Whole-Class Feedback Techniques

Assessment for learning is simple.

It involves three things:

• Eliciting and Using Information
• Opening Up Success Criteria
• Giving Formative Feedback

Here, I’m going to run through nine examples of whole-class feedback techniques, all of which you can use to elicit information from your learners.

You can then use this information adapt and tailor your teaching in the moment and/or your future planning.

This is one of the fundamental mechanisms that makes AFL effective.

Strategy 1: Post-It Notes

Post-it notes are a great way to elicit feedback from your whole class.

This is because they are sufficiently cheap and flexible for all learners to be given one (or more) and for these to be annotated in a short space of time.

Here are three ways you can use them:

• Post-It Notes Example 1

Give each learner a post-it note.

Ask or display a question, or provide learners with a statement to which they should respond.

Learners write their answers on their notes.

You then collect these in and look at them before the next lesson.

Consider in advance whether you want learners to add their names to the answers they write, or if you are happy for it to remain anonymous. Both approaches have merit, depending on what you want to achieve.

• Post-It Notes Example 2

Display a question or statement on the board. Give each learner a post-it note.

Ask them to write down their response and to then stick this on the board.

You can look through these as learners stick them up.

When all the post-its are on the board, you have a few options.

First, you can select some of the most interesting ones and use these as the basis of discussion.

A classic way to do this is to read one of the responses out and to then say: ‘Sixty seconds, talk to your partner. Do you agree or disagree with what you’ve just heard, and why? Off you go.’

Second you can look at them after the lesson is over.

If you go for this option, do the activity as a plenary. This means that when learners have left the room, you’ll have a whiteboard filled with their thinking, ready for you to analyse.

Third, invite a couple of learners to spend some time sorting and analysing the different responses.

This can work particularly well as an extension task for more-able learners.

When the learners have finished the task, they can present their findings to the rest of the class.

• Post-It Notes Example 3

Give each learner a post-it note.

Ask or display a question, or provide learners with a statement to which they should respond.

Learners write their answers on their notes.

Next, they hold these up in the air so you (and other learners) can see them.

You can use this as a chance to quickly assess what learners are thinking as a whole.

Or, you can use it as a starting point for follow-up questioning and discussion.

Strategy 2: Mini-Whiteboards

Mini-whiteboards are a more expensive method of eliciting whole-class feedback.

If you have a class set, fantastic.

Their functionality is high and they tend to be durable.

They are best used consistently, over an extended period. This way, learners get used to them and, for younger learners, the process of getting them out, finding a pen, and putting them away.

Here are five ways you can use mini-whiteboards to elicit information from your class:

• Ask learners a question and tell them to write their answers on their whiteboards. They then hold these up so you can see what everyone has written.
• Display three faces on the board. One should be happy, one in the middle, and one glum. They should be accompanied by sentences such as: ‘I am confident with the learning’; ‘I feel OK about the learning’; ‘I do not feel confident about the learning’. Ask learners to draw the face that best represents how they feel and to hold this up for you to see.
• Use the numbers 1-5 instead of smiley faces. This allows for a wider range of responses. The numbers ‘2’ and ‘4’ are in-betweeners, giving learners a chance to indicate if they are confident but not totally confident, or unsure but not totally unsure.
• Ask learners to write on their whiteboards what they feel has been the ‘muddiest part’ of the lesson. This is the thing that is least clear to them, or that is causing them the greatest difficulty. The bit they have had to wade through, or in which they found themselves stuck. When learners hold up their whiteboards, you can quickly see if there is a trend across the class.
• Ask learners to respond to a question or statement in a certain way. For example, through drawing, by using exactly seven words, through an equation or with a diagram. They then hold up their answers, giving you an insight into how they are thinking and whether they have been able to successfully deal with the criteria you specified for their answers.

Strategy 3: Exit Passes

An exit pass is a slip of paper that learners must hand in on their way out of the classroom.

Learners write an answer to a question, a response to a statement, or an assessment of their learning on the slip.

The teacher decides if this is anonymous or if learners should include their names.

Exit passes are handed to the teacher, collected in by a learner, or placed in a box (like a poll booth) positioned on the teacher’s desk or near the door.

Before the next lesson, the teacher can look through the exit passes and use these to inform their planning.

To elicit the most useful information, you should think in advance about what you want on the exit passes and, therefore, the question or statement you ask learners to respond to (or whether a self-assessment is preferable).

For example, you might use a hinge question to assess whether learners are labouring under any misconceptions regarding a key part of the learning.

Or you might want to know how learners felt about a new activity you used.

Or you might want to find out whether the level of challenge was right. For example, by asking learners to grade this using a ten-point scale.

Whatever you want from your exit passes, specifying this in advance is key. That way, you can plan to elicit the information about which you are most interested.

Strategy 4: Cards

Create a set of cards your class can use to show you what they think. For example, in response to a question or a statement.

Here are three ways to do it:

• A, B, C, D cards.

Make a set of cards for every learner. Each will need four. A, B, C, D.

Display a series of questions on the board. Each should be accompanied by four possible answers, labelled: A, B, C, D.

Ask learners to show you which answer they think is right.

This lets you instantly assess what everyone in the class is thinking.

You can make life even easier for yourself by giving each letter a colour.

For example: A – Red, B – Blue, C – Green, D – Yellow.

This means, when learners show you their cards, you can assess the lay of the land even quicker, by seeing what colour predominates.

• True/False cards.

Make a set of cards that say True on one side and False on the other.

Hand these out to your learners.

Display a series of statements on the board and ask learners whether they think these are true or false.

Learners hold up the appropriate card, depending what they think.

Again, you can use the colour technique to make immediate assessment even quicker.

Blue for true and red for false means you’ll instantly assimilate a colour-based snapshot of what the class thinks.

This technique is particularly good for assessing misconceptions.

For example, you might use a statement like ‘All metals are magnetic’, with the express intention of swiftly identifying whether any learners are labouring under this misconception.

• Agree/Disagree cards.

As above, except this time your cards should say ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’ instead of True and False.

You can use this technique in the same way as the true/false cards.

However, it has the added benefit of being suitable for less clearcut statements. Agreeing with something is not quite the same as saying it s true, and there is greater scope for shades of grey.

If your learners are unsure whether they agree or disagree, they can hold their cards up sideways, to indicate uncertainty.

That’s still information for you to use.

Although time consuming, it is worth laminating your cards to increase their lifespan. You might also like to store them in bundles using rubber bands to help you avoid losing any.

Strategy 5: Fingers and Thumbs

You can elicit information from learners by asking them to use their hands.

Here are three ways to do it:

• Fingers and Thumbs Method 1

Ask learners to tell you how they are feeling about the learning by using their thumbs.

Explain that they should give a ‘thumbs up’ if they are feeling confident, a ‘thumbs in the middle’ if they are feeling OK, and a ‘thumbs down’ if they are feeling unconfident.

• Fingers and Thumbs Method 2

Ask learners to tell you how they are feeling about the learning by using their fingers.

Display a set of five statements on the board ranging from ‘I feel really confident with the learning’ to ‘I do not feel at all confident with the learning’.

These should be accompanied by the numbers one to five.

Learners consider which statement they most agree with and hold up the relevant number of fingers.

• Fingers and Thumbs Method 3

Display a question on the board accompanied by three, four or five possible answers.

Ask learners to decide which one they think is correct.

They should indicate what they are thinking by holding up the number of fingers that accords with their answer.

Strategy 6: Traffic Lights

You can use the traffic light colour scheme – red, amber, green – to elicit information from the whole class.

Here are three examples of how to do it:

• Traffic Lights Method 1

Create a class set of red, amber and green cards.

Hand these out to learners.

Ask them to display on their desks the card that tallies with how they are feeling about the learning.

Green = Feeling Confident

Amber = Feeling OK

Red = Not Feeling Confident

As the lesson progresses, give learners opportunities to change the colour they are displaying on their desks.

If you use this technique consistently, learners will get used to it. They should then start switching their colour cards around automatically, without needing you to prompt them.

The great benefit of this is that when it is working effectively, you can scan your classroom at any time and immediately see who needs help, allowing you to adapt what you are doing in the moment with a high degree of accuracy.

• Traffic Lights Method 2

At the end of the lesson, ask learners to write in their books the colour that represents how they feel about the learning.

If you have sufficient coloured pens available, hand these out and ask learners to write using the appropriate colour or to draw a circle and to colour it in.

When you take the books in, you can flick through and quickly see who is feeling what, as well as what the trends are across the class as a whole.

• Traffic Lights Method 3

At the end of the lesson, display the learning objective.

Ask learners to indicate whether they feel they have met this or not.

They can do this by showing you a colour card (green, red or amber), or by making a note in their books of which colour represents where they feel they are at.

Both approaches give you instantly accessible information you can use to gauge how learners across the class are feeling about the learning.

Strategy 7: Continuum

Display a statement on the board.

This could take one of the following forms:

• A statement about the learning. For example: ‘I feel I have understood everything we have done today.’
• A statement about the content of the learning. For example: ‘Rivers are a geographical feature.’
• A statement that is an opinion about some aspect of the learning. For example: ‘Goldilocks should not have eaten the porridge.’

Explain that one side of the room equates to ‘I completely agree’ and that the other side of the room equates to ‘I completely disagree’.

The area in between is a continuum.

The central point represents ‘I don’t know’, ‘I do not feel strongly either way’ or ‘I’m not sure’.

Invite learners to leave their seats and to position themselves at the point on the continuum that best fits with their feelings about the statement.

You might like to lay a piece of rope along the floor or to display a double-ended arrow on the board as a visual reinforcement of the continuum concept.

This activity lets you see what everyone thinks about the statement.

You can develop it by asking different learners to explain why they have placed themselves where they have.

This acts as as great starting point for a discussion of the statement.

If you go down this path, why not plan a series of related statements?

You can then move the discussion on by changing the statement and asking learners where they would now stand.

Another good tip is to wait until learners have assembled themselves and to then say: ‘OK, sixty seconds, talk to the person nearest to you. Tell them why you are standing where you are, and what, if anything, could change your mind. Off you go.’

Clearly, this activity involves learners standing up and moving around.

You will need to decide in advance if your learners can do that sensibly.

One way of introducing it gradually, and so familiarising learners with how you expect them to behave, is as follows.

Display a statement on the board.

Ask learners to draw a continuum in their books and to place themselves on it.

Invite a group of learners (perhaps a third of the class) to come up to the front and to place themselves on the imaginary continuum between the classroom walls, based on what they wrote in their books.

Question the learners and encourage learners who are sat down to ask questions as well.

Having run the activity a few times in this way, you will be better placed to let all learners stand up and come to the front.

They will know what to do and you will have habituated them into how the activity works.

If behaviour is tricky with your class, you might still find it helpful to invite learners up to the front in tranches, rather than all at once.

Strategy 8: Different Answers

This activity again involves movement. It uses more of the space in the classroom than ‘Continuum’.

Learners are given discrete rather continuous response-options.

As such, the method elicits slightly different information.

It works as follows.

Display a question on the board.

Indicate four areas of the room and state a possible answer tied to each of these.

You can do this through one of the following methods:

• Before the lesson, print off four answers to three different questions. Label the sets of answers: ‘Q1’, ‘Q2’ and ‘Q3’. Divide the answers into four piles. Each pile should have a Q1 answer, a Q2 answer and a Q3 answer. Stick these on the wall at four different points in the room. This gives you a chance to cycle through three different questions when doing the activity.
• Make four large labels containing the letters: A, B, C and D. Stick these to the wall at four different points in your room. When you display a question, also display four answers that are labelled: A, B, C and D.
• Take photographs of four different parts of your room. When you display a question on the board, also display four possible answers. For each one, attach an image. This means learners can quickly see which part of the room relates to which answer.

Whichever method you choose, once you have displayed your question, invite learners to go to the area of the room they believe indicates the correct answer.

You will instantly see what every learner thinks, and you can take it from there.

Strategy 9: Silent Debate

This discussion activity produces a large amount of writing conveying the ideas and opinions of the whole group.

It works as follows.

Write a series of statements or questions related to the topic in the middle of five or six large pieces of sugar paper. One per piece of paper.

Distribute these through the classroom.

Invite learners to walk round in silence and to write comments on the pieces of paper.

These should be responses to the questions and statements.

When they have done this, ask them to go round again and to comment on what other people have written.

They can do this by circling some else’s answer, drawing a line, and then writing their response at the end of this.

Anyone who talks is sent to the ‘naughty corner’ for thirty seconds.

The activity only works if everyone stays silent (plus, this creates great novelty and a unique atmosphere).

At the end of the activity you will have five or six sheets of paper containing a wealth of information about what your learners think and why they think it.

If you would like to track who writes what, divide the class into groups and give each group different coloured pens to use.

While you will not necessarily be able to identify comments as belonging to a specific learner, you will at least have a general idea of who came up with what (and may be able to make inferences based on a combination of colour, handwriting, and your own prior knowledge).

You can ask learners to sign their comments, but it can inhibit them, lessening the impact of the activity.

One nice alternative is to stick exemplar pieces of work on the sheets of sugar paper, in place of questions/statements.

Ask learners to assess the pieces of work and to write comments indicating what is good, what needs to be improved, and what stands out.

This turns the activity into a peer-assessment exercise and allows you to elicit information about whether the class as a whole have an accurate understanding of the relevant success criteria.