

In order to unpack this chapter a bit, let's start with the term learning tactic.  A learning tactic is defined as "the way a student is trying to learn something" (71).  For example, many of my students struggle with studying for their anatomy class.  When I have asked what they do to study, they answer with learning tactics: re-reading, trying to answer the questions in the back, looking over the bold faced words, reviewing lecture notes and handouts, etc.  

Based on evidence gathered through assessment feedback, students should be able to determine how well or poorly they did at approaching the target.  From this point, each student needs to evaluate his/her learning tactics to see how effective they are at helping him/her approach the learning target for the curricular aim.  For example, I just gave my students an in-class essay test on the first act of Macbeth.  They were given the prompts well ahead of time, so they knew how they would be assessed.  I even showed them exactly how points would be given by using a few example sentences I wrote.  Students were allowed to take notes, and I suggested several learning tactic suggestions that I have found to be successful for other students (ie: asking yourself the prompt and brainstorming to see how many facts you can come up with, re-reading the prompts after every scene to see what info you can add to your notes that would be useful for the test, etc).  However, though I tried to offer several learning tactics, it is evident from some of the grades that at least a few students decided to go about it their own way.  I talked to one student a few minutes after she turned in her failing exam.  I asked her what she did to prepare for the test; she said that she had decided to just "write stuff" and see how it went.  This is, obviously, an inefficient learning tactic.  My next step is to have her and the rest of my students evaluate their performance, reflect of learning tactics used, and explain whether they should or should not adjust their learning tactics for their next essay test, which should take place next week.  I use the word "should" because, as Popham reminds, "it should remain each student's individual choice as to whether to modify or stick with current learning tactics" (83).

Popham cautions against using grades for formative assessment, and though I understand his reasoning, from the example above, it is clear that I have not taken his advice.  I am not yet sure how to reconcile this with my need to assign points and a grade that can be placed in a gradebook for parents and students to monitor.