Today I put plastic insulation on the windows in my 1910 house. The insulation will keep the cold air from blowing in. The tricky part is to put the plastic on tightly. If it is not tight, then the air can blow it off.
I wonder how tightly our formative feedback fits our students? Do we give them general feedback such as “You need to improve your topic sentence. Remember to restate the thesis and then identify the category of this paragraph”. Or do we give specific feedback to one of our students who is a football player “Think of a topic sentence like a sports game. The goal is always to win the game. Each play is to win the game through doing (this play). A topic sentence has the same format of the essay thesis (the game purpose) and the particular paragraph game play.”
Do your students understand your formative feedback? Unless they understand it, they cannot move forward. Does your formative feedback tightly fit them or will they blow it off.
For any one who is interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.
Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle 
Responding to students: Our Real Emotional Message
Published January 15, 2009 Achievement , Answer , Assessment , assessment for learning , Correct , Diagnostic , Edublogger , Education , Error , Evaluate , Feedback , Formative , Formative assessment , formative feedback , Help , Impact , Reponse Leave a CommentTags: Answer, Comment, Correcting, Edublogger, Emotion, Feedback, Formative, Formative assessment, Reaction, response, Teacher
In a previous post, I emphasized that students need an abundance of positive comments before they really believe that what they have done is good.
Likewise, when we examine our comments to students in the margins and at the end of their papers, we may discover that the messages that we think are positive or neutral appear to the students as negative ones. For example, in “Good topic sentence. Follow it up with more evidence” the message seems to us to be a positive; however, the second sentence deflats the praise. The previous examples strikes students as a “set up and slap down” comment.
Students may see our statements or questions as direct commands rather than suggestions. “Can you think of other possibilities?” can easily be translated as “You dummy, why can’t you get a good answer?”
When we write on students’ papers, we have to promote a positive tone since many students will read any non-positive statement as a negative one.
If you are interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book,
Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.