It's funny that the topic for today's blog post is feedback because that is all that I've been doing today. You see, I've spent the last couple of hours reading short answer responses on my first period students' first exam. Many of the students were unable to put their thoughts down on paper, and most of them struggled with forming complete sentences (even though they are ninth graders). It's taken me several hours to read through them and provide feedback on each response because I truly believe that these students are capable of producing much better written response. Therefore, feedback is necessary for learning because it is allows for teachers to continue the learning process with their students. So, for the sake of using an analogy, feedback is the mortar that connects various topics and keeps the foundation of their learning attached to all the new material (bricks) students learn every year in school.
I've spent the past couple of years developing my feedback techniques. I was not very good at providing effective feedback at the start of my teaching career. Most students probably did not benefit from me just telling them that they were on point or that they should reconsider their reasoning. Every year that I spend in the classroom, the more developed this particular skill becomes for me. I believe that by taking the time to write out and redirect students in their written responses, as well as provide a model of the process that I believe will be most beneficial for a student, my students can see the clarifications of something that they obviously were having difficulty in understanding.
However, one thing that seems to be my major issue is finding a way to provide feedback to my students in a more timely manner. For instance, this past week, my Pre-AP students were bothered when I told them that the test that they were taking on Monday would most likely be returned to them on Friday. They didn't understand why it was going to take me that long to grade their papers. I actually had to explain to them that I was going to read every single response on their written portion of the exam and provide them with the necessary notes to help them become more developed academic writers. I seriously had a students look at me and say, "You're actually going to read every that I write down on my paper. I thought that teachers just glanced at papers and looked for key items." I was floored; my students were providing me with an insight of what they had experienced, and I decided that I was not going to allow myself to fall into that mindset.
So, in short, I highly value feedback (both as a teacher and a professional student), and see the necessity of it in education. Without feedback, there would be no growth of the student. Now I just have to continue to push forward and continuously provide my students with the guidance that they so desperately need to become the best versions of themselves.
-A
I've spent the past couple of years developing my feedback techniques. I was not very good at providing effective feedback at the start of my teaching career. Most students probably did not benefit from me just telling them that they were on point or that they should reconsider their reasoning. Every year that I spend in the classroom, the more developed this particular skill becomes for me. I believe that by taking the time to write out and redirect students in their written responses, as well as provide a model of the process that I believe will be most beneficial for a student, my students can see the clarifications of something that they obviously were having difficulty in understanding.
However, one thing that seems to be my major issue is finding a way to provide feedback to my students in a more timely manner. For instance, this past week, my Pre-AP students were bothered when I told them that the test that they were taking on Monday would most likely be returned to them on Friday. They didn't understand why it was going to take me that long to grade their papers. I actually had to explain to them that I was going to read every single response on their written portion of the exam and provide them with the necessary notes to help them become more developed academic writers. I seriously had a students look at me and say, "You're actually going to read every that I write down on my paper. I thought that teachers just glanced at papers and looked for key items." I was floored; my students were providing me with an insight of what they had experienced, and I decided that I was not going to allow myself to fall into that mindset.
So, in short, I highly value feedback (both as a teacher and a professional student), and see the necessity of it in education. Without feedback, there would be no growth of the student. Now I just have to continue to push forward and continuously provide my students with the guidance that they so desperately need to become the best versions of themselves.
-A
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