teach to learn: issue 1 - february 2013

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Volume 1—February 2013

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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



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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



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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



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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



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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.



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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



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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



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Maths

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

students and teacher then

focus on the questions

coloured red which indicate

that the student struggled

with context and

understanding. It identifies

the topics and style of

question on which that they

did not achieve full marks. It

is then a valuable tool for

teachers to aid planning,

intervention and support.

The diagnostic sheets also

provided for differentiation

against target grades as the

Mathematics papers are

generally written to move

through the grade

boundaries increasing in

complexity. In a middle

ability class which had sat a

higher paper we would focus

on the questions up to B

grade. For the top set we

use the full range and try to

Example of a self assessment sheet identifying topics

students did well on and topics they need to focus on

Diagnostic sheets are used in Maths to provide students with

an enhanced level of feedback



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extend knowledge to a level style

questions to deliver the complexity of

knowledge.

S. Jenner

Teacher then prepares diagnostic sheet from the responses 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.



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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.

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.



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· Pupils interact and respond better with the personal video format as opposed

to a piece of annotated work.

· 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.



teach to learn: issue 1 - february 2013

Documents

effective feedback feedback

untimely feedback

actionable effective

pupils time

close pupils

ongoing pupils dont

real time

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