Provide Student Feedback to Define Quality Work

            Chapter two focuses on feedback from teachers to the students.  Feedback is important because it provides the information students need to know how they are progressing.  Feedback should be continuous, constructive, relevant, timely, specific, and sincere; which will offer students a greater opportunity to successfully reach their learning goals.  By providing feedback, teachers make an impact on student learning.  Feedback can motivate and guide students through the learning process.

            There are different types of feedback which include continuous, constructive, relevant, timely, specific, and sincere.  Each one of these types of feedback is important.  Teachers should use all these types of feedback for their students because students respond differently to all of the types of feedback.  The book gives examples of each style of feedback which helps in understanding them better and how to approach students with feedback.  Teachers do need to be careful when they are providing feedback because some students can take things personally.

            The next topic mentioned is the styles of feedback in the assessment process.  Assessment can either be formative or summative.  The manner in which the feedback is provided can be either formal or informal.  Formative assessment is ongoing and determines student performance on a continuum.  Summative assessment is culminating and identifies what the student has learned.  Both of these types of assessments provide the opportunity for teachers to inform students of their progress.  Formal feedback is mainly scheduled activities and provides documentation.  Informal feedback is ongoing and mostly used by teachers.  This is usually when teachers interact with the students in discussions, groups, and is more spontaneous.  This type also lacks documentation or proof that a message was conveyed.

            There are many helpful tools teachers can use to document student performance and provide feedback.  By using a variety of tools, teachers are able to accommodate all learning styles of the students.  The different types of resources the book mentions includes observation forms, journals, quick-writes, snowball activity, ticket/passport and in/out the door, dear abby, reflections, checklists, rubrics, rating scales, review activities, portfolios, individual or group conferences, and student performances.  I think each of these resources is very useful.  I also think teachers should use many of the different types.  Students like to have some variety, but still have structure.

            I think this chapter gives some great ideas of how to provide great feedback to students.  Sometimes students can handle feedback well, but some take it the wrong way.  This chapter provides ways of how to be polite, but still authoritative when providing feedback.  I think if teachers are creative in the different ways they provide feedback, they will have better responses from students.  Feedback is very important in the classroom and should be used continuously.

Briggs, Dianna. (2007). Provide Student Feedback to Define Quality Work. In M.L. Bush (Ed.), Assessment for an Evolving Business Education Curriculum (pp. 13-27). Reston, VA: National Business Education Association