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I know that as a student myself, teacher and Professor feedback has really impacted my time in school. Receiving face to face feedback from professors has honestly been the most helpful for me, as I take notes while they share feedback. Also using the "sandwich" technique is something that I know I will most definitely use with my students: providing support and encouragement, inserting the critique/things they could work on, then wrapping it up with positive encouragement once more. I know that it helps lower defensiveness, and opens the student to hearing criticism. As a kid, I really looked up to my teachers and their criticism could "make or break me" based on how it was delivered. I think another important thing as well, is to not compare student's to each other, but to focus on where they started, and how they have grown. Because I don't want to build expectations and pressure in students that they need to be like person a or b in order to be successful or doing a good job, but rather, how much have they learned? How many mistakes have they made? Because ultimately, students should feel safe to make mistakes because that is how they grow and don't become fearful of them. If I give really harsh criticism, I might dissuade them from even trying. https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/giving-feedback-to-esl-students/

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Nobody’s Perfect: Giving Good, Clear Feedback to ESL Students

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We all make mistakes, especially when learning a language. That’s important to keep in mind when giving feedback to ESL students. Here are 6 tips to remember.

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I believe the effectiveness and utility of teacher feedback on L2 students' writing may vary depending on a few factors. For example, what is the purpose and scope of the written assignment? What goals and expectations do the students have when beginning the assignment? How many drafting phases are there? In any case, I think teacher feedback should almost always begin with praise for aspects of the student's writing that were done well; this signals to students that the teacher has given their work a charitable interpretation and can "take the edge off" of any critiques and/or corrections later in the feedback. As an L2 learner, the worst type of teacher feedback that I received was similar to type 3. outlined in TL2C p. 240:
…Instructor feedback that is illegible, cryptic (consisting of symbols, circles, single-word questions and comments, and so on), and confusing (e.g., unclear questions, suggestions
that are difficult to incorporate into a revised draft...
At best, this type of feedback may make students correct small spelling, grammatical, or editorial mistakes, but at worst it can make students uninterested in or discouraged by the assignment, the course, or even the teacher.

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Many of the issues raised in the readings resonate with me, but one that’s always been very challenging to me is how to integrate peer feedback into writing assignments, especially in an EFL (or any foreign language) context. The distribution in most classes I’ve taught were roughly as follows: 10% of students really struggling; 30% not struggling but not doing very well; 30% doing well; 20% doing very well; 10% doing extremely well. When it was time to pair up students for feedback, the 40% on the lower end were not able to give good feedback to their more advanced peers, which would become a source of frustration to the latter. In some cases, the students who had more difficulty with writing even made suggestions that would actually introduce errors to their peers’ drafts. For the students who were doing better, on the other hand, it was hard to give constructive feedback because their peers would not understand it, either because they didn’t know the metalanguage or they didn’t have a good grasp of essay structure. So, my experience has made me very suspicious of peer feedback in foreign language contexts.

As far as feedback I may use in my final project, I really like the last one that I found here: https://www.readingandwritinghaven.com/responding-to-writing-10-ways-to-give-feedback-thats-sensitive-to-students-internal-dialogue. I do believe that it's key for students to know themselves better as learners because this allows them rely on their strengths and work on their weaknesses.

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Have you ever had the experience of a student crying, arguing, or yelling after handing back a graded essay? Have you personally ever felt wronged by a teacher or college professor whose feedback on an essay left you feeling one inch tall? Responding to writing is challenging because...writing is vulnerable. People have an emotional connection to the words they put on paper. If you're wondering how to give feedback on student writing in an effective manner, this post is for you.

The way teachers provide feedback on students' writing directly impacts their internal dialogue and self-perceptions. None of us approach grading essays with the intention of making a student feel bad, but we always know when it has inadvertently happened.

The problem comes in when English teachers have 150 papers to grade at a time. It can be easy to fall into the trap of commenting quickly to get through the massive stack faster - understandable on many levels. What that means, though, is that we might not be putting the amount of thought into our feedback that we need to in terms of being sensitive to how students will perceive it.

So, what can we do? If you've landed on this post because you're wondering how to give feedback on student writing, here are ten tips that could provide some fresh insight.

1. NARROW THE FOCUS

When responding to writing, we need to think about what we really want our students to know. We can't comment on everything because students won't learn #allthethings like we hope they will. Instead, we can provide fewer comments that are meaningful suggestions worded in a way that are sensitive to students' perceptions.

For example, if a student's essay is full of spelling errors, it's not necessary to circle every word (although it may be tempting to do so). Why not just write, "Please check spelling throughout the essay" or "Please ask a parent help you spell check"? These comments are more positive and seem like less of a Sisyphean task.

2. ASK QUESTIONS INSTEAD OF MAKING STATEMENTS

Research shows that asking questions is more beneficial to learning than making statements. Questions push people to figure out answers on their own. In terms of wanting to influence students' self talk in a positive way, consider the following.

Maybe you notice a student's essay is wrought with run-ons. Would it be more beneficial to...

State: "There are run-ons in every paragraph. Proofread more carefully." OR....

Ask: "Where might you insert end marks to help the audience follow your line of thinking more easily? Please review the notes on sentence errors and then make some revisions."

3. CONFER WITH STUDENTS

It's a lot easier to word suggestions in a positive manner if you are speaking with the student. In writing, it's more difficult to infer tone, and it's easier to write something that is brash than it is to speak it. Talking with students is one way to get to know them better as writers and as people.

Students need to feel a genuine relationship with their teacher in order to really be vulnerable and accept suggestions for improvement. Plus, conferring with students means we spend less time grading a mountain of papers. During conferring, we can word suggestions kindly to build students' optimistic self-talk.

Not sure how to get organized? These writing conference forms can help.

4. USE A ONE-TO-ONE RATIO

Students will be more receptive to constructive feedback when it's balanced with praise. Point out students' strengths. Tell them what they did well. If you can't find enough strengths in their writing, it's probably a good idea just to help them develop one goal to work on for improvement. Anything else would be overwhelming...and it might make them feel incapable.

Plus, how many things can a student work on improving at the same time and truly master? A one-to-one ratio is a good goal to begin with if you're not used to balancing feedback. Begin with the positive.

5. KEEP FEEDBACK TIMELY

When talking about how to give feedback on student writing, the answer is often in the timing. It can be difficult to provide feedback quickly after students submit an essay. However, when we allow too much time to pass, the feedback is no longer relevant to students. That's a problem when we want our feedback to build confidence while also encouraging students to want to grow.

Helping students develop their writing skills requires a trusting relationship between teacher and pupil. If a student can't depend on the teacher to return an essay within a reasonable amount of time, why would they trust us when we offer suggestions for improvement? What are we really saying when we don't hand back feedback for two months after students submit an essay? What message does that convey?

6. JUST READ

The answer to the question of how to respond to student writing may be much more simple than it seems. The first time you look at a student's essay, just read it. Take time to reflect on what you read before making any comments. This strategy will help you to write only the things that matter most and reduce time nit-picking every error.

Sometimes when responding to writing, our impulse is to point out every imperfection, but that doesn't help the student or us as teachers. Just put away the pen for the first reading, and then balance positive and constructive feedback as you note the most important goals for each student.

7. ASK STUDENTS TO REFLECT

One important step in helping students improve their internal dialogue is allowing them to find their own mistakes. It's true, students won't find everything you will. But, when we provide them with a rubric we have carefully explained and referenced in advance, they should be able to pinpoint areas where they can grow.

Understanding how students view their writing will help us in two ways:

1. We will be aware of what students think their strengths and weaknesses are. In this way, if they think their ideas are excellent, we know that we need to have a conversation with them about how content can be improved rather than writing feedback in the margins and giving them an "unsatisfactory" rating for that component.

2. It prepares students to accept help. If they know their writing isn't perfect, they will be less likely to negatively internalize suggestions for improvement.

8. BE SPECIFIC

It's easy to rush through grading papers and leave vague comments like "awkward" or "confusing." Yet, those comments don't help students, and they typically are not internalized positively. A more helpful approach would be to leave kind, specific suggestions. For example, "Can you clarify this argument? I'm not sure what you mean here" or "Is the hotdog driving the car? Try rewording the sentence to clarify."

Even when we are leaving good feedback, it helps to be specific. Rather than, "good" or "love this!" try writing, "This sentence really emphasizes the importance of the research" or "This transition is so helpful for readers to follow your line of thinking."

9. CLARIFY THE AUDIENCE'S VIEW

Instead of pointing out what the writer did wrong, focus on what might confuse readers. For instance, will the audience be confused about how the hook relates to the thesis? You could ask, "What is the connection between the hook and the thesis? Can you help readers understand how they relate in the bridge?"

Another example might be if a student only cites direct quotes in the essay and does not paraphrase research. You could write, "How many of the sentences in this paragraph are in your own wording? How might you revise so that the audience will be able to hear your voice coming through?"

Focusing on what the readers need instead of what the writer did wrong is another way we can be sensitive to students' internal dialogue.

10. HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES

What we stress in our feedback shapes how students view their writing abilities. It's important that our feedback leads students to a point where they can see their own strengths and weaknesses. Pointing out patterns can be useful because students are not usually able to observe these patterns about themselves.

To illustrate, maybe a student is a talented writer, but he or she is consistently verbose. We can show students these areas for growth through our feedback.
I love how you take time to select words that are meaningful and precise. I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into writing sentences that are mature. I'm proud of you! Here is one area for growth I'd like you to consider: How can you maintain your personal style and your impressive word choice while also being more concise so that readers are can follow along easier?
Alternatively, give students your feedback, but don't attach it to a grade. Allow them to let the feedback (using the tips above) sink in and reflect on their own areas for growth according to the rubric.

Responding to writing in a way that improves students' internal dialogue and respects their readiness levels is hard. The best approach is for us to put ourselves in our students' shoes. What would we want or not want a teacher to tell us?

Still pondering how to give feedback on student writing? Lauralee from Language Arts Classroom has some ideas to share.

READ NEXT:

RELATED RESOURCE:

Make feedback as meaningful as possible by conferring with student writers. Writing conferences help us to build confidence, establish relationships, and differentiate writing goals for all students. Use these writing forms to get started!

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How to Respond to Student Writing: 10 Ways to Give Feedback that Sticks - Reading and Writing Haven

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Have you ever had the experience of a student crying, arguing, or yelling after handing back a graded essay? Have you personally ever felt wronged by a teacher or college professor whose feedback on an essay left you feeling one inch tall? Responding to writing is challenging because...writing is vulnerable.

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I found it really enlightening that more than 96% of students from the survey found their teacher's feedback to be helpful in their writing. Every comment and note for the students is carefully read and considered. I realize how important it is to have avenues of feedback throughout any project or major assignment. Throughout my project, I hope to set some milestones or smaller deadlines in order to keep students on track. Since my material is meant for higher learners, I think that specific and timely feedback is really important.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/tips-providing-students-meaningful-feedback-marianne-stenger

This article helped start off some generic tips and what kind of mindset to have when giving feedback to students.

https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/cte/teaching_resources/grading_assessment_toolbox/providing_meaningful_student_feedback/index.php

University of South Carolina offers four questions that are important to answer:
What can the student do?
What can't the student do?
How does the student's work compare with that of others?
How can the student do better?

These seem like a good start to building feedback. However, I would not concentrate on comparing students' work with each others, especially in an ESL context. With creative projects, it is not ideal to create a standard. In my project, I plan on checking in with students often, making time in class to work and converse with me and fellow students, and having times of reflection and peer review. I think the more time I give in class to work on it rather than outside of class, the more open to feedback they will be.

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I found it really interesting how the reading began with an emphasis on how written teacher feedback is the most effective form of feedback and that while there are other ways to provide feedback, they should not be used to replace written feedback. The idea of holding student-teacher conferences was mentioned, but a question I had was how to create one without making your student anxious. Having to meet with your instructor to talk about something like a paper can be really daunting and scary. Oftentimes, student motivation to get better can decrease because they already feel like they’re so far behind their other peers who don’t have to meet with the instructor. A great way to combat this is to require ALL students to meet once with the instructor throughout the writing process. This eliminates the feelings of isolation students might have because they know that everyone has to do this and it’s not just them. After having this thought, I wondered what to talk about during these conferences. The website I found provides tips on how to correct papers without going overboard. This allows the teacher to focus on the most important aspects of the student’s writing and provide corrections that are detailed and thorough enough for students to follow.
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/instructors/teaching-resources/providing-feedback-and-grades-to-second-language-students.html

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Overview

Students for whom English is not their first language (referred to as L2 students in this handout) have been a steady presence in US higher education recently. You may receive papers in which interesting ideas are deeply buried in numerous language-use errors, and you may ask yourself: How can I grade this paper? How can I best help this student with my feedback? This resource offers answers to questions like these and shares with you some effective practices for responding and grading L2 papers.

Table of Contents

* General Considerations for Working with L2 Students
* Strategies for Providing Feedback
* Strategies for Grading L2 Papers
* Further Reading
* Supplement 1: Theories on Second Language Acquisition
* Supplement 2: The Error Type Table
* Supplement 3: The Error Code List
* Supplement 4: Sample Use of the Error Code List to Respond to an L2 Paper
* Supplement 5: Sample Draft before and after Language Use Feedback

General Considerations

Before we offer any tips on working with L2 students, we would like to acknowledge the similarities between L1 and L2 students in the broad sense. For example, both groups employ a recursive process involving planning, drafting, writing, and revising when composing a paper. Both groups benefit from personalized instruction that builds on their existing literacy, cultural, and intellectual backgrounds. Neither group is likely to benefit from frontloading grammar instruction. That being said, there are a number of unique characteristics of L2 students that instructors need to be aware of in order to make their teaching equally effective for their L2 students.

The Complexity of the L2 Student Population
Various names have been used to describe this population: "Second language (L2) learners," "foreign language (FL) learners," "English language learners (ELL)," "English as a second language learners (ESL)," "bilingual students," "international students," "multilingual students," "resident ESL students," "generation 1.5 students," etc. While the selection of these terms suggests the speaker's scholarly stance or scholarly interests, the discrepancy of these terms suggest how complex and multifaceted this population can be. For example, you may think where the student learned the language is most important, and thus call someone who learned English in the US a second language learner, whereas you may call another person who learned English in their home country a foreign language learner. Or, in the US context, you may think the origin of the student is most suggestive of this population, and you will call them international students. Or, if you talk with K-12 teachers very often, you might think of these students as resident English language learners. All in all, there is not one single term that can characterize this population adequately and inclusively. The current practice is to use multiple terms concurrently. Researchers from different fields have their preferred terms, but when it comes to interdisciplinary communication, a detailed description of the target learner group will be most helpful. As this handout is primarily targeted at higher education practitioners, we only introduce these names so that our readers will know that when different names are used, they may or may not refer to the same group of students. Our focus is on the characteristics of this group. We need to know our students well; then we can provide and adjust our practices to best support them.

The Continuum Between International Students and Resident English Learners
Resident English learners is term most frequently used in the US context. They refer to students who came to the US at a young age and naturally acquired the English language. International students, on the other hand, is a term usually used to talk about students who came to the US for higher education. These students are thought to have learned the English language at school in a foreign country.

Traditionally, we have adopted a more extreme view to consider these two groups. We tend to think the first group is similar or identical to a native speaking student as they often have no accent and are quite familiar with the US culture. While for the second group, we are likely to think they speak English with a foreign accent and are not too familiar with US culture. However, the internet and global migration of people have made the distinction between these two groups less clear. There are many international schools all over the globe. Some students may have attended these schools since kindergarten. There are also a large number of native English speakers living in foreign countries and nonnative speakers frequently visiting or summer camping in English speaking countries. These, among other influences from the internet and the media, have made simulating an English speaking environment easy for many students who want to learn English in a foreign place.

One reason that students were initially distinguished as belonging to one group or the other was to determine the support necessary for their learning. For resident ESL students in the higher education context, additional support is often automatically justified as unnecessary; for international students, ESL courses are often automatically compulsory. But this way of accommodating these two groups cannot stand any more due to the decreased gap between these the groups. We thus recommend instructors not decide a student's English academic literacy based on his/her passport . Rather, we recommend that instructors examine students' proficiency on a spectrum of the following categories:

Eye learner ←→ Ear Learner
Language can be learned at school or through interaction with native speakers., If international students attend a traditional local school and have few interactions with native speakers, they will likely learn English through studying English textbooks. They are thus nicknamed "eye learners." On the other hand, if a child immigrated to an English speaking country at a young age, s/he likely learned the language first through playing with his/her native speaker peers. In this case, they are considered to have learned the language through ears, or "ear learners."

"Eye learners" are likely to read and understand texts easily, but they may not be able to comprehend ongoing conversation as easily as "ear learners." They may also be more reluctant to talk in class. Several reasons can explain this: the most direct one is the lack of practice. If a student learned the language through texts, s/he may not have enough exposure to the syllables. S/he needs to listen more and talk more. The second reason is cultural. In most Asian cultures, students are not trained to talk in class. It is not because English is a foreign language; they simply haven't spoken much in previous classes. This, again, requires practice. It may take the student some time to adjust to the more "talkative" US classrooms. Thirdly, it may be because of the student's worry to make speech errors in public. The L2 student may have been taught and reminded countless times by his/her previous English teachers that he/she has grammar or pronunciation issues. When in the US context, this self-awareness get intensified because the student thinks he/she is the only one who will make language errors. He/She is worried if his/her instructors and peers would think him/her less. It takes time for the student to walk away this feeling, and a supportive and relaxing classroom environment will accelerate this process.

If "ear learners" later had good schooling in the immigrated country, they may be quite similar to native speaking students. But if the student comes from a socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant family, s/he may have experienced some setback or discontinuity in his/her literacy development. This is when additional support is needed. Although the student may sound and appear like a native speaking student, s/he needs extra support to meet college-level English expectations, especially in academic writing.

When we use "ear learner" or "eye learner" to think of our students, we should not take an absolute stance as to assume international students are automatically "eye learners" and resident English language learners are automatically "ear learners." Yet, we can use this spectrum to gauge where our students may fall and offer appropriate strategies accordingly.

Content Knowledge in L1 ←→ Content Knowledge in L2
One important aspect that less experienced instructors tend to forget is students' prior knowledge. Here "knowledge" is used in a very loose sense. It includes students' prior intellectual levels, literacy levels, cultural knowledge, etc. If we evaluate students on these scales, resident ESL students are more likely to have higher levels of mastery of the content knowledge in English, whereas international students are more likely to have higher levels of mastery of the content knowledge in their first language. In other words, students come to our classes readily equipped with some useful knowledge. Whatever that knowledge is, their instructors are very likely to be better off if they can rightly activate and build on their students' prior knowledge.

Cummins, a bilingual researcher who created the Common Underlying Proficiency theory tells us that for those who have developed grade-level cognitive proficiency, it may take L2 students a longer time to demonstrate that proficiency in a way meaningful to their content course instructors. Their language skills, together with their knowledge of the target classroom culture need to catch up. This also explains why so many students like to write about topics related to their home country in first-year English composition classrooms---that's where these students' expertise lies at this early stage. Acknowledging and integrating students' home culture is likely to be a good practice to build on students' prior knowledge. Another aspect worthy of mentioning is the instructors' attitudes towards students' use of their mother tongue. Due to the influence of the initial research on L1 interference, some instructors tend to think students should be required to think and speak in the target language (e.g., English) only, since they came to the target culture to learn the language. However, this requirement is hard to implement and may not prove really useful either. Not all students can control what language comes to mind when they are thinking. While the more proficient students may have difficulty meeting this expectation, the less proficient students may be left feeling discouraged. Take the writing process for instance. Abundant evidence has shown that using their first language helps students generate more ideas. While we want to request students use more target language and know more of the target culture, leaving some space to students' L1 use is also conducive to their L2 development.

Conclusion
There are many other characteristics (e.g., literacy levels, oral communication skills, attitudes towards the target language and culture) that L2 students have. For more in-depth discussion of the second language acquisition process, please refer to Supplement 1: Theories on Second Language Acquisition.

Generally, we would advise instructors to adopt a continuum perspective to think of our students. We would caution against simply assigning an L2 student to the "resident" or "international" L2 category. Rather, we advise instructors to think of the student as combinations of different characteristics and to be open to the possibility that a given L2 student may resemble typical international students in some categories but appear identical to typical resident L2 students in others.

Strategies for Providing Feedback

When you provide feedback to students' written work, we would recommend you consider the following:

1. Higher Order Concerns vs. Lower Order Concerns
Focus the majority of your feedback on higher order concerns, such as organization, analysis, etc. It may occasionally be necessary to model more elegant or accurate use of language when you provide feedback on higher order concerns, but make sure that your feedback doesn't focus solely on language-use issues.

2. Use Error Code to Provide Language Error Feedback
When you do provide feedback on language-use issues, try to do so in a way that will complement the workings of the language acquisition process. Here are some steps:

Step 1: Spend ten to twenty minutes in class talking with students about what the codes mean and give them some examples of how you will use the codes. You can also solicit their feedback on the table and make revision accordingly

Step 2: Identify some syntactic or semantic errors that your students make. You can also use the categories in Supplement 2: The Error Type Table for a detailed explanation of the types of errors students make and whether correcting them would yield the expected pedagogical result.

Step 3: Read through the student paper to determine which errors are persistent error types and address them accordingly. Supplement 3: The Error Code List provides a coding scheme to mark the errors and Supplement 4: Using Error Codes to Respond to an L2 Paper provides an example of using the error code list to mark a student paper.

Step 4: Use the code consistently throughout the semester. As language learning takes time, it will be more helpful to if you can offer consistent feedback. If you decide to use the error code approach to respond to L2 language errors, it will be more beneficial to them more if you can stick to one coding scheme throughout the semester.

3. Be Selective in Providing Language Use Feedback
In general, feedback on language-use errors will complement the workings of the language acquisition process if it adheres to the following suggestions:

Don't mark every single error. Focus only on those errors that either interfere substantially with meaning and/or that the student is likely to be able to correct without your assistance. Supplement 2: The Error Type Table offers advice on determining which errors a student is likely to be able to correct without your assistance.

Allow students a chance to correct them. We recommend you mark errors in a way that not only indicates what type of error the writer committed but also allows the writer an opportunity to correct the error. L2 students don't come to the classroom with the same degree of preparation in their language as L1 students. Allowing them a chance to correct their errors can provide valuable space for real learning to happen.

Create semantic or syntactic models. When you notice students consistently using a word or sentence structure incorrectly, rather than offering a simple comment like "word use errors" or "this sentence structure is problematic," it will be more beneficial to their learning if you can offer a correct use of the word or sentence structure in a similar context.

Focus on use rather than fixed rules. There are ambiguities and inconsistencies even in native speakers' language. Rather than stipulating a rule, it may be more useful to explain why one use is more preferred in a certain context. For example, the selection of a particular tense can be quite tricky. It's hard to explain why the experienced writer's mixed use of tense makes sense yet L2 students' mixed use is confusing. In this case, simply asking students to use a recommended tense may be less effective than a more contextualized explanation of why a particular tense is preferred in the context.

Be more lenient on determiners. Errors involving the use of determiners (words such as "the," "a/an," "all," "some," "none," "my," "your," and "many") generally don't affect the writer's meaning in substantial ways. Therefore, it's not an effective use of your time to focus on these errors. If determiner errors are the only kind of error made consistently by an L2 writer, then it may, indeed, be worth the time and effort of correcting or calling attention to each error. However, it's best to focus your time and attention on other types of errors first. Once these other errors have been addressed, you can address errors in the use of determiners that affect the writer's meaning. Finally, if time permits, you can address determiner-use errors that do not substantially affect the writer's meaning.

4. Oral Feedback can be more Efficient
When you encounter a really incomprehensible paper, instead of spending hours deciphering the text and crafting feedback, it will be much more efficient to simply send the student an email, inviting him or her to discuss this paper with you in your office. Students may be surprised or uncomfortable at first, but that feeling will soon go away once they realize this is simply a more effective way for them to receive clear feedback from you. In our practice, face-to-face communication is most efficient in responding to these papers.

Strategies for Grading L2 Papers

When grading the written work of L2 students, it can be difficult to "read beyond" substantial language-use errors to focus on the quality of higher order elements, such as organization, analysis of evidence, and appropriateness of the rhetorical devices used. Moreover, language-use errors may, in some cases, affect the higher order elements of a paper in ways that are both unintended and unrecognized by the author. The following strategies may help you assign a grade that evaluates the quality of higher order elements, rather than the correctness of students' language use.

1. Explain your evaluation criteria in class. This could benefit both L1 and L2 students, but L2 students in particular need explicit discussion of the instructor's expectations. Remember, they come from a different cultural background and may have some obstacles understanding some standardized rubric language. It will be helpful if you can spend five minutes in class going over your evaluation criteria for each assignment.

2. Conduct a peer review session before assigning the final grade. Pair up all of your students or put them in small groups provide class time for the partners to talk about their ideas and to draft language that accurately expresses what they want to say. The partners can serve as a "check" for each other: if partner A's use of language interferes with Partner B's comprehension, both partners can work together to find a new way of expressing partner A's ideas. Instruct students to pay particular attention to the language used to perform the following rhetorical functions: express the thesis, transition between sections of the paper, and introduce and analyze quotations. To help with this process, you might consider strategies offered in the resource Using Peer Review to Improve Student Writing.

3. Hold conferences with students who struggle to express themselves. Talk through the ideas contained in each student's paper and help him or her devise ways of expressing those ideas more precisely.

4. Request an outline. If a student consistently struggles to express him- or herself accurately in English, require that he or she submit an outline with each major written assignment. The outline can help you see which ideas he or she wanted to express, how those ideas relate to one another, and what the overarching point of the paper is. Alternatively, you may create a form or worksheet that students must complete and submit with each major written assignment.

5. Ask for an alternative assignment. If a student consistently encounters substantial difficulties expressing him- or herself accurately in English, consider allowing him or her to submit alternate assignments that demonstrate understanding of content without relying quite so heavily on traditional written academic English forms. Such alternate assignments might include an oral presentation, graphs, tables, or drawings. You can assess such assignments both for content and for the qualities of good writing, such as clarity of argument, depth of thought, organization of ideas, meaningful use of transitions, etc.
6. Use an analytical rubric. An analytical rubric may look more complex than a holistic one, but it can offer a more straightforward view of your expectations. The advantage of an analytical rubric is it sends a relatively clear message to the students about how points will be docked. For example, you may use a grading rubric for each major written assignment with categories and "weights" like this: Focus; Structure; Analysis of Evidence (See "Analytic Rubric" in Giving Feedback on Student Writing). You can also add a language category if needed. The analytical rubric can give L2 students a clear sense how much you value their use of correct English versus how much you value their clear articulation of ideas, and how inadequate language use may affect the reader's comprehension and evaluation of the paper.

7. Allow students some time to correct their language use errors. If you must assign a grade for language-use (commonly referred to as "grammar"), or if you feel that it is a good idea to assign a "grammar" grade, consider assigning this portion of the student's grade after the final draft of the paper has been submitted and students have had a chance to correct language-use errors identified in earlier drafts. For example, in point 2, we discussed how peers can offer feedback to a student's writing. You can also ask students to grade each other's paper on "language effectiveness" or "proofreading" in the peer review session. That poor grade will remind a sloppy writer or an L2 student to spend more time on language use. But it won't hurt their final grade once they make the revision accordingly. You can update the student's language score in the final draft. Supplement 5: Sample Draft before and after Language Use Feedback shows a student paper before and after peer feedback on language use.

Further Reading

Bruce, S., & Rafoth, B. (2004). ESL Writers: A guide for writing center tutors. Plymouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.

Ferris, D. (2002). Treatment of error in second language student writing. Ann Arbor: University of MI Press.

Ferris, D. (2003). Response to student writing: Implications for second language students. Mahwah: NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ferris, D. (2009). Teaching College Writing to Diverse Student Populations. Ann Arbor: University of MI Press.

Griffin, R. (2004). The output hypothesis revisited: An examination of learner noticing and its relationship to L2 development in writing.

Tomita, Y., & Spada, N. (2013). Form-focused instruction and learner investment in L2 communication. The Modern Language Journal, 97(3), 591-610.

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Providing Feedback and Grades to Second Language Students

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Students for whom English is not their first language (referred to as L2 students in this handout) have been a steady presence in US higher education recently. You may receive papers in which interesting ideas are deeply buried in numerous language-use errors, and you may ask yourself: How can I grade this paper?

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The picture above re-emphasizes the key aspects of providing feedback. Source: The Art of Education University. 

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This chapter highlights the importance of effective feedback from the teacher, in which there are multiple methods that can be developed to give effective feedback. I agree that feedback should be given at different stages of the writing process and especially, giving feedback on a combination of language aspects and content/ideas. I also liked how the chapter suggested not only just written feedback, but different ways like audio-recorded feedback and in-person conferences. While reading, I was thinking that it would be beneficial to give students written feedback, and then discuss the feedback given in a one to one writing conference. Students can then see which type of feedback they prefer: written or audio or maybe even both since at the conference students can ask questions or share their opinion on the feedback they received.

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These two readings address the topic of teacher feedback, which is useful for me because this week I’m giving feedback to student papers for the ESL writing course. When I give feedback, I always think that I can’t give too much information about “how to revise the paper” by giving the “ideal way of writing the sentences”. I use many questions. Therefore, I felt relatable when I read about the advantages of being indirect. However, I do agree that it could be unclear. I used to think occasionally students chose to ignore my comments on purpose, but now I understand that students might be confused about the questions in my comments because they were vaguer than direct suggestions/statements. Therefore, it was helpful to read the three questions we should ask ourselves when we give feedback in question format (p. 248). For immigrant students, I think it’s important to access their needs and their competence to utilize the comments in their next drafts. Teachers shouldn’t assume they have the knowledge to understand metalanguage or indirect questions. The mechanism of giving feedback should adjust according to what the students are good at (they use “ears” more than “eyes” when processing feedback, according to Truscott, p. 149).

I sometimes receive questions such as “can you tell me how I should write the conclusion for my paper” even after I explain the structural components in a conclusion. I feel like students want me to write a sample conclusion for them. I usually ask questions such as “why do you think this topic is important” or “what would happen if this problem were solved”. I wonder what other teachers would do in this situation.

The target audience of our final project is a group of young ESL learners. Therefore, the feedback should not be too long or too complicated. Verbal feedback such as short conferences would be helpful. It is appropriate to start with the lesson objectives so the comments can stay focused on the most important aspects. I would give bullet points based on these aspects, and discuss them with students in short conferences. The language teachers use would need to be straightforward and simple. If there are questions, they should be able to elicit the right answers easily. This website gives some suggestions about how to give grammar-related feedback: https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategy-giving-corrective-feedback-ells

Since students are young and need encouragement, this sites offers encouraging language teachers can use to make the “feedback sandwich” TL2C talks about: https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-give-positive-feedback-student-writing

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The readings this time took me back to last year when I used to be a writing TA, and had to provide written (and oral) feedback to student essays. I was completely new to not just teaching writing but also teaching in general, and so wish I had taken this class/read these articles during that time because there were a lot of useful tips in here. The most important takeaway for me was not to comment on every issue in an essay. I liked the idea of reading through the whole essay once in order to identify the main problem areas, and then going back to comment on them. I knew this was a method used by some other TAs who worked with me; one of them used to talk about how he usually picks out just the three most important things to comment on. Even after hearing this, this method was difficult for me to implement because students mostly seemed to appreciate my usual method of commenting on every single thing lol (except grammar unless it was something recurring and/or stood out), but looking back I’m not sure if they were able to get as much out of the feedback as they would have if I had been more selective. Like the article suggested, asking each student whether they want more feedback or less but more focused feedback might also be something to consider.

Here's a video I found on tips to provide faster and more effective teacher feedback:

https://www.edutopia.org/video/6-teacher-approved-tips-faster-more-effective-feedback

1.     Follow the 1-in-4 rule. For any student, give specific, in-depth feedback on only one out of four assignments.

2.     Let students self-assess through reflections.

3.     Use tech tools such as digital quizzes and online documents strategically.

4.     Implement peer feedback by providing a rubric that they can use to assess each other.

5.     Ask yourself, “Is this assignment crucial for mastery?” and if not, toss it (or yeet it!! As me and some others I worked with liked to say lol)

6.     “Show me your best work.” When students complete multiple assignments, let them pick the work that best represents their learning. Grade that assignment, and mark the others only for completion.

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Teacher feedback was primarily provided to explain and justify the grade, perhaps adding some general suggestions for the student writer to consider next time. However, teachers have adopted a multiple-draft, response-and-revision approach to composition instruction” (TL2C). Giving feedback to student’s writing in an effective and constructive way is very important. As teacher, our students should look forward to our feedback. Giving feedback at every stage of writing is very important and giving feedback on varieties of issues but not all is very key. The tone of a teacher’s feedback can either have positive effect or negative effect on students. As a student who came from a background where negative feedback was the norm, as what our teachers believed then was to give negative feedback, make student afraid that they are failing and this will make them take their work seriously, but this dampened our minds as students and killed the confidence of many students in writing. Effect of feedback is not just immediate but can leave a long-lasting effect like inferiority complex and lack of confidence. So as a teacher, I will not want any of my students to go through this kind of feeling, so for my practicum, I will make sure that I double check the perceived meaning of any feedback I give to student, make sure my feedback gives students direction, help students understand how to write better and will not leave a bad taste. Feedback should contain encouragement, mild critique, and direction for students to be able to produce better content. As teachers we should also give students enough simple resources for students to read.

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Have you ever had the experience of a student crying, arguing, or yelling after handing back a graded essay? Have you personally ever felt wronged by a teacher or college professor whose feedback on an essay left you feeling one inch tall? Responding to writing is challenging because...writing is vulnerable. People have an emotional connection to the words they put on paper. If you're wondering how to give feedback on student writing in an effective manner, this post is for you.

The way teachers provide feedback on students' writing directly impacts their internal dialogue and self-perceptions. None of us approach grading essays with the intention of making a student feel bad, but we always know when it has inadvertently happened.

The problem comes in when English teachers have 150 papers to grade at a time. It can be easy to fall into the trap of commenting quickly to get through the massive stack faster - understandable on many levels. What that means, though, is that we might not be putting the amount of thought into our feedback that we need to in terms of being sensitive to how students will perceive it.

So, what can we do? If you've landed on this post because you're wondering how to give feedback on student writing, here are ten tips that could provide some fresh insight.

1. NARROW THE FOCUS

When responding to writing, we need to think about what we really want our students to know. We can't comment on everything because students won't learn #allthethings like we hope they will. Instead, we can provide fewer comments that are meaningful suggestions worded in a way that are sensitive to students' perceptions.

For example, if a student's essay is full of spelling errors, it's not necessary to circle every word (although it may be tempting to do so). Why not just write, "Please check spelling throughout the essay" or "Please ask a parent help you spell check"? These comments are more positive and seem like less of a Sisyphean task.

2. ASK QUESTIONS INSTEAD OF MAKING STATEMENTS

Research shows that asking questions is more beneficial to learning than making statements. Questions push people to figure out answers on their own. In terms of wanting to influence students' self talk in a positive way, consider the following.

Maybe you notice a student's essay is wrought with run-ons. Would it be more beneficial to...

State: "There are run-ons in every paragraph. Proofread more carefully." OR....

Ask: "Where might you insert end marks to help the audience follow your line of thinking more easily? Please review the notes on sentence errors and then make some revisions."

3. CONFER WITH STUDENTS

It's a lot easier to word suggestions in a positive manner if you are speaking with the student. In writing, it's more difficult to infer tone, and it's easier to write something that is brash than it is to speak it. Talking with students is one way to get to know them better as writers and as people.

Students need to feel a genuine relationship with their teacher in order to really be vulnerable and accept suggestions for improvement. Plus, conferring with students means we spend less time grading a mountain of papers. During conferring, we can word suggestions kindly to build students' optimistic self-talk.

Not sure how to get organized? These writing conference forms can help.

4. USE A ONE-TO-ONE RATIO

Students will be more receptive to constructive feedback when it's balanced with praise. Point out students' strengths. Tell them what they did well. If you can't find enough strengths in their writing, it's probably a good idea just to help them develop one goal to work on for improvement. Anything else would be overwhelming...and it might make them feel incapable.

Plus, how many things can a student work on improving at the same time and truly master? A one-to-one ratio is a good goal to begin with if you're not used to balancing feedback. Begin with the positive.

5. KEEP FEEDBACK TIMELY

When talking about how to give feedback on student writing, the answer is often in the timing. It can be difficult to provide feedback quickly after students submit an essay. However, when we allow too much time to pass, the feedback is no longer relevant to students. That's a problem when we want our feedback to build confidence while also encouraging students to want to grow.

Helping students develop their writing skills requires a trusting relationship between teacher and pupil. If a student can't depend on the teacher to return an essay within a reasonable amount of time, why would they trust us when we offer suggestions for improvement? What are we really saying when we don't hand back feedback for two months after students submit an essay? What message does that convey?

6. JUST READ

The answer to the question of how to respond to student writing may be much more simple than it seems. The first time you look at a student's essay, just read it. Take time to reflect on what you read before making any comments. This strategy will help you to write only the things that matter most and reduce time nit-picking every error.

Sometimes when responding to writing, our impulse is to point out every imperfection, but that doesn't help the student or us as teachers. Just put away the pen for the first reading, and then balance positive and constructive feedback as you note the most important goals for each student.

7. ASK STUDENTS TO REFLECT

One important step in helping students improve their internal dialogue is allowing them to find their own mistakes. It's true, students won't find everything you will. But, when we provide them with a rubric we have carefully explained and referenced in advance, they should be able to pinpoint areas where they can grow.

Understanding how students view their writing will help us in two ways:

1. We will be aware of what students think their strengths and weaknesses are. In this way, if they think their ideas are excellent, we know that we need to have a conversation with them about how content can be improved rather than writing feedback in the margins and giving them an "unsatisfactory" rating for that component.

2. It prepares students to accept help. If they know their writing isn't perfect, they will be less likely to negatively internalize suggestions for improvement.

8. BE SPECIFIC

It's easy to rush through grading papers and leave vague comments like "awkward" or "confusing." Yet, those comments don't help students, and they typically are not internalized positively. A more helpful approach would be to leave kind, specific suggestions. For example, "Can you clarify this argument? I'm not sure what you mean here" or "Is the hotdog driving the car? Try rewording the sentence to clarify."

Even when we are leaving good feedback, it helps to be specific. Rather than, "good" or "love this!" try writing, "This sentence really emphasizes the importance of the research" or "This transition is so helpful for readers to follow your line of thinking."

9. CLARIFY THE AUDIENCE'S VIEW

Instead of pointing out what the writer did wrong, focus on what might confuse readers. For instance, will the audience be confused about how the hook relates to the thesis? You could ask, "What is the connection between the hook and the thesis? Can you help readers understand how they relate in the bridge?"

Another example might be if a student only cites direct quotes in the essay and does not paraphrase research. You could write, "How many of the sentences in this paragraph are in your own wording? How might you revise so that the audience will be able to hear your voice coming through?"

Focusing on what the readers need instead of what the writer did wrong is another way we can be sensitive to students' internal dialogue.

10. HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES

What we stress in our feedback shapes how students view their writing abilities. It's important that our feedback leads students to a point where they can see their own strengths and weaknesses. Pointing out patterns can be useful because students are not usually able to observe these patterns about themselves.

To illustrate, maybe a student is a talented writer, but he or she is consistently verbose. We can show students these areas for growth through our feedback.
I love how you take time to select words that are meaningful and precise. I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into writing sentences that are mature. I'm proud of you! Here is one area for growth I'd like you to consider: How can you maintain your personal style and your impressive word choice while also being more concise so that readers are can follow along easier?
Alternatively, give students your feedback, but don't attach it to a grade. Allow them to let the feedback (using the tips above) sink in and reflect on their own areas for growth according to the rubric.

Responding to writing in a way that improves students' internal dialogue and respects their readiness levels is hard. The best approach is for us to put ourselves in our students' shoes. What would we want or not want a teacher to tell us?

Still pondering how to give feedback on student writing? Lauralee from Language Arts Classroom has some ideas to share.

READ NEXT:

RELATED RESOURCE:

Make feedback as meaningful as possible by conferring with student writers. Writing conferences help us to build confidence, establish relationships, and differentiate writing goals for all students. Use these writing forms to get started!

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How to Respond to Student Writing: 10 Ways to Give Feedback that Sticks - Reading and Writing Haven

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Have you ever had the experience of a student crying, arguing, or yelling after handing back a graded essay? Have you personally ever felt wronged by a teacher or college professor whose feedback on an essay left you feeling one inch tall? Responding to writing is challenging because...writing is vulnerable.

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I really liked these readings about teacher feedback. I think it was a good reminder about how we as future (and current) teachers should go about giving constructive responses to our students. I think it is important to think about the effect that teacher feedback has on motivation and understanding of topics. Not only does feedback help the students understand the topics and clear up confusion, but it also helps the instructors by letting them know where their students are at. Providing positive and useful instruction can result in a better learning environment.
I can't help but to think back on how I received teacher feedback in middle and high school. Most of it was useless because it provided no real input on where I went wrong. Even when we did multiple drafts, which is recommended when providing feedback, I felt like I had no direction and would often ignore the odd question marks and "explain more" notes on the side.
This is something I had in mind when looking at feedback examples, which can be used for this class or beyond. While the site I provided is aimed at younger learners, I feel that some of the information can be used for learners of all ages.
1. Involve peers - peer editing techniques can be useful when provided a checklist or instructions.
2. Make it actionable - instead of giving vague descriptions in your feedback, add things that can be immediately identified and changed (i.e not saying "Explain more" but maybe saying "I really like the details you gave here, but you may be missing _____. See if you can find anything in the text that supports this.") This also depends on learner level.
3. Technology - There are plenty of websites and apps today that can provide feedback for students.

One of the ways that I want to include teacher/student feedback is by having my students journal or write a short reflection on the chapters we cover, including any questions they may have. This is something my own teachers used to do. We would have notebooks given to us, and we would turn in said notebooks before class for the day. The teacher would read them that night and leave very helpful details or comments for us to read.

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Even for experienced teachers, giving effective feedback isn't always easy. It's an art that you're constantly developing.

You might be an NQT assessing Early Learning Goals in EYFS or an experienced teacher prepping for Year 6 SATs. No matter who you are or what you're doing, feedback is vital for pupil progress.

It's a tricky balance to get right. You need to push pupils further whilst still maintaining their confidence.

We've all been there: you spend precious time writing feedback in pupil's books, only to find the same problems cropping up again.

Some teachers feel that there's a knack to giving effective feedback that only comes with trial and error. This is certainly true!

Other teachers might already use lots of strategies. But there's still value in adding a bit of variety into your routine now and again.

Fancy learning a few more ideas to add to your toolkit? In this blog, you'll find 20 strategies for giving good teacher feedback, so you can mix things up and boost learner engagement.

The Importance of Feedback for Teachers

Feedback is vital if you want to accelerate pupils' progress.

Good feedback helps to locate the knowledge and skills that you can't see yet (or aren't obvious) in a child's work. Effective strategies highlight these areas for teachers and learners, which is really useful.

You can give feedback in lots of ways: a verbal comment, written response, a star on a chart. But no matter how you do it, there's a lot of power in giving specific constructive feedback.

Learners only develop by understanding what they do well and not so well. Equally, you can only identify the next steps for learning by providing regular feedback. It's a win-win!

Feedback shouldn't be something to fear. It should empower learners. In fact, feedback that recognises the strengths, skills and effort of students can boost their self-esteem.

Children might be able to recognise topics that they've already mastered. In turn, this gives them the courage to persevere and reach the next stage.

Another key benefit is that it feeds into other areas of your teaching. It helps you to create a positive and productive classroom environment.

Feedback also affects class behaviour. When your feedback motivates students, you'll find your class is on-task and engaged for longer.

When children expect positive but challenging feedback, they'll want to show you the work they're proud of. They'll look forward to opening their books and seeing your feedback.

As we all know, there's no better feeling than seeing pupils eager to come into lessons and get stuck in with their learning!

What does effective feedback look like?

Effective teacher feedback is a cycle with four steps:

1. You gauge pupils' levels through verbal questioning or assessing their work.

2. Then, you react by guiding pupils to progress and make connections from your comments.

3. Children respond to feedback.

4. How they respond informs your next steps for learning.

The tricky part of this cycle is making sure that children can practise step three.

As Brookhart suggests (2017), feedback is only useful if pupils have a chance to use it. It might sound obvious, but if they don't have the chance to revisit a piece of work, they might not learn from it. This then affects how you plan the next steps.

When children respond to feedback is also important to consider. It should happen at the point where it has the most impact on their progress.

For example, if they get feedback on some work a week after they've done it, it might not be fresh in their mind.

As teachers, we know time is tight. But taking advantage of that small window after the initial learning can yield the best results. Then, you can use this to inform the lessons that immediately follow it.

Types of Feedback for Students

So, what are the types of feedback that you can use with your class?
Written
Written feedback can take many forms. It can be as simple as a tick in the margin of a book, or as thorough as an in-depth report for each subject.

Every school has its own marking policy. This means that you might be asked to give feedback with a specific number of positive points and areas for improvement.

Also, the amount and type of marking will vary based on whether a subject is core or foundation.

Whatever your marking policy, good written feedback is likely to include a mix of shorter and longer forms of commenting.
Verbal
You'll probably give verbal feedback every time you interact with a child in a conversation. It might be a quick "Yes" or a leading question to gather more information.

Verbal feedback gives you room to rephrase and expand on tricky concepts in lessons too.

Children can also ask you questions here and there if they like.
Physical
If you want physical feedback to have a big impact, reserve it for special occasions.

You could award children with stickers on their work, or even give them a certificate!

20 Teacher Feedback Strategies to Try

As teachers, we use a mixture of these types of feedback every day. But there are lots of new techniques and tricks you can try.

Below you'll find 20 ideas for inspiration:
1. Make it immediate
Spur students on while learning is still fresh by giving feedback ASAP.

Here's a top tip: carrying a pen in your pocket as you go around the classroom is an easy way to mark on the go.

If you have a TA or a confident pupil, put them in an area where they can engage with other groups and offer encouraging words.
2. Involve other pupils
Letting children see others' work is always a great learning opportunity.

You can use our Peer Editing Checklist to guide your class as they spot features in their friends' work.

Showing model examples and work that's been edited and improved helps children to get into a growth mindset.

Even better, it helps children to feel brave enough to have a go - even when something is difficult.
3. Make it positive
Our top piece of advice? Make a sandwich... Well, not literally, but you could sandwich each point for improvement between at least two positive comments.

The 'two stars and a wish approach' can help with this.

There are also some set phrases you can use. For example, say 'Even better if...' to frame feedback in a positive way. This is really important for children who lack confidence.
4. Make it actionable
Your feedback should help children to revisit their learning and take action.

Rather than referring to a vague time in the future, help pupils to think about what actions they can take now.

For example, you could swap 'Can you add adjectives to your sentences next time?' for, 'Can you go back and add three adjectives into your sentences?' This immediately makes the feedback more actionable.
5. Make it goal-oriented
Try and relate feedback to a lesson objective or personal learning goal. If children have a goal, they also have a motivator.

Referring back to this aim throughout a lesson helps you to join up the dots.
6. Make it shareable
Celebrate children's success with the school community by providing shareable feedback. This could be a certificate to showcase in assembly or sending a postcard home to parents and carers.
7. Make it specific
Avoid feedback phrases like 'Good work' or 'Good try'. Instead, tell students exactly what part of their learning is good.

A good example is: 'You can label a diagram and explain your hypothesis.'

Equally, let them know what they need to do to improve in specific detail. For example, 'You now need to present the results of your experiment in a table so that these are clear for the reader to interpret.'

Tailored feedback helps pupils to feel recognised as individuals and clear about their personal learning goals.
8. Give pupils ownership
Giving children options for what they can do when they're stuck helps them to become more independent.

Here are a few ideas: you could have a dictionary to hand for writing tasks, or get them to ask a friend before a teacher.
9. Make it trackable
You can track it by using methods like formal assessment data or a simple reward chart.

Why track feedback? It means you can spot patterns in progress and use this to inform your teaching.

It also allows pupils to refer back to positive feedback, which builds their confidence.
10. Involve parents
Sharing feedback with parents is beneficial, as it allows children to access learning outside of the classroom.

You could use a learning journal, which has space for parents to record progress too.
11. Make it tangible
When used sparingly, tangible feedback such as a 'Well done' sticker can boost children's self-esteem.

If you're teaching older children, you can match rewards with their interests. Why not try a sticker reward bookmark?

It's something you can transfer to being a whole-class reward too. You could have a school teddy in your classroom for a week as a reward for positive learning attitudes.
12. Make it ambitious
Teacher feedback can be realistic without compromising on ambition.

Students can achieve ambitious targets through scaffolded feedback, which involves clues to help children reach the next step.

There's a few ways to do this. You could do this via verbal feedback when pupils answer questions. For example, 'You've shown good thinking there but the word I'm looking for begins with 'n'...'. Or, use written feedback that gives examples of how to make improvements.
13. Use technology
Apps and games can give interactive and speedy feedback for children. Even better, this can be on an individual or whole-class basis.

If you want to learn how to do this, explore Twinkl Go! resources.
14. Make it visible
Make feedback visible during and after learning. Rather than whisking away written feedback after students have read it, make it easily accessible.
15. Make it honest
No child wants to fear making mistakes. So, create an open and honest atmosphere where pupils know that it's okay to make mistakes sometimes.

As a teacher, model self-assessment and share with your class when you find something tricky. Let pupils know that you'll be honest and want to help them get better at their learning.
16. Make it one-to-one
Students value having teacher attention. One-to-one conferences also help you to expand on any previous comments.
17. Involve other adults
Ask other teachers, TAs or SLT to provide feedback on student work. This way, you'll be able to spot new strategies that you can magpie (plus students will be eager to impress).
18. Make it fun
Make sharing feedback fun! Maybe Terence the Teddy Bear is going to help the teacher look for good learning skills? Or, ask children to use handy self-assessment fans to make evaluating learning easy.
19. Make it regular
Avoid leaving long gaps between providing feedback for pupils. Consistent and regular feedback helps pupils maintain momentum in their learning.
20. Make it unique
All learners are different. Discover what motivates and works best for everyone and use this knowledge to your advantage.

There are almost endless possibilities when it comes to choosing feedback techniques. Plus, experimenting with what works for you and your pupils is part of the fun.

Teacher feedback tips all have one thing in common though: to help you to help children to progress.
Explore Resources to Help You Give Great Feedback Here
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Teacher Feedback: 20 Strategies to Motivate Learners

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Even for experienced teachers, giving effective feedback isn't always easy. It's an art that you're constantly developing. You might be an NQT assessing Early Learning Goals in EYFS or an experienced teacher prepping for Year 6 SATs. No matter who you are or what you're doing, feedback is vital for pupil progress.

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This reading shed light on how important feedback is for students and how it can affect the student's motivation as well as work ethic. There are many occasions where teacher feedback can make or break a student’s experience in a class and affect their L2 acquisition. When teachers provide vague feedback it’s extremely difficult for the students to improve because they understand that the teacher has a negative portrayal of their work. When teachers simply put question marks on papers, cross things out, and just write down phrases such as ‘what’ or ‘makes no sense’ it gets extremely demeaning after all the hard work put into the assignment. Having your assignments marked up with empty statements about how your writing is bad isn’t productive since it doesn’t help the student improve their writing. In order the avoid this I think it’s important for teachers to understand that students are also human beings and they deserve the same respect you do at the end of the day. Taking time to review the work students have produced and understand that they have also put a lot of effort into the assignment is important because if you truly want the student to improve you need to help them grow along the way.

https://www.teachhub.com/professional-development/2020/09/how-to-provide-effective-feedback-to-students/

This website highlights key aspects that will hopefully help teachers provide meaningful feedback to students. Different students may require different methods of feedback but at the end of the day, the most important aspect is to cater the feedback directly to the student's strengths and weaknesses. Providing feedback in a way that doesn’t discourage students from writing is important because they might become nervous and self-conscious according to the website. I thought it was interesting when the website highlighted how learners may interpret feedback as an attempt to control them because it does seem like you are being told how to write if you are given feedback in an incorrect way. Ensuring that the learner understands that feedback is to help them grow as writers rather than control them. Involving learners in the feedback process allows them to feel as if they have that control over their learning and may actually feel as if they're improving from their own hard work.

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I think teacher feedback is very important because it influences student emotions. Feedback may not always be effective for many reasons. One reason is because the feedback may be too strict and restrictive. It limits the amount of creativity. Especially with reading and writing. It is very subjective and open to creativity. If you limit this learners may feel like they are boxed in.
I remember when I was growing up we would have creative writing time. I would always get bad grades because they weren't what my teacher was looking for. The feedback was limiting in what she was expecting but also nonspecific. I wasn't sure what my end goal was, so I felt very disappointed in my work. This creates frustration and dislike of the subject. I think that's why constructive teacher feedback is important.
The image I found gives a good flow chart of useful tips for teacher feedback. One thing that I really like from this is the examples they give and how they break down each tip. I think this helps better understand the goal and effect of each of these strategies.

https://tnecampus.helpspot.com/faculty/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=209

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https://www.itlal.org/teaching-learning/teaching-atoz/how-can-i-give-students-useful-feedback-on-their-writing-without-spending-all-my-time-grading/

I´ve linked you to this source you can find some useful writing tips that I also follow in my ESL 112 class, which is a academic writing class.

I strongly believe teachers should always underline that feedback is more valuable than grades to learn effectively in their classes. Especially, in writing & speaking focused language classes, feedbacks might mean everything to students.

I also noticed that we, as teachers, might misunderstand feedback term that we tend to take it as a negative criticism. Feedback can be positive as well, and it does not have to be negative at all. It has to be useful though. For instance, in a writing classes, giving a feedback like "you did not follow the PIE-C structure." would be useless, like literally useless. How did not they follow the structure? What´s missing? how can they make it better? is there something they should review from previous classes? how can they find those class materials? These and similar follow-up questions should be answered while giving feedbacks. Otherwise, we will receive annoying emails, or they will submit their next draft without benefiting from our feedbacks.

As stated before, every nicely done thing in the production should be appreciated/praised and underlined by giving positive feedbacks. It is so hard to get high-achievers back once you lose them; HARDER THAN TO GET LOW-ACHIEVERS.

I also think when and how much feedback should be given is important. To illustrate this with an example, in ESL, we usually have students submit 3 drafts for major assignments. It would be non-sense to give more feedback for the final draft as they are done with the assignment, so we cannot make sure that they will make use of those feedbacks. Instead, more focus should be on very first drafts to have a great final draft. Thus, we might be able to see if they can follow instructions and make their production better.

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The readings were quite insightful and gave a general overview of Teacher Feedback. However, I think the author of TL2C might need to make some revisions based on the progression of technology. Teachers have the option of giving digital feedback which they can utilize to their advantage. Having a bank of feedback can also include providing links to material or outside sources for students to be able to quickly refer to can also help students to find more resources if they do not understand the feedback. It can also help students to learn to utilize outside resources and not only rely on the teacher as the main source of information for feedback.
For Ferris, he mentioned that it is difficult to get students to address questions which require higher order skills based on Blooms taxonomy. However, when approaching feedback a good way to think about it is like any other skill that students need to acquire. Throughout the semester or school year, as students become more accustomed to the writing process, teachers can gradually change the progression of their feedback from specific to more broad (and possibly provide links to more information as mentioned earlier).

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/amin-neghavati/digital-tools-giving-feedback
This site gives some ideas of webtools teachers can use to give oral feedback to student writing in addition to written feedback.

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Apparently, the term originates in biology when a response comes back to an organism (Rinvalucri, 1994) but coming from an engineering background, I had my own idea of the word 'feedback' when I first started to teach.

Having now taught English for more than 15 years, it has a different meaning to me. People study English to get feedback on their language skills, their progress and the tasks they complete. It is hard to find someone who doesn't like or want to be corrected. After all, speaking correctly and properly is one of the reasons people attend language/skills courses.

The only problem is that most students want their teacher to correct them while teachers often have the aim of helping students to learn from their peers and be independent. Feedback is given to students at different stages of a lesson for different purposes.

speaks about the following six methods you can use for oral feedback and correction in her book, 'A Course in Language Teaching (Ur, 2012)' :

recast, elicitation, clarification request, metalinguistic feedback, explicit correction

Can you think of an example for each? If you are now thinking about focusing on 'form' in giving feedback and correcting students, read Scott Thornbury's post here:
https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/tag/correction/
It is crucial for a teacher to know when to focus on content and when on language. Watch to see what can happen if you focus on the wrong thing.

We should keep in mind that feedback on 'content' is as important as feedback on 'language'. It shows the teacher is interested in the conversation and is 'actively' listening. It actually makes the student more enthusiastic to communicate with the teacher rather than just focusing on making some grammatically correct sentences.

There are different reasons why we teach writing and there should be different methods how we mark them to address those different reasons; but in the general sense of dealing with writing tasks in and outside the classroom, there is a lot of controversy regarding our attitude towards feedback and correction. Let's start by having a quick look at what normally happens in a writing session.

This is what usually happens:

1. The teacher selects the topic and gives it to the learners.

2. The learners spend some time either in the classroom or at home to write about the topic.

3. The learners give their 'final product' to the teacher for 'final marking'.

But this doesn't look right, does it? The main purpose of teaching is to facilitate learning but I don't see any 'learning to write' points, as mentions in his writing book. gives the following stages to make the writing process more productive:

1. Teacher or students select the topic.

2. Pre-writing activities e.g. note taking, brainstorming, creating spider-grams, etc.

3. Teacher comments on the notes and makes suggestions.

4. Student writes draft 1.

5. Teacher and students read drafts and comment on the content.

6. Student writes draft 2.

7. Student reads draft 2 with guidelines and makes changes.

8. Teacher reads draft 2 and indicates good points and areas for improvement.

9. Student writes draft 3.

10. Student edits and proofreads.

11. Teacher evaluates progress.

12. Teacher assigns follow-up tasks to help in weak areas.

In what usually happens in the classroom, the focus is more on the end product, so the learners focus on creating something and giving it to the teacher and the moment they hand their end product in, they feel they have no responsibility towards their writing any longer and it's the teacher's job now to work on it.

On the contrary, the second 12-step process focuses on the 'path' rather than the 'destination' and the students will learn during the writing process.

There are different ways to edit, comment and provide feedback and just like any other form of correction, these can be done in forms of 'self-', 'peer-' or 'teacher-' correction and editing codes can be taught at the beginning of the course to create ground rules to stick to till the end. , in her book '' (Hedge, 2005: 140) mentions the following most common codes language teachers can use to mark writing tasks.

Web Tools

Much has been said about editing codes and the way we can teach them in writing lessons so I am going to write about some novel methods to help you wiht editing stages in writing lessons.

The following platforms are the ones I have been using for some time. They make editing and commenting easy, fun, tech-based, green and more productive:

Audio feedback can actually help learners improve their listening skills as well and a lot of research has been conducted to prove their higher rate of productivity in comparison with ordinary written feedback. Audacity is a free open-source programme which gives you the ability to create audio files and edit them easily. There is a straightforward tutorial on how to create audio podcasts using Audacity . Teachers can ask their learners to send their first and second drafts to them to receive quick audio feedback before they start writing the final version. While audio feedback can be a productive way to help our learners, there are a couple of tips we should keep in mind:

Remain positive and keep a motivating tone.

Sequence your feedback and signpost the feedback stages.

Be clear and speak with a clear voice.

Limit your comments and prioritise errors (just as you would do in written feedback).

Begin with positive feedback, be specific and descriptive while giving constructive (negative) feedback and end with positive overall feedback. (sandwich the negative points).

Audio feedback can be given in many different ways. You can even record your voice with Windows voice recorder and send it to your students, too.

If you really hate all these applications and want something hassle-free and entirely web-based, then try Online Voice Recorder or .

Jing is a free TechSmith product which can help you create screencasts and share them easily on the internet. Your casts will also be available on your profile. TechSmith gives you 2GB free storage on Screencast and you can go Pro if this is not enough for your purposes. After you install Jing, the software's toolbar appears on top of your desktop and can be accessed right from there while you are doing anything in any other programmes. So you can open a word document, start editing it and video the whole process for the learner to watch at a later time.

QuickTime Player - the video feedback platform

Apple's QuickTime Player which is also available for PC users has some new and unique features which have made life easy for Mac users. Just launch QuickTime, double-finger tap the icon in the dock and click on 'new screen recording' (you can also create ordinary voice or video recordings using your Mac camera.) and the application starts recording your screen. You can also talk on the recording at the same time to create a high-resolution video feedback. When you are done, click on 'stop screen recording' and choose the quality you need and the file is ready!

If you have some time and want to create something really impressive, this is where you should look for it. Create a presentation of the feedback, play the presentation and use a camera to add your own video to the feedback. So your learners have the chance to see the online edition of their work being corrected while they can watch their teacher talking about it at the same time. Knovio has an which gives you the same functions there as well. It is primarily an application to help you add your video to your presentations which is a very useful tool for flipped classes but can also be used to provide extraordinary feedback video files!

Kaizen means 'good change' in Japanese and is some sort of philosophy towards continuous improvement. This innovative online tool works seamlessly with Google Drive and Google Docs. If your learners send you first drafts through Google Drive, then this is the tool you shouldn't miss. You can work on the documents on their website or you can add their add-on to your Google Drive and work on documents right within Google Docs. In Kaizena you can highlight parts of the document and record your voice in small segments. Kaizena has even taken a step forward and creates unique teacher URLs and this means the learners can request feedback on a specific part of their document and an e-mail is sent to the teacher to come back to the file and give the feedback the student needs. This is a two-way platform which means the students can listen to the audio feedback and record their own voice and reply to the teacher's comment.
Gmail
Google Drive has already given us a lot of features to help with teacher's feedback. You can now edit Word documents directly from your mailbox without having to convert anything.
Microsoft Office
The Word's 'track changes' and 'compare documents' features are fantastic tools for language teachers when it comes to error correction and feedback. 'Track changes' has several customisable features including colour-coding. Click on the 'review' tab in a Word document and you will see this in the middle. 'Compare documents' gives the learners the opportunity to compare the text they have written with a model text in a writing lesson or to compare their answers to an activity with the answer key. This feature can also be found in the 'review' tab in a Word document. The usual 'comment' feature can also help add notes to the text just like what we do on a piece of paper. Don't forget that the whole process in a Word document can be recorded using any of the methods we have talked about here.

All teachers agree that effective feedback is time-consuming but no one can deny their value to our learners. We are very lucky to have all these 'tech' tools which make effective feedback easier than it used to be in the past (but most probably still more difficult than in the future!). So why not take the risk and leave our comfort paper zone and help save the planet while improving our feedback effectiveness in our writing lessons?
Bibliography:

Hedge, T. (2005) 'Writing' Second Edition, Oxford University Press

Rinvolucri, M. (1994). ' Key Concepts in ELT ' ELT Journal Volume 48/3 July 1994, Oxford University Press

Raimes, A. (1983) 'Techniques in Teaching Writing', Oxford University Press

Thaine, C. (2010) 'Teacher Training Essentials- Cambridge Copy Collections', Cambridge University Press

Thornbury, S. (2006) 'An A-Z of ELT', Macmillan Books for Teachers, Macmillan

Ur, P. (2012) 'A Course in English Language Teaching', Cambridge University Press

Tribble, C. (1997) 'Writing', Oxford University Press

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/conducting-feedback-exercises-tasks

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Apparently, the term originates in biology when a response comes back to an organism (Rinvalucri, 1994) but coming from an engineering background, I had my own idea of the word 'feedback' when I first started to teach. Having now taught English for more than 15 years, it has a different meaning to me.

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While I was reading about teacher feedback, I was reminded of the numerous times my English teachers left question marks, the word "NO" and circles on my essays without providing any type of constructive criticism. As future teachers, it is important to be able to give commentary and I found these resources:
https://www.weareteachers.com/9-ways-to-give-more-effective-writing-feedback/
and
https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/assessing-student-work/grading-and-feedback/receiving-and-giving-effective-feedback
One of the most important ways of giving feedback is not to diminish the student; nobody wants to receive a paper full of red ink. Because of that, I believe it is important to work on the things a student CAN actually fix in time (there is no point telling them their assignment is horrible and to start from the beginning). I also thought it was a great idea to use two different pen colors (one for writing positive/encouraging comments vs one for writing the ideas that still need improvement).

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Grading essays is a tricky business. Commenting on every problem leads to a sea of ink that can overwhelm students. Vague remarks like "needs more here" leave students scratching their heads. Here are nine suggestions from experienced teachers on how to make grading papers faster, easier and more effective:

1. Workshop It
I do a workshop with my middle schoolers in which they share their work with the group and everyone offers "things that can be better." We do a lot of preparation so that everyone understands we aren't being mean, but rather trying to help make each essay stronger.- Lyn Huston

2. Talk It Through
Have your students email their paper to you. You can use a microphone and talk through the corrections as you video and use the highlighter or drawing tools to point out what you are referring to. It's really easy once you get used to it. It saves a lot of time and it's great documentation to refer back to. Once you are finished, save it and send it to your student. The process becomes a writing conference.- Penny Larson

I like to focus on only a few areas of improvement at a time. I don't tell them everything that could be improved in their writing. It can be overwhelming and even shut them down as new writers.- Annie Kabb

4. Practice Critiquing Together
I save copies of essays from previous years that have specific problems I want to illustrate. I share them, without names of course, and we consider as a group what the essay needs in order to improve the clarity, organization, or needed detail.- Penny Larson
5. Do Three Stars and a Wish
Here's a technique that always works. For each essay, you write three positive things that you see in their writing. Those are the "three stars." Then you give them one wish, one area in which you'd like to see them improve. The most important thing is to give them the positive feedback first and make it specific (clear thesis statement) not general (nice work).- Hanan Ezzeldin

6. Use a Specific Rubric
I always use a specific rubric so students are clear on expectations and can check off the important components before turning their writing in. For each item on the rubric, I assign a check, a minus or a plus along with a brief comment. I also allow students to turn in a writing assignment early for ungraded feedback. This encourages timely completion and a chance to improve.- Susan Werb
7. Do Peer Review First
Have each student trade papers with a peer before it comes to you. Commenters write three specific positive comments and sign their name. This gives students a chance to see what others are writing and thinking. It also may be that students provide higher quality work when there is the possibility of someone other than the teacher reading their work.- Sharon McKinney

8. Use Two Pens
Try using two different colored pens such as green and blue. Write all your positive comments in one color, suggestions for improvement in the other. You'll be able to see at a glance if you are striking a good balance.-Kelsie Smith
9. Identify Mini Lessons
If students are still in the draft phase, provide a whole-class mini lesson on a specific writing problem you are seeing often. Then have the students go through their own essays and find those mistakes. Meet with individual students that continue to have these issues in their writing. Next time, you do another mini-lesson. Pick and choose what you want to focus on grading. - Matt Epp

If you liked this article, you may also want to check out Writing Across the Content Areas and Teaching Fact vs. Opinion at Every Grade Level.

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9 Ways to Give (More Effective) Writing Feedback - WeAreTeachers

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Grading essays is a tricky business. Commenting on every problem leads to a sea of ink that can overwhelm students. Vague remarks like "needs more here" leave students scratching their heads. Here are nine suggestions from experienced teachers on how ...

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The readings were straightforward and good reminders regarding teacher feedback. I especially appreciated the need for feedback throughout the writing process, the information on how written feedback is not the only option, and how responding to feedback effectively should be taught in classrooms. It was also interesting to read about differences in writer groups (immigrant vs. ESL) and recalled some of my similar experiences when teaching Intro to Academic Writing as I read the Ferris article.
A question that I had and personally struggled with was feeling like providing feedback requires a lot of time and brain power (especially for essays). I often found myself fatigued after providing feedback. I also felt like the quality and consistency of my feedback waned. How can feedback be less time intensive when it feels like there are many things to think about? The book suggested many ideas (such as using a rubric, prioritizing, etc.) so I see how there are practical ways to avoid the amount of time spent on feedback, but it would be great to hear from others on how they save time, yet provide effective and consistent feedback.
I also enjoyed the idea of having students write about how they incorporated feedback into their writing. This can show their understanding of the feedback and the changes they made in response.

Sample of ways to give teacher feedback: https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/20-ways-to-provide-effective-feedback-for-learning/
Some of these simple strategies are some that will be integrated into our final project:
- For our final project, we are using a homework journal to keep track of student progress. This can help to provide progressive check-ins to make sure that students are following along with the story. The teacher can provide ongoing feedback and can ask higher order critical thinking questions in student journals, even for students to begin thinking about.
- We are also incorporating peer feedback for the final project as well as check-ins for students to meet with the teacher before beginning their final project.
Some of these simple strategies that are not in our final project, but may be added:
- Providing a model or example: It may be a good idea to read and examine a post-ending story already written (for The Little Prince or another story the class is familiar with) with all the elements of a story we are looking for. At the same time, we may also provide an example of what we are not looking for.
- Concentrate on one ability or skill - We could look for students' comprehension on the elements of a story and see if that is understood and reflected in their final project story.
- Compliment and correct students throughout the unit so that students are comfortable and familiar with receiving constructive feedback (and praise) as a normal thing in the classroom.

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contributed by Laura Reynolds

While assessment gets all the press, we often misunderstand effective feedback for learning.

When feedback is predominately negative, studies have shown that it can discourage student effort and achievement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, Dinham). In my experience, the only thing I knew is that I hated public speaking and I would do anything possible to get out of it. As a teacher, most of the time it is easy to give encouraging, positive feedback.

However, it is in the other times that we have to dig deep to find an appropriate feedback response that will not discourage a student's learning. This is where the good teachers, the ones students remember forever in a positive light, separate themselves from the others.

A teacher has the distinct responsibility to nurture a student's learning and to provide feedback in such a manner that the student does not leave the classroom feeling defeated. Here you will find 20 ideas and techniques on how to give effective learning feedback that will leave your students with the feeling they can conquer the world.

20 Ways to Provide Effective Feedback

1. Feedback should be educative in nature.

Providing feedback means giving students an explanation of what they are doing correctly and incorrectly. However, the focus of the feedback should be based essentially on what the students is doing right. It is most productive to a student's learning when they are provided with an explanation and example as to what is accurate and inaccurate about their work.

Consider using the concept of a 'feedback sandwich' to guide your feedback: Compliment, Correct, Compliment.

2. Feedback should be given in a timely manner.

When feedback is given immediately after showing proof of learning, the student responds positively and remembers the experience about what is being learned in a confident manner. If we wait too long to give feedback, the moment is lost and the student might not connect the feedback with the action.

3. Be sensitive to the individual needs of the student.

It is vital that we take into consideration each student individually when giving feedback. Our classrooms are full of diverse learners. Some students need to be nudged to achieve at a higher level and others need to be handled very gently so as not to discourage learning and damage self-esteem. A balance between not wanting to hurt a student's feelings and providing proper encouragement is essential.

4. Ask the 4 questions.

Studies of effective teaching and learning (Dinham, 2002, 2007a; 2007b) have shown that learners want to know where they stand in regards to their work. Providing answers to the following four questions on a regular basis will help provide quality feedback. These four questions are also helpful when providing feedback to parents:

What can the student do?

What can't the student do?

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

How can the student do better?

5. Feedback should reference a skill or specific knowledge.

This is when rubrics become a useful tool (single-point rubrics, for example). A rubric is an instrument to communicate expectations for an assignment and a useful way to provide effective feedback for learning. Effective rubrics provide students with very specific information about their performance, compared to an established range of standards. For younger students, try highlighting rubric items that the student is meeting or try using a sticker chart.

6. Give feedback to keep students 'on target' for achievement.

Regular 'check-ins' with students let them know where they stand in the classroom and with you. Utilize the '4 questions' to guide your feedback.

7. Host a one-on-one conference.

Providing a one-on-one meeting with a student is one of the most effective means of providing feedback. The student will look forward to having the attention and allows the opportunity to ask necessary questions. A one-on-one conference should be generally optimistic, as this will encourage the student to look forward to the next meeting.

As with all aspects of teaching, this strategy requires good time management. Try meeting with a student while the other students are working independently. Time the meetings so that they last no longer than 10 minutes.

8. Feedback can be given verbally, non-verbally, or in written form.

Be sure to keep your frowns in check. It is imperative that we examine our non-verbal cues. Facial expressions and gestures are also means of delivering feedback. This means that when you hand back that English paper, it is best not to scowl.

9. Concentrate on one ability or skill.

It makes a far greater impact on the student when only one skill is critiqued versus the entire paper being the focus of everything that is wrong.

For example, when I taught Writer's Workshop at the elementary level, I would let students know that for that day I was going to be checking on the indentation of paragraphs within their writing. When I conferenced with a student, that was my focus instead of all the other aspects of their writing. The next day would feature a new focus.

Utilize this strategy when grading papers or tests to provide effective feedback for learning. This strategy allows you the necessary time to provide quality, written feedback. This can also include using a rotation chart for students to conference with at a deeper more meaningful level. Students will also know when it is their turn to meet with you and are more likely to bring questions of their own to the conference.

11. Educate students on how to give feedback to each other.

Model for students what appropriate feedback looks like and sounds like. As an elementary teacher, we call this 'peer conferencing.' Train students to give each other constructive feedback in a way that is positive and helpful. Encourage students to use post-it notes to record the given feedback.

12. Ask another adult to give feedback.

The principal at the school I taught at would often volunteer to grade history tests or read student's writing pieces. You can imagine how the student's quality of work increased tenfold! If the principal is too busy (and most are), invite a 'guest' teacher or student teacher to critique work.

13. Have the student take notes.

During a conference over a test, paper, or a general 'check-in,' have the student do the writing while you do the talking. The student can use a notebook to jot down notes as you provide verbal feedback.

14. Use a notebook to keep track of student progress.

Keep a section of a notebook for each student. Write daily or weekly, dated comments about each student as necessary. Keep track of good questions the student asks, behavior issues, areas for improvement, test scores, etc. Of course, this requires a lot of essential time management but when it is time to conference with a student or parent, you are ready to go.

Returning papers and tests at the beginning of class, rather than at the end, allows students to ask necessary questions and to hold a relevant discussion.

16. Use Post-It notes.

Sometimes seeing a comment written out is more effective than just hearing it aloud. During independent work time, try writing feedback comments on a post-it note. Place the note on the student's desk the feedback is meant for. One of my former students had a difficult time staying on task but he would get frustrated and embarrassed when I called him out on his inattentive behaviors in front of the class.

He would then shut down and refused to do any work because he was mad that I humiliated him. I resorted to using post-it notes to point out when he was on task or not. Although it was not the most effective use of my time, it really worked for him as a way to provide effective feedback for learning.

17. Give genuine praise.

Students are quick to figure out which teachers use meaningless praise to win approval. If you are constantly telling your students 'Good Job' or 'Nice Work' then, over time, these words become meaningless. Make a big deal out of a student's A+ on that vocabulary test. If you are thrilled with a student's recent on-task behaviors, go above and beyond with the encouragement and praise.

Make a phone call home to let mom or dad know how thrilled you are with the student's behavior. Comments and suggestions within genuine feedback should also be 'focused, practical, and based on an assessment of what the student can do and is capable of achieving' (Dinham).

18. "I noticed...."

Make an effort to notice a student's behavior or effort at a task. For example; "I noticed when you regrouped correctly in the hundreds column, you got the problem right." "I noticed you arrived on time to class this entire week." Acknowledging a student and the efforts they are making goes a long way to positively influence academic performance.

19. Provide a model or example.

Communicate with your students the purpose of an assessment and/or feedback. Demonstrate to students what you are looking for by giving them an example of what an A+ paper looks like. Provide a contrast of what a C- paper looks like. This is especially important at the upper learning levels.

20. Invite students to give you feedback.

Remember when you finished a class in college and you were given the chance to 'grade' the professor? How nice was it to finally tell the professor that the reading material was so incredibly boring without worrying about it affecting your grade? Why not let students give you feedback on how you are doing as a teacher?

Make it so that they can do it anonymously. What did they like about your class? What didn't they like? If they were teaching the class, what would they do differently? What did they learn the most from you as a teacher? If we are open to it, we will quickly learn a few things about ourselves as educators.

Remember that feedback goes both ways and as teachers, it is wise to never stop improving and honing our skills as teachers.
20 Ways To Provide Effective Feedback For Learning; A version of this post first appeared on opencolleges.edu.au;

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20 Ways To Provide Effective Feedback For Learning

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One way to provide effective feedback for learning is a 'feedback sandwich' to structure your feedback: Compliment, Correct, Compliment.

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Based on the readings, it would seem that providing feedback in a composition class (and likely all others) is essential to supporting student groups, as well as individual students through the process. From what I also learned in another course on curriculum development, I can see how feedback and assessment are linked in attending to student needs. Thus, I think it’s important to remember that providing feedback is a circular endeavor, one of which the students want and need as much as the instructor. These strategies can come in a number of forms, and there are many out there to pick from. For my unit project we are using exit slips, peer review, workshop days, and reflective journals as a way to assess learning as well as provide opportunity for feedback. This way, we can get a group picture as well as an individual one in a way that does not feel stressful on the students. I do a lot of exit slips with my own students and this can help to see where they are or what they are struggling with after each major component of a unit. Another area I find useful with my students is having individual conferences after giving written feedback. A few resources with some interesting ideas that are being used in my unit (like exit tickets and reflective journals) are below:

https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/simple-assessment-strategies/

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/staff/elevate/essentials/assessment-feedback-4

I also like the idea of using response cards to check individual understanding in a group setting and guide group based teacher responses. However, this may depend on the confidence of the group and rapport the teacher has with them.

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In one of our professional development sessions (this was specific to grammar feedback), this link was shared as a helpful resource:
https://cocalessons.blogspot.com/2016/01/making-your-feedback-stick.html

The overall takeaway I got from the readings is that learners want and take teacher feedback seriously, in addition to the importance of evaluating if that feedback is effective based on student preferences and individual needs. I like having individual student conferences regarding the feedback that I give them and plan to integrate this into my final project as well (I'm including a "workshop" day to discuss student playbills where they will give a synopsis of main scenes, characters, and the setting of the book that we are reading).

I also liked this idea about the rubber stamp! Since most of my grading is done electronically, maybe an emoji? But I feel like some sort of clear visual that could be like a sign to direct students' attention would be an efficient way to make comments.
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/creative-ways-grade-and-provide-feedback-students-ben-johnson

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Here are some suggestions for how to make your grammar feedback most effective (i.e., leading to successful learner uptake and long-term learning effect) by taking a more systematic approach in your corrective feedback:

1. Show Them a Big Picture

Teachers as well as the students often get hung up on The first and most important step is to ensure that your students individual cases or errors that we see in individual papers and lose sight of the "big picture" (the system or the pattern that manifest itself in those errors). You can help yourself and your students see this big picture by administering a grammar diagnostic test and/or assigning a reflection that encourages Ss to look back and discover their grammar error patterns. A. Diagnosing Grammar Issues
understand your feedback as well as your approach towards giving feedback (e.g., why are you giving them feedback? what do all the grammar terms mean? what kinds of errors do you consider more/less important and why?). They also need to be aware of what types of errors they make most often. Try the following steps:

Try administering "Grammar Diagnostic Test" to test how much explicit/implicit knowledge students have about common ESL grammar errors . After you collect the test result, it's also helpful to have an in-class discussion about grammar issues. In the discussion, you may...

Check students' understanding of "Common ESL Grammar Errors" (define any difficult terms for them by using Grammar Term Glossary.

Explain your grammar feedback policy. For example, explain types of errors you will address in your feedback, frequency/types of grammar feedback your students can expect on their drafts, and follow-up activities they are expected to do based on your feedback.

Provide helpful grammar resources students can use to work on particular grammar issues they have on your course website (or direct them to any grammar workshops/classes available on campus).

Read your students' essays (final or semi-final) to identify their (performance) errors and share your "diagnosis" with them by pointing out a couple major issues to work on in a grading rubric. Alternatively, you may use this Grammar Diagnostic Chart (Sample) and by commenting on their drafts directly (pick 1-2 example errors).
B. Reflection on Grammar Issues
After you have given grammar feedback on a couple papers, ask your students to look back at the comments you gave them regarding grammar issues and notice any pattern or reoccurring issues. Based on their responses, direct them to

Another crucial step is following up on their revision/editing work after you have given them feedback to hold them accountable and make sure your feedback actually works! You should always require them to edit their work and check if they acted on your feedback correctly (my own research indicates that 62% of students don't check instructors' feedback unless they are required to revise their work further based on the feedback.
Identify which types of errors the students could or could not self-correct successfully. You may give this feedback in writing or face-to-face through individual conferences. You may also have students peer review each other's grammar correction. Be sure to address the following points in your feedback (or in peer feedback):

1. Did each correction contribute to the improvement of the writing? If the answer is "no", briefly explain why the correction was not good and what could be a better correction.

2. Are there any important grammar error(s) that the student could not correct? If so, highlight the errors and give more detailed or direct correction (hint: according to research, students have trouble correcting "sentence structure" and "word choice" errors).

3. Providing Resources for Further Study/Long-term Success

It is also a good idea to give resources for further study when/after you give them corrective feedback in their drafts, especially if you notice any reoccurring issues in multiple drafts from the same student. You may use some materials from " Helpful Grammar Resources" post.

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Here are some suggestions for how to make your grammar feedback most effective (i.e., leading to successful learner uptake and long-term learning effect) by taking a more systematic approach in your corrective feedback: 1.