Earlier this year, our PLC began the process of studying effective feedback through a book study. I chose How to Give Effective Feedback to your Students by Susan M. Brookhart for our book study. This text is a good resource to begin your study of effective feedback. It is a short, easy read and gives clear, specific strategies to implement within your classroom.

ASCD aslo has a study guide available to use with your group. You can access the study guide here.
Over the next week, I will share our reflections from our book study. I hope it inspires you to begin your own book study.

Praise is not Feedback

"Great Job!" "This is fantastic!" "Keep it up!" What do these tell the student? Statements such as "great!" tell the student that he/she is doing well, but do they tell the student how he/she is excelling? Praise does not give the child specifics on how he/she is growing as a learner; where they are toward reaching a specific goal.

Praise is not an effective form of feedback. Many children thrive on praise. I have students daily ask me if their work is "good." However, praise is not going to help the student understand where he/she is related to meeting an objective or goal. Below are seven insights from Educational Leadership to help us begin to develop a better understanding of feedback.

Our Inspiration

Let's be frank. Why would we choose to focus on providing effective feedback in this time of major change in education? We are currently implementing new standards, new curriculum, and new state testing. And don't forget a new evaluation system.

So why are we not focusing a Professional Learning Community on Common Core or PARCC? Don't get me wrong...we are focusing on all of the above. However, feedback is a topic that impacts every grade, every content area, every member of the school community. Below is our inspiration...

Through John Hattie's meta-analyses, it was found that feedback has an effect size of .73. Effective feedback is a powerful tool to increase student learning. Hattie's research shows that feedback is a top ten influence of student achievement.

Knowing this, we are now on a journey to learn what is effective student feedback, exploring types of feedback, and how we can help students use feedback to increase learning. Learning of effectively provide feedback will not only help increase student learning, but will allow us to be more reflective in our own practice. 

Our Goal Plan

Below is our flexible goal plan that we have been following for the 2014-2015 school year.

Remembering the Purpose

     We had two goals in mind as we began to explore the topic of effective student feedback earlier this year.

1. To improve student learning...not student achievement, but learning. 

and

2. Strengthen student-teacher relationships. 

     Think about a teacher that impacted your life. Most likely, the teacher took an active interest in you. You knew that the teacher cared about you.

   
     We are not teaching content, we are teaching children. The whole child. We can become overwhelmed with that responsibility. There are days we need to be reminded of our purpose. Why did we choose this profession? Here's a little inspiration from the late Dr. Rita Pierson.

     The power of connection...We can be the champion for each child that walks through our door.

Let's Begin!

Welcome to Optimizing Feedback! The goal of this blog is to be a place where we learn together, explore ways to effectively improve student learning, and reignite our passion for education.
So why "Optimizing Feedback?" The focus of the blog will be improving student learning through feedback. So often we tell students "Terrific!," "Keep it up!" or "You missed three." What do these statements tell the student about their performance and learning?

I see students giving themselves an "A+" on our morning worksheets or they ask, "Is this good?" All they want to hear is "Yes, you did a great job!" However, what did the student do well? We need to optimize the feedback we give students to help them take ownership of their learning. We want students to take the feedback and apply it to future learning.

My colleagues and I are working together in a Professional Learning Community focusing on the topic of Effective Student Feedback. Optimizing Feedback will be an outlet for us to share our ideas, our progress, and how our efforts are impacting student learning.

So Let's Begin!