What Is Learning with Descriptive Feedback?
As suggested by Dr. Peter Liljedahl in his innovative Building Thinking Classrooms and TDSB's high-impact instructional practices, one ideal learning/teaching environment is for the teacher to provide descriptive feedback to students so they can move on with their learning in the classroom. Depending on the learning styles, preferences, and needs of the students, the teacher will need to figure out how to support them in the best way, which could be providing:
Indirect Support with Trust and Appropriate Hints
Direct Support with Scaffolding Questions or Detailed Explanations
The teacher's responses to students' struggles need to be carefully examined, planned, and executed so that students' thinking is not interfered with or stopped. Mr. Ho has just started this initiative to promote thinking in his math classroom. However, the teacher will need to regularly monitor students at the VNPS to ensure all students remain engaged throughout the class.
Pictures of Students in Random Groups Supported Indirectly or Directly by Mr. Ho
Pictures of Students Discussing Math Problems in Random Groups