What Formats Can Wise Feedback be Given in?

Section Objective: In this section of the VPLM, you will learn how teachers can provide wise feedback to students.

The more Lucy reads, the more she can see how wise feedback can be used in her traditional classroom as well as in the emerging digital environment. View the video (4:08) from The Learning Accelerator (2019) interviewing a teacher, Mike Fauteux, about how he provides feedback to his students. As you watch the video, jot notes about what you learn and make connections with your previous knowledge on wise feedback. If you would prefer to read the interview in article format from Mohammed (n.d.) click this link to read it.

In the past, Lucy has provided students with feedback on their written work and passed it back in class. More recently, she has provided feedback via margin notes in Google Docs for digital work submissions. Now that Lucy has learned about wise feedback and the specific components of it, she can see how it can easily be provided to students as a written note on their hard copy work or through a margin note on their digital work. Wise feedback accompanies additional specific feedback notes. She can still leave small feedback notes about whatever targeted skill students are focusing on (analysis, supporting textual evidence, etc.), but the wise feedback provides an over-arching message aimed at communicating her belief in the student's ability to achieve the high expectations. Johnson (2020) lists wise interventions (wise feedback) as a method for providing flash feedback intended to improve students' achievement.

As things begin to click for Lucy, she starts to think about digital assignments students may submit as PDFs or in other formats like Google Slides. Wise feedback can be communicated through a private comment function in the Learning Management System her district uses. How can you envision providing students with written wise feedback in an in-person or digital environment?

As Lucy considers the written feedback she provides students, she also considers how she provides verbal feedback to them. Lucy is used to giving students verbal feedback as she circulates throughout the classroom as students work. She also conducts mini one-on-one conferences with students. Verbal feedback is more of an obstacle in digital learning environments, but it can be overcome. She has used virtual one-on-one conferences to help students with assignments. Stuart (2020) discussed how providing recorded feedback to students increases the chance they will apply the feedback. Additionally, Stuart (2020) discussed how students can misinterpret teachers' written feedback because students hear the teacher's voice and are able to pick up on the tone or intent of the feedback. Students sometimes misinterpret written feedback because they think it has a negative tone when the teacher did not intend for it to convey a negative tone. A written comment of 'I don't know what you mean' can be interpreted differently than a verbal comment with the same message simply by the tone of voice conveying the words. What are your thoughts about using verbal feedback to alleviate misinterpretation in the feedback message?

Lucy is part of an online Professional Learning Network through social media with educators from across the United States. She remembers reading some of their posts about using Voice Notes or digital tools like Floop, Kaizena, or Mote to provide verbal feedback to students. She is intrigued by providing verbal feedback to her students, especially if the verbal recording will help them apply her wise feedback, but she feels like she might need to master written wise feedback first. What about you? Could you see yourself providing students with verbal wise feedback? Explain why or why not.