Closing the Gap - Student Feedback on my Feedback

This year I have tried to improve the feedback that I give to the students in all of my classes. I have tried to develop efficient feedback techniques to aid all of my classes. I blogged about this at the start of the year (see link). The aim has been to try to increase the impact of the feedback that I give in order to help the students close the gap between their current performance and the desired performance . I was happy with the quality of the feedback I was giving but felt that the impact of the marking and feedback could be increased. I also looked to do this in a more efficient manner.

The first page of an A/S assessment book

One of the ways I have looked to do this is by having specific assessment books for both my GCSE and A/S classes. The aim of these books is to keep all the assessed work, all the feedback and all the improvements, in one place. This allows the students to show understanding and ultimately progress and keeps the feedback in one accessible place.

The first pages of the A4 book are taken up by the students copying out their feedback and explaining how they are going to improve their answer. The parents also sign this page.

The rest of the book is taken up with assessed answers, my feedback, and then the improvements/re-drafting that the students have completed to ensure they have understood. The final part is me checking that the improvements are correct.

Feedback from my students
Last week I asked my A/S and GCSE class to complete an anonymous GoogleForm to give their feedback on the assessment books and my feedback more generally. Below is a Tagxedo of what they said:

Words that stand out from this to me are easier, good, helpful, improvements, think and useful.

Below are some comments from my GCSE students about the assessment books:

"I think it's quite good because you have all of your important work in one place and not all mixed in with the other stuff that doesn't have as much priority."

"It's easier having all of the more 'important' pieces of work being written in one book because then it's all in one place and it isn't likely to get lost; it's clear where everything is when it comes to writing targets or looking back to compare pieces of assessed work."

Lots of comments were similar to this in mention the organisational benefits and many also said how easy it was to look back over their work and targets.

Below are some comments from my A/S students about the assessment books:

"I like completing my AS work in the book as it allows me to keep it all in one place and easily look back on past questions / essays. It's also good for teacher feedback and discussions with parents over how certain tasks have gone."

"Great idea! We can keep all our work in place, see where we need to improve, do the improvements and get feedback easily."

"I like been able to keep track of all my essays and i can see improvement across the book,
However i feel getting it signed and filling out the front is a bit over the top "

My A/S students focused more on the impact of the feedback and moving forward. It seems that getting parents to sign the book has divided opinion but my reasoning behind it is to keep parents informed and ensuring that any performance is seen be all parties. I also think getting it signed increases the seriousness with which the students take the assessed work.

Moving forward
It seems that the students feel that the assessed book is worthwhile. None of the comments were completely negative about it and the vast majority were positive.

That said one reaccurring theme was obvious; the students would like more positive feedback.

"Give positive feedback as well as improvements (particular things we did well)."

"Give more positives."

In light of these comments, and others like them, I am going to increase the amount of positive remarks I give. Looking back through the books I realised that I gave out merits but did not specifically say what the students had done to earn these merits. I am obviously going to make this a New Years Resolution.

Finally, though I am pleased with the reaction from my students to the assessment books. It has made my feedback more meaningful, it has allowed the students to show how they have acted upon the feedback and finally it has been organisationally efficient.

A final word from one of my A/S students:

"I don't really have any improvements, it's the best feedback I receive on homework."

The Best Type of Feedback - Students Reflecting on my lessons using Google Forms

I have recently been receiving and analysing feedback on my teaching provided by my last GCSE class. Using a GoogleForm I anonymously asked them several questions about my teaching. The questions focused around what they thought was good about my lessons and what I could do to improve them. This is a process I repeat at regular intervals and is something that I believe has real value. It provides me with some of the most useful and valuable feedback I have had as a teacher.

Why does this provide the best type of feedback?

•  The feedback is real. Most feedback we are given as a teacher is based around short lesson observations which, for various reasons, do not always reflect the normal classroom practices. I had taught my GCSE history class over 150 times. Their experience was real and their feedback is based around that period as a whole. This means that it is not only fair but also allows the students to comment on a whole series of activities and lessons which are far more wide ranging than several 30 minute observations.

•  The feedback is provided by experts. My GCSE class is a combination of Year 9, 10 and 11 students who have spent their whole lives in education. They know what works well and what needs to be improved because they live it everyday.

•  The feedback is personal. The students in my class spoke only about my lessons and provided me with the kind of detailed focus that would be difficult to achieve without the GoogleForm.

•  It profoundly alters the classroom dynamic. This is perhaps the most significant reason. I am a big believer in students co-constructing the lessons (see Co-Construction Blog) because it places greater responsibility on the students and allows them to 'own' the learning. When students see that they have the chance to influence what is taking place I believe they become much more engaged. When I explain to the students how the shape of the learning has been altered by the information they have given you can clearly see the impact of the process.

The class that filled in this GoogleForm are a group that I no longer teach. @Rossett we change the school timetable 4 weeks before the summer and begin teaching our new groups. I was keen to use the advice my former students provided to improve the learning for the new cohort.

What did I learn from this process?

•  The Impact of my YouTube Channel. Nearly all the students referred to the videos I have made explaining how to answer exam questions. The vast majority said how useful they had found them and how the pause/fast-forward/rewind had individualised feedback. This is obviously something I will continue to do.

•  The need to keep changing the seating plan. My students felt that they were stuck working with the same people too often. My new group have been constantly changing partners and groups. I have made use of the random pair generator and at least once a lesson the students are working with 'random' other students. In just the first 4 weeks I have seen the benefit of this. My class is mixed Year 9-11 and the constantly changing pairing's have really developed the class dynamic. I am grateful to the students who pointed this out. One of my students actually tweeted me to say he enjoyed an activity partly because it allowed him the chance to meet new people.

•  The need to improve the revision sessions. In the run up to the exams I held a series of revision sessions after school. One of my class pointed out that most of the work that was completed in these sessions could have been done, by them, at home. They had attended but had not got the most out of the sessions. This led me to consider the work that was going on. For some of my students this was exactly the aim of the sessions because they were completing work that they would not otherwise have done at home. However, for a significant group, the sessions were not working. I have decided to develop my revision session around the principle of Solo Stations. Setting several activities that allow the students to select where they begin their revision journey. I am confident that this will improve the quality of the revision sessions and am pleased that the plight of this student (and doubtless others like them) has been brought to my attention.

I hope that you have found this blog interesting. I hope I have shown why I believe student reflections using GoogleForms is the best type of feedback. I also hope I have shown the type of quality outcomes that this kind of interaction can produce.