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A common feedback trap that Brookhart observes can happen when teachers forget the goal of an assignment and give feedback on things like grammar instead of the learning goal. For example, if a seventh-grade science lab is meant to teach a concept, but all the feedback is about how the student formatted the lab, then the teacher has missed an opportunity. "Feedback then becomes what do I need to do to please this teacher, not what do I need to do to learn," Brookhart said.

She also points out that feedback depends entirely on the learning goals of individual students. One student may have trouble starting a problem, but generally understands the material, so simply reminding her of the learning target might be enough. Another student may have trouble starting because his grasp of the material is a little shaky, but some guiding questions might be enough to spark his thinking. Still a third student may be lost on the content, in which case working through an example with her might be the appropriate level of scaffolding.

FEEDBACK FOR DIFFERENT REASONS

Often teachers think of giving feedback as useful to the student, but it should also be fruitful for the teacher. An individual instance of feedback can give a teacher a close-up look at the student's abilities with a specific skill, a snapshot of where they are in the scope of the class, and some ideas about where to go in the long term.

"Tell the students what you see in their work," Brookhart said. That doesn't mean merely writing "Good Job" or "Needs Work" in the margins. Those comments are evaluative, signaling the end of the conversation. "Without descriptions students don't have the information they need to take that next step."

Brookhart gave an example of an elementary class working on persuasive writing. Students were asked to write a letter to the librarian after a book was stolen, offering some reasons why she should buy the book again. One student wrote a paragraph explaining that the book was funny and had mysteries in it, so it was worth replacing. The teacher's feedback focused almost entirely on the spelling, capitalization and format errors of the letter. And at the end the teacher wrote, "Add more."

Brookhart unapologetically calls this bad feedback. A student reading this feedback would think the teacher cared only about grammar and format, not about his ideas or persuasiveness, the stated goal of the assignment. "The worst thing about this is that there's something really good in this that the teacher doesn't mention," Brookhart said. The student did offer two specific reasons why he liked the book, but the teacher did not call out those strengths.

"Do not assume this kid knows that he's got the kernel of persuasion in there. Part of your feedback should be to make explicit, so he knows that you know," Brookhart said.

Better feedback would be to tell the student he came up with two good reasons and ask him to add some of the missing information, like the title of the book and examples of how the book was funny or had mysteries. Then, the teacher could offer some sentence starters to help the student "add more," on the principle that he didn't know how to do that, or else he would have. Brookhart says that because this feedback is related to the skill being learned, it's more motivating to students, and doesn't make students feel like they are playing the teacher's game.

"Teachers that are more effective at formative assessment go for student thinking, not just how correct they are," Brookhart said. After a feedback session the teacher should understand more about how the student is thinking than she could gain from merely looking at what he wrote. And, she can then use that insight to give the student opportunities to revise the work and push toward stronger understanding of the learning target.

Brookhart says surveys of students are clear on what they want from feedback. "In many different countries, some done in the context of formative assessment and sometimes summative assessment, what students want is information they can use and the opportunity to use it."

EQUITY IN FEEDBACK

Another key thing to keep in mind when giving feedback relates to equity in thinking. It's easy to see a moderate- or high-level student's work that doesn't have typographical errors and push on the thinking behind it. But often the student whose technical writing skills are lower will get only the typographical feedback without the push on further thinking. While done unintentionally, the difference in feedback reinforces bias and could contribute to different expectations for different students.

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Why Giving Effective Feedback Is Trickier Than It Seems | KQED

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A common feedback trap that Brookhart observes can happen when teachers forget the goal of an assignment and give feedback on things like grammar instead of the learning goal. For example, if a seventh-grade science lab is meant to teach a concept, but all the feedback is about how the student formatted the lab, then the teacher has missed an opportunity.

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Listen to my interview with Jessica Lahey ( transcript):

The links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. If you click these and make a purchase from Amazon, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Picture this: It's morning, and your daughter has already left for school. Passing by the kitchen table, you notice her diagram of the solar system lying on one of the chairs, right next to where she was doing her homework the night before. She worked for over an hour on that diagram, measuring each planet to get its size right relative to the others. She colored it carefully, used her neatest printing. It's due today. And there it is, on a kitchen chair. It was an easy mistake; anyone could have made it. You could have made it. It's a big grade, and you're only a short drive away from school.

You have two choices:

(A) Take the homework to school. Within fifteen minutes, that diagram will be in her grateful hands, she can turn it in for full credit, and order will be restored to the universe. Also, your daughter will think you are amazing and wonderful.

(B) Leave it right where it is and let her face the consequences.

In her book, The Gift of Failure, teacher and author Jessica Lahey urges us to choose option B. It's the harder choice, the one that goes against so many of our parenting instincts. But ultimately, autonomy-supportive parenting -letting our kids deal with the natural consequences of their actions-will help them more quickly develop the skills they need to succeed. In her book, she lays out the research behind why this approach is so necessary, empathizes with parents who have a hard time breaking the "helicopter" habit, and shares tools and tips for making this shift toward parenting and teaching that will help our kids grow into responsible, self-directed, autonomous people.

The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed
by Jessica Lahey
304 pages, Harper, August 2015

Pulling together research on motivation, growth mindset, and cognitive psychology, along with insights from thought leaders like Daniel Pink, Lahey explains exactly how failure benefits kids, and why parenting for dependency doesn't.
"Small failures, when the stakes are relatively low and the potential for emotional and cognitive growth is high, are what psychologists Elizabeth and Robert Bjork call 'desirable difficulties.' Learning that comes with challenge is stored more effectively and more durably in the brain than learning that comes easily."
That means if we make life too easy for our kids, if we rescue them from every fall, they will never learn the important lessons that will carry them through life. And this is most effective, as Lahey puts it, when the stakes are relatively low. That means the earlier we let our kids experience failure, the better off they'll be.

In her chapter on middle school, for example, Lahey discusses the problems students encounter with organization and time management. Middle school, she says, is the perfect time to let students experience failure in these areas.
"Let them feel the pain and inconvenience of their mistakes, and then support them in their efforts to rework the bugs. A few missed lunches or a zero on the homework assignment she left on the kitchen counter will reinforce these skills better than your lectures or nagging ever will. Every intervention or rescue is a lesson lost. They need every minute, every learning opportunity inherent in their failures before they face the much greater challenges and consequences that await them right around the corner in high school."
But even if a parent can grasp this concept in the abstract, even if we agree with it in theory, putting it into practice is much more difficult.

When I first learned about this book, I resisted reading it. I was already familiar with Lahey's work and I respected her ideas, but I was a little scared. I was worried that she would advise me to let my kids run around the neighborhood unsupervised, choose their own bedtimes, eat whatever they wanted, and behave according to their own guidelines. In short, I thought she was going to tell me to stop parenting.

But when I started to read, I was relieved to find a saner approach.
"Autonomy-supportive parenting is not negligent parenting, and it is not permissive parenting. Autonomy-supportive parents establish specific and clear expectations, make themselves physically and emotionally present, and offer guidance when kids get frustrated or need redirection. The best part about being an autonomy-supportive parent is that all the negative stuff we do to get our children to do the things we want them to do-nagging, nitpicking, hovering, directing-stops. These parenting techniques are destructive to our relationships with our kids, anyway, so parenting in their absence is a more peaceful and enjoyable affair all around."
Because she is still in the process of breaking old habits, freely admitting all the mistakes she has made in the past, Lahey can empathize with the struggles parents experience when making this shift. She also offers plenty of practical tips and techniques, so we are not left to flail around in a vacuum. She shows us how to validate and support our kids when they are experiencing the negative emotions that come with failure, how to give helpful feedback rather than nagging or criticizing, and the specific things we can do to support them academically without hovering or taking over.

As I read The Gift of Failure, I couldn't help but think of my friend who teaches 12th grade English. Just recently she assigned a research paper and discovered that dozens of her students had turned in plagiarized work. Then she had to deal with the parents of those students, many of whom didn't want them to receive the zeroes they were supposed to get as a result. If those parents had read this book, it's far more likely they would have been on board with the decision, that they would have supported this teacher, knowing the consequence would likely prevent many more attempts to plagiarize in the future.

But how do we get the book into parents' hands? As Lahey pointed out in my interview with her (see below), most teachers wouldn't feel comfortable just handing this book over to individual parents and saying, "You need to read this." But many schools are choosing this book for their One-Book-One-School program, so that everyone is introduced to the ideas at one time. And as a teacher, reading the book yourself can help you get a better handle on the research behind autonomy-supportive parenting, which will in turn help you do a better job of gently explaining it to parents.

It can also help teachers adopt more autonomy-supportive practices in our own classrooms, giving our students more responsibility for their own learning, cutting back on the nagging and reminding, and eliminating the practice of adding a few extra points to bring that high "C" up to a "B." If all of us, together, take a deep breath and leave that homework on the chair, our children might actually thank us for it someday. ♦

When I talked to Jessica, she strongly recommended the book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, by Julie Lythcott-Haims. This book takes on the same issue of the damage done by helicopter parenting, but Lythcott-Haims approaches the subject from the perspective of a university dean.

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How and Why We Should Let Our Students Fail

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Listen to my interview with Jessica Lahey ( transcript): The links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. If you click these and make a purchase from Amazon, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support! Picture this: It's morning, and your daughter has already left for school.