Posted on 19/11/2015 by David Owen

How To Give Students Specific Feedback That Actually Helps Them Learn

by Justin Chando

To tell a student “great job”or “this needs work” is a missed opportunity.

Everyone loves to hear they did a great job. And perhaps your student really did nail this latest assignment. But the problem with “great job” is this: it’s not specific. There is no indication of what was done that was successful, and no information about how to replicate this success in future projects.

We were recently talking about this example among ourselves at Chalkup as we mulled over the future of feedback and assessment. Following our conversation – in which we came up with our own standards for quality assessment – we read Grant Wiggins’ key characteristics of better feedback. (A classic example and the perfect cap to our discussion.)

We thought it might be interesting to take Wiggin’s list a step further and think through how to make these qualities actionable, asking ourselves what strategies look like for keeping feedback solid across the board.

http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/how-to-give-students-specific-feedback-that-actually-helps-them-learn/