In Gaby Lawson’s second blog on giving effective feedback, she shares more tips for reviewing students’ presentations.
Following on from my tips in part 1, there are five further points I would like you to take in to consideration when giving feedback.
Emphasise the process rather than the product
Refer to what students have done in preparation for the presentation and consider the time and effort that may have gone in to it. Preparing for a presentation requires gathering information and thinking about how you want to share that information. Examples could be “You clearly put a lot of work into your slides, I like the way you used pictures and very little text”, or “I really enjoyed the topic, you used some interesting vocabulary, next time you could check the collocations with an English dictionary make your presentation more impactful.”
Be actionable
Giving students your opinions on their presentation is important, but make sure that you give them a specific action they can do to implement your feedback.
Examples of how feedback can be improved with actions is below:
| Weak pieces of feedback | Stronger pieces of feedback |
| Your vocabulary is weak. Please work on collocations. I would have checked the collocations in the dictionary before presenting. |
During the presentation, there were many collocations which were not accurate. As a result, sometimes I couldn’t understand what you were trying to say. This is a pity because your topic was very interesting. Use an English dictionary or use Collocations in Use in the library to improve the range and accuracy of your collocations. You did include some excellent subject specific vocabulary which you had obviously worked hard to learn. |
| You talked too fast. Please try to improve this next time. | During the presentation I noticed that 3 times you spoke very quickly. As a result, it was difficult to understand what you were saying at those points and your classmates were less engaged. This is a pity because the introduction was very engaging. If the way you speak sounds too slow for you, it is the correct speed for the audience. How did you practise before you presented? Next time, try practising your presentation, and making a pause after the main linking words. After you pause, take a deep breath and start again more slowly. |
Ask the student to retell the feedback you have just given them
Often, what we say and what the other person has understood are different. Ask the student to explain the feedback you have given them so you can check they have clearly understood what you are trying to communicate.
Use a marking sheet or descriptors
This will help you avoid being subjective, evaluative, over-general and using ineffective comments like ‘good work’. Marking sheets and/or descriptors provide a frame of reference for both you and the student. You can talk about where the student is at using the descriptors rather than ‘good’ or ‘bad’. For formative assessment you can use a simple tick-box feedback sheet (see example 1 below); if the presentation is for summative assessment, then your school should provide you with descriptors (see example 2 below).
Be careful about giving student numerical feedback if you are preparing them for an assessment. For example, if you give them 15/20 during preparations but they only get 8/20 on the day, they may feel let down and unhappy. It is better to use comments, and students may be more likely to read the comments if there is no number/grade. However, if you are using numerical grades be very careful to match the scoring system in terms of strictness.
Example 1: framework/marking sheet
| Exceeds requirements | Strong performance | Developing | Needs improvement | |
Response to task:
|
||||
Delivery
|
||||
Communication:
|
||||
Vocabulary:
|
||||
Grammar:
|
Comments:……………………………………………………………………………
Example 2: Descriptors
| Upper Intermediate Presentation Marking | |||||
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Exceeds level | Strong performance | Developing | Needs development | Mark | |
| Visual Appeal |
|
|
|
|
|
| Task Achievement |
|
|
|
|
|
| Communication Skills |
|
|
|
|
|
| Vocabulary |
|
|
|
|
|
| Grammar |
|
|
|
|
|
| Total | /20 | ||||
Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
End on a positive note
Find positive feedback you can give the student. Has the presenter been original? Creative? Shown enthusiasm for their topic? Were the class very engaged with it? Have you learnt something new or changed your point of view?
In conclusion, feedback has an enormous impact on learning. Furthermore, presentation tasks are a common type of task in English language teaching. In order for students to take full advantage of the learning opportunity, they need to integrate the feedback we give them in order to improve their reflections. Effective feedback will help them to make these improvements in their presentation skills. Being able to give students that feedback is a big part of being an effective teacher. Find further tips in part 1.
Don’t forget that you can get teaching tips, insights, and resources straight to your inbox when you create your free World of Better Learning account today.
References
The Australian Society for Evidence-Based Teaching. (n.d.) Feedback: The First Secret John Hattie Revealed. Retrieved from
http://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/crash-course-evidence-based-teaching/how-to-give-effective-feedback-to-your-students/
Duke University Center for Instructional Technology. (2008). Giving Constructive feedback on presentations. Retrieved from https://learninginnovation.duke.edu/pdf/grad/constructive_feedback.pdf
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of 800 meta-analysis relating to achievement. Routledge
Hayton, T. (2011). Student presentations. Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/student-presentations