Student Feedback 101

Student feedback is an essential aspect of education for several reasons:

•          It demonstrates to the teacher how he/she is doing; has he/she been able to effectively teach a skill-set or idea?
•          It demonstrates to students how they are doing, and should provide them with steps to improve their education if necessary; have they been learning what is being taught? If not, is it due to something that is easily amended within the classroom or individually?
•          It demonstrates to parents or guardians how a student is able to function in a classroom setting; Is a students learning? Is there anything at home that could improve their learning in school?

I think that I speak for a large number of past and present students when I say that teacher feedback is not always something to smile about. I remember opening up my report card long before I got home, to read the comments that a teacher had made, or flipping to the back of a paper to look for the grade and comments section written in red. If the big red numbers at the end of a paper, or the comments on a report card were below average for me, I was despondent. I felt like there was more bad than good in some of those comments. Things written like: “Anna should avoid socializing in class if she wishes to obtain better grades in the upcoming term”, or “Good Effort!” screamed at me in big red letters. Although teacher feedback is necessary, this week has taught me a lot about how to create comments that are effective in encouraging students, rather than stressing them out about evaluations.

Language is one way in which teacher feedback can be dramatically changed. When feedback is worded bluntly or aggressively, it can often be harsh for a student. Instead of writing: “Good Effort!”, be specific about something that your students excelled at, and point out specific issues that could be improved upon in a non-aggressive way. For example: “I like that you drew a net to show how many shapes are included in a cube! I wonder if you counted ALL of the shapes that you drew?” Providing a comment like this allows students to feel pride in doing something that personalizes math to their own learning needs, and provides them with a “next step”; something that they could improve upon without the teacher telling them exactly what to do. Phrasing a question using positive language helps to avoid discouraging students. Instead of saying “BUT you should have…” or, “I wish you had…”, give them a reason to explain why they did what they did. In math, the process of discovering an answer is often more important than the answer itself. If students missed a step in their equations, it does not always indicate that they do not know what they are doing, and require more practice. Allow students to explain their answers, and assess their knowledge, rather than assessing the answer to a question.

The primary job of student feedback is to promote student learning. Therefore, write feedback that relates to the student; it should be detailed and personalized. Although time is often a constraint to teachers, feedback is work taking time on. It directly impacts a student’s performance and success in the classroom. 

For more information and suggestions, take a look at the "Growing Success" document!

Blended Learning: A Tech-Friendly Classroom

Blended learning refers to the way that teachers incorporate technology into the classroom. As the name hints at, a blended learning classroom relies on neither face-to-face lessons, or online lessons, but a mixture of each. Technology is used as a tool to build on and expand the learning that students are given in an average classroom.

There are four models of blended learning:

All four of these models can be effectively used within schools to enhance the learning of each student.

The SAMR model of blended learning gives teachers four steps to achieving a blended learning classroom:

•          The first step is substitution. At this phase, technology is used as a substitute for another educational tool, with no direct changes made to the way that students learn. For example, instead of writing out a story or essay, students would type it onto a computer. Although very little is changing in the learning of students, technology is used as a tool.
•         The second step is augmentation. Technology is a direct tool substitute, but helps students to improve their work. For example, students are using a computer to enhance, edit and format the work that they are doing on a story or essay.
•       The third step is modification. Here, technology makes a more major impact on students by redesigning the task that they are doing. For example, students may be asked to write a story or essay on Google docs, where their edits and changes are documented and available to a teacher.
•         The fourth and final step in the SAMR model of blended learning, is redefinition. At this point, technology has made such a tremendous impact, that the creation of completely new tasks is possible. For example, instead of students simply writing a story with pen and paper, they are now able to write the script of a story and film it using technology.

The four steps provided in the SAMR model are intended to gradually make a teacher and students more comfortable with the use of technology, and allow them to take advantage of the tools that are available for them (www.commonsensemedia.org, October, 2016.)

Rich Tasks and Open Questions

Using “Rich Tasks” in teaching is a way to ensure that all students are able to start the process of math on whatever level they are comfortable with. A rich task is a question that is open in order to allow them to relate to it in their own capacities. 

They look similar to this:

McEachren, P.Problem 7.September, 2016

As we can see, this task has an open beginning, in that it does not require the students to use any one coin, and open-ended in that it never asks them for one correct answer. It allows students to work within their own understanding of money and monetary amounts. While one student may work with pennies, while other students may be working with toonies, loonies, quarters, dimes or nickels. Although all answers will be different, if the math is done correctly, they will all be accurate.

For a task to be considered a rich task, it has to:

-       Be accessible to all learners in the classroom: all learners should be able to start with something.

-       Be a real-life task: something that students are able to relate to, or is a situation that has actually happened, or they can imagine happening.

-       Be open to multiple approaches and representations: task should have multiple ways of solving, or many strategies that could be used.

-       Foster engagement, curiosity and creativity: engage students in discussion with each other about math, and ways in which they can complete the task. 

-       Be equitable: vocabulary and social justice issues should be treated with respect (i.e don’t assume that a family consists of a mother and a father etc.).

In class, we brainstormed several elements of a rich task, and I have since added some of my own:

Laman, A. What is Rich Task. September, 2016

A rich task has a strong focus on the student’s ability to learn through questioning and curiosity, rather than memorization or book knowledge. There is a huge emphasis on a student’s ability to answer the questions that relate to them personally.

Regardless of the answer, however, rich tasks are intended to promote discussion among students and with the teacher. The question provided may lead to discussions about what coins are acceptable or not, and how answers that are equally correct, may not be the same answer. I enjoy rich tasks for this reason. I like the idea of math being social, and explainable rather than individual and unattainable. I believe that students who engage in open-ended tasks will receive instruction that is more personalized, because they are guided into asking questions that are relevant to themselves and their own lives.