Research The best intentions

THE BEST INTENTIONS

The STAHS English Department set out to narrow the gap between teacher feedback and pupil implementation. Second in English, Kate Constantinou, explains how they went about it.

As part of the Assessment Lead Programme last year, the English Department focused on improving feedback practices surrounding our whole year group assessments. Our intention was to improve the feedback given to pupils by placing greater focus on the steps needed to make improvements, and, in doing this, limit lengthy written teacher feedback, which either summarised or praised pupils without encouraging direct interaction and implementation of the feedback given.

The logistics

Using Year 10 as a focus group, we edited the whole class feedback sheets presented in ‘Assessment’ (the researchEd series) to include four sections titled: ‘Areas of success’, ‘Targets’, ‘Next steps’, and ‘What does a successful answer look like?’. Within the ‘Areas of success’, specific positive feedback was given at a whole class level. This allowed for praise but also provided pupils with comments on subject knowledge particular to the given essay (which would prove helpful for future revision of the topic), as well as an indication of aspects of style or vocabulary an examiner would credit. A code on each individual’s work would refer them to the relevant feedback in the ‘Targets’ section; a maximum of three would be given per pupil. Providing all pupils with all targets allowed the whole class to see potential pitfalls alongside their specific targets.

As the year progressed, it became clear that fixing these targets, using the assessment criteria, helped the pupils (and us) in identifying patterns. Keeping the target the same but providing a more specific comment related to the task at hand was sometimes helpful in improving specific subject knowledge of a character or theme.

The ‘Next steps’ section directed pupils to activities connected to their target but were designed to ensure that pupils immediately focused on applying their target to make improvements.

Example of targets linked to next steps

Targets:

1. Consider the structure of your response. To help create a logical argument, focus on how Portia conforms to gender expectations and then look at evidence that contradicts this. This will help your reader to follow your line of argument. 2. Consider audience response in your essay. Remember, a modern audience and a contemporary audience might view aspects of

Portia’s character very differently. Only do this after you have analysed your quotation.

Next steps:

1. Read each of your paragraphs again and summarise the key idea of each in a sentence. Order these sentences on a separate piece of paper to consider how you could improve the structure of your essay as a whole. 2. Write a couple of sentences about how different audiences might respond to this reference: ‘Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit/

Commits itself to yours to be directed/ As from her lord, her governor, her king.’ You will need to consider context alongside audience reaction here.

The final section of the feedback sheet ‘What does a successful answer look like?’ proved to be essential in closing the feedback loop. In our survey of Year 10 pupils at the start of the project, responses suggested a lack of confidence identifying what a successful answer looks like in English and therefore, unsurprisingly, a lack of confidence in replicating a successful answer.

This section allowed for a mixture of live modelling and discussion of pre-prepared answers to be undertaken with either a specific focus on one area of difficulty the class faced (for example, the embedding of context in a response) or more general skills (using progressive evidence within the ‘Point, Evidence, Analysis’ writing structure). Colour coding these examples, so that pupils could explicitly see the targets being addressed in the model provided, proved beneficial; it also seemed to help pupils see the connection between target and next steps by providing an example of the final product.

Conclusions

Although the direct impact on learning was somewhat hard to assess, the department felt that this format of feedback had clear benefits and did provide an opportunity for the pupils to be more reflective. In my own classroom, I found that the sheets helped with the clarity of my feedback by placing greater focus on the fundamental skills required at GCSE and condensing delivery to one A4 sheet of information, as opposed to the all-too-often overlooked scattered comments throughout an essay. It was felt by the department that although any extended feedback inevitably eats into teaching time, giving this time to really embed feedback and focus on not just what needs to be changed but how to do this could ultimately only have positive impacts. Similarly, the staff time taken in the creation of these templates could be gained back in the re-use of these at a later stage.

As a department, we feel that this process has allowed us to begin refining our feedback procedures, with individual improvement and progress firmly in mind. With further adaption and application, it is our hope that we will be able to continue to narrow the gap between teacher feedback and pupil implementation. Similar models have already been trialled in Key Stage 3 and it is worth noting that building in regular feedback sessions seemed to encourage a classroom culture that allowed pupils to be open about their work and positive towards the notion of constructive criticism.