A common feedback trap that Brookhart observes can happen when teachers forget the goal of an assignment and give feedback on things like grammar instead of the learning goal. For example, if a seventh-grade science lab is meant to teach a concept, but all the feedback is about how the student formatted the lab, then the teacher has missed an opportunity. “Feedback then becomes what do I need to do to please this teacher, not what do I need to do to learn,” Brookhart said.

She also points out that feedback depends entirely on the learning goals of individual students. One student may have trouble starting a problem, but generally understands the material, so simply reminding her of the learning target might be enough. Another student may have trouble starting because his grasp of the material is a little shaky, but some guiding questions might be enough to spark his thinking. Still a third student may be lost on the content, in which case working through an example with her might be the appropriate level of scaffolding.



FEEDBACK FOR DIFFERENT REASONS

Often teachers think of giving feedback as useful to the student, but it should also be fruitful for the teacher. An individual instance of feedback can give a teacher a close-up look at the student’s abilities with a specific skill, a snapshot of where they are in the scope of the class, and some ideas about where to go in the long term.

“Tell the students what you see in their work,” Brookhart said. That doesn’t mean merely writing “Good Job” or “Needs Work” in the margins. Those comments are evaluative, signaling the end of the conversation. “Without descriptions students don’t have the information they need to take that next step.”

Brookhart gave an example of an elementary class working on persuasive writing. Students were asked to write a letter to the librarian after a book was stolen, offering some reasons why she should buy the book again. One student wrote a paragraph explaining that the book was funny and had mysteries in it, so it was worth replacing. The teacher’s feedback focused almost entirely on the spelling, capitalization and format errors of the letter. And at the end the teacher wrote, “Add more.”

Brookhart unapologetically calls this bad feedback. A student reading this feedback would think the teacher cared only about grammar and format, not about his ideas or persuasiveness, the stated goal of the assignment. “The worst thing about this is that there’s something really good in this that the teacher doesn’t mention,” Brookhart said. The student did offer two specific reasons why he liked the book, but the teacher did not call out those strengths.

“Do not assume this kid knows that he’s got the kernel of persuasion in there. Part of your feedback should be to make explicit, so he knows that you know,” Brookhart said.

Better feedback would be to tell the student he came up with two good reasons and ask him to add some of the missing information, like the title of the book and examples of how the book was funny or had mysteries. Then, the teacher could offer some sentence starters to help the student “add more,” on the principle that he didn’t know how to do that, or else he would have. Brookhart says that because this feedback is related to the skill being learned, it’s more motivating to students, and doesn’t make students feel like they are playing the teacher’s game.

“Teachers that are more effective at formative assessment go for student thinking, not just how correct they are,” Brookhart said. After a feedback session the teacher should understand more about how the student is thinking than she could gain from merely looking at what he wrote. And, she can then use that insight to give the student opportunities to revise the work and push toward stronger understanding of the learning target.

Brookhart says surveys of students are clear on what they want from feedback. “In many different countries, some done in the context of formative assessment and sometimes summative assessment, what students want is information they can use and the opportunity to use it.”



EQUITY IN FEEDBACK

Another key thing to keep in mind when giving feedback relates to equity in thinking. It’s easy to see a moderate- or high-level student’s work that doesn’t have typographical errors and push on the thinking behind it. But often the student whose technical writing skills are lower will get only the typographical feedback without the push on further thinking. While done unintentionally, the difference in feedback reinforces bias and could contribute to different expectations for different students.