Using Collaborative Tools to Rethink the Feedback Model

Screen Shot 2013-12-02 at 3.04.19 PM         How is feedback changing for me? How am I changing feedback for my students?

With the final session just days away, the action plan completed and the blog still to write, I will end this part of the journey with a reflection on feedback.  I think the biggest takeaway for me is that the technology has allowed me to foster conversations around feedback in some pretty new and exciting ways.  I began the year looking for ways to improve my practice and ultimately provide students with feedback that was kind, helpful, and timely.  Throughout the course of my time at cohort 21, things began to shift for me and the action plan became more about creating dialogue, rather than a passive downloading of feedback onto a student assignment.   To engage the students in an authentic conversation about their work became the real “aha moment” of my year.

As a busy English teacher and leader in our growing writing centre, the struggle has always been to ensure that all of our students can find the support they need.  The school I work in has an extensive co-curricular program, demanding academics and a long school day.  This all means that students are pulled in a number of directions at the end of each day.  Struggling to find time to meet during the posted hours was often difficult for some students.  Within the classroom, I also struggled to find a way to work with students to provide timely feedback that didn’t begin and end with me.  I wanted to redefine the traditional (and terribly passive) feedback model to engage and challenge students to contribute.

In and out of the classroom, I have begun to work outside the confines of the four walls to support students and begin a conversation or dialogue  around their writing.  By utilizing the collaborative nature of Google drive with an extension app Kaizena, I can provide students with a number of exciting options.  The application allows for a section of text to be highlighted and the teacher can leave audio comments for the student.  No longer do you need a pen and tiny scribbled in the margins! You are able to record your thoughts, suggestions and feedback right on the document itself.  If a student is struggling with a concept, I am able to provide links for support within the application.   I have begun to use this when editing student work and the immediacy of the comments are so helpful for students and not limited by the writing centre hours or the classroom!    This exciting application makes feedback quick, helpful and timely- all necessary for success in the feedback game!

Finally, I am reconsidering so much in terms of student engagement in their written feedback for this term and beyond.   How can I ask more of my students? What will this look like?   Well, it may begin by asking for feedback on my feedback.  Rather than writing annotations in the body of a piece of work and then giving an overall comment, perhaps I will only write annotation and ask for the overall comment to be written by the student themselves! What do YOU see as strengths in your piece? What doesn’t work?  What needs improvement?  It might look like a lot LESS pink pen or highlighted comments in the margins of a google doc.  It may be more of a conversation and a lot less marking each little mistake or comma.  Let’s work together to figure out what could use improvement with this piece! We need to also recognize and acknowledge what is really working in the writing as well!

In the end, I’m reminded that “learners need endless feedback  more than they need endless teaching.”

Here is my final action research prezi on collaboration and feedback!

http://prezi.com/hkpzo2ivcrng/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

With gratitude for the journey,

Danielle

2 thoughts on “Using Collaborative Tools to Rethink the Feedback Model

  1. Congratulations, Danielle…you consolidated your learning in an inspiring and thoughtful way.

    Can I give you feedback on your posting about feedback? Is that too meta?

    Brent Hurley was also looking at feedback for his action plan and he did some interesting work around getting feedback from his students about his feedback (now THAT’S meta!) – definitely check out his blog before Friday if you have a chance and pick his brain at RSGC:

    http://go.feeder.co/?id=32290X899567&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcohort21.com%2Fbrenthurley%2F%3Fp%3D51

    I’m also fondly remembering our coffee chat at MaRS and remembering how very full your life is (a teacher’s life full…shocker, I know!)..I’m wondering if you managed to find a through-path for managing feedback to serve both you and your students. Students definitely need endless feedback…AND teacher’s sanity needs to be factored in. If you had any “a ha” moments, I know the Cohort would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

    Looking forward to seeing your face our final F2F on Friday!

  2. Hi Danielle,

    I am the Dept. Chair of English at Villanova College, and I have been following your tweets and posts regarding the use of collaborative tools to rethink the feedback model. I have so enjoyed your journey as you engage students in the meta-cognitive process through assessment as learning pieces, such as the comment tool within Google docs.

    I have been using this tool with my grade 10 students, as they wrote a collaborative opinion piece for Science and English. It was really great to see the students using the feedback provided, and it also showed them that through Google docs they can connect the language learning done in English class with the concepts of the Science class. The students saw that we, the Science teacher, the students and I, were in this learning process together, sharing information, exploring ideas and communicating them through effective writing.

    Keep on exploring these tools; they are so great, and they so enrich the learning process for both teacher and student.

    Sally Mastromonaco

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