Feedback Practices

The communication of learning needs to be on-going and specific to ensure all stakeholders know how they are doing. Traditional grade books don’t allow for the most important information, the actual progress of student learning. In this workshop, participants will learn how to provide feedback without grades against standards and success criteria in a way that students, families, and colleagues can understand. We will talk about how technology can aid in this communication.

Whenever we want students to be collaborative partners, we need to cultivate an environment that ensures trust and competence among peers. In this workshop, educators will learn ways to establish a culture where peer feedback can thrive. Through specific, transferrable activities and development of plans to bring back to the classroom, teachers will discover how to let go of the reins of control and empower the students to work together to be successful. Students are encouraged to participate in this workshop as well.

Feedback is a term we use all of the time and many feel they do it well. Unfortunately, generic feedback doesn’t help anyone succeed. In this workshop, we will look at current practices and specific ways we can provide more aligned feedback to tasks at hand. We will explore how much feedback to give, when to give it and when to prioritize. Teachers should bring student work for the biggest benefit in learning.

All feedback is not created equal and in peer feedback relationships, responsibility is not always delegated evenly. This workshop will focus on ways to ensure all students have roles they can be successful in and how to rotate and/or troubleshoot when roles aren’t being handled effectively. Since all students should feel confident with the feedback they receive from students, worrying less about only the teacher’s opinion, we must ensure that all students are capable of participating in this process. This workshop is especially good for collaborative group work.

Why isn’t peer feedback working in my classroom? If we are asking students to provide feedback, expecting them to know how to do it, we are doomed to failure to start. Educators must set up a culture and use protocols to help students become adept at identifying areas of strength and weakness and then how to provide excellent, actionable feedback based on what they see. In this workshop, participants will explore their current practices and troubleshoot how to make them better. We will explore ways to enrich student understanding of learning and skills and how to help them be accountable for their own and peer growth.

One way to facilitate peer feedback in the classroom is to develop expert groups. Expert groups teach a few students how to do one skill very well. This group then becomes the classroom experts on workshop days for providing feedback in this one particular area. In this workshop, participants will learn about what expert groups are, how to create them in their content areas and how to facilitate them during class. We will also look at ways to avoid common pitfalls and ensure the best experience for all students. Peer Feedback in the Classroom is a support text for this workshop.

Now that students know how to reflect against standards, teachers need to use these reflections as a means to providing excellent, specific feedback. In this workshop, participants will review student reflections to be able to determine what kinds of feedback to provide and what strategies to suggest. Participants will also explore how to build on student goals and collect data for more focused instruction.

We custom design workshops for Feedback Practices in lots of schools. Fill out the form below to contact us about your specific workshop needs.