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100 + Final Product Ideas for Project-Based Learning

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100 + Final Product Ideas for Project-Based Learning

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Do you need innovative ideas for projects that have creative end products to demonstrate learning? Sometimes we just need something to reference for final project ideas.

This blog post is a laundry list of interesting and creative project final product ideas that students and teachers can browse for inspiration.

I have seen students produce some pretty outstanding final products in my 15 years as a project-based educator. Many of those outcomes were produced by experienced project-based learners.

There is a learning curve with project-based learnin g , and it requires breaking some pretty strong habits that have formed from prior training in more traditional learning environments.

The biggest challenge for me has been getting students to think more creatively and authentically about how to demonstrate and share learning.

​Based on habit and ease, students naturally gravitate toward copy-and-paste poster boards and slideshow presentations.

There are many avenues for student choice in project-based learning, and one of those is choice in end product.

There are plenty of options to choose from, it's just a matter of getting students in the habit of thinking outside of the box.

Scroll down for a list of 100+ alternatives to copy-and-paste poster boards and slideshows! This list applies to all ages, just adjust your expectations.​

Interested in getting text messages from Experiential Learning Depot with exclusive deals, upcoming webinars, challenges, and more? Just text "Experiential" to (651) 390-9890 to opt in!

Poster Board Alternatives:

1) Create a magazine
2) Write trivia ( is a great online trivia game program)
3) Make an interactive exhibit
4) Make a board game
5) Engineer a moving model (ex: demonstrating synaptic transmission)
6) Write a song on a project topic
7) Write a poetry book
8) Create a photo journal
9) Make a scrapbook
10) Write and illustrate a comic
11) Paint a mural

If you are looking for a platform where you can organize personalized learning experiences, check out

12) Create a gallery (ex: photography, paintings, drawings, sculptures) 15) Make a video tutorial
13) Hand-make a craft/artifact
14) Design a lesson plan

​16) Start a Vlog

My students thrive off of anything video related. They love vlogging, making documentaries, creating video promotions and music videos. Truly anything that can get these 21st-century kiddos on video, they'll take it.

17) Write a blog 25) Make a calendar27) Make a 3D model42) Create a spreadsheet portfolio (appropriate for event planning for example)
18) Make a website
19) Produce a podcast
20) Write a screenplay
21) Create a storyboard
22) Choreograph an interpretive dance
23) Organize a debate
24) Work with local legislators to write a bill

29) Write a newsletter
30) Write a news article

26) Organize a mock trial 31) Write a lab report

​28) Make a documentary 32) Artistically perform (dance, song, etc.)
33) Craft Showcase (Ex: handmade bags, scarves, DIY projects, woodworking)
34) Make a video promotion
35) Put together a career portfolio (resume, work experience, reference letters, evidence pages)
36) Create a piece of artwork that illustrates the project topic
37) Slideshow about an experience (works well for volunteer experiences, field trips, school travel, etc.)
38) Make a quiz
39) Write a book (biography, short story, novel, etc.)
40) Create an awareness campaign poster
41) Create a Facebook page (works well for characters in books, business page, or group)

44) Design a t-shirt (school shirt, shirt that raises awareness on an issue, etc.)
45) Make a "Bloom Ball" (check out this fun example and ​ bloom ball template)
​46) Make a physical or digital map
43) Make charts and graphs (to illustrate survey results for example)

If you're looking for mapping inspiration, check out my blog post on Using Google Maps for Project Based Learning Final Products . Students can use Google Maps for a variety of angles including demographics, storytelling, timelines, and more.

47) Make a puzzle 49) Design a travel brochure 52) Write a journal or diary (on a personal experience such as a health plan) Write an instruction manual
48) Design an escape room

50) Make a business card (Ex: for a character in a book, for a business, for volunteering, etc.) 51) Make a flier

53) 56) Write a petition
54) Create a theme poster
55) Make a blueprint (floor plan for the setting in a book, one's dream school, interior design)

​Click here for project-based learning teacher tools and secondary resources . They make learning more engaging for students, teaching more exciting for you, and will save you a ton of time. You can also click the images below for those specific resources.

Text "eldfreebies" to get text alerts about all things experiential. And when you sign up you get access to my free resource library (Note: You will receive no more than 2 texts per month from me, and those texts will be worth it!)

57) Write a persuasive speech
58) Write a business plan
59) Record an interview and publish it
60) Create an online portfolio (for showcasing creative and/or professional work)
61) Create a billboard-style advertisement
62) Write and illustrate a children's book
63) Make a concept map
64) Write and perform a monologue
65) Make a simulation (digital, written, performance)
66) Make an animation
67) Create a timeline
​68) Make a diorama
69) Make a diagram
70) Write an informative speech
71) Make a fortune teller (a hand-made origami game - one of my students added information about her topic to each square on the game).

72) Make a graphic organizer 73) Make a postcard 82) Organize an event in the community

74) Compile a book of interviews
75) Organize and host a game show
76) Produce a news segment
77) Put together a time capsule
78) Make a collage
79) Put together learning stations
80) Design a set and give visitors a "tour" (great for a book project, ecosystems project, etc.)
81) Demonstration

83) Create a professional quality infographic
84) Make a music video
85) Put together a handbook
86) Claymation
87) Learning activity
88) Child-friendly translation of a convoluted concept
89) Design and make a usable product - Ex: If the topic is on natural disasters, the student might design and build a life-saving device. ​

Have you gotten your free PBL mini tool kit yet?! Go ahead and grab it!

You'll get a planner, implementation spreadsheet, and portfolio for showcasing experiences!

90) Write a jingle
91) Make a puzzle
92) Design an art installation
93) Create a brand
94) Write a proposal
95) Host a school event
96) Organize a speaker series
97) A "_____ week/month" program/schedule (Ex: theme book club schedule)
98) Host a fundraiser event
99) Create a Pinterest profile and add boards and pins directly related to your topic.
​100) Write an editorial
101) Create a memory book
102) Create a memory box (great for experiences - students build a box with visuals that highlight themes of the experience, then they fill the box with relevant information and artifacts from the experience).
103) Make a virtual museum
104) Create a learning activity
105) Design and create a greeting card
106) Write and record a kids show or movie
107) Make a moving model or diorama
108) Make a commercial
109) Host a conversation on Clubhouse
110) Create a Facebook group
​111) Create an interactive "tour" using Google Maps.
112) Scavenger hunt

Before you head out, consider innovative final products and widening the scope of the experience for your students.

Non-poster board final products are one of many elements that make project-based learning what it is. But just because you have your students create innovative final products, doesn't make the experience project-based.

I urge you to think about making the experience even more innovative and authentic by making it self-directed project-based learning.

​Grab the freebies above if you have not already. Then add my project-based learning tool kit to help you and your students get started on endless PBL possibilities. Check out the video below for details.

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to share your stories of project-based learning successes. I'd love to hear about some final products your students have used that weren't listed here! My eyes and ears are always open for new and exciting ideas. Thanks for reading!
PBL Resources for Student-Led Secondary Students:
Relevant Blog Posts:

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100 End Product Ideas to Demonstrate Learning

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How does one find project ideas for students? Even more so, how do you find project-based learning end products that are innovative, creative, and interesting? This catalog of final product ideas is a great tool for exploring final project ideas to demons

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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

A project-based learning unit on homelessness can provide middle and high school students with valuable information and foster empathy for the unhoused.

Courtesy of Teague Tubach

When the Covid pandemic reached our part of the world, many of us were overwhelmed with thoughts of public safety, our jobs, our schools, and a variety of other personal and social issues. Our worlds were seemingly turned upside down, but the consequences for people experiencing homelessness were far more extreme.

With limited services, the hungry became hungrier, the cold became colder, and the lonely became lonelier. Santa Clara County in California elected to provide temporary shelter in local hotels for families experiencing homelessness and relied on volunteers to deliver meals. When asked, my family answered the call. On a personal level, this was an eye-opening experience and one that I would share with my middle school students.

When it came time to vote on the focus of our spring project, several students shared their visions. Soon, it was settled; we would be studying homelessness. A small group of my students had personal connections to homelessness, and all were aware of the human suffering that lurks in the shadows of our cities.

The first question was how to increase visibility in a safe and impactful way. With this, my middle school students were not only working on a project; they were designing a project-based learning experience from the ground up. Project MERCY would emphasize critical thinking and compassion and include research, argumentative writing, multivoice poetry, a service-learning component, and the creation of an interactive experience for our community.

Research

We began by conducting thorough research. All of my students had witnessed people living on the streets, but many were unaware of root causes. We studied mental health, natural disasters, drug addiction, veteran homelessness, wage gaps and housing costs in Silicon Valley, and much more. A popular documentary was Lead Me Home (Netflix), and several students read the book Find Layla, by Meg Elison.

We also read articles in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and local newspapers. Each of my students read a minimum of two books and two articles and watched two documentaries. Several went far beyond the expectation. Each student kept track of their research by creating detailed annotated bibliographies. The research phase was intense, but eventually it was time to utilize our new insights.

Argumentative Essays and Multivoice Poems

My students needed the opportunity to come to terms with their new insights, their personal beliefs, and their sense of compassion. Project MERCY had two writing pieces. The first was an argumentative essay with a thesis, supporting evidence, a counterargument, and rebuttal. The essay topics were diverse. Some students focused on more abstract questions, such as "Should housing be a human right?" Others jumped into the trenches of practicality and wrote about the homelessness of veterans and LGBTQ+ teens or the need for safe and sanitary homeless encampments.

I didn't limit topics, but I did challenge students to address a counterargument to their theses through the development of a theoretical dialogue or debate. This enabled students to strengthen their personal convictions and their essays.

The second writing piece was a multivoice poem. Students worked in teams of two to four to develop unique voices on homelessness and then performed them in class. Teams wrote about veteran homelessness, drug addiction, land-developer rights, generational homelessness, and more. This was another opportunity for my students to encounter and illuminate different points of view.

Service-Learning Projects

The service-learning projects were dynamic. Each of my students designed a service-learning project that would impact our unhoused neighbors. They worked with me, their classmates, and their families to meet their objectives. Students served food at local food kitchens, prepared and distributed boxed meals, and donated canned foods. They created more than 200 personal hygiene kits and distributed them directly to people experiencing homelessness or through a local organization called Gilroy Compassion Center.

We worked with several other local groups in Santa Clara County, including St. Catherine's Church, Safe Car Park, Reach Out, Home First, Stand Up for Kids of Silicon Valley, and Cecilia's Closet. We also wrote letters to state representatives, distributed awareness posters and stickers, and designed T-shirts. Some families visited local homeless encampments to deliver food and hygiene kits.

The goal was to engage with our community and serve our unhoused neighbors in a dynamic way. This was made possible by the energy of our students and guidance from the adults who supported them.

An Interactive Community Experience
Courtesy of Teague Tubach
My students wanted to design an interactive experience for our community in order to spread awareness about homelessness. We used the Tunnel of Oppression model, which can be seen on university campuses across the country. The goal was to provoke thought and elicit empathy.

This year's class created a Tunnel of Despair, with artwork and audio to create a dark and unsettling mood. This was meant to show the "frightening truth of homelessness through art," according to our project brochure, which was created by seventh-grade student Layla. Some of the artwork featured scenes of destitute families, forgotten veterans, and haunting words. Outside of the tunnel, students created urban art to show their unfiltered thoughts and beliefs on homelessness.

They also re-created scores of cardboard signs, then prompted community members to create their own and post photos on social media. Other creative elements included a replica encampment outside, with a sign that read, "Would you live here?" and a lifeless human figure holding a sign that read, "Finally, I can rest." This experience was a catalyst for compassion in the hearts of more than 600 visitors.

Shadows still exist in our society, but that doesn't mean that our unhoused neighbors are invisible. When students use project-based learning to take a deep dive into a real-world issue with an emphasis on critical thinking and compassion, they can strengthen their community and radiate real change.

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Project-Based Learning (PBL) A project-based learning unit on homelessness can provide middle and high school students with valuable information and foster empathy for the unhoused. Courtesy of Teague Tubach When the Covid pandemic reached our part of the world, many of us were overwhelmed with thoughts of public safety, our jobs, our schools, and a variety of other personal and social issues.

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Preparing students for PBL presentations

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Preparing students for PBL presentations

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Preparing Students for PBL Presentations

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Project-based learning often culminates in a presentation for an audience beyond the classroom, and students need a lot of practice to be successful.

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Theme-based teaching and learning // Activities from other subjects

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Theme-based teaching and learning // Activities from other subjects

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Game with colors to develop matching skills

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Game with colors to develop matching skills

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Games to teach cooperation and teamwork 

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Games to teach cooperation and teamwork 

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If you can use paper cups instead of plastic ones, the planet will be very happy! 💚

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100 Final Product Ideas For Independent, Passion And PBL Projects

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100 Final Product Ideas For Independent, Passion And PBL Projects

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2) Define Audience - Who are you trying to reach with your work?
Eg. Student Body, Peers, Parents, Community, Local Businesses, Universities, the elderly....

3) Identify Channels to Best Reach Audience - Where does your intended audience hang out?
Eg. Social Media like Instagram, Platforms like podcasts or Tumblr, places like the mall or events like music concerts....

Use Spinndle's templates to scaffold your students from ideation to application. Templates help your students come up with a topic of interest, define problem, empathize with user/audience, brainstorm solutions, set goals, identify audience, set objectives and timelines.

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100 Final Product Ideas for PBL Projects - Spinndle

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2) Define Audience - Who are you trying to reach with your work? Eg. Student Body, Peers, Parents, Community, Local Businesses, Universities, the elderly.... 3) Identify Channels to Best Reach Audience - Where does your intended audience hang out? Eg. Social Media like Instagram, Platforms like podcasts or Tumblr, places like the mall or events like music concerts....

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Families Are Students’ First SEL Teachers. Here’s How to Engage Them

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Families Are Students’ First SEL Teachers. Here’s How to Engage Them

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We know students need support from schools and their families to cope with academic and mental health challenges. We've seen over and over that children's academic learning can't be separated from their social and emotional lives. In the wake of pandemic disruptions to schooling, it's more important than ever for families and educators to come together and form meaningful partnerships that nurture children's social, emotional, and academic development.

Parents and other caregivers are children's first teachers, from whom they begin to learn critical social and emotional skills like respect, empathy, and perseverance. Substantial research demonstrates the positive impacts of parent engagement on children's academic achievement and social-emotional development. When family members model the social-emotional skills through their parenting practices, they help reinforce what children are learning at school. When surrounded by positive social-emotional support, students are much more likely to develop important skills that lead to improved peer relationships and social skills.

But creating this sort of positive environment doesn't just happen-it requires an intentional partnership among schools, families, and communities. And by investing in these multidirectional partnerships, schools have the opportunity to learn from families that are the experts in their children's lives.

The majority of parents already support social-emotional learning for their children. By partnering with them, schools can continue to build on that support while learning from the strategies that families are already using to teach SEL and leveraging that expertise to foster more inclusive school environments. And when families feel valued as partners in the school, they can also learn how to support and build on schoolwide SEL practices in their homes. In fact, decades of research suggests that evidence-based SEL programs are more effective when they extend into young people's home lives.

Partnerships between schools and parents is not always easy, and SEL researchers and educators alike know that families are far more likely to form partnerships with schools when the school's norms, values, and cultural representations reflect their own experiences. Because of this, it is important that schools promote a culturally responsive and welcoming environment in order to authentically engage families in promoting students' SEL. In our work at CASEL (where I serve as the director of research-practice partnerships), we have been partnering with schools, districts, researchers, and community organizations to study innovative family-engagement practices that embody social- and emotional-learning principles.

We've found four research-based actions that make it easier for school leaders and staff to build authentic school-family partnerships.

Cultivate trusting relationships between educators and families. School staff should begin every school year seeking input on family priorities, concerns, interests, knowledge, and resources. This creates an opportunity to build trust between families and schools. For example, the Michigan chapter of the dropout-prevention organization Community in Schools fields an annual needs and assets inventory asking for family and community feedback, which schools then use to inform policies such as early/late pickup times and enrichment programming.

Build the confidence and skills of both staff and caregivers.When school and district leaders reconsider existing structures and policies driving school improvement efforts, they can embed families into decisionmaking processes more effectively. Remember, schools can be a place of learning for everyone. Consider investing in opportunities for parents to develop their own skills, as well as for educators looking to learn more about partnering with diverse populations, including through culturally responsive pedagogy practices and recognizing parents as assets and "funds of knowledge." For example, one Chicago public high school set up the opportunity for a group of parents to complete CASEL's SEL Dialogue Series for Caregiver-School Partnerships, a 10-session training designed to help caregivers learn about and practice social-emotional skills.

Reposition families' roles from spectators to collaborators.Educators and parents alike should feel connected as partners and stewards of students' education. In doing so, they are able to determine shared goals and outcomes for their students while planning and strategizing as equal partners. These connections are not limited to just parents and educators but among families as well. Families seeing each other as sources of knowledge and collaborators can produce empowering spaces where they can coordinate and enact the change they wish to see for their children.

Involve families in interpreting data and posing solutions.Traditionally, we see families' voices captured in surveys or through traditional means of gathering parent feedback, such as town halls, PTA meetings, and parent-teacher conferences. Getting families involved in reviewing data can foster even greater agency, trust, and communication, leading to equitable school improvements. Parents may identify inconsistencies in what and how data are gathered relative to them or their children's cultural understandings, offer context, and propose solutions that can create more supportive and nurturing schools. For example, the Minneapolis district's Parent Participatory Evaluation program partners a group of "parent researchers" with educators to improve their children's learning. Parents have access to district data and receive training on culturally relevant data collection and evaluation. Parents identify a research question and plan how to collect and analyze data to address the issue. Then, the parent group advises school- and district-level stakeholders on how best to make the data accessible to other parents and community members.

Speakers and participants at the recent 2022 CASEL annual summit -which was centered around the understanding that school-family partnerships are integral to a child's success-confirmed what we know: We're all stronger when we work together for our children. With parents overwhelmingly supportive of SEL, educators should take advantage of the moment to build these partnerships to ensure children are set up for success. When families and educators work together, we can set students up for success to rise to any challenge in school and in life.

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Families Are Students' First SEL Teachers. Here's How to Engage Them (Opinion)

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We know students need support from schools and their families to cope with academic and mental health challenges. We've seen over and over that children's academic learning can't be separated from their social and emotional lives.

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School classrooms sit at the center of the education ecosystem. Students spend the majority of their school day in classrooms, and these spaces are at the

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Examples of Social and Emotional Learning in English Language Arts Instruction

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Examples of Social and Emotional Learning in English Language Arts Instruction

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300+ Classroom Phrases For English Teachers

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300+ Classroom Phrases For English Teachers

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Except 'Do you understand?' -- don't ask this questions to your learners because the answer will probably be 'yes'. Instead, check understanding.

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Classroom English: 300+ Classroom Phrases For English Teachers • 7ESL

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Learn an extensive list of 300+ classroom English phrases for English teachers with ESL printable infographics.

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Supporting primary and secondary teachers in CLIL contexts

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Supporting primary and secondary teachers in CLIL contexts

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Reflection is a vital part of student learning. If students don't reflect, they can't learn and grow. As with anything in life, if we don't know what we are doing wrong or why we are doing it wrong, there's no way to get better at it. Learning at school is no different. Here are some strategies to try with your students to help develop the skill of self-reflection.

Self-reflection can be a great tool for students to build confidence and improve in a variety of areas, but they need your guidance.
What should students be reflecting on?

Students need to learn to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. Not just academic strengths and weaknesses but also personality and character traits. Students should be encouraged to reflect on their effort and their motivation.

A great curriculum to help students develop grit is Making The Effort™ - a proven effective program that teaches students the value of effort in attaining success in work, school, and social settings.

Teach the Language of Self-Reflection
Empower students to self-reflect by teaching them vocabulary that lends itself to that reflection. Practice role-playing, and explicitly teach words that students don't know that help students express their thoughts. Give students sentence starters to talk or write about, such as "I wonder....," or "When ____ happened I felt ____ and I did ____."

Activities to Stimulate Reflection

Here are ideas to help students remember what they did and evaluate their outcomes.

Sketch or Draw
Have students draw what they've learned or how they feel. Having a piece of art they can view is an excellent way to reflect on in the future. For example, if a child is very frustrated with a new concept, they could draw a picture of how they feel at that time. Over time as the concept becomes easier, they could draw another illustration of how they feel after making progress. They'll see how far they have come and recognize how their hard work and effort paid off.

Make it Fun
Make reflection a game. Just like with any other skill, self-reflection takes a lot of practice, and kids are usually not very interested in rote memorization or repetitive drills, so make it fun! For example, you could put reflection questions on a dice, use apps, or play games to help students practice answering reflection questions after ordering or even before a lesson.

Portfolio
Portfolios lend themselves to student reflection. They have the added benefit of being available for parents to reflect on their kids' work and to help their children reflect on their work. Things to include in a portfolio include student work samples or graphs that show anything from student behavior to growth in academic areas. When children look at their portfolio and see the growth they have made, it reinforces the value of self-reflection.

Journaling
Journals have many of the same benefits portfolios except that they get into the heart of what a student is honestly thinking. When children journal, they can share their thoughts and feelings at the moment and then look back at them later. Even younger children or those who are unable to write independently can draw pictures, or they can have someone dictate for them.

Add Active and Collaborative Reflection Approaches

Students shouldn't be restricted to only working alone for self-reflection, as peers can help. As can examples from leaders like their teachers.

Reflection buddy
Assign students a reflection buddy in the classroom. This is a student who they can talk with about their work or the progress in class. It could be a student in the class or a cross-age tutor. When grouping children in this way, be mindful of personalities and group children together in a way that they can build trust with one another. Also, give them a structure for answering reflection questions.

Model for students
Teachers self-reflect regularly. Good teachers know that their growth and improvement is never done. See our last article with strategies for personal reflection to improve your teaching.

Think out loud for students so they can hear your process. Say things such as: "That's not my best work, I could do better," or "I worked hard on that. I'm proud of my efforts." This helps show students that you're using failures to growing and learning.

Come Back to Previous Learning
Don't underestimate the value of spiral learning. Don't just teach a concept one time and never talk about it again. Instead, review old ideas time and again. See something in the news or online you'd think would be relevant to an old topic? Try these strategies to use pop culture in the classroom to boost your students' engagement. Doing this not only increases retention but also helps them to self-reflect and see their growth.

Growth mindset
Foster a growth mindset in your students. What is a growth mindset? It's the idea that we are always growing and changing and improving. It's opposite; a fixed mindset states that people are inherently smart or dumb. When your students develop a growth mindset, they can improve and increase their learning no matter where they start.

Give It Time

Be patient with your students. Self-reflection is a skill that even many adults have not mastered. It will take a lot of time, a lot of modeling, a lot of different activities, and a lot of practice. Some students will get it faster than others, and that's OK. It's a skill that takes time to develop, but well worth it!
By: Amy Curletto Amy has been teaching for 12 years in grades K-2. She has a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and also has endorsements in reading and ESL. Besides education, her other passion is writing and she has always dreamed of being a writer. She lives in Utah with her husband, her 3 daughters, and her miniature schnauzer. She enjoys reading, knitting, and camping.

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Strategies & Activities To Teach Students How To Use Self-Reflection

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Self-reflection can help students build confidence as it helps them see their growth and milestones reached. Additionally, it can open up opportunities for more growth develop grit as students learn to recognize areas that they can work on. Here are tips and activities to help spur self-reflection in your students.

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Five Ways to Make Peer Feedback Effective In Your Classroom

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Five Ways to Make Peer Feedback Effective In Your Classroom

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Five Ways to Make Peer Feedback Effective In Your Classroom - EdSurge News

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Three years ago I was teaching a graduate computer science course with 20 students. When students weren’t solving assignments or giving presentations, ...

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Teaching kids to give and receive quality peer feedback

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Teaching kids to give and receive quality peer feedback

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Jamie Kobs knows the value of giving students timely and meaningful feedback, but she often struggled with the volume of incoming assignments. Then she discovered a solution: her students. Feedback didn't always need to come directly from her, the veteran high school English teacher realized. In fact, if she taught kids the skills to deliver constructive, focused feedback, it could be equally meaningful coming from fellow classmates.

"Besides relieving me of some of the pressure, creating a classroom culture where students give each other feedback has helped me increase engagement and build community," Kobs says. "Having more frequent interactions among students builds rapport and trust and disrupts the idea that I'm the only expert in the room."

A high-functioning feedback culture also frees up teachers to give more low-stakes assignments, creates more opportunities for students to practice, and democratizes the creative process-replacing the top-down dynamics of more typical classrooms and making kids an equal and accountable part of learning outcomes for everyone. Kids who frequently draw, create podcasts, or write fiction with the expectation that their peers will be consuming it, and who are themselves expected to provide useful feedback, are more likely to be attuned to the elements that make art or stories truly outstanding and "feel more seen, heard, valued, and, consequently, engaged in their work," according to Kobs.

But the middle and high school years can be a difficult time for students when it comes to peer evaluation-some initial reluctance is normal. Research shows that adolescents are hypersensitive to criticism, and when they feel judged, they can become self-conscious, stressed, or withdrawn. Other students may feel tentative or shy about giving feedback to peers they admire, and for English language learners, the process might feel especially daunting.

Developing a culture of feedback must therefore happen in tandem with creating a safe and supportive classroom. By scaffolding the feedback process in a classroom where kids feel valued and empowered-the effort requires "consistent modeling, repetition, and a commitment to sharing the feedback with students," says Kobs-even teens can become more comfortable with the act of giving and receiving peer feedback.

Here are six considerations for creating a culture of feedback in the classroom.

Encourage reflection, not correction: Consider limiting feedback cycles to work products that are not highly structured, or that require granular feedback related to syntax, grammar, and spelling. When students in Mark Gardner's high school English class provide feedback, he encourages them to focus on collectively reflecting, not correcting, each other's work. Very few incoming high school students have mastered the conventions of writing well enough to be reliable copy editors, he says. Rather than correcting syntax errors, Gardner wants his students to focus on providing feedback that outlines clear next steps that peers can take toward improvement.

"My students focus on idea development, clarity, and arrangement to make sense of the writer's text," he explains. He asks students to write full sentences in their observations like, "I am confused about who 'they' are in this sentence" or "I like how you repeated keywords from your hook here in your conclusion."

Assign feedback partners: To prevent students from worrying about evaluating friends, high school history and government teacher Benjamin Barbour recommends assigning partners instead of letting kids choose who to critique in the class. Once students are working in pairs, consider allowing them to share feedback with each other rather than with the whole class, making it a generally less stressful experience for kids.

Offer choices: Including an element of choice in the feedback process can build student agency and motivation, writes educator Dr. Catlin Tucker in her blog. A peer feedback choice board, for example, allows students to select prompts that provide direction and context for delivering feedback that's "specific, meaningful, and kind," Tucker notes.
Courtesy of Dr. Catlin Tucker
For English language learners, teachers can create choice boards "with sentence frames to provide students with additional support as they give each other focused feedback," Tucker writes. "For example, under the box labeled 'Greatest Strength,' teachers could rework that as a series of fill-in-the-blank statements. The strongest part of this draft was ______. I thought ______ was done well. I really liked ______."

Deliver feedback that is specific: Emphasize the idea that criticism must be both constructive and specific in nature in order to be helpful. English language arts specialist Katherine James says that students often leave general or vague feedback like "I really enjoyed your story."

Instead, encourage kids to be focused and specific with their feedback. "Give examples of what specific feedback sounds like-for example: I really liked your simile 'the rain hit the pavement like arrows' because it helped me visualize the setting," rather than the more general 'I liked your description,'" James says.

Specificity counts in oral feedback too, and scaffolding student responses is equally important. After Socratic seminars or academic discussions in her classroom, Kobs directs students to "give a specific example of something someone else said during this discussion that resonated with you," and "explain why it stuck with you."

Model feedback, and suggest sentence starters: During the brainstorming stage of a personal narrative assignment in her high school English classroom, Kobs's students pitch ideas via Flipgrid videos. Students then watch and respond to the pitches of two classmates with the help of sentence starters.

To ensure that the feedback cycle is targeted and productive, Kobs and her colleagues "model both the pitch and the response steps with videos of our own" and provide sentence starters to help kids focus on the most important aspects of the piece and clarify how to deliver their feedback. Sentence starters might prompt students to say, "I didn't get the part about...," pose questions or suggestions out of curiosity like "What happened next?" or "Maybe you can try...," or make connections: "Something similar happened to me when..."

Prompt deeper engagement: Consider trying an "I like, I wish, I wonder" framework as another way to help focus students on content rather than grammar and spelling errors. It encourages them to interact creatively with their peers' work, says James, and encourages critical thinking as students try to provide meaningful feedback.

"When reading each other's work and giving feedback, they must discuss one thing they liked about the other person's work, one thing they wished that person had done differently, and one thing they wondered about (for example, how a main character felt about or reacted to an event)," she explains.

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Teaching Kids to Give and Receive Quality Peer Feedback

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Building a classroom culture of feedback requires scaffolding and a safe, nurturing environment, but it's worth the effort, teachers say.

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Years ago, as I shifted toward empowering students, I ask myself the question, "What am I doing for students that they could be doing for themselves?" One of the most glaring answers was assessment. So, I began to incorporate peer assessment and self-assessment.

However, my first attempt at peer feedback was a crash course in what not to do.

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My Epic Fail with Peer Feedback

I had a vision of how the writer's workshop would look. Students would pour over each other's drafts offering statements like, "Have you considered _______?" or "I appreciate the way you ________." They would lean in intently, offer their own thoughts, and jot down a few ideas for next steps. After some back and forth, they would switch roles and engage in the same back and forth feedback process. The feedback would be practical and instant and it would lead to improved clarity in writing and perhaps even better word choice. They might argue over ideas and sharpen their logic and argumentation. The workshop would buzz with excitement, followed by small lulls as students revised their drafts.

I began the class period with a warm-up where students wrote about the value of peer feedback and after a short discussion, I said, "You'll need to find a partner who will read your work and then give you feedback. Take as long as you need. Then you can switch and both of you will find a new partner." I explained that this was how writer's helped one another improve. This was a process professional writers used on a regular basis. They were now part of that larger collective of writers who would help one another improve in their craft.

Ten minutes later, I watched as students wandered around the room. A few students pulled out their phones (and this was pre-smartphone) and texted friends. They talked about football and fashion and tv shows and video games and everything but writing. A few students shot paper football at the ceiling. Gradually, the class moved from a hum to an ear-splitting roar. I quieted them down, instituted a "no moving" rule and added a timer for accountability. Still, it was a waste of a class period.

In second period, the students took the peer feedback process more seriously. I reminded them of the expectations to stay focused on the text and to share feedback. However, the feedback was too nice. It was a lot of, "This is great. It's really good. Have I told you how good it is? Great job." It was cotton candy feedback - vague, amorphous, and overly sweet but ultimately lacking any substance. In third period, students were not giving cotton candy feedback. It was more like giant shards of glass. A few students made comments like, "This sucks. None of your sentences even have periods." Two students refused to talk to each other. Three students were in tears. By lunch time I scrapped the writer's workshop entirely and had students use a checklist for self-assessment instead.

Looking back on it, I wasn't wrong in my vision for quality peer feedback. However, I didn't communicate that vision students. I wanted them to say, "Have you considered ______?" but I didn't provide them with the sentence stems to do so. I wanted students to follow a protocol of listening and asking questions before giving feedback but I didn't share any protocols or create any structures. I wanted the feedback to be practical and useful but I didn't model that for students and I didn't set the parameters for how to give feedback or in how the feedback would be used.

Seven Strategies for Getting the Most Out of Peer Feedback in the Classroom

The following are some strategies you can use as you empower students to own the peer feedback process.

1. Make sure students are beginning with a place of trust.

We live in a world full of unsolicited feedback. Whether it's a snarky comment on a YouTube video or a honking horn from a fellow driver. Incidentally, I learned that folks use their horns way more often in the east coast than they do here in Oregon. I also learned that "bless your heart" is the southern middle finger. These are the fun lessons I've learned in doing PBL workshops around the country.

Sometimes, the feedback we receive is downright toxic. Sometimes it's misinformed. However, sometimes it's the very thing we need in order to grow.

This is why feedback requires trust. Sometimes this trust is relational. Do they have my best interests in mind? Other times, the trust is more about expertise. Do I trust that this person's feedback is actually valid?

When I taught middle school, I noticed that students often struggled to distinguish between critical feedback and insults. For all the stereotypes of middle school mean kid behavior, I actually found that most of my students struggled to provide critical feedback. They worried about insulting their friends and classmates.

About ten years ago, I created a grid to help students with the feedback process:

Here's a video version of this grid as well:

Even now as a professor, I sometimes do a simple survey as a "pulse check" to see how well students trust the members of their group. Here, students fill out an anonymous Google Form. Often, it's an exit slip with 3-5 questions. Here's a sample of the questions I might ask:

On a scale of 1-5, how well does your group trust each other?

On a scale of 1-5, how well do you trust your group members to complete tasks?

Do you feel like you can speak freely and share ideas with your group?

In this case, I'm looking for trust in general and for whether or not they trust each other with tasks and with communication. Other times, questions might connect to conflict resolution or risk-taking. But the goal in each case is to get a pulse check on student trust.

2. Use structures to guide the peer feedback process.

My first writer's workshop had no clear structure. Students weren't sure what they were supposed to do. I was afraid that structure would make things less authentic but the free-for-all led to confusion and chaos. Students spent the whole time chatting or wandering around. Later, I started thinking about feedback in real life. True, there are times when it is unstructured. But if we take a deeper look at the seemingly unstructured peer feedback, we'll notice that it often follows a pattern and a system. A friend asks you for an opinion. You spend time looking at the work. You ask some questions. You give strengths and weaknesses using scripts that you don't even realize are scripts (something like, "I noticed that you _____") and this leads to a conversation and a set of next steps. Even if it doesn't feel like a protocol, we often default into our own feedback protocols informally.

On a more formal level, people sometimes use structures because the limitations of the protocol actually facilitate better feedback. Whether it's an art collective or a corporation, structured protocols can help facilitate better feedback. The following are specific structures you can use as students provide peer feedback:

The 20-Minute Feedback System: This approach begins with one student sharing their work or pitching an idea while the other student actively listens. It has some elements that are similar to critical friends.

Structured Feedback with Sentence Stems: Here, you as a teacher provide specific sentence stems that your students can use to provide diagnostic, clarifying, or critical feedback.

3-2-1 Structure: This is simple. Students provide three strengths, two areas of improvement and one question that they have.

Feedback Carousel: Each group gets a stack of sticky notes and offers anonymous feedback as they move from group to group.

Peer Coaching: Students interview each other about the process, using the coaching questions from the student-teacher conferences to guide them if they struggle to come up with reflection questions.

Mastermind: this is a longer peer feedback structure. I'm actually a member of two different mastermind groups for blogging and one mastermind group for research and dissertation writing.

Rubric: Students use the rubric (or a checklist based on the rubric) to give targeted feedback on how another student is doing.

Note that the 20-minute peer feedback structure is fast.

On the other hand, the Mastermind Structure is slower and allows for a more dynamic give-and-take that can take an entire class period.

In both cases, though, students follow a specific protocol with clearly defined structures. This sense of structure doesn't inhibit authentic feedback. Instead, it facilitates better feedback by setting parameters.

In some cases, it can help to think about peer feedback in rounds. If you're doing a project-based learning unit, you might have stages where you move from more open-ended feedback toward more specific feedback. At first, students might need general feedback but later it can be more targeted.

Students might start out using something like a 20 minute peer feedback process but moving toward something like peer feedback on a rubric toward the end.

3. Explain the purpose of the feedback.

As we think of the larger scope of feedback, it's important for students to know what they are receiving feedback on and why it's important. Last week, I shared the metacognition cycle and the how authentic feedback can help students learn to think about their thinking. As teachers, we sometimes need to make this explicit for students by sharing the following ahead of time:

What type of feedback you will give and receive. Is it about the process or the product? Is it about the accuracy of knowledge? Is it about a particular skill?

The key areas where you want to focus. In writing, it might be feedback on word choice. In a design thinking project, it might be feedback on the research students engage in. In math, it might be feedback on an approach to solving a problem.

What students will do with the feedback. Remind them ahead of time what they will do when they receive feedback. In other words, how will students use the feedback they are giving and receiving?

You might provide students feedback on their ability to use the design thinking process in a project. Or you might provide feedback on their current product so that they can continue to revise and improve it. Students need to know both the parameters of feedback and the rationale. They should have a sense for why they are getting feedback, what type of feedback they are getting, and how they will actually use the feedback to further their learning.

4. Don't allow students to grade one another.

It is critical that peer assessment does not become peer grading. You are the teacher and the expert on the content. While students can benefit from peer feedback, you as the teacher ultimately know their level of mastery best. Peer grading can create unnecessary power dynamics that actually get in the way of meaningful feedback. Consider the role of peer reviews in companies. While most employees enjoy asking for feedback on a specific idea, they hate peer reviews - the biggest reason being that they feel judged and graded by their peers. There's actually a fascinating section about this in the book

If that's the case for adults, we want to avoid that dynamic with students. When students grade one another, the focus shifts from the feedback to the grade. In these moments, students don't actually use the feedback that they receive. This is actually true with teacher feedback as well. In my experience, when I provided a grade with the feedback, my students focused almost entirely on the grade and not on the feedback. This was true for rubrics, for checklists, or for overall grades on things like blog posts or documentaries. Jennifer Gonzalez has an excellent thought-provoking post on this topic. She suggests the following steps:

Write comments on student work and write the grade on the rubric separately

Return just the papers to the students.

Have the students read your feedback and write three observations and two questions based on your feedback

Have the students use the rubric to give themselves a grade.

Conference one-on-one with students and have them share their rubric while you share your rubric with them. This helps clarify any misunderstandings they might have.

Give them a chance to revise their work.

I've actually been using a modified version of this with my current pre-service teachers as they develop their lesson plans and unit plans. As a result, each teacher candidate has a clear sense of what they know, what they don't know, and what they will do to improve without focusing on their final grade.

5. Provide revision time in class.

Often, in education, we value speed and accuracy more than depth and mastery. Students take timed math tests and focus on fluency in reading. They watch the tight time deadlines, knowing that if they fall behind, they'll be seen as slow. I've seen some students struggle with the whole idea of revision because they've rarely needed to revise their work at school. But if we want students to make sense out of feedback, we need to block out time for revision.

This is why I love using project-based learning and design thinking. Both of these frameworks include a section for student revision. This is possible, because they spend less time in direct instruction and they are often learning multiple standards at the same time. Students in a PBL classroom are also assessing as they go rather than stopping to take a multiple choice test. In the process, they gain additional time to focus on making sense out of their feedback and using it to revise their projects. Here, students begin to view revision as an iterative part of the process rather than a punishment for getting things wrong.

It can help to ask your students the question, "What are you going to do with this feedback?" Often, they struggle with this. In their schooling experiences, they have typically received a grade and walked away without thinking much about it. This approach focuses on using feedback in a way that's more self-directed. If students understand the purpose of the feedback, they are better able to make modifications, set goals, and own the learning process. It can help to use the sentence frame, "I plan to use _________ feedback to change __________." Or another option might be, "One valuable piece of feedback is _______. I plan to _________ to improve my __________."

6. Set parameters and expectations for peer feedback.

In the disastrous writer's workshop example I shared earlier, my third period class struggled because they were giving harsh feedback. Some of this had to do with lack of trust. However, I hadn't set expectations for the language we would use in peer feedback. The next time we attempted a writer's workshop, I had the class develop a set of norms, or behavioral expectations for peer feedback. These included the following categories:

Respectful language: What are the types of phrases you want to use? What words or phrases do you want to avoid?

Active listening: What does it mean to listen actively? What does it mean to listen with the goal of understanding? What does active listening "look" like? (Note that it's important we allow students to do this in a culturally responsive way that doesn't require eye contact)

Focused participation: What does focused participation look like? Have students visualize this by stating specific positive behaviors. Have them consider any distractions they might need to look out for ahead of time.

Being prepared: What does it mean to show up to peer feedback fully prepared? Is there work you need to bring? Are there questions you need to have?

Staying on-topic: What do you need to do in order to stay on topic? How do you keep focused on the feedback at hand?

After setting up the norms, you might need to have students review the norms before they meet for feedback. As students begin to internalize the feedback, you might not need to remind them of the norms every single time.

7. Model and practice the peer feedback process.

Great feedback does not always come naturally. It's something that students have to learn through practice. That shouldn't surprise us. Consider how many people you know who are awful at giving or receiving critical feedback. For this reason, you may need to model the process with students. It works best to have a confident student give you feedback and to explain and label each part of the process.

To reduce cognitive load, you might break down a peer feedback protocol and demonstrate the first step, followed by having students practice that step. Then, do the same for the third, fourth, and fifth steps. This helps students solidify the process in their long-term memories. It can also help to have a visual (like a PowerPoint slide or an anchor chart) that students look at as they practice a protocol. While this modeling process can feel slow at first, students quickly learn the protocols and the peer feedback become quicker and smoother. Eventually, students are giving and receiving meaningful feedback and using the feedback to clarify misconceptions, improve their skills, and take their learning to the next level.

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Seven Strategies for Getting the Most Out of Peer Feedback in the Classroom

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Years ago, as I shifted toward empowering students, I ask myself the question, "What am I doing for students that they could be doing for themselves?" One of the most glaring answers was assessment. So,

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STEAM - Learning That is Representative of the Whole World

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STEAM - Learning That is Representative of the Whole World

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Georgette Yakman | STEAM - Learning That is Representative of the Whole World

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Six videos demonstrating CLIL used in classes from primary schools and vocational colleges

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Teachers can implement a range of practices and strategies that ensure feedback to students is deliberate, planned and focused on learning intentions and success criteria.

Practices that promote effective feedback

There are 5 practices that can promote effective feedback - combining feedback and instruction, focusing on learning intentions and success criteria, intervening quickly, ensuring the feedback engages students in thinking and allowing time to enact the feedback.

Effective feedback follows instruction. When student work does not demonstrate at least partial understanding of a concept or process, feedback is not usually effective and the problems are best addressed through further teaching. Hattie & Timperley state that:

A simple clue that a student's work is not ready for feedback is that you can't find any legitimate success feedback to offer. When the work doesn't demonstrate any understanding, don't give feedback - reteach instead.

To combine feedback and instruction, teachers should:

select and sequence the learning experiences (instruction) and integrate with opportunities to gather information about the learning (assessment)

intentionally design assessments to occur at 'checkpoints' (that is, critical points during the learning where teachers and students engage in assessment to determine who is learning and who needs additional or alternative instruction prior to moving forward with the learning)

provide opportunities for feedback from the teacher, from peers, and from themselves (through self-assessment)

encourage students to use the feedback to take further action to learn and improve.

Recording patterns of behaviour

Fisher and Frey believe teachers should identify patterns in student errors so they can target instruction or intervention on specific areas of student need. They suggest keeping a table to record student error patterns.

For example, list errors in the first column, and note down the initials of students that made the error in the second column. Note: each set of initials in the second column represents a student who made an error.

Skim and scan to preview text

JC

Sourcing - information source, author, type of document

JC JT DL MM SL ST ND CT

Draw conclusions

JC JT MM TA AA LR CM TR VR IB AV TM SO KF

The information available from this pattern analysis:

all but one student demonstrated mastery of skimming and scanning

a fair number of students did not engage in sourcing - and could need re-teaching

in terms of drawing conclusions, it would be useful to re-teach the whole class.

By looking for patterns of errors, additional teaching can be designed for the whole class, small groups or individuals to address errors.

Effective feedback directs attention to the intended learning and/or success criteria, pointing out strengths and offering specific information to guide improvement (Stiggins, Arter, Chappius, & Chappuis).

Whatever the form of the feedback, it needs to be explicit about the learning intention and success criteria.

Be explicit about the learning intention and success criteria

Ensure students know and understand the learning intention and success criteria

Limit feedback to these

Attend to surface features every now and again.

Ensure you do not:

always focus on the elements of - presentation, quantity, surface features (such as spelling and
punctuation) and effort at the expense of the learning intention and success criteria

do not write/ talk about anything that is not related to the success criteria that you told students
about at the beginning of the task.

Prioritise feedback

Address the most important needs first

Limit feedback to 2-3 specific recommendations linked to the learning goal/s

adjust feedback based on individual students' readiness and learning preferences. An
appropriate amount of feedback for one student might not be enough for another, and might
overwhelm a third.

Ensure you do not 'blanket mark' (mark every error) or expect students to apply all the criteria that they have ever been taught for every task.

Focus on key feedback questions

Ensure feedback focuses on 'What are the goal/s?'

Ensure feedback focuses on 'What progress is being made toward the goal/s?'

Ensure feedback focuses on 'What needs to be undertaken to make better progress?'

Try not to mark errors without making improvement suggestions.

Provide 'closing the gap' feedback prompts

Provide reminder prompts based on student needs.

Provide scaffolded prompts based on student needs.

Provide example prompts based on student needs.

Try not to write too much as too much information can be overwhelming and difficult for a student to take in.

Check the adequacy of the feedback

Ask the student what support they need.

Ask the student directly:

Is that enough or do you need an example?

Do you know what to do next?

Is that enough help?

What will you do if you get stuck again?

Ask the student to tell you what they think you are trying to say to them.

Ensure you don't assume that students understand your comments or know how to implement the feedback.

Include peer feedback and self-feedback/ reflection

Encourage students to question you and each other to deepen their understanding.

Model and scaffold the types of questions you want students to use themselves.

Provide opportunities for peer and self-feedback prior to the work being submitted.

Provide and work through models and exemplars of quality work, based on the learning
intention and success criteria.

Try not to expect students to engage in peer and self-feedback without providing instruction and
guidance.

Intervene as soon as possible

Give the most effective form of feedback in the most timely way.

Offer feedback during learning as well as at the end of a task/ assignment.

Check-in with students as they engage in a task.

Formalise 'check-ins' - allocate times for 'check-ins' during learning.

Engage in a feedback cycle > feedback > action > feedback > action and so on

Limit marking and focus on one or two areas for improvement so that feedback can be provided sooner rather than later.

Ensure you don't wait until the end of a task or assignment to offer feedback or leave too much time before offering feedback.

Vince Lombardi, a famous American football coach, once stated: Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

In classrooms it is important not to allow students to repeat a mistake or cement a misconception. By intervening promptly, teachers will promote effective feedback provided that they:

Feedback needs to be acted upon by the student. Providing too much feedback doesn't deepen the learning if the student doesn't need to think or do anything for themselves.

Much of the feedback offered to students can be less about improvement and more about corrections of mistakes the teacher has spotted. Comments and questions - such as 'You've missed something here.' or 'What should you have put there?' or 'What about these?' - require students to do very little thinking about the learning process.

Instead, pose more open questions to stimulate student thinking:

'Is there anything you could change to make that a proper sentence?'

'Read through this sentence and tell me what you think would make the sentence more descriptive.'

In addition, try to avoid correcting or annotating errors for the student - instead state or write comments that the student can understand and act upon.

Allow time to enact feedback

To demonstrate the importance of feedback, allocate time for feedback to be acted on. Since all feedback requires action, if the teacher wants students to take the feedback on-board, they need to provide the time to do this.

To support this process, teachers need to:

Allow time, opportunity and support for students to act on the information they receive
about their learning.

Set up routines so feedback can be enacted, for example:

read the comments

clarify the comments

act on the comments

seek peer feedback

re-submit work.

Break longer tasks into stages and provide feedback which is essential to the successful navigation of subsequent stages.

Expect to see changes/ improvements as a result of feedback.

Ultimately, the only effective feedback is that which is acted upon. This means feedback should be more work for the recipient than the donor.

How to implement feedback

The most important word in any teacher's vocabulary is 'yet'.

When a student says: 'I can't do it,' the teacher needs to respond with, 'You can't do it yet.'

In summary when implementing feedback:

give descriptive feedback where possible

focus on feedback that encourages students to think through their learning

avoid closed questions in favour of posing more open ended ones

keep feedback focused on what's important for the learner - product, process and self-regulation

restrict comments to key strengths and areas for improvement that will make the most difference

divide the time between collective, group, pair and individual feedback

ensure students understand the feedback and give them time and opportunity to respond to it

ensure opportunities for peer and self-feedback/reflection

identify something that was done well and something that needs improvement - and provide specific suggestions for how to improve

provide a range of improvement prompts to guide student learning - reminder prompts, scaffolded prompts and example prompts

ensure the feedback provided was useful in helping the student progress in their learning.

Feedback prompts

There are 3 types of prompts that can be used in the moment of teaching that Clarke (2003) has identified.

Range of prompts

Learning intention

Extract from writing

Reminder prompt

Scaffolded prompt

Example prompt

Why...?

(Justifying a statement)

To write a letter giving reasons for things you say.

'It was dismal.'

Say why you thought this.

Choose one of these or your own: It was dismal because I was bored all the time. / I found it dismal having only my grandad to talk to.

Why was it a dismal time? Why did you hate being there?

Feedback strategies

Use the following feedback strategies with students:

Use feedback sandwiches:

positive comment

constructive criticism with explanation of how to improve

positive comment or contextual comment: X was good ... because .... now/next time ...

Build reflection time into each lesson for feedback - teacher to student, student to student, student to teacher.

Use catchy abbreviations:

EBI: Even Better If

HTI: How to Improve

YNS: Your Next Steps

WWW: What Went Well.

Use a feedback sheet for students to record 'What I did well' and 'What I need to do to improve'.

Give students the opportunity at the feedback stage to write 1 or 2 questions they would like answered to support them in making the identified improvements.

Record comments in a Learning Log - students can then refer to these comments before they complete similar exercises.

Use symbols instead of writing too much.

Use a feedback structure such as:

find 2 successes against the success criteria: what students have achieved in relation to the learning intention/success criteria

find the part of the work that has most scope for an immediate 'jump' (not simply the worst part)

write a short prompt telling the student exactly what to do to this part of their work

provide time for them to read, process and respond to your prompt.

Three and one marking

Three and one marking, based on the work of Shirley Clarke on formative feedback, has 4 stages:

Stage 1. At the very beginning of new work/ assignment/ enquiry explain to the class that you will be changing the way you will mark their written work, in order to help them make more progress in the future.

Stage 2. Read all of the student's written work through very carefully before making any annotation. Next, highlight 3 places in the writing where the student best met the learning intention/s of the activity. Then indicate (for example, with a star) one place where an improvement can be made to the original work.

Stage 3. Draw an arrow to a suitable place near the star and write a 'close the gap' prompt to support the student in making an improvement to their work. This can be provided in a variety of different forms:

Reminder prompt - suitable for more able students. For example, 'Say more about ...' or 'Explain why you think this is ...'

Scaffold prompt - suitable for most students as it provides more structure to improve the work. For example, a question: 'Can you explain why ...?' or a directive: 'Describe some of the ....' or an unfinished sentence: 'She shows this by the way she ...'

Example prompt - particularly supportive of less able students. For example, 'Choose one of
these statements and/or create your own.' (Provide 2 valid statements for the pupil to select from or use as a model).

Stage 4:

Provide time in class to enable students to read and respond to the 'close the gap' comment.

Use this time to follow up individual needs with 1 or 2 specific students 'face to face'.

Comment upon their improvement at the first available opportunity.

Feedback frames

When using a success criteria rubric, older students can complete a frame themselves before receiving feedback to help them become competent self-assessors.

Stars and stairs

The 'Stars and stairs' frame could be used with younger students. The teacher can draw a 'star' or 'stairs' (a jagged line) on the student's work - with the star indicating what the student is doing well and the stairs indicating steps needed to improve.

For older students, label one section with 'That's Good' for success and 'Now This' for improvement feedback. To monitor the actions students take, add a section where students note what they did with the feedback and identify
one or more aspects that they think have really improved. This could be submitted with their improved work.

Feedback dialogue frame

Students complete the first part before receiving feedback. The teacher then provides the feedback on the form, and the student responds with the plan for what to do next. Source: Chappuis, (2012)

1. Details
Name:
Date:
Assignment/ task:
Feedback focus:

2. My opinion [student]:
- My strengths are:
- I think I need to work on:

3. Feedback [teacher]:
Strengths:
Work on:

4. My plan [student]: What I will do now

Teacher feedback form

Student name:
Title of work:
Conference time:

1. Some things you did successfully:
2. Some things you could improve on:
3. Next steps:
(Note: keep this feedback form to refer to as you revise your work.)

Peer feedback form

Your name:
Peer reviewer's name:
Title of project:
Two compliments about the work are:
Two suggestions about the work are:
(Note: have the peer reviewer use 'I' statements for this step:
- I would like to know more about...
- I am not sure what this means...
- I would like to know more details about...)
Any other ideas or comments:
(Note: keep this form to refer to as you revise the work.)

Traffic light feedback

Show feedback with a 'traffic light' motif - green (good), amber (okay) or red (incorrect). To do this, create a table with 5 columns and a row for each success criteria. Title the columns: Success criteria, Date, Feedback (this is where you include the traffic light), Action taken (to be completed by student) and Completed. (Source: Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010)

Clarke, S (2003). Enriching Feedback in the primary classroom. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Chappuis, J (2012, September). Leadership for Learning: How am I doing? Educational Leadership, 70(1).

Fisher, D. &amp; Frey, N (2012). Making time for feedback. Educational Leadership, 70 (1).

Hattie, J., &amp; Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1).

Stiggins, R. J., Arter, J. A., Chappuis, S., &amp; Chappuis, S. (2004). Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it right - Using it well. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

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Learn about 5 practices to promote effective feedback and a range of practical strategies to use in the classroom.

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All Posts

Written by Justin Raudys

Category

Teaching Strategies

Teaching Tools

As a teacher, one of your biggest challenges is to plan lessons that inspire your students to stay actively involved in the learning process.

But you've probably noticed that traditional, teacher-centered learning plans aren't always conducive to achieving that inspiration.

That's where active learning strategies come into play. You can use them to empower, engage, and stimulate a classroom by putting students at the center of the learning process.

Get inspired by these 8 strategies that will help students talk more openly, think more creatively and -- ultimately -- become more engaged in the process of learning.

This article is accompanied by a downloadable list of active learning strategies to keep at your desk for quick reference.

Active Learning Strategies

1. Reciprocal questioning

Use reciprocal questioning to encourage an open dialogue in which students take on the role of the teacher and create their own questions about a topic, reading section, or lesson.

After covering a topic of your choice in class -- or after assigning a reading selection -- divide the class into pairs or small groups and have students come up with a few questions for discussion with the rest of the class. To facilitate the process, you can provide students with "question stems," which provide a foundation for a question but still require students to think critically about a lesson, text, or other section of material by completing the query. Consider the examples below.
Comprehension Question Stems
Describe x in your own words. What does y mean? Why is z important? How could x be used to y?
Connector Question Stems
Explain how x and why z. In what ways are x and y similar? In what ways are x and y different? How does x tie in with that we learned before?

Use these question stems to anchor and explore concepts in course material, helping students investigate a range of new topics and points of view associated with your lesson.

Much like student-generated test questions -- a type of of experiential learning activity -- reciprocal questioning involves students in the learning process to help build their comprehension of course material.

Reciprocal questioning can be particularly useful when:

Preparing for tests or exams

Introducing a new topic or section of course content

Discussing reading or writing materials in greater detail

2. Three step interviews

A cooperative learning strategy, the three step interview encourages students to develop active listening skills by quizzing one another, sharing their thoughts, and taking notes.

To use the three step interview process, divide students into groups of three, and assign three roles: interviewer, interviewee, and notetaker.

After also assigning a theme or topic of discussion, have students participate in a five to 10 minute interview to discuss what they found to be the key information relating to the topic.

After each interview, have students rotate roles. Depending on factors including the grade level of your students and their experience with the strategy, you may adjust the length of the time for each interview.
One interpretation of the three-step interview process. Feel free to experiment with the duration and number of students involved in these steps. Image courtesy: Kagan Publishing
Before using the strategy, you may find it useful to have students explore the types of questions reporters ask in interviews and at what point in an interview they ask them. You may also want to provide recording sheets to use when they are assigned the "reporter" role.

The three-step interview confers benefits including:

Helping students learn and apply different questioning strategies

Strengthening students' connection with course material in a creative and engaging way

Producing a sense of accountability, with students working together to complete a task and grasp a lesson

3. The pause procedure

Use the pause procedure to intersperse strategic pauses into your class lectures and enhance student understanding of teaching materials.

To use the pause procedure, arrange for pauses of two to three minutes between every 10 to 15 minutes of lecture time.

During these brief breaks, encourage students to discuss or rework their notes in pairs to clarify key points covered, raise questions, and solve problems posed by the instructor.

Alternatively, students can work together to write a paragraph that connects or highlights key ideas set out in their partner's notes.

A 2014 study concluded that breaking a lecture into brief pauses can increase student attention and learning outcomes. The pause procedure, the study determined, is "a good active learning strategy which helps students review their notes, reflect on them, discuss and explain the key ideas with their partners."

The use of the pause procedure involves a minimal amount of extra time, but can confer significant benefits in comparison to lectures that continue without breaks.

4. The muddiest point technique

The muddiest point technique involves asking students to write notes on the most unclear or most confusing element of a given homework assignment, lecture, or class discussion.

Asking students to write down what they find to be the least clear is a powerful exercise because it compels them to grade or rate their own knowledge of a topic.

In short, the exercise helps students reflect on the lesson and identify concepts needing further examination or study.
Example of a "muddiest point" handout to issue to students. Image source: TeachersPayTeachers.
From your perspective, the activity can serve as an insightful source of feedback.

For example, if more than a quarter of the class mentions the same "muddiest point," you may wish to schedule a further time to discuss that topic, or create a new lesson plan or assignment to tackle it.

5. The devil's advocate approach

The devil's advocate approach asks one or more students to take the opposing side of a predominant argument or point of view being discussed during a lesson.

Once you have completed an assignment or lesson plan, select a topic that is suitable for discussion and debate. The topic should serve as an appropriate subject for providing arguments from both sides.

The activity is flexible and should be tailored to suit your students' grade level. In its simplest form, divide the class into two sections and coordinate a class-wide debate based on a selected topic. Alternatively, you may have students annotate reading texts and respond to contentions by creating counterarguments. Then, have students debate the proposals discussed during a mock town hall meeting.

While this approach can be used across a number of grade levels and subjects, consider this list of thematic claims used as primers for a devil's advocate activity in a secondary ELA class.
Image source: Bespoke Classroom.
This approach can help cultivate active learning in the classroom by encouraging students to:

Think more critically, challenging participants to expand their understanding of the perspectives surrounding an issue and to view it through a different lens

Become more engaged, fostering involvement by drawing out opinions to explore the complexity of an issue being studied

Produce a deeper understanding of topics or issues, using rigorous analysis to collectively clarify, probe, and pose alternatives to problems being discussed

According to a study published in the Journal of Theory, Research and Action in Urban Education, the devil's advocate approach can help students become "more familiar with a...topic and its multifaceted viewpoints." The same study concludes that a classroom using this strategy can:

6. Peer teaching activities

A flexible and multi-faceted approach to active learning, peer instruction encompasses a range of scenarios where students instruct skills or explain concepts to classmates.

Some popular options include:

Reading buddies - A cooperative learning strategy that pairs two students who work together to read an assigned text.

Cross-age peer tutoring - A peer learning strategy involving students in different grades, wherein which one student instructs another on the material in which the first student is advanced and the second student is a novice.

Role play - A group of students is split into smaller groups and given a specific task to complete, like in small group work. However, in addition to working on a specific task, the members of each group are asked to play a certain "role". Unlike in traditional role-play, all members of one group play the same role, not individually assigned roles.

Peer teaching activities help boost vital skills and behaviors including student interaction, accountability, group processing.

7. Game-based learning platforms

Game-based learning platforms and depth and differentiation to the educational process and allow students to work with their instructors to achieve their learning objectives.

Eric Sheninger, a principal, author, and Senior Fellow at the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE), writes passionately about the use of technology as an active learning tool. In his article " Shifting From Passive to Active Learning," he writes:

Math games and websites are at the forefront of delivering active learning through technology. One example is Prodigy, a platform that constantly adjusts questions to tackle student trouble spots and delivers math problems with words, charts pictures, and numbers. Better yet, educational content is free to access and aligned with curricula for grades 1 to 8 teachers.

Create and sign into your free teacher account.
8. Rotating chair group discussions

Rotating chair group discussions encourage students to actively listen to selected speakers who follow a pattern of guiding class discussion and summarizing previous points. Students lead and stimulate class discussion as they "rotate" roles, repeatedly selecting the following speaker.

To use this strategy effectively, ensure that students adhere to the following pattern:

When a student wishes to participate, they must raise their hand

The student who is speaking calls on the next speaker, ideally someone who has not yet contributed

The student who has been called upon briefly summarizes what the previous student said before developing the idea further

This process can be repeated across a variety of topics, with your guidance to stay on track and help stuck students.

The benefits of rotating chair group discussions are not only limited to the speakers. Knowing that they may be called upon to summarize the previous topic, all students are engaged in attentive listening, frequently jotting down notes and ideas to stay on track in the spaces between speaking.

Moreover, students are put into a scenario where they learn from their colleagues' ideas, sparking new considerations of material in an active and engaging way.

This strategy is rewarding for students because it encourages powerful and direct engagement with course material.

The Teacher's Role in the Active Learning Classroom

While active learning places an emphasis on the student's role in the learning experience, there is no doubt that the success of any active learning strategy starts with the thought and planning of a conscientious instructor.

"Overall," a 2011 study found, "teachers play an influential role in increasing students' situational interest in the active-learning classroom," while factors like a teacher's social connection with students and subject matter expertise "significantly influence the level of students' situational interest in the active learning classroom."

And, critically, the benefits of active learning go both ways, helping teachers as well as students.

As active learning advocate James Ballencia writes,

As many of the techniques above are open-ended, the active learning strategies underpinning them may differentiate for different types of learners. Be sure to consider how you can differentiate instruction while still enjoying the benefits of these active learning strategies.

Active Learning Techniques: Key Questions

To help the success of these strategies, put yourself in your students' position and imagine how they might experience it. This will help you get a feel for the lesson.

When applying any of these strategies for your course, be sure to ask yourself:

Will this be engaging and exciting for my students?

Can this activity deploy formative assessment strategies?

Is the student placed at the center of this learning strategy?

Will this encourage my students to discuss a topic with one another?

Am I giving students the opportunity to reflect on the learning process?

Is this activity getting my students to think deeply and critically about a topic or lesson or is it simply a comprehension exercise?

Making Space for Active Learning Strategies

While all of the active learning strategies outlined above can be deployed in traditional, lecture-oriented classrooms, the physical arrangement of your room and the number of students in the class can make some of them difficult to perform easily.

While a flexible seating classroom arrangement may ease this challenge, such a solution is not always possible. Plan these exercises with the limitations of your physical space carefully, being mindful of the environmental constraints posed by the unique arrangements of some of the strategies above.

Final Thoughts on Active Learning Strategies

Active learning plainly puts the focus on the learner: what the learner does, what the learner thinks, and how the learner behaves.

But, crucially, active learning doesn't simply happen with a few simple instructions: it occurs in the classroom where the teacher is committed to a learning environment that makes active learning possible.

Ultimately, these active learning strategies will help build understanding rather than memorization of facts, giving students the confidence to apply learning to different problems and contexts and achieve greater autonomy over their learning.

And, after all, that's exactly makes active learning "active": putting students at the center of the learning process as they take the initiative to learn.

Downloadable List of the 8 Active Learning Strategies
Click here to download the list of strategies to print and keep at your desk.
Create or log in to your teacher account on Prodigy -- a game-based learning platform that assesses student progress and performance as they play. Aligned with a growing list of curricula across the world, over 800,000 teachers and 30 million students have signed up to Prodigy Math Game.

Comprehension Question Stems Connector Question Stems

The Muddiest Point: Sample Phrasing What have you found to be the muddiest point so far in this assignment? What topic do you find to be the least clear?

Image source: Bespoke Classroom.

"provide students with multiple perspectives, and challenge students with tough questions. In such a classroom, students will become more engaged and students' critical thinking and writing skills will be enriched."

Some popular options include:

It is really about how students use devices to create artifacts of learning that demonstrate conceptual mastery through relevant application and evaluation...Give kids challenging problems to solve that have more than one right answer and let them use technology to show that they understand. This is the epitome of active learning...

With the goal of teaching mindful learners who actively pursue knowledge, teachers become more actively engaged in how they teach the curriculum and how they develop each student's learning potential. They mix and match a variety of ... tactics to ensure that students not only learn more, better, and faster -- they also learn smarter.

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8 Active Learning Strategies and Examples [+ Downloadable List]

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All Posts Written by Justin Raudys Category Teaching Strategies Teaching Tools As a teacher, one of your biggest challenges is to plan lessons that inspire your students to stay actively involved in the learning process. But you've probably noticed that traditional, teacher-centered learning plans aren't always conducive to achieving that inspiration.

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Thinking routine strategies - Project Zero

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Thinking routine strategies - Project Zero

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Click each tile for more information and activities for each class profile.

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Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a key element of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Its aims form one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal on education SDG 4.7 and it is considered a driver for the achievements of all 17 SDGs.

ESD empowers everyone to make informed decisions in favour of environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society for present and future generations. It aims to provide the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to address sustainable development challenges.

Complementary to the UNESCO guidance document - Education for Sustainable Development Goals - Learning Objectives, this resource bank has been designed for educators, education planners and practitioners. It offers hundreds of pedagogical ideas for classroom activities and multimedia resources detailing how best to integrate ESD into teaching and learning, from early childhood care through secondary education.

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Sustainable Development Goals - Resources for educators

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Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a key element of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Its aims form one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal on education SDG 4.7 and it is considered a driver for the achievements of all 17 SDGs.

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British Council - The Future of English: Global Perspectives (free PDF book)

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British Council - The Future of English: Global Perspectives (free PDF book)

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Poster for your classroom: Help Ss develop strategies to correct their peers kindly.

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Poster for your classroom: Help Ss develop strategies to correct their peers kindly.

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http://gg.gg/StratsCollab

Feel free to share it with your students and add/ ask for contributions.

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Online dictionaries to add to your homescreen

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Online dictionaries to add to your homescreen

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Read about it here: https://teachergabriellemos.wordpress.com/2019/06/09/online-dictionaries-to-foster-autonomy/

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This is where you can enter your team names, followed by a score for each round. Your data will be saved.

These cards are meant to be played however you would like to. There are a bunch of different rules you can alter or come up with on your own. Play taboo online here, or play any other sort of word game with our cards. Our cards are completely unique. We have no affiliation with Hasbro or any other major game company. If you would like to submit your own cards, please contact us here. Check out the word finder here which can help you to solve for all possible words you can create. There is also an anagram solver, including multiple words as answers, instead of all single words. Wordle has been all the rage in 2022, and to help you solve the daily word puzzle, check out the wordle solver. If you would like to play crosswords, we recommend the USA Today crossword page. These are some of our word game tips. Words can be funny. We are all trying our best to not get down during these unprecedented times of social distancing. This is a fun way to connect with friends. If you have any other resources, email us to see if we can add it to our list.

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Welcome! Happy playing! Score Sheet This is where you can enter your team names, followed by a score for each round. Your data will be saved. These cards are meant to be played however you would like to. There are a bunch of different rules you can alter or come up with on your [...]

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Link to make a copy: http://gg.gg/CreateVocabSheet

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How can observing the natural world help us find solutions to human problems? How safe is my [water, air, soil, food]? How can we use our voices to effect change? From great Driving Questions through review and reflection, the Project Planner will help you design or adapt projects for your classroom.

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Tips for emotionally engaging your students, making adapted projects your own, and using real-world experts.

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from https://www.pblworks.org/blog/3-ways-level-your-pbl-practice

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from https://peacheypublications.com/empathy-mapping-in-the-teaching-and-training-classroom

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Promoting a PBL Mindset: The “Dimmer Switch” Approach

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Use the “dimmer switch” approach and use aspects of PBL in “regular” instruction - not “PBL on” or “PBL off.”

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A Tricky Part of PBL: Writing a Driving Question - PBL

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We've noticed over the years of facilitating our PBL 101 workshops that one of the most challenging parts for teachers designing a project is writing the driving question.

One reason is that it's a writing task, and not everyone is a writer. Many teachers are great at creating curriculum units and lesson plans, and many are great at working with students, but crafting the wording of a question that captures the heart of a project can be tricky.

Let's review. A good driving question meets the following criteria:

Engaging for students. It is understandable and interesting to students, and it provokes further questions and focuses their inquiry process.

Open-ended. There are several possible answers, and it cannot simply be Googled.

Aligned with learning goals. To answer it, students will need to learn the targeted content and skills.

Troubleshooting Common Pitfalls

Let's look at some typical "first drafts" and how they can be improved to better meet the above criteria.

What were the causes of the U.S. Civil War?
Not open-ended and does not require critical thinking and debate.

What was the most important cause of the U.S. Civil War?

What should people consider when planning for financing college or buying a home?
Not as engaging as it would be if it were specific and had a charge to take action.

What financial planning advice would we give to our "client" family?

Why is genetic engineering a bad idea?
Engaging, but slanted in one direction.

Should we allow designer babies?

How can we use measurement skills and geometry to plan a park?
States learning goals but doesn't have to; lacks a purpose or "why."
How can we plan a park that people in our community will visit?

Specify the Role & Product, or Not?

Another issue about driving questions that crops up in our workshops and among our National Faculty when coaching teachers is more matter of preference, although it can affect student engagement. You'll notice on the above chart that I did not include the project's product in any of the revised driving questions. I also did not include a role that students are playing. But the product and role could be specified in some projects, and might be useful for students in some cases.

At the Buck Institute, we talk about two general types of driving questions in PBL, and here are some pros and cons for each...

1. Driving Questions that explore a philosophical or debatable issue, or an intriguing topic, such as:

Is there "liberty and justice for all" in our society?

Could there be life on other planets?

What should be our policy on immigration?

What does it mean to be a man?

Does it matter what we eat?

Pros: Highly engaging to students; the kind of question they'll keep talking about when they leave the classroom. Often resemble "essential questions" found in Understanding by Design and the Coalition of Essential Schools, which teachers may be familiar with.

Cons: Harder to write; may feel like advanced PBL practice because the task and product are not spelled out. Typically found more often in upper grade levels and certain subject areas (e.g., humanities) more than others (e.g. math, world languages, career/tech).

2. Driving Questions that specify a product to be created or a problem to be solved-to which the students' role may be added, such as:

How can we help protect an endangered species in our area?

How can we reduce bullying?

How can we create a guide to our community for new immigrants?

How can we, as historians, create podcasts that tell the story of our city?

How can we, as medical interns, diagnose a sick patient?

Pros: Easier to write. Helps focus younger students on their task in a project. Roles define the kind of thinking we want students to do (as historians, scientists, etc.), add a real-world element, and can be good for career exploration.

Cons: Can feel less engaging for students; sometimes simply states what the teacher wants students to do. Roles may feel fake to some students; older students in PBL especially may prefer being themselves.

As with many decisions teachers need to make when designing and facilitating PBL, how to write a driving question depends on your own style, your context, your students.

I lean toward student engagement as the most important criterion. I'd also advise teachers to get feedback from colleagues on your draft driving questions-and even from students in a focus group.

Or you could actually co-craft it with students... but that process is a whole 'nother story (see this post by our National Faculty member Sara Lev for more on that).
Feel free to reach me on Twitter @johnlpbl to share your driving questions and get feedback!

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A Tricky Part of PBL: Writing a Driving Question

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PBLWorks Editor in Chief John Larmer gives guidance for troubleshooting pitfalls and deciding which type of DQ fits your project.

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80 ways to use Chat GPT in the classroom

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80 ways to use Chat GPT in the classroom

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80 Ways to Use ChatGPT in the Classroom - Using AI to Enhance Teaching and Learning

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Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.

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OpenAI’s new chatbot is raising fears of cheating on homework, but its potential as an educational tool outweighs its risks.

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Michael Swan - Some things that matter in grammar teaching and some things that don't

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Michael Swan - Some things that matter in grammar teaching and some things that don't

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from https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=8475

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from https://northbeachelementary.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1075820&type=u&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=886619

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from https://www.alleganaesa.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=52&ModuleInstanceID=412&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=5519&PageID=322

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Understanding CLIL - Read Jim Cummins's publications

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Understanding CLIL - Read Jim Cummins's publications

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‪University of Toronto‬ - ‪‪Cited by 83,371‬‬ - ‪Education‬ - ‪Language‬ - ‪Bilingualism‬

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So what's the difference between "doing a project" and PBL?

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So what's the difference between "doing a project" and PBL?

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from https://www.pblworks.org/doing-project-vs-project-based-learning

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from https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl/gold-standard-teaching-practices

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from https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl/gold-standard-project-design

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Characteristics of a critical thinking classroom

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Characteristics of a critical thinking classroom

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from https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/critical-thinking-classroom/

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from https://pz.harvard.edu/resources/understanding-map

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from https://www.teachthought.com/learning/what-is-blooms-taxonomy/

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Visible thinking routines in the classroom

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Visible thinking routines in the classroom

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As English language teachers and educators on the path of enrichment, we're always on the lookout for new ideas and activities that we can incorporate into our classrooms to enrich our students' learning experience. In the past, I would spend hours trawling my favorite ELT resource sites looking for that gem of an activity to use in my class on a Monday morning. However, in recent years I've started to expand my view away from the sometimes enclosed world of ELT to explore ideas and trends from more mainstream education. This can be quite time-consuming but it's exactly how I came across one of my favorite discoveries: visible thinking routines.

So what exactly are visible thinking routines? Originating out of Project Zero, a research project based at Harvard University, they are "a set of mini-strategies in the form of a set of questions or a sequence of steps used to scaffold and support students' deeper thinking", as well as deepen content learning. It's important to note that while not explicitly created for the English language classroom, many of them are easily usable across a range of ages and levels with minor or no tweaking, making them a really great resource. Indeed, there are currently there are over 50 different routines within the Visible Thinking Routines Toolbox, split over 10 different categories (including global thinking, possibilities & analogies, objects & systems, synthesizing & organizing ideas).

So, why should we use them in the English language classroom? To answer this question we have to ask the broader question of what is the purpose of education as a whole. Is it to teach students different subjects to help them pass exams, or is it something deeper than that? I think all would agree that it goes beyond the surface of teaching particular subjects and that the real purpose of education is to give students a set of skills, values, and knowledge to survive and thrive in the real world. Included near the top of that list is the ability to think in both critical and creative ways. As such, giving our students the opportunity to develop their cognitive abilities is vital and this is what using thinking routines allows us to do in an often seamless, non-intrusive way.

In respect to our classes as English teachers, the added benefit of including them is that they also facilitate communication. Simply put, thinking equals communication (authentic communication at that) and that is what English lessons should be all about. In other words, thinking routines help create learning opportunities as well as enhancing learning and the learning experience. So, with that in mind, here are some of my favorite thinking routines that are worth trying out in your lessons.

See-Think-Wonder

This is a simple thinking routine that can be used with all ages and levels, tapping into learners' innate curiosity and encouraging them to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations of images. This is a perfect routine to do at the start of a topic or lesson to pique students' interest and activate schemata. What's more, it's a perfect fit for National Geographic Learning courses given the rich photographic content.

Step 1: Choose a suitable, high-interest photograph

Step 2: ask students to look at the photograph and talk about what they can see (e.g. I can see

Step 3: tell students to share with each other what they think about the photograph (e.g. I think...

Step 4: ask the students what they wonder about the photo (e.g. I wonder why...?). This can then lead into a wider classroom discussion with students hypothesizing and making suggestions.

From Imagine for young learners of English

See, Think, Me, We

This is another photographic-based routine that takes the See, Think, Wonder routine a stage further by encouraging students to make both personal and global connections. The last two stages require more careful reflection and interpretation and the use of higher-order thinking skills.

Step 1: Choose a suitable, high-interest photograph

Step 2: Ask students to look at the photograph and talk about what they can see (e.g. I can see

Step 3: Tell students to share with each other what they think about the photograph (e.g. I think...

Step 4: Ask students to think about what connections they can make between the image and themselves (e.g. the image reminds me of..., or the image makes me feel...)

Step 5: ask students to think about how the image connects to the bigger picture - about the world and our place in it.

The Three Whys

This is a simple routine that encourages students to make connections to a topic and to think about that topic from multiple perspectives - personal, local, global. As such it's best used at the beginning of a unit of work.

Step 1: tell the students the topic that they're going to be studying in the new unit (or the subject of the text they're going to read)

Step 2: ask them to think about why the topic might matter to them (personal)

Step 3: ask them to think about why the topic might matter to people around them (family, friends, town, country) (local)

Step 4: ask them to think about why the topic might matter to the world (global)

Step 5: put students into groups to discuss their responses before conducting class feedback

From Impact for teens

Think-Puzzle-Explore

This routine best used at the start of a unit or before a reading and is a variation of the more familiar KWL routine. It starts off by activating students' prior knowledge, then generating ideas and curiosity before setting the stage for deeper inquiry.

Step 1: share the title of the topic or reading to be covered in class (you could also use a photo too) with the class

Question Starts

This is another routine that is best used with older learners at the start of a unit or before a reading. It's a question brainstorming activity that supports students who need help in developing good questions that provoke thinking and inquiry into a topic by providing them with language frames to use.

Step 1: put your students into groups and ask them to brainstorm 12 questions about the topic using these question frames. At this stage, they are NOT answering them.

Why...? What are the reasons...? What is the purpose of...?

How would be different it if...? What if we knew...? Suppose that...?

What if...? What would change if...? What would happen if...?

Step 2: elicit some questions from each group in-class feedback

Step 3: ask students to review their questions and select 3-4 of them to discuss

Step 4: ask students to reflect on the process - what new ideas did the process did give them about the topic?

The 4Cs

This is a great post-reading routine that provides a structure for text-based discussion for higher-level learners. The routine is designed to help them make connections, challenge ideas in the text, identify key concepts and consider what implications it might have. It's also important to note that at each step of the routine students have time to consider the questions before sharing their ideas with their groups. You can then conduct class feedback after each step, or at the end of the activity.

From Reflect

I Used to Think, Now I think

This is a routine that links nicely to an inquiry-based approach and which is best used at the end of a unit of work, although it could be done after a receptive skills lesson. The routine encourages students to reflect on what they have learned about a topic and how their knowledge, views, and opinions (might) have changed across the course of the unit or lesson, and by its nature, it also helps students consolidate what they have learned.

Step 1: Ask students to complete the sentence "I used to think... about this topic."

Step 2: Ask students to complete the sentence "Now I think... about this topic."

Step 3: Put students into small groups to discuss what they've written before conducting class feedback

Hopefully, that's given you a taste for what visible thinking routines are all about as well as some ideas to try out in your class. As with any routine the first time you do these students will need extra support and reassurances, but the more you include them in your lessons, the more familiar students will become, thus increasing their effectiveness.

From Reading Explorer, Third Edition

Reflect on what you read:

What did you used to think about visible thinking routines? What do you think now?

How might you use them in your classroom to develop thinking and drive communication?

What will you do to explore them more?

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Visible Thinking Routines in the ELT Classroom | National Geographic Learning: In Focus

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Teacher Trainer Alex Warren highlights several activities to use visual thinking routines in the ELT classroom.

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from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281800116_Flipped_Learning_model_and_the_development_of_talent_at_school

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by Gabriel Lemos | from https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/

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from https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/