Dear families
As you are aware, Visible Learning is an Aubin Grove school priority which focuses on a number of areas. One of these areas is feedback. Research tells us that feedback has a 0.7 effect size which means that it is very effective at improving student outcomes and significantly impacting on student progress. When teachers provide feedback to students they endeavour to categorise it into these three questions:
1. Where am I going?
2. How am I getting there?
3. Where to next?
Upon visiting your child’s classroom on Open Night, you would have seen feedback in various forms. This may have included stamps stating verbal feedback was given, checklists and rubrics with the Learning Intention and Success Criteria, highlighting and written comments. Feedback would have been used differently for various pieces of work. Some feedback would have been based on work being correct or incorrect, or asking students why they followed a specific process to complete something. In addition to this, feedback may have been aimed at extending a student to apply their thinking to a different concept.
Feedback is most effective when given in a timely manner, which means verbal discussion with students while they are working, is often more effective than writing a comment on a piece of work. Written comments can still be very purposeful, as long as students are given the time to reflect on the written comments and use the suggestions to improve their work. For this reason, teachers are reducing the amount of written feedback on final copies. A good example of this is within writing. The nature of writing lends itself to constructive, timely feedback throughout the process of drafting and editing, with the final copy of work showcasing each student’s ability to
demonstrate their progress over the course of the unit of work.
The manner in which teachers use and model feedback, helps students to understand the importance of actively seeking out feedback and not always waiting for it. With our school observation processes, teachers are also demonstrating the importance of being life long learners through receiving feedback on their teaching from other staff
and students.
The value we place on feedback is reflected within our Aubin Grove Learner Qualities. Students displaying the qualities of a ‘Communicator’, will be able to seek, give and act upon feedback. I encourage you to talk about feedback with your child to learn more about how it is used within the classroom.
