Writing Feedback Idea

What does your essay feedback look like?

I was correcting my student's essay the other day and started writing my feedback for her essay, and then I thought to myself, "Will she read all this? Will she benefit from it?" So, I racked my brain a bit and then came up with a brilliant idea! Feedback Q & A for my student. Have I grabbed your attention yet, fellow teacher? Great! Now, read on. So, let's take things from the beginning.

Background information

The learner: My student is a C2 level learner who has been learning English for approximately 7 years now. She will be sitting for C2 level certificate exams at the end of the year. She is a studious learner. She had to write an essay about the advantages and disadvantages of using the internet.

The teacher's feedback track record: Although my feedback style varies, often when I comment on my students' essays I : 

• Circle/mark/correct things on the essay.
• Follow up with feedback comments where I rewrite/ correct some of the mistakes/ give grammar comments/talk about organisation-content and so on.
• I follow the sandwich method (strength-weakness-strength OR you did this-you didn't do this-you need to do this).
• I use the learner's L1 when my student is a bit weak and when I see L1/L2 transfer errors.
• I do not comment about every single mistake in the essay.
• I try to make my feedback page one page long (A4).
• I do not squash everything up. I like space!
• I use bullet points not numbers.
• I use smiley faces : ) and sad faces : ( (sometimes there are even tears!).
• My comments are handwritten. The good old-fashioned way.
• I never use a red pen!

Why do I do this?
 Well, I have been correcting essays like this for many many years so, it is only natural for me to write my feedback page! I feel like I haven't corrected an essay if I do not state their mistakes/ strengths clearly or if I do not make suggestions on what they could have written.

  

My students' opinion of my (lengthy) feedback:
Some learners read it and like it. They learn from their mistakes. I often tell them to go over the feedback from all the essays they have written to check if any of their mistakes reoccur. Others don't bother reading it. They just take their notebook and chuck it in their bag. The latter for me, as a teacher, is demotivating. I then think of all the students who do read and do learn from my comments, so I keep writing my feedback comments page.

What did I do differently this time?

Feedback Q & A?

As I said earlier,I get discouraged when my students do not bother to read what I have written and I also want to check to see if they have learnt something from what I wrote. I also want to see if they can reflect on what they have written. So, I thought, " Hey! What if I ask them questions about the feedback? Something like a feedback questionnaire? " and I did. I made a feedback quiz/drill/reflection page!See picture.OK, so it ain't the best thing you have ever seen but it is a start and I do think it will benefit my learners.

What did my learner think?

She said that she liked the idea (implication: would she have told me if she didn't? Hopefully, yes). My questions were focused on the mistakes she had made in her writing task. She also had an opportunity to amend some of her errors. She got extra practice on some of the things she got wrong in her essay. I asked her a question about the strengths of her essay. She found pinpointing them quite hard. I was expecting the latter because upon reflect, I do not know about you guys, but whilst I write down the positive points of my students' essays, I do not often ask them to tell me what they think is good about their essay.

Why should a teacher try this?

Well, if nothing else, you ensure that your learner actually looks at the written feedback you have given him. They notice their mistakes! Your learner, depending on the questions/tasks you put on this Q&A form will get a chance to correct any mistakes/ make new sentences with the language he got wrong and so on. It is also a great opportunity for him to reflect not only on his strengths but also the weaknesses.

BUT.... and there is always a but....

this is VERY time consuming for you and the class. I would not make a little feedback Q&A page for every single piece of writing my students give me but I would do it from time to time because it does help my learners. I think I would be more eclectic as to when I make these feedback Q&A pages and branch them out to different genres so that my learners can look closely at different types of texts.

You can do this with any writing class and with all learners, so try it out. Will your students' writing be impeccable? Maybe not. Improved? Yeap!

Downloadable writing feedback Q & A idea. Step by step

Feedback Q.docx

I really enjoyed this blog post. I hope you did too. Feel free to comment below. I am interested in seeing if you do this in your writing classes and how effective you think it is.
  A few days later... note to the reader... This post was shortlisted for this month's (June) Teaching English blog post award, so if you like it, go to the Teaching English via the British Council Facebook page, scroll down to where it says this blog post has been shortlisted and press 'like'. Either way, thanks so much for reading : ) and thanks to the Teaching English Facebook page for shortlisting this post : D

Till next time.....