Beginning of Year Tools: Feedback Systems
Many educators would probably agree that feedback is one of the most invaluable tools in the trade. Feedback helps students grow and reflect on their mistakes. Without it, students may not know how to proceed with their learning and will not make progress.
The problem with feedback, however, is that it can be time consuming to do well. How often do we wish that we had more time to write comments, to conference with students, to let them know exactly how to fix it rather than giving general advice? Or we give feedback only to have it ignored? Luckily, there are a few tools out there that can streamline the feedback process.
For Latin teachers in particular, there is a great website called Magistrula.com. I have talked about it before, but if you are unfamiliar with the site, it allows you to create chart exercises based on declining nouns or conjugating verbs. It also can create random sentences that can be used for translation practice featuring various grammatical topics . What makes it a powerful tool is that it is highly customizable and it gives instant feedback. I frequently suggest students use the website to hone in on particular skills – and they can do it at home or wherever they happen to be because it provides the correct answers right after submission.
However, something I am most proud of this year is creating a workflow that allows my students to self assess their learning while allowing input and feedback from me. Using a combination of Google Classroom and various Google Spreadsheets and Forms Add-Ons, students are able to create an automatically updating “Progress Report” of their reflections and goals, which also gets emailed to their parents. I then conference with each of the students and can provide feedback about what they’ve written and suggestions for moving forward.
Though I spend a portion of each of my classes conferencing with students, (and you could do this differently; meet them after school, or don’t meet with them at all and give feedback solely through digital means) I find that my students have become very honest with themselves in terms of their own goals and the extra amount of time spent learning about them has already improved the feel of the classroom environment. The process helps keep my students centered and engaged with their own learning, and helps them differentiate at a micro-level. In fact, homework is completely student-driven and customized.
Have a look here at my write up and video tutorial for the specific steps required to create the workflow. I will admit that there is an initial time investment and learning curve to get the process up and running, but so far I have found that it is worth the time and effort.