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Assignment reflections from Ms Ellwood

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FAR marking response boxes used in lessons from Ms Vickers

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Assignment reflections from Ms Vickers

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Assignment reflections from Mr Hince

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This looks good. My takeaway is that we are on the right track, but that there could be an improvement in making sure the students are receptive to the feedback, when it is given. That is, make sure they are in the right frame of mind to make the most of the feedback

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Continue to use retrieval practice as starters to recall knowledge (low-stakes)

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Example of whole class feedback for History. We put Feedback on the left and Actions on the right. We then provide questions that students need to answer.

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Feedback needs to be manageable and measurable.

Feedback should start generally and then move specifically.

Produce individualised voice-to-text reports for exam students, processed with AI to make corrections, etc.

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Feedback takeaway:

use a variety of feedbacks and keep it consistent

Use feedback that suit the skill/topic/situation - see what works and experiment. Effective feedback will use a wide range

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Article on verbal feedback: https://www.teachwire.net/news/verbal-feedback-how-spoken-messages-can-reduce-your-workload/

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Let's stop writing feedback no one ever reads and instead embrace a smarter, more verbal approach to marking, says Gordon Cairns

To the surprise of no one familiar with the sight of a stack of marking on the kitchen table after a day's teaching, a 2018 DfE report on staff retention found that a key reason for teachers leaving the profession was workload issues - and particularly the volume of marking.
The report quoted one exasperated former science teacher as saying, "There were ridiculous marking schemes, eight coloured pens and five symbols; it took me three hours a day to get through all the marking."

Grades and substance

Yet despite all the time and effort frequently invested in writing comments on students' work, experienced teachers are all too aware of the weaknesses surrounding this specific form of feedback.

How often have you highlighted an area to improve on in your comments, only to see the same mistake appear in the next piece of work? Or had a student complain that comments you stayed up late to write are as indecipherable as Egyptian hieroglyphics?

More recent research suggests little has changed. One study found that if an answer paper has both feedback and a specific grade on it, the recipient will overlook even the most carefully crafted list of next steps. Instead, they'll fixate on the number or letter beside it, thus ignoring the most important aspect of the assessment - what they should learn from it.

Verbal feedback revolution

However, it seems a revolution in time management may be starting to take hold in classrooms across the country. Savvy teachers are realising that capturing recorded voice notes via mobile apps - Showbie being one example - has the potential to free up hours of their precious time throughout the working week.

While there have yet to be any formal studies into this approach at the secondary phase, the benefits would appear to extend beyond just the obvious time savings. Students seem to often respond more positively to the individualised nature of verbal feedback compared to written comments. This is regardless of how personally you've framed that written message to them.

Research conducted among higher education students has, however, found that recorded verbal feedback helps to create a more personal and authentic connection with learners; connections that can be more developmental than prescriptive.

The same study further found that students frequently prefer the more informal nature of verbal feedback. This builds a positive pastoral relationship between tutor and student, whilst also boosting students' sense of being cared for. This encourages them in their learning and helps to improve their levels of confidence and self-esteem. It's not too much of a stretch to assume that school students are likely to experience similar pastoral benefits of their own.

Pain-free privacy

That said, one key advantage of written feedback is the natural pause between the submission of work and its subsequent return. Receiving verbal feedback immediately can be emotionally overwhelming. This is especially true if a student is highly invested in their work, irrespective of whether the feedback is good or bad. Some students simply don't like receiving praise in front of their classmates.

On the other hand, students can listen to recorded messages in private, in a way that may even reduce the chances that a student responds negatively.

If you need any further convincing, consider how it's often easier to amend mistakes in verbal comments by simply re-recording messages, rather than erasing and rewriting them.

Moreover, Victorians who could afford washing machines soon found themselves with more time on their hands - hands that tended to be less sore. Many readers will know that there's nothing quite like the pain between the fingers caused by holding a pen for too long, and this too could be alleviated by adopting verbal feedback methods.

If and when more teachers start to embrace audio recordings as a viable form of verbal feedback, who knows what it might lead to? With any luck, a reduction in the number of teachers currently leaving the profession.
Gordon Cairns is an English and forest school teacher who works in a unit for secondary pupils with ASD; he also writes about education, society, cycling and football for a number of publications

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Verbal feedback - How spoken messages can reduce workload

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Let's stop writing feedback no one ever reads and instead embrace a smarter, more verbal approach to marking, says Gordon Cairns

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Feedback from homework highlighting common mistakes and setting challenging questions

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Here is our whole class feedback for Geography to consolidate their learning and support their mock revision for year 11.

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Exit ticket ideas

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Example of starter questions and prompts for Yr13 Drama

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Exit tickets:

What is the purpose of a Direct Object Pronoun in French?

What different forms can French Direct Object Pronouns take?

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My example of TPS

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Recall Starter Quiz

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Starter-

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I enjoyed the article on learning as an active process.

One method I would add to the other suggestions would be having the students "teach" a topic. Giving them this responsibility certainly prevents the passivity which can sometimes creep into the classroom. Teacher on hand to clarify any misunderstandings.

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When it comes to groupwork I've been trying to find ways to prevent the "free riding" issue raised in the bulletin.

An approach I like to use is to give the students three minutes to get started on the group work, after which I will be going around and asking exactly what each member of the group is working on and how it is contributing to the overall goal.

Additionally, for those who then say that they are taking charge of the "design" side of things, I will often redirect them to a content role which has to be completed first.

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I don't do group work in my subject, I found that when we completed projects in lesson, as a practical subject, the outcomes were not as good as if the students had completed the work themselves, and they didn't all have the opportunity to practice as many practical skills as they did when working alone. But I do like the ideas that you provided.

I did however enjoy the article about effective learning routines that you provided a link to, and the checking for understanding video

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I've brought back the starter to KS4! It was a great reminder of the importance of routine, even when you're feeling under pressure to 'get through' content.

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I think you needed to model "what a good one looks like" so that students know what they are aiming for.

I think that the environment in the classroom needs to reflect an environment where students always try their best, and effort is recognised, and rewarded when appropriate.

Aim Higher tasks should be easily accessible for students.

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End of unit assessment time again, and it got me thinking about summative assessments. So much of the PGCE last year emphasised the importance of formative assessment that I felt that summative assessments fell by the wayside a little.

One thing I try to highlight to the students is that the summative assessment is an opportunity to demonstrate comprehensiveness in learning - bringing everything together and making connections across the curriculum.

Formative and Summative Assessments | Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning

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Examples of Formative and Summative Assessments

Both forms of assessment can vary across several dimensions (Trumbull and Lash, 2013):

Informal / formal

Immediate / delayed feedback

Embedded in lesson plan / stand-alone

Spontaneous / planned

Individual / group

Verbal / nonverbal

Oral / written

Graded / ungraded

Open-ended response / closed/constrained response

Teacher initiated/controlled / student initiated/controlled

Teacher and student(s) / peers

Process-oriented / product-oriented

Brief / extended

Scaffolded (teacher supported) / independently performed

Recommendations

Formative Assessment Ideally, formative assessment strategies improve teaching and learning simultaneously. Instructors can help students grow as learners by actively encouraging them to self-assess their own skills and knowledge retention, and by giving clear instructions and feedback. Seven principles (adapted from Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2007 with additions) can guide instructor strategies:

Keep clear criteria for what defines good performance - Instructors can explain criteria for A-F graded papers, and encourage student discussion and reflection about these criteria (this can be accomplished though office hours, rubrics, post-grade peer review, or exam / assignment wrappers). Instructors may also hold class-wide conversations on performance criteria at strategic moments throughout a term.

Encourage students' self-reflection - Instructors can ask students to utilize course criteria to evaluate their own or a peer's work, and to share what kinds of feedback they find most valuable. In addition, instructors can ask students to describe the qualities of their best work, either through writing or group discussion.

Give students detailed, actionable feedback - Instructors can consistently provide specific feedback tied to predefined criteria, with opportunities to revise or apply feedback before final submission. Feedback may be corrective and forward-looking, rather than just evaluative. Examples include comments on multiple paper drafts, criterion discussions during 1-on-1 conferences, and regular online quizzes.

Encourage teacher and peer dialogue around learning - Instructors can invite students to discuss the formative learning process together. This practice primarily revolves around mid-semester feedback and small group feedback sessions, where students reflect on the course and instructors respond to student concerns. Students can also identify examples of feedback comments they found useful and explain how they helped. A particularly useful strategy, instructors can invite students to discuss learning goals and assignment criteria, and weave student hopes into the syllabus.

Promote positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem - Students will be more motivated and engaged when they are assured that an instructor cares for their development. Instructors can allow for rewrites/resubmissions to signal that an assignment is designed to promote development of learning. These rewrites might utilize low-stakes assessments, or even automated online testing that is anonymous, and (if appropriate) allows for unlimited resubmissions.

Provide opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance - Related to the above, instructors can improve student motivation and engagement by making visible any opportunities to close gaps between current and desired performance. Examples include opportunities for resubmission, specific action points for writing or task-based assignments, and sharing study or process strategies that an instructor would use in order to succeed.

Collect information which can be used to help shape teaching - Instructors can feel free to collect useful information from students in order to provide targeted feedback and instruction. Students can identify where they are having difficulties, either on an assignment or test, or in written submissions. This approach also promotes metacognition, as students are asked to think about their own learning. Poorvu Center staff can also perform a classroom observation or conduct a small group feedback session that can provide instructors with potential student struggles.

Instructors can find a variety of other formative assessment techniques through Angelo and Cross (1993), Classroom Assessment Techniques (list of techniques available here).

Summative Assessment Because summative assessments are usually higher-stakes than formative assessments, it is especially important to ensure that the assessment aligns with the goals and expected outcomes of the instruction.

Use a Rubric or Table of Specifications - Instructors can use a rubric to lay out expected performance criteria for a range of grades. Rubrics will describe what an ideal assignment looks like, and "summarize" expected performance at the beginning of term, providing students with a trajectory and sense of completion.

Design Clear, Effective Questions - If designing essay questions, instructors can ensure that questions meet criteria while allowing students freedom to express their knowledge creatively and in ways that honor how they digested, constructed, or mastered meaning. Instructors can read about ways to design effective multiple choice questions.

Assess Comprehensiveness - Effective summative assessments provide an opportunity for students to consider the totality of a course's content, making broad connections, demonstrating synthesized skills, and exploring deeper concepts that drive or found a course's ideas and content.

Make Parameters Clear - When approaching a final assessment, instructors can ensure that parameters are well defined (length of assessment, depth of response, time and date, grading standards); knowledge assessed relates clearly to content covered in course; and students with disabilities are provided required space and support.

Consider Blind Grading - Instructors may wish to know whose work they grade, in order to provide feedback that speaks to a student's term-long trajectory. If instructors wish to provide truly unbiased summative assessment, they can also consider a variety of blind grading techniques.

Considerations for Online Assessments

Effectively implementing assessments in an online teaching environment can be particularly challenging. The Poorvu Center shares these recommendations.

References

Nicol, D.J. and Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education 31(2): 2-19.

Theall, M. and Franklin J.L. (2010). Assessing Teaching Practices and Effectiveness for Formative Purposes. In: A Guide to Faculty Development. KJ Gillespie and DL Robertson (Eds). Jossey Bass: San Francisco, CA.

Trumbull, E., & Lash, A. (2013). Understanding formative assessment: Insights from learning theory and measurement theory. San Francisco: WestEd.

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Examples of Formative and Summative Assessments Examples of Formative and Summative Assessments Formative Summative In-class discussions Instructor-created exams Clicker questions Standardized tests Low-stakes group work Final projects

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Having read the article linked in the T&L bulletin on supporting shy pupils in class, I tried putting "warm-calling" into practice this week and last, providing specific students with a few extra moments to prepare their question response. Because of this, these students have grown in confidence particularly with regard to their subject-specific knowledge and are now more frequently offering their response on their own initiative.

A good short read: https://alexquigley.co.uk/supporting-shy-pupils-to-talk-in-class/

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Shy pupils can easily, often unnoticed, slide to the sides of lessons. Supporting such pupils, who are nervous to talk with their peers or in front of the class, can be a tricky business but also vital for both their well-being and their learning. The quiet, and seemingly passive, behaviour

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After the T&L session on Monday I tried out a new approach to the "No opt out" questioning technique. I had struggled with this technique before as I wanted to avoid it descending into a "shaming" session with a student who just would not provide an answer. By setting up a "clue" through a different question directed at another student, I was then able to return to the original student to get the correct response.

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A great podcast on how to start your Starter with high expectations.

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Through the creation of a revision channel for the GCSE. I am ensuring there are strong range of resources for the students to use: including videos, worksheets and information pages.

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A recall quiz as a starter sets the expectations, particularly for year 11 students approaching second mocks

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What does a lesson with High Expectations look like?