Giving Student Feedback

One of the most difficult aspects of student teaching is giving my students feedback.

At the beginning, I struggled with knowing how much feedback to give. How much was too much? What was helpful?

The issue for me wasn’t what to tell them. It was the amount. I didn’t want my students to feel overwhelmed, nor did I want them to feel as though I was being too critical.

In all, I never want them to lose confidence in their abilities – especially their writing abilities.

After the first round of papers, I began to realize that the amount of feedback I give has to vary from student to student. Since that first paper, I’ve noticed that some of my students are ready to take on as many comments as I can give, while others prefer feedback in small doses.  

Now that I’ve learned this about my students, I cater the amount of feedback I give to each of them.

One of the coolest aspects of the classroom in which I am teaching is that I have the ability to conference with my students. Doing this allows me to go over my feedback with each student and gauge whether or not it makes sense to them. These conferences really allow me to differentiate instruction and help my students move from point A to point B – with both reading and writing.

As the papers continue to pile up, I’ve noticed that giving feedback is a lot easier. The first comment I make on any paper is always positive – I either thank them for sharing, or I compliment them on what they did well. From there, I move on to where they can improve and how they can move there.

While sometimes it feels like I’m behind on grading because of the amount of feedback I give my students, I can see growth in my students writing with each paper they turn in, so I know that the time is worth it.

But because of all this grading I’m doing, I’ve noticed myself doing something a little silly. Recently, I’ve started grading songs on the radio as though they had been turned in as free verse poetry in my class. It goes something like this:

Great work, Macklemore! Awesome job avoiding clichés.

I see what you're going for, Justin. But how do these ideas connect? What do you mean?

You really put yourself in this piece, Adele. Thank you for sharing.

I'm undecided about whether or not this has enhanced my musical experiences on my drives to and from school, but I know that it certainly stems from the number of free verse poems I find myself grading.