Creating a Culture of Feedback

I wish I'd have had this book prior to teaching without marks in class, but it was just published in 2017, so it came at the best time for me to digest ideas - SUMMER!

It took me about a month to read this skinny 64-page book, because I had to DO many of the things the authors suggested!  Much of what I was doing is on the right track and I simply tweaked some things, but of course I had to create while reading:

• Reading standards in student-friendly language and "not yet / you bet" charts
• Writing standards in student-friendly language and "not yet / you bet" charts
• Speaking & Listening standards in student-friendly language and "not yet / you bet" charts
• Note: I will only choose 5-8 essential standards per unit so as not to overwhelm me OR the students!

[My next step is to do the same with grammar standards, as I think we're still using daily grammar practice next year (?), and I need to figure out my own goals, in addition to what I expect students to do. Last year was the first year I stuck with the grammar routine, and it did give us a common language we could use with students. It's still not my favorite, as the research points against teaching grammar in isolation, but it's still only five minutes of class time.]

I then typed up the "Observation Vs. Evaluation" chart they shared so I can share it with my students prior to us practicing peer feedback.

I thought it would be perfect to share with them one of the first days of school when we practice speaking in front of our peers with our first tiny bit of writing. Last year, the class gave a quick "thumbs up, middle or down" on volume when speaking. How simple it would be to share this chart prior to this activity - and then again and again as we practiced giving and receiving peer feedback?! Pair this with the story of Austin's Butterfly, and the culture of feedback can start strong. (Haven't seen that one? Hurry and soak up the six minutes of visible learning!)

Another perk about this gem of a book is that they organize it into three chapters that make sense for the process of feedback, and they constantly use language that makes the reader think of IMPROVING, and not judgment -

• Where am I going? 
• How am I doing?
• What are my next steps? 

Yes. Yes. Yes. I've highlighted and stuck notes on many pages, knowing I'll be keeping this book close at hand once the school year starts again. I'm going to use the language they use so that our class has an even better culture of learning and improving next year. I am excited for feedback in our classroom to lead to action and improvement. The goal "is to give students opportunities to practice making decisions about what's next based on feedback that they gather on their own" (52). My students and I have a long way to go. One step at a time...

Thank you, Bill Ferriter and Paul Cancellieri!

Update 8/14/17: Educator Bill Ivey reviewed this book here.

Thank you to Solution Tree press, who provided this book after I reviewed another of their books that will be published soon!

My "gradeless" resources so far: "FaR" tabs of our classroom Weebly

                                    Feedback Instead of Grades LiveBinder for parents to inspect
                                    My own reflections on this journey