Feeding forward...
Mastery, not performance
It is a common trope that students inevitably focus more on the grades they get for their assignments than the feedback that will help them improve. This tends to reinforce a sense that ability is entirely linked to performance, rather than identification and practice of the skills required to make progress. The more we can foster a focus on mastery of key knowledge and skills, the more likely students are to develop a more self-regulated approach - one associated with learning. The following strategies are designed to foster this mindset.
1. Encourage students to self-assess
We are all probably quite familiar with the fact that many students can leave assignments to the last minute and/or submit them without careful interrogation of their worth beforehand. This can be particularly true of drafted work, for example en route to the Individual Oral or the HL Coursework Essay. Asking them to self-assess to make sure their assignment is of the best quality before they submit is a helpful way to foster independence and a sense of responsibility for their learning. The following checklist might be something you ask them to consider during a lesson or at home before they hand something in. It might also be worth having students keep a copy somewhere in their notes, to encourage self-assessment as part of everyday practice.
Download it here as a Word document so you can adapt it for yourself
2. Make use of marking codes
Once again, keeping in mind the importance of students taking an active part in the learning process, as well as reducing the amount of time you spend writing comments, consider the use of marking codes. In essence, this means handing students' work back with codes that signify particular areas they need to correct or improve. The following are examples, but of course, you could develop your own. Once the class is used to each letter's meaning, they should spend at least some time in the lesson (or as a homework exercise) working out where/how the code applies to their assignment.
3. Set a feed-forward task to check for understanding
It goes without saying, perhaps, that without checking whether or not a student has understood your feedback, and be able to act on it, then providing it is nothing short of a waste of your time. The acronym DIRT stands for Directed Improvement and Reflection Time, which means time you allocate in a lesson (or perhaps as homework) for students to act on the feedback you have given them. This might involve:
- Reading through any written comments and summarising next steps at the bottom of an assignment or on a central page dedicated to collating feedback
- Phrase your written comments in the form of questions e.g.: 'What is this paragraph lacking?'; 'How could you improve the logic of these statements?'; 'Where is your evidence?'. Then DIRT time is allocated for students to answer your questions
- Working through your use of marking codes (see above). Students try to identify where the code applies to the work they have submitted and spend some time addressing the implications
- Set students a 'feedforward' task, which asks them to complete an activity that demonstrates whether or not they have learned from the feedback you have given them. An example is below, where a student has been given feedback and then been asked to re-write one paragraph in response.
4. Feedforward in groups
- Write nothing on the assignments a group as submitted. Instead, make comments on each on a separate piece of paper
- Hand back a group of essays and the detached comments. Ask students to match particular feedback to the individual assignments. Doing so will require that they read and process the comments, deciding how and where they apply.
- You could then, if you wish, ask them to re-write a section in a way that shows understanding of the feedback they have been given
5. Oral feedforward
Students are used to seeing written feedback on their assignments, but of course as, if not more powerful, is the 'live' feedback you provide during a lesson. There are obvious advantages to this, not least being the fact that feedback is immediate and corrections can take place immediately. Statements such as the ones below are designed to focus attention on future action, rather than 'correct' things stated in the past:
- That's an interesting comment. From where can you find supporting evidence?
- Can you re-phrase that sentence using more specific terminology?
- What might someone who disagrees with you say?
- How might what you have just said be compared to a different text we have covered?
- You have identified where imagery is being used in the text. Can you now tell me how it generates narrative interest?
Another way of using voice as a way to provide feedforward help is to record your response to an assignment rather than write things down. Microsoft OneNote, for example, makes such a thing very easy to do. Students listen to the recording and then work out how and where the comments you have apply to the work they have submitted.