I am teaching a class this semester that has a rich and diverse mess of students whose only sin is having been cursed with me as an instructor because they had not aced the ACT or SAT. One strategy that I am obsessed with this semester is regular feedback. My university in its finite wisdom has for a long while now only had teacher feedback at the end of the semester. I might get that feedback for use in the March of 2020. Feedback delayed is feedback denied.
I also am blessed by two very fine embedded tutors. I kid you not. The department calls them ’embedded’, like a tick or a journalist. The tutors are really quite wonderful although I am not sure who they pissed off enough to get assigned to me.
I am trying to articulate for myself and them how feedback can be better in five easy pieces… loosely joined. What follows is my funky, working out loud account of what I did this week and where it is headed.
Feedback with Google Forms
The first thing I did with my students before classes even started was to ask them what their hopes and expectations were for the semester in this composition course. Here are the results:
Here’s the one I created for use on Wednesday’s class
Annotating Google Forms with Hypothes.is
I then took their responses and annotated them. Here is the link if you want to join the private group.
Annotation as Content and Pedagogy
The annotations were used as the basis for class discussion and demonstrated the power of student feedback as it effects teaching content. Ideally, I would hope that feedback leads to change. For example, one of the discoveries I took from my students was that their feedback was too generic when I asked them to tell me their hopes and expectations. My response was to teach them a better way to be specific and clear as they set goals (aka, hopes and expectations) called DAPPS. Feedback creating content.
Creation and Play Emerges: Pablo
I loved some of their feedback and decided to create some Pablo text-images. Feedback creating content
And More…
And having made a bunch or”pablos” I made a HaikuDeck with all of them to show to class on Friday. Feedback creating content.
The Knowledge – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
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Feedback as content loop … this is not only valuable for you, I think(hope), but also shows the students that you value what they are saying/writing. Their words didn’t just go into the Google Bin of Despair. Pablo –making their words into something visual — was a good move, I think. I’m struck, again, about how you seem to have become relegated to some forgotten corner of your University Universe, and hope that the meaningful work you are doing there is what keeps you afloat, connected, writing, sharing, teaching, learning. All that and more.
Kevin
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Your kind words keep me going. One of the weirdest aspects of creating regular feedback loops is showing students how they work so that they take the time to care about what they think and say. Bad feedback is worse than useless. And…it is hard to teach. Why? Because they are totally disused to being asked to give feedback much less useful feedback. It’s as if the PowersThatBe aren’t really interested in anything but recruitment and retention. Hmmm…
Love the expression the Google Bin O’ Despair. Kinda like John Bunyan’s “slough of despond” or Dante’s “forest, savage, rough and stern.”
Some tools in their simplicity just lend themselves to use. Pablo is like a hammer. It does what it does quickly and happily with little friction. Words matter–> Their words matter–> Their voices matter–>Keep talking.
Relegated.
I am relegated,
As far from my boss as the building allows.
I am relegated.
Driving a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
I am relegated
To having my name misspelled and dismissed by all and sundry
As i drive a couple of hours each day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
I am relegated.
To the sub-basement of academe on my campus
As i drive a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
I am relegated
to a precariat mantra of grateful mindful-lessness for being permitted
To work in the sub-basement of academe on my campus
As i drive a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
I am relegated
not to the the house that Jack built, but to the one that I made while life happened
In the sub-basement of academe on my campus
As i drive a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
I am just glad that I am relegated and not ‘consigned’,
but, of course, that is the next god-forsaken step.
Consigned.
Dismissed.
[Crickets]
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I can not recall any of my past teachers who did as much as you do to connect with your students.
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My assumption is that we always connect, sometimes well, but oftentimes not. What I am doing here is to make the connections more consistent and stronger. One of the truths that my students discover is that I am in many ways just like them–another human, part of ‘la condition humaine’. I think many of them would prefer not to know what “feet of clay” means, but that can’t be helped.
Your kind words came at the end of a difficult, nay, trying week. And it was a terrific support. Thanks for that.
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I’m encouraged by the level of vulnerability in their responses. They must sense you are authentic in your desire to teach them, to help them. I predict a good semester/year ahead.
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Thanks for looking into the Google Forms, I know they are a bit hincty to navigate. And you put your finger on why I do these ‘feedbackings’. They are worth it. I will take your prediction to heart and thank you for it from the bottom of mine. Grateful and hoping the move has been grand.
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Terry,
I applaud you. FYI, I got here via your post on yapnet.org and, since I am obsessed with the power of feedback, particularly student-to-student feedback, I thought I’d respond here.
As you know, I’m sure, I founded and ran (for 12 years) Young Writers Project (https://youngwritersproject.org) which, for a time, also provided teachers with a clone of the “big” YWP site to use in their classrooms. We helped teachers create curricula and assessment goals for commenting. I am of the belief that the act of feedback — both giving and receiving — deepens engagement and improves writing and general communication skills. Some benchmark phrases that helped the kids:
*You may not be experts in writing but you are experts in how your brain reacted to a piece of writing (or art or audio or video).
*Pay attention to what you notice while you are reading — what interested you the most? where did you get confused? where did you get bored? where did you want more?
*Articulate what you noticed in a way that is well-received. (How would you feel if you received your feedback?)
*Understand reciprocity: If you get a comment, respond. If you want a comment, give someone a comment.
*Start with something positive.
*Comment on your own work and tell readers your concerns. Pose a question.
Generally we got teachers to establish rules of behavior with the kids; almost universal, the kids added these:
*Make sure everyone gets at least one comment.
*Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, punctuation and usage — focus on the content, the ideas, the tone, the use of detail.
Results that were expected:
*The classroom became more cohesive; kids learned more about each other, particularly if the site was used regularly.
*Bullying stopped; in ALL cases where bullies had been previously identified, those children became leaders.
*Students’ writing improved.
*Students’ confidence improved.
*Students’ appreciation of writing improved.
I have to also say that:
* we started this before the advent of social media; commenting curricula became important to establish habits of civil, specific commenting on social media.
*once schools (YWP works with grades K-12) began adopting technology and the Big Boys entered the fray AND the school technology leaders began wanting to order the chaos by requiring one software system that handled classroom administration we were slowly nosed out.
*The worst “solution” in our minds (and many teachers who were forced to adopt it) was Google — Docs, Forms, Classroom. Why? Because the software was so complex to use AND because a student couldn’t easily see his classmates’ works and other comments.
But that is my experience. We worked with 65 schools and, at one time, had 7,000+ students using the platform we created. Statewide, we saw evidence that those schools using it had better test scores, though I hasten to add that I had tests and the comparison of results, particularly given that Vermont is so small.
Anyway, I, again, applaud your work in this area. I think commenting is the key to student engagement at any age and, burying the most important idea to the end, it teaches kids of all ages that the key to good writing is revision. And getting comments from other people helps see how a piece could be improved and also provides affirmation for the initial idea.
Since you made it this far in this long-winded response, I want to offer you a clone of the yapnet.org platform to use in your classroom this year if you would like to try it out.
geoff
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oops. should have re-read before posting…
I meant to say in the third paragraph from the bottom… “…I hasten to add that I hate tests and the comparison of results, particularly given that Vermont is so small.”
g
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Wow. What an offer. My first thought is hell yes, but then I think about this zero-sum game called university. I have been struggling to get my university to adopt Hypothes.is within our LMS, Blackboard. To…no…avail. And then you come along and offer me this grand tool. I can see a couple of users: volunteers and the self-selected from my freshman comp classes OR teaching assistants in the classroom OR my colleagues. So I say yes and I will grow it out maybe to all three. Let me know what I need to do on my end. Happy Labor Day, may they all be sweet and successful. BTW, I agree on the evil that is Google although I do love Google Forms. Everything I have ever loved at Google has gone to Google Afterlife so maybe I shouldn’t think that out loud.
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Sounds good. Let’s figure out a way to connect and talk. email me via yapnet.org for a time and method.
cheers,
g
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Terry, try again? How can we hook up? I actually thought of an easier thing: We’ll make you a group (or a few groups) on yapnet. we should talk soon.
geoff