If learners don’t have time in which to implement the feedback you provide then that feedback is wasted.
Feedback only has an impact if it is used – not if it is dismissed, forgotten, or overtaken by events.
If we want learners to view feedback positively – as a useful tool in the pursuit of mastery and development – then we need to ensure they have ample experience of what feedback can give rise to when it is successfully implemented.
For this reason, it is important that you make use of target implementation strategies in your lessons.
These are any strategies in which the primary focus is on learners implementing the targets you have set them.
Here are five simple strategies you can use.
Target Tracker Sheets
This is a sheet stuck into the front of learners’ books on which all major targets are recorded.
Teachers and learners can then refer to the sheet at the beginning of lessons and activities, helping to keep the most recent targets fresh in the mind.
Write/Do/Reflect
Learners write their target at the top of the page.
They then do the activity the teacher has set, trying to implement their target as they go.
Finally, they reflect on how successful they were – either in discussion with a partner or by writing a short paragraph at the end of their work.
Plan/Do/Reflect
As above but with practical activities.
Here the learner reminds themselves of their target and plans how to implement it.
They then attempt to execute their plan before reflecting on what happened and the extent to which they were successful.
You can develop this into a virtuous circle whereby learners try again after their reflection.
Feedback – Activity – Feedback – Activity
The teacher plans a lesson that follows this structure.
For example, the lesson begins with the whole class receiving feedback.
The teacher then introduces an activity in which learners can try to use their feedback.
Once this is finished, the teacher provides additional feedback, giving learners suggestions for how they might further improve their work.
A second activity is introduced, and learners attempt to put their new feedback into practice.
Mid-Lesson Target Review
The teacher plans a mid-lesson review in which the focus is on reviewing targets and assessing how successful learners have been in meeting these.
This is a good way to remind learners of their targets and to keep them in view as the lesson progresses.
Directed Improvement and Reflection Time (D.I.R.T.)
D.I.R.T. – which stands for Directed Improvement and Reflection Time – is a target implementation technique that has been popular for many years.
The premise is simple.
Set aside a specific period of the lesson in which everyone’s focus is on:
- The implementation of feedback
- Reflecting on the work you’ve done
- Improving your work
The idea gains its power from the fact that most teachers understand the utility of such an activity but also realise that without defining a period of time as being exclusively for this purpose, the demands of getting through the content are likely to take over.
To put it another way, planning D.I.R.T. into the lesson and putting a red box around it means we are much more likely to make sure it happens and that the time doesn’t get eaten up by other, seemingly more pressing, demands.
Here are some examples of how you can include D.I.R.T. as part of your planning:
D.I.R.T. Starters
Instead of introducing new content in your starter activities, plan to let learners use this time to improve their work or to reflect on and discuss their most recent targets.
This could be done at the start of every day in a primary school, or at the start of some lessons in a secondary school (bearing in mind that you might not want to do it at the start of every lesson).
D.I.R.T. Plenaries
Plan extended plenaries in which learners must go back and improve their work.
Supplement this with a list of different things they can focus on – or even a set of illustrative targets from which learners can self-select.
Every nth Lesson
Plan D.I.R.T for every 3rd lesson or every 5th lesson, depending on how often you see learners and the wider demands of the curriculum.
For example, a Year 5 teacher might plan D.I.R.T. for every third literacy lesson while a Year 11 geography teacher might plan it for every fifth lesson.
D.I.R.T. Target Lists
Take in learners’ books and mark them.
Instead of writing individual targets, create a list of ten targets encompassing the various issues you identify in the class.
Return the books at the start of the next lesson and display the list on the board.
Invite learners to select a target and give them time in which to implement it.
Circulate as this happens, offering support, and ensuring learners choose suitably challenging targets.
D.I.R.T. Before Handing in Work
Set learners a major piece of work to complete.
Indicate that you will collect this in once it is complete.
Before you do this, announce that learners will have time in which to improve their work.
For example, this could be a twenty-minute D.I.R.T. lesson segment with different areas highlighted on the board on which learners could choose to focus their attention.
Demonstrating the Impact of Feedback
The strategies outlined above give several different ways through which to help learners implement your feedback.
This makes it more likely they will see the impact of using your feedback and view it positively.
And this is an important part of cultivating growth mindsets.
A learner who believes that feedback is a threat will tend to avoid it.
It is self-evident that this avoidance will include not trying to implement feedback that is given.
This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Feedback is deemed irrelevant.
Therefore, it is ignored.
Nothing changes and so the learner’s view that their talent, ability, and intelligence are fixed is borne out by events.
This confirms their original supposition that feedback is a waste of their time.
Demonstrating the impact of feedback means giving learners strong evidence – often irrefutable – that we can use feedback to improve.
It reinforces the growth mindset perspective on learning.
You can demonstrate the impact of feedback by using the various strategies above and then drawing learners’ attention to what happens as a result.
In each case, the aim is to make the connection in their minds between what they have done (used feedback provided to them, even if they didn’t particularly want to) and what has come about because of this (a development in what they can do, what they know, or what they understand).
Here are five further ways you can demonstrate the impact of feedback to your learners:
- Through one-to-one discussions. This is particularly useful if you have specific learners you want to target.
- By leading the whole class in a reflection that looks at what you have studied in the year so far.
- By asking learners to look back through their books and to identify where they have learned and developed because of the feedback they’ve received.
- By asking learners to compare two pieces of work. One on which they received feedback and one in which they implemented that feedback.
- By asking learners to highlight all the elements of a piece of work that have been influenced by the feedback they’ve received during the year.
Each of these techniques helps learners see the impact of feedback in concrete terms.
This often goes a long way to changing learners’ attitudes.
And it helps learners appreciate the effort they’ve put in, and how combining this with the feedback you’ve given them has led to good outcomes.
