Read More
Research in Action
issue 85 jun 2023
Effective Feedback Strategies for English Language & Literature Classrooms
How can teachers implement a pedagogy of feedback in their English Language and English Literature classrooms? After working with a team of NIE researchers to design a pedagogy of feedback, three teachers from Edgefield Secondary School and Naval Base Secondary School recount their experiences of promoting students’ uptake of feedback.
Aligning Teachers’ Assessment Literacy with Students’ Learning Outcomes
The connections between teachers’ assessment literacy and students’ learning outcomes can be represented as a sequence of questions for teachers, as shown in Figure 1. The four boxes represent a chronology, starting from teachers attending professional development courses on assessment feedback (Box 1, Knowledge), then applying feedback principles to their practice (Box 2, Actions), with students subsequently acting on teachers’ enhanced feedback (Box 3, Response), and finally with students achieving desired learning outcomes from acting on the feedback (Box 4, Outcomes). Boxes 3 and 4 in this model highlight how the efficacy of feedback rests with students’ action.
Figure 1. Aligning teachers’ assessment literacy with students’ learning outcomes.
Goh, R., & Tan, K. H. K. (2023). Teachers’ qualitatively different ways of experiencing assessment feedback: Implications for teacher assessment literacy. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 46(2), 253–269. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2023-0207
“The four-box model shows that while it is important for teachers to reflect on the assessment feedback practices they have implemented in the classroom, equal emphasis must also be placed on studying what students do with teacher feedback,” explains Dr Rachel Goh, Senior Specialist (English Language) at the English Language Institute of Singapore. “There needs to be a shift in focus from supporting students in reading the feedback given and doing corrections, to ensuring that students actually learn from the feedback.”
So how can teachers ensure that their assessment feedback practices have indeed helped their students develop the ability to critically evaluate their own work, and achieve their learning objectives? The four-box model offers a way to align what teachers know and do in terms of assessment feedback with what students do with teachers’ feedback, and what they learn from acting on the feedback.
In the next section, three teachers of English Language and Literature recount their experiences of carrying out classroom inquiry projects to explore the pedagogy of feedback and ways of helping their students to learn from acting on feedback.
Feedback Pedagogy that Supports Students in Writing an Argumentative Essay
“Assessment feedback, however, is more than just pointing out and correcting mistakes. It also encompasses providing an assessment of how well the students have done.”
– Yui Yun, on assessment feedback
Mrs Koh-Ng Yui Yun, HOD (English Language & Literature) at Edgefield Secondary School (EFSS), reports that after implementing a pedagogy of feedback in the English Language classroom, student engagement with feedback increased.
“Reflecting on past practices has made us realize that teachers tend to typically focus on errors and correct the mistakes made by the students. Assessment feedback, however, is more than just pointing out and correcting mistakes. It also encompasses providing an assessment of how well the students have done.”
There were three stages to implementing a pedagogy of feedback that supported Secondary 1 Express students in writing an argumentative essay.
Yui Yun explains that, during Stage 1 of teaching students how to write an argument, teachers guided students to look at the paragraph level instead of the whole essay. To help students achieve clarity about task requirements, teachers prioritized a set of criteria for effective writing. Thereafter, students were taught a clear structure for writing an argument.
“When teachers gave feedback during Stage 2, we focused on how well the students had applied the structure,” she continues. “We also annotated each of their scripts to identify their learning gaps.”
She notes that it was at this juncture of the inquiry project that teachers conducted a quantitative pre-survey for students to determine their engagement with and uptake of feedback.
At Stage 3 after the feedback was received, students were instructed to act on the feedback by refining their original paragraphs.
Yui Yun adds that a further post-intervention survey was then conducted to track if there was any change in how students read and acted on feedback.
“The post-survey showed that there had been an improvement in the students’ uptake of the feedback as well as their motivation to engage with feedback and work on it. As a result, students developed a sense of greater ownership towards their writing.”
Feedback Pedagogy for Teaching Situational Writing
At Naval Base Secondary School (NBSS), three strategies have been used to actively involve students in evaluating their own work. The main aim, according to Mdm Rathna Suppiah, Lead Teacher, English Language at NBSS, is to shift the onus from the teacher to the students in addressing learning gaps.
“When teaching situational writing, Strategy 1 involved teachers marking the introduction and conclusion parts of each essay, as well as identifying three language errors. Students would then work on those three errors for the body paragraphs. This ensured that students put in effort towards identifying and correcting their mistakes.”
Strategy 2, she adds, involved having students read their essays 10 minutes before submission so that they could spot content and grammar errors.
“Some students requested a grammar checklist that they could use to check and regulate their essays. Based on this grammar checklist, many students are becoming better at identifying errors and rectifying them,”.
Strategy 3 is based on the concept of “economies of scale”, where more help was given to low readiness students so that there would be a decreased cost-per-unit of teachers’ time as it was spread over more units of students’ learning gaps/needs.
“The grammar checklist was also useful for students with high readiness, as they were able to find and fix their language errors independently. However, I had issues with low readiness students who required more support,” Rathna remarks. “As such, I had the low readiness students type out their essays using Google Docs, where they could use functions such as spell check to help them fix their learning gaps and minimize their spelling errors.”
“Comparison between students’ self–assessment and the teachers’ assessment done afterwards showed only a small difference. This indicated that the students were able to make an accurate gauge of their performance,” she concludes.
Feedback Pedagogy in the Literature Classroom
“After reflecting on the assessment feedback strategies I have implemented in the classroom, I find that students are capable of identifying their learning gaps and putting in effort to improve their literature essays. More importantly, now I know for sure that students will engage with and benefit from the feedback given to them.”
– Brennan reflects on the assessment feedback strategies he has implemented in the classroom
Mr Brennan Kwa, English Language Subject Head at EFSS, applied the enhanced pedagogy of feedback to literature essays done during assignments, Weighted Assessments and examinations.
“Students were tasked to assess and grade their own literature assignments based on the qualitative feedback and marking rubrics that I’ve given to them previously. The rubrics we provided to students were adapted from existing marking schemes and catered to students’ needs and utilized for self-evaluation and reflection. They needed to input the grade they have given themselves, the rationale behind it and how they intended to improve their work in Google Sheets,” he explains. “All these are done via Google Classroom, which meant all students would have access to the marks and comments.”
The intent behind this exercise was to get students to engage more effectively and meaningfully with the teacher’s feedback and be more reflective and evaluative with the uptake of feedback in their assignments and assessments.
After this was done, Brennan revealed the grades that he had given to each student’s individual essay assignment. This allowed students to evaluate if they had assessed their work correctly and identified the areas for improvement accurately.
“An advantage of this pedagogy of feedback is that it only takes about 20 to 30 minutes for students to reflect and evaluate on their assignments, and complete this exercise. It is actually a very quick way for teachers to check in on students’ progress and let them understand where the students are at in terms of their learning, understanding and mastery of the subject matter,” he says.
The pedagogy of feedback was also applied after preliminary and end-of-year examinations in which students were tasked to reflect on their performance during the examinations.
“Google Sheets are still used, but I have made some changes to the previous strategy. There are now various components that students need to comment on, for example Paper One and Paper Two,” he explains.
He shares that the students’ comments and evaluations show their understanding of their learning and how to improve on bridging the gaps between their learning and assessments. For instance, students’ comments that he received included, “Better time management is needed” and “I should use more evidence”.
“This is actually a good learning point for me. Based on the comments I had received, I could get a quick snapshot of all my students’ progress and learning. If necessary, I could also provide timely intervention as I knew some of the areas that students might be struggling with and how to help them work on it more effectively,” he states.
“After reflecting on the assessment feedback strategies I have implemented in the classroom, I find that students are capable of identifying their learning gaps and putting in effort to improve their literature essays. More importantly, now I know for sure that students will engage with and benefit from the feedback given to them,” he concludes.
