I am very lucky in that I get to see a lot of lessons. In this series, I share the “most common actions” (MCAs) that I find myself asking teachers to take as part of my feedback. The series starts with the first MCA here.

Scenario:

Mr B’s students are writing paragraphs about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of energy source in terms of tackling climate change. As he circulates, Mr B notices that some students haven’t included data in their answers, so he reminds the class that they should be including data in their answers.

In MCA2, we noted that despite the fact that Mr B’s feedback is important, students don’t hear it. We are going to make three improvements, with the first one as below:

As he circulates, Mr B notices that some students haven’t included data in their answers, so he stops the class from working, and explains that answers need to include data.

Mr B has halted the class, thus breaking their attention away from their work and increasing the chances they will hear his feedback. His second improvement would be:

He asks a couple of students for examples of data that could be included, and then starts the students practising again from where they left off.

All too often, we assume that students have understood what they have said, so checking is critical. However, I am still a little worried:

I wait a few minutes and start circulating and looking at student work. There are some students who before the feedback had included data, and they have included data in their post-feedback writing. A few students who had not included it in their original writing now have it in their post-feedback writing, but most who didn’t have it before don’t have it now.

One of the under-discussed aspects of “feedback” is making sure students don’t just hear it and nod along, but actually act on it. This requires deliberate effort from the teacher, and should not be taken for granted. In this case, here’s what Mr B can do:

Having paused the class, Mr B explains the need to use data. He asks a couple of students for examples of data that could have been included. He then asks students to read what they have written so far and write on their mini-whiteboards a piece of data that they could add to what they have written to improve it. He reviews their response, adds a couple of discussion points and then asks them to add what is on their boards to their paragraphs in a different coloured pen. He finishes by reminding them of the need to add data going forwards, and uses the mini-whiteboards one final time to have every student given an example of data they can use in their post-feedback writing. Once he is happy, he lets them continue working.

In this case, Mr B’s students are far more likely not just to have heard and understood his feedback, but to have applied it to their own work. Following WHENWHYBY:

When delivering group-level feedback during a task
Ensure students hear the feedback and apply it to their work
By
– Pausing the class
– Delivering the feedback
– Ensuring the feedback is understood
– Having students use the feedback in the moment to improve the work they have already done
– Having students use the feedback in the moment to verbalise how it will improve the work they are yet to do

This is the third post in a new series called MCA, which stands for Most Common Actions. You can read more about the series here.

The strategies here are heavily influenced by ideas from Teach Like a Champion, Get Better Faster and my boss Thanos Gidaropoulos. Whilst I might not reference every individual thing, assume that if the idea makes sense it is because I got it from one of those sources, and if it doesn’t it’s because I made it up. I strongly advise all teachers to pick up a copy of Teach Like a Champion and all leaders a copy of Get Better Faster.

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