Comments on: Another way to think about grading feedback

By: Morgan Chase

Morgan Chase — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 23:54:37 +0000

I appreciate your heartfelt exploration of your feelings regarding giving and receiving feedback, as well as the numerous concrete suggestions that the reader can implement right away. You may be interested in this article: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/difference-between-elicit-and-illicit ^ Paragraph 2 is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but we don't know each other and my humor doesn't translate well in plaintext. :)

By: Ralf Youtz

Ralf Youtz — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 16:35:29 +0000

Thank you, Stacie!

People, like our students and us teachers, have hearts along with our minds. Doing our best to engage both helps both students and us get so much more out of coursework.

You’ve shared some great tools here for engaging our students’ hearts along with their minds, while building more space in our hearts for our students.

By: Shirlee Geiger

Shirlee Geiger — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 21:57:20 +0000

Stacie,

THANK YOU for your wonderful post, asking us to think about how it student might receive our grading feedback AS we are giving it. Such good advice!!

I remember a day, long ago, when a department chair at another institution sat me down and told me I wasn’t being tough enough in my grading and feedback. His message was that I needed to flunk more people, and let students know there was a risk of flunking, in order to motivate students to take the work seriously.

I went away from that meeting thinking that I needed to be more covert in my encouragement and appreciation of students. With your message, I feel compassion can come out of the closet!! We can be effective instructors, with high expectations for our students, and be kind at the same time.

Whew!!!

By: Josephine Pino

Josephine Pino — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 21:05:34 +0000

This was a perfect read for today. I especially enjoyed that you shared real examples. I try to use this type of approach, but I feel like my phrases have gotten stale and redundant, and I’ve occasionally wondered if students see that too. Your examples are going to revitalize my feedback language. Thank you!

By: Delpha Thomas

Delpha Thomas — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 06:13:28 +0000

Great post, Stacie! I need to print out the bottom half and put it next to my computer, especially when I have a lot of student work to get through. I am also trying to remind myself to take breaks and eat something before grading. My words don’t flow as nicely if I am hungry or feel tired!

By: Stacey Fiddler

Stacey Fiddler — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:27:58 +0000

I really appreciate this article, especially the reminder that students can get defensive when they see criticism. At that point, any learning that we intend from our feedback is undermined. As an experienced teacher, I’ve done a lot of work in my career focused on the learning environment, but there are never any workshops on grading. This is the current focus for my self-reflection and course improvement, especially around equitable teaching practices. I think the most important idea for me to remember is growth mindset! I think the idea of fostering a growth mindset in students has really helped as I’ve had to move courses to fully remote and asynchronous these past few terms. Thanks for your specific examples and tips – I will be stealing some of them! And thank you for your vulnerability at the beginning of the post (has anyone read Brene Brown? Check her out). It makes me feel better about my own journey!

By: Jill Tuleya

Jill Tuleya — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:51:02 +0000

Aww, Stacie. There you go, tugging at the strings of our hearts. I love this message and will certainly use your advice this week in grading and talking with students. I appreciate you.

By: Jean E Mittelstaedt

Jean E Mittelstaedt — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 02:23:23 +0000

I try to use “I like…” and mention the specific thing I noticed. I also try to mention something the student could work on in this way: “What about if you tried…?” I sometimes ask about their choice: “Why did you…?” to get the student to think about it. Sometimes they will say, “I don’t know,” or sometimes they will look at it with fresh eyes and decide that they could do it differently. This even works on pesky grammar. :-)

By: Wendy Fresh

Wendy Fresh — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:51:53 +0000

Great information Stacie! Thanks for these ideas together in such a complete post.

By: Martha Bailey

Martha Bailey — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 20:18:04 +0000

Stacie,

Thank you for your honest sharing. I really appreciated reading your reflections and ideas.

Can you share more about how your 1-1 discussion board works? Both how it is set up and how you get students to use it, please! It’s something I’d like to have, but haven’t hit on how to make it work, and it looks like you have.