1
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
Volume 1—February 2013
2
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
Effective feedback
Feedback is integral to the learning
process and is one of the main benefits
that pupils get from assessment.
What is feedback?
Basically, feedback is information about
how we are doing in our efforts to reach
a goal. With regards to pupils,
comments on work should identify the
gap between the desired standards and
the student's achievement - then offer
guidance on how to close the gap in
future. It may be more useful to think of
this as providing 'feed forward' because
it is the next piece of work which can be
improved with effective feedback.
What are the keys to effective
feedback?
Goal Referenced
Effective feedback requires that the
person has a goal so that they can take
action to achieve the goal. This is why it
is vital that our pupils know their end of
year/course Target Grade or Level. Our
pupils need to know if they are on track
or need to change course. In addition
to this they also need to know what
they are aiming for every lesson and
the criteria to reach that goal in order to
make clear progress. Traffic lights can
tell you how close pupils are to
achieving that goal, so don’t forget to
use the ones at the back of the student
planner.
Actionable
Effective feedback is concrete specific
and useful. It provides actionable
information. What specifically should
they do next time? Pupils need
sufficient information so that they know
exactly what to do next time. It is really
important to give pupils time to correct
or improve their own work, whether it is
that assessed piece of work or to think
about what they need to do next time.
Time to reflect is so important.
User-friendly Even if feedback is specific and accurate, it is of not much value if pupils cannot understand it or feel overwhelmed by it. Too much feedback can be counter productive and it is better to focus on one or two ideas that would help the pupil to improve their performance. In addition to this we need to bear a few things in mind. Does the student understand the vocabulary that you are using? Can they read your writing? Timely In most cases, the sooner the pupil gets the feedback, the better. The trouble with feedback is that we sometimes give untimely feedback, days or weeks after the assessment or essay. We really need to think of ways to ensure that students get more timely
feedback and opportunities to act on that feedback while it is still fresh in their minds. Can you juggle your marking schedule to do this? Or peer assessment is another strategy you could use to manage the marking workload and provide lots of timely feedback. Don’t forget to use those green pens! The learning tool, two stars and a wish could be so helpful here.
AfL using traffic lights in student planners
3
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
On-going Pupils don’t just need effective feedback, but they need opportunities to put the advice into practice. Therefore, the more feedback that they can receive on their own performance in real time, the better their work will be. So we don’t just write feedback down, we give it to the pupils constantly throughout a lesson. Mini white boards are an effective teaching tool to help with on-going feedback. Which is the correct answer and why?
Consistent To be useful, feedback must be consistent. Clearly students can only adjust their work or performance if the information fed back to them is accurate. We need to moderate work so that we are all clear just what these grade descriptions or level descriptions mean, so that we are on the same page about what high quality work is
But there’s not time!
Remember that no time to give and use feedback actually means “no time to improve learning.” Research indicates that less teaching plus more feedback is the key to achieving greater learning. Remember it’s not just from us that pupils get feedback, they can get it from technology and peers too.
So what do we do at Roding Valley?
The aim of our marking policy is :
To establish a consistent whole school approach to the way learner’s work is marked, so that students feel valued and have a clear understanding of how well they are doing.
It should also inform students of what they need to do to improve and this will inform teacher planning and monitoring.
Each Faculty has adapted the marking
policy so that it best suits their own
needs, but there are common features.
Marking should:
be regular, up to date and promptly returned
be diagnostic in nature be done using the marking sticker
to give feedback
include a pupil comment on how to improve the work
be signed and dated adhere to the Whole school
approach to literacy marking be written in green pen if it is peer
or self-assessment provide the student with advice on
where they are against expectations and with constructive ways on how they can improve to ensure they make accelerated progress.
as a minimum, say whether the student is on , below or above target.
give two strengths of the piece of work.
be as encouraging and positive as possible.
also include one improvement that could be used to raise attainment.
N. Chambers
Min no. of teacher assessed pieces
per half term
Key Stage
KS3 Core Subjects
3
KS3 Non –core subjects
1
KS4 Full course 3
KS4 Short Course
1
Example of our marking stickers
4
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
So how are we actually doing it?
Here are some examples of effective
feedback from various Faculties.
Technology
Pupils receive current and target grades for Food Technology.
Areas covered are Research, knowledge and understanding, planning, making and practical work & evaluations.
Pupils receive feedback on areas covered, improvements are suggested and they comment on these given suggestions. Pupils also assess each other's work and suggest suitable alternatives to outcomes.
P.Goosen
Example of self-assessment from the Technology
Example of teacher assessment from the Technology faculty
5
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
Effective feedback in MFL
Feedback is done in
numerous ways in the
Languages Faculty. We
aim to mark books every 3
to 4 weeks. We don’t
necessarily mark work that
is copied from the board or
quick reading and listening
exercises that the pupils
have marked for themselves, instead
we mark language that the pupils have
created for themselves, giving the
pupils feedback on the RVHS marking
sticker.
Pupils also have a target sheet stuck in
the front of their exercise books on to
which they transfer their ‘to improve I
need to’ comments in a more succinct
way. This enables them to see their
targets immediately when they open
their exercise books, so that they don’t
have to search through them to see
what they need to do to improve.
Even if pupils have done an exercise
that can be self or peer corrected we
encourage pupils to reflect on their
performance on that activity.
However, it’s all very well giving pupils
advice on how to improve their work,
but pupils need to actually act on it.
Here is an example of how a pupil has
added in something extra based on
advice on how to improve the piece of
work. This does mean giving pupils the
opportunity to reflect on their work and
do something constructive with your
comments. This could be either done in
class or at home.
Example of effective feedback in MFL
using RVHS marking sticker
Example of personalised targets in MFL which
students should focus on
Pupils in MFL reflect on their work to identify improvements
Example of pupil in MFL reflecting on their feedback and making changes
6
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
It’s not just the teacher that can help a
pupil to improve work. Pupils
themselves can be a critical friend and
are quite astute in the comments that
they make. Two stars and a wish is a
great tool for getting pupils to peer
assess each other.
One of the big improvements we have
made in recent years to our marking in
MFL, is done by using the simple
highlighter pen. If we have taught a
pupil something, language or a
grammatical rule and they are still
making a mistake when applying this,
we highlight a pupil’s work, put a code
in the margin and when they receive
their books back they have to correct
their mistakes and hopefully learn from
them. After all what’s the point of us
putting all that effort in if they don’t do
anything with your marking. This
practice is a great way of getting to
learn form their own mistakes and
reinforce their learning. It does,
however, mean giving time to this in
lessons, even though we may be
pressed for time, but it does pay
dividends.
N. Chambers
An example of peer assessment in MFL
Example of students in MFL self-correcting their work based on teacher assessment.
7
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
Art
Examples of marking can even be found
in the corridors at RVHS.
An example of effective feedback used in the Art department.
Close-up showing how the Art department use the Roding Valley marking
stickers
8
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
Business Studies
I have been using Edmodo as a means to manage homework since September with my year 10 Business Studies class. The following slides show how I provide feedback in an effective way. O.Hussain
Images show Edmodo being used in Business Studies to provide effective feedback
9
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
Mathematics
Diagnostic Marking (gaps
analysis) in the Mathematics
faculty
To complement our current
marking the Mathematics
faculty have been using
diagnostic sheets to provide
detailed feedback to student in
Key Stage 4 following
assessment. They are
particularly useful following a
practice/ mock paper.
These diagnostic sheets
provide a gap analysis for the
students to help them focus
their revision. On the
diagnostic sheet every
question answered is coloured
either red or green. The
student and teacher then
focus on the questions
coloured red, which indicate
that the student struggled
with the context and
understanding. It identifies
the topics and style of
question on which they did
not achieve full marks. It
then becomes a valuable
tool for teachers to aid
planning, intervention and
support.
The diagnostic sheets also
provide for differentiation
against target grades as the
mathematics papers are
generally written to move
through the grade
boundaries increasing in
complexity. In a lower ability
class which had written a
foundation paper we would
focus on the questions at C
grade. For the higher ability
Example of a self assessment sheet identifying topics
students did well on and topics they need to focus on to
improve
Diagnostic sheets are used in Maths to provide students with
an enhanced level of feedback
10
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
student we use the full range and try to
extend knowledge to Advanced Level
style questions to deliver the complexity
of knowledge required to achieve A/A*.
We have improved our GCSE grades
with the use of these techniques.
S Jenner
The teacher then prepares the diagnostic sheet from the responses that the students made in
the assessment.
Green means that the student understood context of question and made a correct response
with standing simple clerical errors, red would indicate that the student struggled with context
and understanding. Yellow would indicate that the student demonstrated an appreciation of
the topic but failed to achieve full marks..
11
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
Video Feedback in English
In English we are exploring digital
feedback using Edmodo.com: uploading
marked assignments, uploading audio
feedback and uploading video
feedback. After downloading a pupil’s
work from Edmodo, that they have
previously posted, we use a website
called screencast-o-matic.com. With
this site you can record whatever
appears on your screen whilst
simultaneously creating a voice-over.
The website is free and it works over
anything that would normally appear on
your screen. Once you choose to record
it allows you to select an area you wish
to record using a resizable box.
Once you have spoken over the
document you can save the video and
upload it as a private video on
YouTube.
You can then share the link with the
pupil on Edmodo and the video
feedback is complete.
Benefits of video feedback are as
follows:
· The depth and detail is greater
than an annotated piece of work.
· As everything is online it is all
organised and easily accessible.
· It is less time consuming than it
would be to give this level of help
through annotation.
· Pupils interact and respond
better with the personal video
format as opposed to a piece of
annotated work.
Screencast-o-matic is used to provide video
feedback in English
Section of screen selected for recording using
screencast-o-matic
An Example of feedback left for a student
published as a private video to YouTube.
12
Follow us @rvhstl and sign up for e-mail updates at www.rvhstl.wordpress.com
· If a pupil has any questions they can reply directly to your post on Edmodo.
Negatives of video feedback are as follows:
· It can be time consuming if you are new to the technology.
· It is difficult if a pupil does not have access to the internet at home.
· You cannot have pupils looking at their feedback in class unless you have
access to an internet enabled device.
C.Bentley
So this is how WE do it at Roding Valley High School.