Johanna Stirling hosted a webinar looking at the importance of formative feedback, and the activities you can do in class to incorporate feedback into both language and language skills work.
Johanna starts by reminding us that feedback comes from a number of different sources, but anything other than teachers to students (and students to teachers!) can be confusing noise! According to a recent study by John Hattie, feedback is one of the top ten influences on student achievement. However, this feedback needs to be focused on quality rather than quantity – over-correcting work can have a negative effect on the student and demotivate them.
So, what makes quality feedback? Johanna argues that students receive feedback differently and it’s important to understand what works for your own students. It’s also important that you listen to feedback from your students, to be able to construct feedback based on what students really know, not just your assumptions. The key is to ensure that students engage with it, interpret it and then apply in a critical way. To do this, you should be helping students answer the following questions: Where am I going? How am I going there? Where will I go next?
Johanna expanded further on this by explaining how this can be integrated into lessons by providing example activities. She also explores the different types of feedback to compare the benefits, explaining how and when they should be used.
Watch the full webinar below to find out more and discover practical examples.
All examples used in the webinar feature from Cambridge English Empower. You can find out more about the course and Learning Oriented Assessment by visiting the Empower page.