STUDENT FEEDBACK Don’t ask students to hit invisible targets.

Miriam Plotinsky

MiddleWeb

In her MiddleWeb article, Miriam Plotinsky emphasizes the importance of making success criteria clear and understandable for students to foster meaningful feedback. Plotinsky argues that feedback often falls short when students do not fully grasp the expectations or criteria for success. This lack of clarity can lead to misunderstandings and frustration. She advises teachers to avoid what she calls the "feedback hole," where feedback is one-sided and students are left unsure about how to improve. Instead, she recommends creating and sharing specific, objective criteria for success that are easy for students to interpret and apply to their work.

Plotinsky uses an analogy to illustrate her point: if you ask a friend to buy an apple but don’t specify your preferences (like crispness or sweetness), it's unfair to be disappointed if they choose an apple that doesn’t meet your standards. This scenario mirrors the classroom, where students are often expected to meet vague or unspoken goals. Plotinsky advises educators to avoid placing students in a similar situation by providing them with clear, detailed expectations for assignments from the start.

This approach to feedback benefits students by allowing them to track their progress against explicit goals, fostering a greater sense of achievement and understanding. It also minimizes confusion, helping students feel more confident and engaged in their work. Plotinsky suggests that teachers create a “criteria-for-success” checklist that students can easily reference to understand precisely what they need to achieve and improve upon.

The MiddleWeb article also includes resources on effective feedback from other educators, such as Barbara Blackburn’s “The Eight Essentials of Good Student Feedback,” Larry Ferlazzo’s insights on motivating feedback, and Curtis Chandler’s strategies for delivering quick and focused feedback. These resources emphasize the value of feedback that is constructive, clear, and timely, all of which align with Plotinsky’s advocacy for transparency and student-friendly feedback.

Original Article

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com