The Power of Formative Feedback

Teaching my second year of 8th grade English Language Arts is an opportunity to re-think and revise my first year stab-in-the-dark unit plans. I get to use a full year's worth of learning about the developmental range of 8th graders as I start this year's curriculum. I get to reflect on the student feedback from the end-of-unit reflections and comments I received last year so that I can make adjustments this year. I get to look at my model texts and think about the ones that worked well, and those that didn't seem worth the time they took to read aloud. This is one kind of formative feedback: from myself to myself as I look at student assessments and remember student comments.

We just finished our first full content unit: Short Story Interpretive Reading based on Lucy Calkins' A Curricular Plan for the Reading Workshop- Grade 8.(2010) Last year, I bravely taught big ideas like finding pivotal moments when characters made critical choices, looking at different perspectives, identifying multiple themes within one text, finding multiple texts with common themes and noticing character and setting differences between them. I taught types of sentences and literary devices like symbols and mood. I expected students to read short stories of their choice and practice these big ideas in their reading notebooks. I conferenced with students as they read, and tried to raise their level of thinking through our conversations. I was feeling pretty excited about the sophistication of this work, especially coming from many years of teaching sixth grade.

And then came the end of unit test, where I gave a new story to analyze along the very same strategies we'd been working with in class. It was something of a disaster. The students seemed confused, did not dig as deep as I'd hoped, circled around answers without really answering, and overall they seemed dismayed at "how hard" the test was. As I assessed their reading notebooks at the end of the unit, I understood why: their notebook work was, for many students, shallow, simple, and safe, with little practice on the strategies presented.

I was reminded of a common teacher saying, "Just because you taught it, doesn't mean they learned it."

Obviously the students needed more practice and better feedback in order to be ready for the test. This year I taught the same lessons, I conferred more often (because I'd practiced all year last year and my skill was better), and I had more frequent check-ins:

1. I set up a Discussion Thread on our Moodle site. I posted a spot for each of the short stories that were available for reading. After about 8 days of work, I required students to post "an interpretation" of their reading of one of their stories. Many students copied an entry from their Reading Notebook, which was fine, and some brought new thinking into the post. I gave them a formative grade and feedback on their interpretation.
2. I collected their Reading Notebooks at mid-unit. They marked their "best entry" with a sticky note. As I evaluated the notebooks, I looked for volume (how many stories had they read so far, how many entries, and how long the entries were), variety (were they trying the interpretation strategies or sticking with safe character charts or summary?), and depth (were they pushing their thinking by writing long about theme or character analysis?). I gave them specific feedback on their marked entry, more general feedback on their variety and volume, and a formative grade.
3. I asked for another Discussion Thread posting and two responses to others about a week later. I was looking for a lift in the level of their interpretation postings, and critical thinking in their responses to others. I was, in general, very pleased with the depth and detail, as well as the respectful and academic tone, of their responses. I could also tell that they were thinking about the stories a little differently by reading other interpretations and entertaining new ideas. Sometimes they agreed and added on, sometimes they disagreed and explained their perspective, and sometimes they admitted that this was a new idea to them and explained their new thinking. This, again, got formative feedback and a formative grade.
4. I gave them a study guide for the test. I told them the format of the test, how much time each section should take, I wrote the curricular performance indicators I was looking for, and I listed the terms they would need to know. Since this was a performance task test, and the performance indicators and terms were all the things I'd been teaching all along, I did not feel like I was "giving anything away". I made the mentor texts available to them on the Moodle site so they could practice.
5. I gave a formative "quiz" the day before the test so they could have a "taste" of what the test would be like. I stopped them after about 15 minutes, told them it was just for practice, and allowed them to work with a partner to discuss their answers, finish any of the unfinished questions, and go over the terms together. 

By the time of the test, students were much less stressed and much more confident than last year. The results of the test are much higher. Of course a few students still did not do well; I can look back on their formative scores and feedback, and see the gaps and lack of practice despite the attempts to support them. However, I feel that I did a much better job with my feedback as well as holding students accountable to do the practice work. This formative feedback made a big difference in their learning.