Image by Frank Liborius Hellweg from Pixabay
By The Educator Collaborative Associate Member Sophie Teitelbaum
The first time I asked my high school freshmen to give peer feedback was an absolute disaster. Four things pervaded:
- Many students didn’t want to share their work with a classmate.
- The feedback students gave each other was entirely focused on grammar and spelling.
- The feedback students gave each other was very vague (“Good job!” “Nice work!” “Don’t forget to edit!”).
- Many students felt disheartened by receiving their writing covered in red ink, which made them less inclined to want to participate in peer feedback or share their writing even with me.
Ultimately, the feedback my students gave and received was not meaningful or useful. My students could not receive the feedback to become better writers or improve their pieces. I was taking my students through the motion of practicing giving feedback without teaching the skill of how to give effective feedback. Like anything else, students must be taught the skill of how to give kind, meaningful feedback.
Additionally I had not created the setting conditions for students to feel safe to share their writing. What I needed to do was create a culture of feedback from the very beginning of the school year with very intentional practices and processes.
1. Have students give you (the teacher) feedback about how class is going
During the first month of school, every Friday I have students give me feedback about how class is going. I sit on a stool or at a desk and try to make it feel casual rather than formal feedback. I frame this time by telling them that we are creating our classroom together and I want to be the best teacher for them that I can be and I need their help knowing what they really are enjoying and what I can do better as their teacher. I also tell them I am creating a T chart with + and delta (and show them what this looks like on the board). Because I don’t want to be at the board and want this to feel more informal, I jot down their feedback in a notebook rather than on the board.
I start with what went well first. Here are some questions I use to help draw out feedback from students:
- What went well this week in class?
- What helped you learn this week?
- What was something you enjoyed in class?
- What activities, texts, topics did you like this week?
- What are some things we should do more of that we did this week?
Then I ask about what could be better. I always go first for this so that students know that I also think that things can get better and that I am open to this. Questions I use to help students share their feedback about my growth areas:
- What could have gone better this week?
- What was something you saw me struggle with this week?
- What was something we did that you didn’t really enjoy? What could have made it better for you?
- What are some things we should change for next week?
From the list of things to improve on, choose a highly desired and highly visible shift to make for next week. When you make the change, name it and that you appreciated their feedback to make class better.
This strategy helps shift the power dynamics about feedback and helps students find their voices and advocate for their own needs. It also helps build their confidence that what they have to say matters and that their feedback will be taken seriously.
2. Establish a no feedback on grammar, punctuation or spelling rule during peer feedback
This rule accomplishes two things. First, it reduces the amount of “red pen” or marking up students have on their writing, which can help with confidence. Second, it pushes students to give more meaningful feedback on the content and style of the writing.
3. Create a list of skills, traits, and competencies
Typically, I have students brainstorm this list from the beginning of the year. This is a list we continue to add to at the beginning of each peer feedback workshop based on what we have been learning in class. We use this list as a guide for what we are giving feedback on (e.g., a specific sentence type, the use of evidence to support an argument, the quality of a claim or counterclaim, etc.). This helps students have an idea of what to focus on when they are giving feedback to a peer so that they can be really specific.
4. Share your own writing for feedback and practice whole group
By showing your own work and naming that it’s not a perfect piece of writing, you can help remove some fear students may have about sharing their writing publicly. I also usually name that I’m always a little nervous when I share my writing with other people (this is very true for me) as a way to normalize the nerves that can come from this and remove some of their power. Choose something short.
First I model what it looks like to give specific positive feedback. Then I have students share some specific strengths in my writing. Then I model what it looks like to give specific feedback on growth areas. Then I have students share some specific growth areas in my writing.
5. Practice giving really specific feedback on sample texts
This can be writing you save from a previous year, something you generate using AI. If you use AI, you can prompt the AI to do a good job on a few specific skills and a poor job on different skills you’ve already taught so students can practice giving helpful, specific feedback.
6. Teach Shitty First Drafts
One of the first texts I teach at the beginning of the school year is Anne Lamott’s Shitty First Drafts. It is a quintessential text to remind students that all first drafts are just that: shitty. Students find the text very accessible and the content is meaningful since it removes some pressure around how good writing should be in the first draft. And students always find the title and idea of a “shitty first draft” to be quite silly, which reduces some of the pressure too and invites in levity around writing, an activity that is fraught for many students.
7. Show current students’ writing publicly
Of course this needs to be done with consent. This is really powerful practice when the entire class comes together to help a classmate improve their writing. To start this at the beginning of the year, ask individual students on the side if you can share their writing with the class either with or without their name. Then have the class only give really specific positive feedback (using the list of traits, skills, and competencies that we have created) on that students’ writing. The more we do this, the more comfortable students become with this practice.
Eventually, graduate to sharing students’ writing publicly and having students give feedback about what could be improved in the writing. Again, start with the specific positive feedback and then on the same piece of writing, have students share specific feedback around growth areas.
Later in the year, before final drafts of essays are due, we have an activity that we call “crit” (short for critique). A few days before a final draft of an essay is due, I invite students to put their names in a folder and share their writing with their peers to receive feedback from classmates. I draw names out of the folder and each student whose name I draw gets 15 minutes of feedback on their essay.
During crit, not only do students share feedback, but they also support each other with making revisions based on the specific feedback. And the “rule” is that whatever revisions are recommended during feedback, a student is welcome to keep and add into their final draft.
