How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students

by Susan M. Brookhart

Done well, feedback from teachers to students addresses both cognitive and motivational factors. In this book for elementary school teachers, Brookhart, an educational consultant, categorizes important elements of feedback content (such as focus, comparison, clarity, and tone) and strategy (such as timing, mode, and audience), and offers practical suggestions for using feedback in positive ways. In addition to giving guidelines for good feedback, the author explains what kinds of feedback work best in various content areas and shows how to adjust feedback for different kinds of learners, including successful and struggling students and English language learners. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Professional Development, School

121 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2008

Reviews

[Karla Strand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful tips on giving feedback to students. Points out different types of students (reluctant, successful, struggling, ELL) and how to best tailor feedback (written and verbal) to each. Also discusses pros and cons of different types of feedback. Valuable resource to refer to and a quick read.

Formative assessment: gives info to teachers and students about how students are doing relative to classroom learning goals page 1
- clear learning targets
- clear lessons and assignments
- formulation of new goals and action plans to achieve goals
- address both cognitive (where they are in their learning and what to do next) and motivational (sense of control over their own learning) factors (page 2)

Must give students feedback AND opportunity to then use it (page 2)

self-regulation-using and controlling one's own thought processes (page 3)

Hattie and Timperley (2007) proposed four levels of feedback:
1. feedback about the task
2. fb about the processing of the task
3. fb about self-regulation
4. fb about the student as a person (page 4)

FB can vary in timing, amount, mode, audience, focus, comparison, function, valence, clarity, specificity, and tone (page 5-7)

timing - give timely fb so students have task fresh in their minds
amount - don't try to fix everything, pick and choose, give usable amount of information that connects with something the students already know
mode - written, oral; ask questions to prompt them to reflect instead of just talking at them ex:what are you noticing about this? or does anything surprise you? take advantage of teachable moment
audience: individual or group?
focus: back to Hattie and Timperley's 2007 4 levels of feedback
comparison: normreferencing (comparing student performance to that of other students) and criterion-referencing (comparing student performance to a standard) (page 22)
valence: fb should be positive but not dishonest about a student's work, describe strengths and ways to improve weaknesses (page 25-26)

Your feedback is good if it gets the following results:
- students do learn and work does improve
- students become more motivated
- your classroom becomes a place where fb (incl constructive criticism) is valued and viewed as productive (page 30)

how to help students use feedback:
- model how to give and use feedback: use fb as part of lessons, model openness to criticism, recognize mistakes as opportunities to learn
- teach self-assessment skills: increases students' ownership and motivation, helps to develop self-regulation, can also use peer assessment (page 60)
- teach peer assessment skills: have ground rules, practicing applying the criteria for good work, contributes to creating environment that values fb and contructive criticism (page 70)
- establish clear learning targets and criteria (page 72)
- provide opps to use feedback - make connections between fb and student's improvement (page 73-74)

Adjusting fb for different types of students:
- successful students: don't assume bc they are successful, that they don't need fb, they do
- struggling students: esp. give cognitive fb connecting process with results (page 99)
- reluctant students: don't get caught into trap of giving only negative fb because this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, give self-referenced fb (comparing their present work with previous fb) (page 106-107)

Try these titles as well:
Formative Assessment Strategies for Every Classroom (ASCD, Brookhart, 2006)
Checking for Understanding (Fisher and Frey, 2007)
Choice Words (Johnston, 2004)

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear and practical. This is a good resource for bringing the process of providing student feedback back into your conscious reflection (it becomes so automatic). A great book for any teacher, especially enjoyed reading it as a way to prepare for teaching large groups-sharpening my focus will be important!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do I need to give more feedback to my students? Yes. Do I need smaller classes in order to do so? Also yes.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a student studying to become a teacher this book offers an excellent introduction to the foundations of feedback. For an experienced teacher it is a good review of best practices. It's downfall is that it never mentions the greatest conflict of feedback - timeliness vs effectiveness. By never mentioning that this -the biggest obstacle for secondary English teachers at least- exists, it loses credibility. This flaw also means no suggestions are made for overcoming this challenge which makes the book less effective. It sets up the ideal of feedback without facing the practical realities that secondary English teachers face, which left this reader feeling more overwhelmed & defeated than inspired & motivated.

[Danielle's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it is something I often find myself struggling with. Since I am music I worry about the feedback I give often. The only thing I did not really like about this book however was it's repetitiveness. I felt like this book would have been shorter if the author had not restated things several times. There were times when I would skim the text simply because it was not saying anything that had not already been said. I really liked how this book broke down the types of feedback and all of the aspects of it. I overall found this pretty interesting and helpful.

[Nurlan Imangaliyev · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another must-read for all teachers of all levels. Knowing how to give effective feedback can save lots of students, please read this one before it's too late.

[Grek Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very helpful guide for providing, interestingly, A set of criteria for you to provide your self with feedback on how effective you are providing feedback… LOL. While I was reading, I found myself Producing my own criterion referenced feedback, both of my strengths and areas for improvement, including ways that I can either enhance or build upon my existing skills. What are you especially liked about the book is the minimal and specific, focus to use of anecdotes and examples to illustrate what the criteria for effective feedback are and how to put it in practice. This means that the 100+ pages our information dense rather than being fluffy stories that Jones enriching your knowledge and practices.

[Emily Revelas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about giving feedback to students!! So many things you don't realize until you read! Verbal and written feedback!

[Tyler McCubbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reminder of the qualities of effective feedback for veteran teachers, and certainly an informative read for teachers new to the classroom and career.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was meh....
Not a lot of new ideas. I'm already doing most of what they suggest.

[Morgan Baggett]

Reading for college.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brookhart offers great advice for how to approach giving feedback so that students can learn from it.

[Elizabeth Finnegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I ordered for my own students, who struggle with how child-centered my Methods class is. They are constantly asking me "what do you want?" The simple answer to that question is that I want them to look at each child's learning needs and address them. Ergo this book offers a different perspective on working with school-aged students to enhance their learning.

One thing I especially like about this book is that it recognizes that feedback is a form of communication. The intended message is only as good as the received message. Teachers need to understand their students' perspectives and experiences in life in order to tailor their feedback accordingly. Feedback is a conversation with a human being, not another task on a teacher's checklist.

The other really good thing about this book is that it discusses different forms of feedback, e.g knowledge of results, grading, guiding questions, challenging questions, validation, guidance, to name just a few.

It is a quick easy read, suitable for a teacher with a busy schedule.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Providing effective and timely feedback to my students has been a goal of mine for years- and I feel like through some of the suggestions in this book and key ideas it shared- I am on my way! Was everything in this book perfect- nope- but I love that it is geared towards K-12 educators, and provides lots of suggestions for varieties of feedback, how to help your students give better feedback to one another, and more. Would recommend for those interested in the feedback loop!

[PBaco · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good reminder about the importance of giving appropriate feedback. The examples are a good starting point for a teacher wanting to improve use of feedback.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent information, well written, easy to follow and very useful.

[Saba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource

[rabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not perfect, but I’m rounding up because I thought it was an excellent pedagogical reference: clear message well supported by research, but not overly academic, and rife with examples.

[Jennifer]

Opened my mind to effective feedback for myself and others.

[Emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

simple and great charts. Quick read and lots of great ideas.