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."

What makes a good staff training environment?

On Monday 3rd September I was asked to go and speak to staff at another school. Several staff members had witnessed the Teacher Learning Communities (TLC) that we have at Rossett (our vehicle for staff training and development) and were preparing to adopt a similar approach. I had already been and spoken to the new TLC leaders and this visit was to speak to the whole school staff.

The aim of this was not to simply explain what we do at Rossett with relation to staff training and development but was to try and get the whole staff to think about what it is that makes a successful training environment. The staff had KWL grids to fill in but I emphasised at the beginning that the 'learning' element of the grid could come from themselves and others on their tables rather than just from me. It wasn't going to be much use to them if they just heard 30 minutes of 'what works for us' I believed that it would be much more useful for them to establish 'what will work for them'.

Throughout the session the aim was to also showcase some simple straightforward activities that could instantly be used in any classroom.

This was only a short 30 minute 'presentation' and the central activity revolved around the staff completing a card sorting activity:

The initial aim was for them to establish 6 essential components of good staff training. They could then put the other six in a column of 'ideals' or, as some of them did, they could remove some of the suggestions altogether.

The secondary aim was for the staff to get into discussions about what makes good training. They were sat in tables that would form their TLC groupings for the year to come and the aim was to feedback to their new TLC leader some ideas that were essential for their staff development.

Throughout the session the staff filled in their KWL grids beginning by showing what they knew already about TLC and developing to show what they had learnt. I thought that this approach was particularly useful as there was different levels of understanding and knowledge at the start of the session and in order for me to attempt to show some personalised progress this tool worked well. 

At the end of the session I asked the staff to share what they had learnt on a central grid in the middle of the table. The grid was split into sections. One was to be used to show what they had learnt from me. The other, more important part, was to show what they had learnt from each other.

Reflections

+ Ensuring that the training occurs in a supportive, non-judgemental environment was highlighted by  every group.

+ The importance of, and opportunity to, collaborate was also something that featured very highly in most groups.

+ Virtually every group placed 'Linked to Performance Management' as the least important and some groups found that it was actually counter productive.

It seemed that this kind of activity worked well at the start of the year. It provided a base for discussion about what is important when delivering staff training. Arguably all the points are very valid but this activity gave the TLC leaders clear insight into what their groups would most value. Whatever the vehicle for staff training it seemed to me to be a worthwhile activity to begin a year with and to allow staff to think about what is important for them.

I also believe it is a good activity for groups of students who are looking to deepen understanding of a particular topic. At GCSE for example, I could see an activity with 12 causes of American Involvement in Vietnam being used in a similar way.

Using Social Media to 'produce' the @RossettHistory School Trip

At the end of the October half-term we took 41 @Rossett students from years 9, 10 and 11 to Ypres and the Somme to gain an understanding of the trenches, cemeteries, museums and memorials of the First World War. This is a yearly trip which follows a similar pattern each year.

The big difference this year was the use of social media to 'produce' the trip. At the parents meeting before the trip I explained that parents could follow the trip on twitter. I set up the @RossettHistory twitter account and explained that parents would be able to watch the trip unfold here.

Why?

• A trip to the sights and memorials of the First World War is an emotional an moving experience that deserves to be documented.
• Using social media allowed the parents to see where we were and what we were doing. Twitter is public and you do not have to have an account to see the Tweets.
• I also believe that it probably had a reassuring effect as parents knew we were safe and well.
• I believe that it involved parents (and other interested parties) in the trip.
• It was (wifi permitting) real time and the story unfolded on Twitter as it happened on the trip.
• Upon returning to the UK it allowed the students to see how the trip had been documented.

How did it work?
1. Wherever we went on the trip I took my iPad and photographed and filmed what was happening.

2. Whilst we were on the bus between the sights I wrote out Tweets, such as the ones you can see on the right, I saved these tweets to my drafts. I also used iMovie to edit together the footage.

3. When we were in a wifi zone (on the ferry, In Flanders Fields Museum, at Thiepval, in the hotel) I Tweeted my drafted tweets and uploaded the footage to YouTube. This was quick and easy because they were pre-written.

4. Parents and other interested groups could see what was happening on the trip.

What was the impact?

• Whilst we were still in Belgium the footage of the first two days on YouTube received over 40 views. This shows that the videos were being watched.
• About 5 or 6 parents engaged directly during the trip by Tweeting, Re-Tweeting and favouriting the tweets that were being sent.
• Some parents had never been on Twitter but explained to me when we returned that they were now 'adicted' and had 'loved' seeing the trip on twitter.
• Whilst we were still in Belgium several students showed me texts from their parents saying that they had seen the photos and videos.
• Several students said that, although their parents didn't have Twitter, they had still seen the photos and videos because they had just 'Googled' @RossettHistory.
• Several students told me that Grandparents and other family members had seen the videos and photos.
• Upon returning to the UK several students looked back through the feed and Re-Tweeted and favourited the tweets.
• A media company affiliated with the school is producing an article about the trip which has been based on the information in the Twitter feed.
• As I write this blog the cumulative views of the videos from the trip stands at just over 500.

Reflections

When assessing the impact of using Social Media in this way it is difficult to be precise. I could ask students to fill in a questionnaire but I believe that the huge amount of 'anecdotal' evidence I have suggests that this has clearly been a worthwhile exercise.

I would encourage anyone planning a trip to use social media in this way.

If you would like to see the videos of the trip the playlist is embedded below: