Blurring the Line Between Summative and Formative Assessment with Interactive Feedback
Foreword:
A while ago I posted about using aText to speed up grading time while still giving feedback to students. If you want to read that post, click here. I will skim over how to use aText in this post, but my previous post will give you a more detailed version of how to use aText.
Here is an overview of how to use aText: Using aText to Create Faster, More Effective Feedback
This will be an updated version of that post. I've taken some of those basic concepts and refined them to be more effective with students.
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As a Language Arts teacher, feedback and comments on student writing is one of the most frustrating parts of my job. I love giving students encouragement and helping them see areas where they could improve, but it's not working out that way. It's not helping the students as much as it should. So I began really thinking about what feedback should do, and I came up with the following statement of purpose for any feedback I give.
Feedback should always be objective and honest, instill confidence in the student, promote future learning, and be useful outside of the current assessment.
That principle is now the guiding force behind my method of feedback; it helped me develop the integrated system that I use now. Here's the system that I now use for feedback.
1) Collect work digitally.
I know this is not at all a new concept to anyone, but the importance of this has really been highlighted recently. When students submit their work digitally, they keep everything. They develop their own portfolio of the writing they've done in the class. I use Google Classroom for this, but there are a number of different LMS platforms available.
2) Attach a rubric to the document using Doctopus and Goobric.
If you haven't looked into Doctopus and Goobric, you should. It's a bit complicated to set up at first, but they allow you to attach a rubric at the bottom of a student's piece of writing. Not only that, but this pairing gives you really valuable insight into how many times a student has revised, the word count, how many comments were added, etc.
For more information on how to use Doctopus and Goobric, click here.
3) Add comments using aText for additional instruction, links to websites, and Google Forms.
I can't begin to explain how useful aText is for me. It forces me to be much more focused and objective while still saving time. Not only that, but I can insert links and resources to help facilitate individual learning in the amount of time it takes me to type a couple of letters.
For more information on how to use aText, click here.
4) Collect assessment data on specific skills using Google Forms.
In my aText comments, I attach a link to a Google Form that addresses that specific skills or concept. This allows students to have another opportunity to learn and attempt that skill or concept. When I gather their responses, I just make sure I set Google Forms to quiz mode, and then I get a quick snapshot of how the reteaching went.
A while ago I posted about using aText to speed up grading time while still giving feedback to students. If you want to read that post, click here. I will skim over how to use aText in this post, but my previous post will give you a more detailed version of how to use aText.
Here is an overview of how to use aText: Using aText to Create Faster, More Effective Feedback
This will be an updated version of that post. I've taken some of those basic concepts and refined them to be more effective with students.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As a Language Arts teacher, feedback and comments on student writing is one of the most frustrating parts of my job. I love giving students encouragement and helping them see areas where they could improve, but it's not working out that way. It's not helping the students as much as it should. So I began really thinking about what feedback should do, and I came up with the following statement of purpose for any feedback I give.
Feedback should always be objective and honest, instill confidence in the student, promote future learning, and be useful outside of the current assessment.
That principle is now the guiding force behind my method of feedback; it helped me develop the integrated system that I use now. Here's the system that I now use for feedback.
1) Collect work digitally.
I know this is not at all a new concept to anyone, but the importance of this has really been highlighted recently. When students submit their work digitally, they keep everything. They develop their own portfolio of the writing they've done in the class. I use Google Classroom for this, but there are a number of different LMS platforms available.
2) Attach a rubric to the document using Doctopus and Goobric.
If you haven't looked into Doctopus and Goobric, you should. It's a bit complicated to set up at first, but they allow you to attach a rubric at the bottom of a student's piece of writing. Not only that, but this pairing gives you really valuable insight into how many times a student has revised, the word count, how many comments were added, etc.
For more information on how to use Doctopus and Goobric, click here.
3) Add comments using aText for additional instruction, links to websites, and Google Forms.
I can't begin to explain how useful aText is for me. It forces me to be much more focused and objective while still saving time. Not only that, but I can insert links and resources to help facilitate individual learning in the amount of time it takes me to type a couple of letters.
For more information on how to use aText, click here.
4) Collect assessment data on specific skills using Google Forms.
In my aText comments, I attach a link to a Google Form that addresses that specific skills or concept. This allows students to have another opportunity to learn and attempt that skill or concept. When I gather their responses, I just make sure I set Google Forms to quiz mode, and then I get a quick snapshot of how the reteaching went.