Database of Effective Feedback Strategies

Created by BCS Faculty

4 Corners Multiple Choice (Letters A-D in Corners)

Label each corner of the room with the letters A-D. Ask the class a multiple choice question and have them stand in the corner that matches their answer. Its a good approach to classroom review and allows the teacher to see which concepts students have mastered as well as those that need to be addressed.

Blogging
This strategy provides an interactive way to have classroom discussion. It provides anonymous feedback from students and teacher. This is an excellent way to incorporate technology into classroom instruction.

Clickers for Interwrite Board

Clickers give teachers real-time feedback as to what students are/are not understanding.

Dramatic Responses
Cooking with gas. Awesome idea! Expand on it. Neat idea! Explain how you came up with that. I never thought of that, tell us more.

Entrance Questions
Students are given a question to answer right before entering class. If they get it wrong, they get back in line. As students answer their questions and listen to others responses, it allows them to review information from both current and past lessons. As students enter the classroom, ask them a question about the previous days lesson. Not only does this provide a brief review, but it also gets students thinking about what they will learn today.

Exit Slips
Students are asked a question regarding the lesson (part or whole) as they exit the door. This allows the teacher to gain immediate feedback from each student. This strategy helps the teacher know whether or not students have understood the objective/goal of the lesson. Do you need to re-teach it?

Google Docs
This tool provides students with an opportunity to collaborate on written assignments. They can give and receive feedback almost instantaneously.

Humor
When students are not putting forth effort, the teacher can insert humor into the discussion in an attempt to win them over and engage them in the activity. Humor allows for a normal, healthy relationship with students.

Jigsawing
This strategy allows for the chunking of data. Students become experts in one topic and then peer-teach that topic to their classmates. It appeals to many different learning styles and provides opportunities for students to engage in cooperative learning and public speaking. Each student works out a piece of the puzzle (lesson/exercise) and presents it to the class. When all students have finished discussing their topics the lesson has been completed in its entirety. (This is a tricky strategy in that the teacher needs to constantly monitor for accuracy.) Chunking reading assignments and allowing different students to read each section reduces the workload for each individual. It also requires higher-level thinking skills because students are required to synthesize the information to report out. This, in turn, leads to improved comprehension.

Journaling
Many times when students create artwork, having a journal that coincides with the piece can benefit the students to review processes, media, and concepts learned. It also helps the teacher to understand what the students learned, created, and the thinking that took place in order to create it.

Modeling with Student Exemplars

Providing examples of excellent student work for specific assignments can be used as a model for struggling students, especially writing samples.

Peer Grading
It is useful to have students grade each others errors, explain errors, and correct errors (teaching and self-assessment). This strategy also keeps students actively involved and not waiting for the teacher.

Peer Review

Students play segments of a specific music piece by grade level (6th plays a segment, then 7th, then 8th). The pieces are analyzed and discussed and then certain parts may be chosen as a model.

Positive Focus
Elicit responses and enthusiastically zero in on answers that are in the ballpark. Reinforcing these correct answers build self-confidence and promote risk-taking. The teacher can ask students to add to responses too. Even if an answer is wrong, try to find something positive about the answer given. This will encourage students to answer again.

Posting Grades
It is important for students to know where they stand in their academic progress.

Return Collected Work Next Day

Timely feedback is important to students. If you wait too long to return an assignment, not only does it lose its importance, but students often lose interest or forget about the assignment. This method of feedback is effective because the material is still fresh in the students minds. This makes it more likely for them to learn from their mistakes.

Review Games
Create games to study for tests. This is a fun and nonthreatening method of providing feedback.

Rubrics
Rubrics are effective because they allow specific areas to be targeted for improvement. They can also be tailored to assess and provide feedback on any number of tasks or skills. It is essential to have a set of guidelines that establishes clear expectations for performance and assessment. Rubrics work well for grading dialogues, projects, and compositions. Rubrics provide students with the opportunity to see what is required for a specific assignment. It should be given to students before they begin the project NOT after.

Self-assessment
Students assess their own skills and effort. This is important because some students may have put forth their best effort but may not appear to do as well as others. This helps the teacher to know how the students feel they did and why. It also highlights strengths and struggles. Students are usually very honest and are happy to have a say in their grading.

Self-assessment and Peer-assessment

Students assess their own writing according to a rubric or an established set of criteria. A peer also assesses the writing. The two students record their grades blindly, then share and discuss. Finally, the teacher reveals his/her grade for the writing and the student is required to write a response addressing any discrepancies and rationales.

Stickers/Stamps
Stickers are used to mark students practice minutes and a sticker is also placed on the scale chart after it has been played by memory.

Technology
View projects and assignments on the monitors. Have students make corrections and adjustments to show understanding. At the end of a lesson you can use a PowerPoint to generate discussion questions about what students did and did not understand. You can attach levels of understanding to the questions as well (levels 1-5).

Test Corrections
This method of feedback allows the students to go back and fix their mistakes. It encourages them to review the material and also gives the teacher the OK to move on with instruction. This is effective because it makes students revisit questions that they missed. Students get tests back and use notes and/or partners to make test corrections. They then bring the test up and go over it with the teacher.

Think-Pair-Share
Students are given a question. Next, they think of their response. Finally, they pair up with a partner to share their opinions. The students can also share their opinions with the rest of the class. This strategy is effective because it raises the level of concern for the student. Students find out what they know and what they dont know and teach each other before the answers are even discussed in class as a whole. This method of feedback promotes careful thinking strategies, cooperative learning, and public speaking. It puts responsibility on the student and gives the teacher the opportunity to see who needs more instruction and who gets it. This strategy is helpful because the individual gets to think about his or her response alone. As he meets with his pair (partner) he may add more information, receive clarification, or receive correction. Discussing helps with learning. This method of providing feedback is effective because students take time to think independently as they develop ideas. Then, sharing with peers helps students, with certain learning styles, to better develop their thoughts. This leads to higher-level thinking. The depth of conversation is also greater.

Thumbs-up - Thumbs-down
This strategy provides immediate feedback by letting the teacher know if each and every child has the grasp of a certain question or concept.

Warm-up Questions
In a composition book, students answer a question, provide an example, or even just brainstorm independently. Then students share their answers with partners, rows, and then as a whole class. This is effective because it allows the teacher to gage who understood the lesson independently and then reflect on the discussion that was generated. This is a great strategy as it allows for continuous review of course content. It also assists the classroom teacher with time management because the questions can be written on the board ahead of time and can be a routine part of every days class. Warm-up questions reinforce structure while they build upon previously learned skills and materials. They also provide for multiple teaching facets in which the teacher has the opportunity to engage as many students as possible. Students can write about or think about prior information learned and then connect it to todays lesson. This strategy also serves as a quick review. Prior to instruction, give students 2-3 problems/questions that would require prior knowledge from yesterdays lesson (or earlier). Ask students to solve/answer the question without using notes or getting help from others. The teacher can then check for understanding by having students share verbally or write answers on the board. If students are having trouble then the topic needs to be re-taught but if students seem to get it then classroom instruction will move forward.

White Boards
Students do certain problems on their whiteboards and then show the teacher their answers. This strategy allows teachers to gain immediate feedback regarding which students truly understand the given concept. It also provides students with immediate teacher feedback. Using small whiteboards provides immediate assessment. The teacher is able to see all student answers at once AND students are able to see each others answers. Corrections are made immediately and then discussed. When students write their responses on whiteboards, it provides a quick overview of the learning that is taking place. Students arent put on the spot so the activity is nonthreatening.

Written Comments
Written comments on assignments and tests guide students in the right direction and encourage them to try different strategies that may help them.