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What are educators saying about MiniPD coaching for continued professional learning?

"It was interesting to learn and share of so many practical strategies on feedback. I really loved the ideas as they can be implemented immediately within the class."

Get connected at minipd.com

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Next? Explore MiniPD resources to Leverage on Languages.

Language Acquisition focused:

#MiniPDchat on Twitter

Padlet Calendar for daily-actionable strategies and practical resources

Blogpost and articles from MiniPD Coaches

Free live session with experienced MiniPD Coaches in Conversation

1-1 Coaching sessions via www.MiniPD.com

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Effective Feedback

From The MiniPD Team

To what extent is the feedback we are providing effective?

"Information about the gap between actual and reference (desired) levels is considered as feedback only when it is used to alter the gap." (Sadler, 1989)

Harry Fletcher-Wood, author of Responsive Teaching (2019), says, "Feedback is only feedback if the learning gap is closed and the kids actually improve."

If we get our feedback wrong,

kids might give up

reject your feedback

choose an easier goal

choose to focus on short term term goals rather than the longer term goal of getting better.

(Dylan Wiliam, 2011)

What shifts may we want to consider to make our feedback more effective so all our students can improve?

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Harry Fletcher Wood - Responsive teaching: a fresh look at feedback - researchED Haninge 2019

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Sample of a literary analysis single-point rubric for Year 9

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Save time with Single-Point Rubrics

Aimée Skidmore, MiniPD Coach says,

Single-point rubrics are great for giving precise, actionable comments to feed learning forward. They are simple to make and can be invaluable for marking both formative and summative assessments quickly.

They can be useful because:

Some students feel overwhelmed by large, wordy mark schemes. Here they can focus on one performance level per criteria - meeting the standard!

Teachers can be flexible and precise by giving suggestions for improvement that may not be covered in pre-defined rubrics.

There is more room to give feedback on how & why a student may have exceeded standards.

Pro Tip:
Leave the scores/numbers off for formative assessments. Students will be more likely to focus on improving as they prepare for the summative assessment.

- Sign in for free to MiniPD to read more from Aimée

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PQP: Praise, Question, Polish, Action

Matt McGrady, MiniPD Coach provides,

Practical tips to consider when testing PQP in a new setting.

1. Trial a PQP with a formative work students are familiar with in the context of your unit. Try an old work sample if possible.

2. Demonstrate how to use a PQP in a group setting.

3. Nail down the type of language students should use for each part of the form - Praise should sound like, Questions should be formatted as, and Polishes are meant to…

4. Have students trial the process with their own work and that of their peers

5. Consider adding in Action or Next steps to allow students to consider the feedback they receive and how they will deal with it. Sometimes not acting on feedback is okay as long as students acknowledge it.

6. Move towards a culture that is safe, and inviting for students to share work and gain peer feedback to move forward.

7. Use PQPs as part of the formative learning process.

Read more in Matt's article here
(You will need to sign in to access the full article)

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Feedback of learning, for learning and by learning

Rini Ghosh, MiniPD Coach, says,

Feedback is one of the most crucial part of the learning. Effective learning is an outcome of a productive feedback.
It can be initiated in various ways at the stage when you have initiated learning, during the learning and at the end of the learning. Peer feedback is considered to be one of the most effective ones. As a language teacher I extensively use Managebac for all my feedbacks.

Flipgrid is an excellent tool to record feedback for individualised students and also voice notes using platforms like vocaroo.com have been found useful.

After watching the video: I have used Flipgrid to give feedback. https://flipgrid.com/2d87528a

What is most important from the perspective of a teacher is keeping a record of all the feedback that you have given to a learner so that the learning journey of the student can be well observed. Digital portfolio creating should be a part of the school culture and it should be retained and passed on to the next teacher who can view and understand the learning pattern.

Join a session with Rini Ghosh, MiniPD Coach, to learn how.

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Feedback on ATL Skills and Learner Profile Attributes

Engy Olama, MiniPD Coach, says,

Feedback should focus on academic and non-academic skills and values. When we follow a holistic approach, we need to track and reflect on how often we address ATL skills and the learner profile attributes.

Try these tips to track students’ progress on ATL skills and learner profile attributes.

1- Unpack the ATL skills and learner profile attributes with students.

2- As students reflect on the units or concepts, include ATL and LP-related prompts.

3- Create a visible continuum in the class, and students can choose the ATLs or LP attributes they wish to focus on for the day.

4- When giving feedback, refer to the ATLs or LP attributes and comment on them. (For example, John, I noticed you worked on your time-management skills in this task, you met the deadline, what strategies did you use?)

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Feedback Nightmares
From the MiniPD team

Explore where apprehension around giving and receiving feedback comes from using the National School Reform Faculty's Feedback Nightmares Activity. Uncover with your team or class a set of guidelines that suits your needs for nurturing a respectful shared approach to feedback.

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Focus on Feedback: Share a story of impact on our Twitter chat

- Share a real story of how effective feedback has impacted learning in your context this month.

@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Warm and Cool Feedback
From the MiniPD team

Provide warm feedback to communicate positive responses on a piece of work.
Starters: "I like how you...",

Provide cool feedback as a way to suggest improvements.
Starters: "I wonder if...<insert suggestion>."

*Couching suggestions within an "I wonder" statement leaves an element of choice in the hands of the recipient. Wondering sounds curious rather than judgmental.

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Curriculum Focused Feedback

Rini Ghosh, MiniPD Coach, says,

Have you ever wondered why does the feedback process differ in every subject area? Feedback on an Economics task cannot be the same for a Language Acquisition oral production.

The second language learning programme aims at acquiring a language which makes you a part of the global society. The learners across the world are assessed through reading, writing, listening and speaking. The feedback against each of the skills has to be different.

A student's ability to comprehend a text and respond to the questions might be distinct from a written production in the language produced in the context of the target language country vis a vis an oral expression and to assessments that involve response to audio tapes. The objectives of the assessments and the feedback to meet the expectations have to be defined well by the faculty to reach the objectives of the curriculum. How can we do that?

Sign up for a coaching session with Mini PD Coach - Rini Ghosh.

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Retrieval Practice

Rasha Elsayed, Mini PD Coach, says,

When it comes to learning, people are often focused on getting facts into their heads. But experts argue that people should be more focused on getting information out of their heads via brain dumps, summaries, and quizzes.

These types of active learning strategies are known as retrieval practice.

The rationale behind retrieval practice is three-fold. First, actively trying to remember something or perform some skill is a more effective way of learning than passively re-reading about it. Second, learning practice provides people with better ways of monitoring what they know. In other words, retrieval practices help engage metacognition.
​
Finally, retrieval practice keeps people-focused. The act of re-reading a textbook, for instance, often encourages mind wandering, but retrieval practice can keep individuals engaged in the task at hand.

You can find more information about retrieval practice
in this link

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Exit Traffic Lights

Aimée Skidmore, MiniPD Coach, says,

Try this easy way to check for understanding at the end of a lesson:

1. Hand out sticky notes at the beginning of class.

2. Activate metacognition by telling students they will be reflecting on their learning at the end of the lesson.

3. Towards the end of the lesson give students 5-6 minutes to write down their thoughts around ONE of the following:

Today I learned...because....

Today, I developed a question about...

Today, my learning was stopped because...

4. As students leave the classroom, tell them to stick their feedback on the correct traffic light.

5. Review the data to help adjust your lesson planning,  answer any outstanding questions, and gain insight into students' wellbeing.

In this way, teachers gain insight into and reinforce student learning, identify gaps and 'fuzzy' areas in understanding and gather valuable knowledge about feelings and obstacles to learning.

We know that students often hesitate to talk about their feelings with teachers so framing it in the context of their learning can sometimes help students to open up.

Pro Tip: Advise students not to 'name names' if a particular classmate stopped their learning, but rather leave a ____ and have them write their name on the back so you can have a private chat to better understand the issue.

- Sign in for free to MiniPD to read more from Aimée.

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Reflection on Rubrics

Engy Olama, MiniPD Coach, says,

Rubrics are powerful assessment tools when they have clear descriptors and when used intentionally. Students should understand and be able to use the rubrics for self and peer assessments. Rubrics also provide teachers with a common understanding of the assessment expectations and facilitate the feedback process.

Consider the following points when designing a rubric:

1- Focus on qualitative descriptors instead of quantitative ones.

2- Use an explicit language that describes clearly observable attributes of a product or performance.

3- Avoid using qualifiers (sometimes, always, etc.)

4- Use positive language and focus on what the student should do or show in each level.

5- Make it simple and concise.

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What is effective feedback?

Rini Ghosh, MiniPD Coach, says,

Learners need endless feedback more than they need endless teaching.

The learning journey of a student is incomplete without assessment followed by good feedback.  What is effective feedback?

a) Is it about sharing the correct responses?
b) Is it about highlighting the errors?
c) Should the feedback only come from the faculty?

Effective feedback should be goal oriented. Goals can be long term or short term.

Skill based feedback is considered to be more effective and efficient. It enables a student to reflect on what he/she/they knows and what he/she/they should know in order to achieve the target.

Guiding questions for skill based feedback:

What can the learner do?

What can’t the learner do?

How does the learner's work compare with that of others?

How can the learner do better?

Professor James Pennebaker from the University of Texas, Austin, has been researching the benefits of frequent testing and feedback. He explains that in the history of the study of learning, the role of feedback has always been central: “When people are trying to learn new skills, they must get some information that tells them whether or not they are doing the right thing. Learning in the classroom is no exception. Both the mastery of content and, more importantly, the mastery of how to think require trial-and-error learning.”

For more on feedback book a session with Mini PD Coach - Rini Ghosh.

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LIVE EVENT: WATCH THE RECORDING

FOCUSING ON FEEDBACK
MiniPD Coaches in Conversation took place on March 17th, 2022. 4:00 pm UTC.

Access the recording, and other past live events, HERE.

Alternatively, go to our blogpost on feedback and scroll down to view the live event recording.

You will discover feedback coaches to support you!

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Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Focusing on Feedback: MiniPD Coaches in Conversation. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

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This is a conversational session that will last between 45 - 60 mins to support educators in international school contexts. Spotlighted MiniPD Coaches will share concrete strategies around our theme 'Focusing on Feedback'. We will spotlight topics such as data-driven decision making, using data protocols, and using assessment data to respond to learner needs.

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Education Endowment Foundation

It will be a well spent 5 minutes reading the EEF's research findings on feedback. Here are a couple of the key findings:

1. Effective feedback tends to focus on the task, subject and self-regulation strategies: it provides specific information on how to improve.

2. Different methods of feedback delivery can be effective and feedback should not be limited exclusively to written marking. Studies of verbal feedback show slightly higher impacts overall (+7 months). Written marking may play one part of an effective feedback strategy – but it is crucial to monitor impacts on staff workload.

Read more here: EEF feedback research recommendations

The MiniPD Team

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Feedback may have a positive impact through supporting pupils to focus future learning on areas of weakness, through identifying and explaining misconceptions, through supporting them in taking greater responsibility for their own improvement or through increasing pupils' motivation to improve.

Implementing feedback successfully will require:

communicate with pupils, teachers, and parents, about practices and expectations that relate to feedback policies,

assessing pupil understanding, so that you know what needs to be improved,

consider the ​'opportunity cost' associated with different feedback practices,

ensuring that feedback can be acted upon, for example through including specific information on what a pupil has done successfully or not, assisted with an explanation as to why,

carefully considering how feedback will be received, including impacts on self-confidence and motivation,

providing opportunities for pupils to act-upon the feedback after it has been given,
evaluating how effective the feedback has been.

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Feedback is information given to the learner about the learner's performance relative to learning goals or outcomes.

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Time for a mid-month goal check-in!

Helping students' set  SMART goal instills a growth mindset.

Turn vague goals into strategic SMART goals. Focus on the learning (I can increase my reading fluency) rather than points or grades (I can get an A.)

Help students develop a plan as to the actions that they need to take to achieve the goal. (I will read one additional chapter each evening.)

Follow up with your students’ goals with weekly 'goal updates'.

Have students share their goals and progress with the class or an accountability buddy.

Celebrate successes along the way!

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One to One Conferencing

Engy Olama, MiniPD Coach, says,

Conferencing supports the students learning in different ways. They receive prompt and personalized feedback; they can make immediate corrections or ask more questions. It also allows the teacher to identify misconceptions and take action throughout the learning process instead of waiting until the end of a unit or concept. It is the best way to build rapport and provide a safe environment for students to discuss their strengths and areas of improvement.

1- Set clear routines and share with the students the conference's purpose.

2- Assign tasks for the rest of the students.

3- Use student-friendly rubrics or criteria to guide your questions.

4- Ask questions, listen to the student, then provide feedback.

5- Take notes or record the conference with the student's consent.

6- Always end the conference on a positive note.

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Consider Creating a Feedforward Policy

Stan Covington, MiniPDCoach writes,

'In my department, I have two expectations for our feedforward policy. The first expectation is that all students will have an opportunity to receive feedback on their 1st draft. The second expectation is that the student can take this feedback away for future reference, so more than a conversation or a quick check-in.

Examples of the second expectation:

The teacher provides written feedback for each student.

The teacher provides feedback to the student through Google Docs or a similar program.

The teacher provides video feedback on the assignment.

The teacher has a conversation with the student about their work. The teacher or the student records the conversation using their phone or computer."

Read more in Stan's article here
(You will need to sign in to access the full article)

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Jump back into the MiniPD Twitter slow chat

Focusing on Feedback
@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Differentiating Feedback

Soha Saad, MiniPD Coach, says,

Effective feedback answers the following …

Feed Up: Where am I going?

Feed Back: How am I going?

Feed Forward: Where to next?

Hattie and Timperley (2007) introduced different perspectives of feedback;

feed-up, a comparison between a student’s position and the targeted learning goal;

feedback, comparison between a student’s current status to their previous status providing information about their accomplishment in relation to the targeted learning goal; and

feedforward, providing information about possible adjustment of learning and teaching strategies to support a student achieving the targeted learning goal.

In addition to that, Hattie and Timperely (2007) suggested that teachers can differentiate feedback to reflect on different levels of complexity, task level, process level, self-regulation level, and self-level.

Reference:

Hattie, J., and Timperley, H. 2007. The power of feedback. Rev. Educ. Res. 77, 81–112. doi: 10.3102/003465430298487

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Feedback to Feedforward: International School Educators Closing the Loop (5 minute read)

- To what extent is the feedback you are providing effective? What can you do to make your feedback more effective so all your students can improve?

- Read the article, continue to learn with a coach 1-on-1 or in small groups, read articles, and access resources: create an account at no cost here.

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Feedback to Feedforward: International School Educators Closing the Loop - MiniPD

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To what extent is the feedback you are providing effective? What can you do to make your feedback more effective so all your students can improve?

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Feedback as a Tool to Support Student Agency

Soha Saad, MiniPD Coach.

Link: https://app.minipd.com/coaches/d2fea586-1464-4d43-bdf5-dc0677cd6def

Feedback supports student agency when it enables students to self-regulate their learning. Teachers need to gradually release the responsibility of assessment to students to help them become assessment capable; only then will students take ownership of their learning and become aware of their strengths and areas of development.

Strategies:

1. Integrate feedback regularly in your teaching.

2. Use Visible Thinking Routines regularly to encourage reflection (Give 3).

3. Use self-assessment and peer-assessment.

4. Co-construct or share learning goals and success criteria with the students.

Reference:

Hattie, J., and Timperley, H. 2007. The power of feedback. Rev. Educ. Res. 77, 81–112. doi: 10.3102/003465430298487

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Try This: Loom

Make the most of your time when giving feedback.

Yusuf Albasri, MiniPD Coach, recommends, using Loom to give student feedback on projects and final products.

Loom is a great piece of software for recording yourself and your screen whilst giving feedback. You can open a piece of students work on the screen and talk the student through the strengths and weaknesses of their work whilst pointing to sections on the screen. This can save a lot of time in annotations whilst still allowing for detailed, specific and timely feedback.

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Free screen recorder for Mac and PC | Loom

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Best free online screen recording tool with advanced video editing and video storage trusted by over 21 million people and easy sharing from Loom.com.

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CLICK HERE TO WATCH Focusing on Feedback: MiniPD Coaches in Conversation (60 mins) with Deirdre Brady, Shauna Hobbs-Beckley and Kristy Beam.

- Watch the recording, continue to learn with a coach 1-on-1 or in small groups, read articles, and access resources: create an account at no cost here.

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Hattie's Research: Revisited

Yusuf Albasri, MiniPD Coach, recommends, looking carefully at the data in a study before you believe the findings!

Unpick the research!

John Hattie has revisited his seminal 2007 meta-synthesis work "The power of feedback" with an update for 2020. This time a meta-analysis has been compiled and compared with the earlier findings. Let’s unpick the findings together.

Know your study:

A research paper involves someone building a methodology to collect data and answer a question themselves, based on the trends and findings in their own data.

A meta-analysis goes beyond critique and integration and conducts secondary statistical analyses on the outcomes of similar studies.  It is a systematic review that uses quantitative methods to synthesize and summarize the results.

A meta-synthesis “is bringing together and breaking down of findings, examining them, discovering essential features and, in some way , combining phenomena into a transformed whole”. A meta-synthesis can contain the same data within the meta-analysis that it covers. This can lead to dataset’s be counted again and again and adding to the overall weight of the result.

What is new:

The team decided to pick down the original data sources from the meta-analysis and reanalyze the data. They found that the original effect size of feedback of 0.73 was dropped to around 0.40.

Why has the value changed?

Of the original 32 studies in the original Hattie research, 7 included no numerical data and one was not about feedback at all. This left him with 24 meta-analysis containing 732 studies that he could use. 118 of these studies were duplicates leaving 614 studies to analyse. Of these, 70 studies were identified that had nothing at all to do with education, so we are down to 544 studies, of which 109 contained no numerical data leaving us with 435 unique articles. In short, the research methods were improved!

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Action Feedback to FeedForward

Fernando Ramirez, MiniPD Coach recommends,

Using platforms that give students the opportunity to engage in asynchronous dialogue with you, allowing them to produce responses when they are ready.

Platforms like Padlet or Flipgrid and eportfolios like Seesaw can be used effectively to engage in an ongoing cycle of action-feedback-feedforward and back to action.

In order to guarantee effectiveness, consider a few important points:

- When successful this can be time-consuming: put some time aside every day to make sure that your feedback is timely.

- Make sure that your feedback is reflective of students' efforts and achievements and that your feedforward offers students clear guidelines of where to go next.

- Help students understand not only WHAT they need to do next, but also HOW they will be able to succeed.

Fernando Ramirez - Link: MiniPD Coach

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Consistent assessment leads to continuous improvement

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Effective Formative Assessment Cycle

Kristy Beam, MiniPD Coach recommends,

Using an effective formative assessment cycle for continuous student improvement:

1. Collect data from a learning experience

2. Analyze the data for what students know and do not know

3. Reflect on the data to plan interventions and/or extensions/enrichments

4. Implement plan of action

5. Repeat steps 1-4

Kristy Beam - Link: https://app.minipd.com/profile

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Student Response Techniques

Antoinette Blain, MiniPD Coach recommends,

Get a class set of mini whiteboards - you can make your own by laminating a sheet of white paper.

These are super useful for mixing up whole class question and answer sessions or checks for understanding to ensure that:

everyone is participating

less confident students get the chance to share

students who prefer to respond with a drawing or text are engaged

making thinking visible

Read more here:
The use of mini whiteboards in the classrom

How can mini whiteboards support an evidence informed to teaching?

Antoinette Blain - Link: https://app.minipd.com/profile

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Join the MiniPD Twitter slow chat

Focusing on Feedback
@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Grasps and Rubrics

Fernando Ramirez, MiniPD Coach recommends,

Use GRASPS and rubrics to help students self-regulate their learning by identifying:

not only WHAT they are learning

but also

HOW to succeed

The regular use of task descriptors, rubrics and guiding questions will help students understand that specific learning tools need to be activated to complete tasks successfully.

Engaging in a reflective feedback and feedforward process will help students become self-regulated learners.

Example attached

More in this article

Fernando Ramirez - Link: MiniPD Coach

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Go to MiniPD Core Courses to find out more about the course above.

Key Words: Feedback, Questioning, Checking for Understanding, Student Response Techniques, Rubrics, Actionable, Responsive.

- Scroll along/up and down for bite-size actionable strategies focusing on feedback.

Thank you MiniPD Coaches, IB and Non-IB educators, who have co-constructed this calendar with the MiniPD Team.

Enjoy!

The MiniPD Team
www.minipd.com

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MiniPD Core Course - Better Feedbac: Effective, Sustainable Techniques