3 stars? 2 stars? 1 star? Wish? Getting to grips with feedback

Providing feedback to students, whether immediately, at the end of a lesson or later, is so important. It so important to ensure that the feedback given, whether written or spoken, is understood and achievable for the student. When training as a teacher we talked in terms of SMART targets and our own targets were phrased and developed with this in mind. I often wonder whether we keep this at the front of our mind when setting targets for students and providing feedback.

We all discuss at the start of any new course or academic year the target for each student, we talk it through and we agree upon it as teacher and student. But, to what extent are we discussing the journey to that target?

When we give feedback, both as teachers and when we encourage students to, we all have our own bank of approaches and ideas:

• some like a traffic light system
• others favour 3 stars and a wish
• smiley and quizzical faces have been noted previously!
• others favour a more lengthy comment and question approach

I am not attempting to state or argue as to which is best, all focus upon providing students with a positive comment to recognise their contribution, engagement, effort and knowledge. We all thrive on praise, there are numerous articles written that weigh up the type and frequency of praise with the impact upon the development of a young person. But, put quite simply most of us like to hear when we are doing something well. We feel acknowledged and valued. As teachers we want our students to feel this. The wish or quizzical face denotes the required next steps for the student. This may be a simple task such as completing missing work, it may be a question to test and stretch or it may be a focus for future work such as spelling.

The more I teach the more I recognise that there is still so much for me to learn about feedback. About feedback to get the most out of students, to have the greatest impact and to help that progress in the most manageable and importantly engaging way.