Giving Feedback to Students
Wherever teaching and learning are happening, there are feedback loops. With writing assignments, the loop often goes something like this:
- Students are given a prompt, perhaps relatively close to a deadline for submission
- Students write and submit a writing assignment
- An instructor returns the assignment with a grade and, perhaps, some written feedback.
All well and good. It raises the question, though: What—or what could be—happening (or happening more intentionally) before, during, and after this “local” feedback loop? Specifically, how can we make this back and forth of feedback between students and teachers as legible as possible, so that it becomes part of an ongoing, open dialogue between students and teachers about who’s learning what and how to improve.
As an example, let’s imagine what the elements of a more continuous “global” feedback loop might look like for the first unit in a semester-long course:
The advantage of breaking down the feedback loop this way is straightforward: it maximizes the chances that your assignment is giving you feedback about what students are learning in your class, which in turn allows instructors to give students—and themselves—the most effective feedback about what’s working and what needs work.
For an in-depth and practical look at all of these elements of feedback, see the pages for TFs & TAs on "Giving Feedback to Students."