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the front end of the "heads up
feedback" form |
Providing, timely, quality feedback has become the hallmark of our classroom. Students should be able to enunciate their progress each day and frequent formative feedback allows check ins on progress so that adjustments can be made both in instruction as well as study topics.
Integrate Feedback
Teachers naturally provide feedback daily to students- the challenge is to get it down in writing and into a medium that is recorded and easy for students to access and go back to. With these parameters in mind, I created what I call the "Heads Up Feedback" form. Utilizing Google forms,
formranger and
autocrat scripts I can observe and record student performance and then share it with them. Automation (
the heads up part) was the number one priority so that I could focus on the quality ingredient of feedback rather than the mechanics of how to get it to the student.
Make It Easy
This workflow follows the idea that if you make something easy to do it will be used a lot. The form is meant to be used with a tablet or laptop allowing the teacher to observe student's levels of understanding from within the class rather than from outside or after learning takes place. This is essential in my opinion to encourage students to grow and develop their understandings thus taking part of their education rather than viewing it as something that is being done to them.
Regular And Repeated
Living in our google domain this year has allowed many opportunities for regular quality feedback shared with stakeholders, both students and parents. While not trying to overwhelm them with messages, a few pieces of feedback each week has allowed all involved to stay informed and up to date on the levels of understanding each student displays. An additional step this year was to make the student the main recipient of each message rather than the parent as in years past. This was done to encourage ownership of the message to each student. So far I've been impressed by how seriously each student has taken this level of communication.
Focus On The Standards
Looking at the levels of understandings on each standard or performance indicator- read skill- makes sense. Learning is so much more than an answer to a multiple choice question. I want to know if a student can do something. Spending a few minutes observing how they tackle a problem or task illuminates their understanding in a way virtually no other assessment can. This feedback mechanism allows students (and their parents) insight into their level of proficiency on a skill. This in turn helps them in a concrete way see what skills they need either re-teaching from the teacher or studying themselves. At the end of the day that is what we should be doing, helping students see what skills they need to keep developing. That way they have an education where they learn to do something.
