Providing Effective and Empowering Feedback

Change is a certainty in the field of education. Like all professionals, teachers are learners, striving to increase impact on student learning: as we know more, we do better. In a time of large system change, such as with a new curriculum, it is essential to focus on teacher practice. High quality instructional materials are key to student learning, and the teacher is the most important factor to student learning. Teachers are the people who nurture classroom community and student relationships in order to learn student’s strengths and fund of knowledge; teachers use this knowledge to provide high quality instructional practices to bring a curriculum to life for students.

In this post, I want to discuss feedback and how feedback is important for growth. I need to receive feedback from colleagues, students, and families in order to do better. I also need to self-reflect in order to provide myself feedback on what is working and what needs to change. Read more for suggestions on how to give feedback to students, self, and colleagues, in service to student growth.

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Pedagogy of Voice

Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation is a text I highly recommend! I cannot put the book down and know that it is going to drive much of my coaching and continuous improvement work around equity next year. In this post I want to highlight a section of the book on Pedagogy of Voice. This section connects to my past four posts on feedback.

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Constructive Feedback

In my last post, I began a summary of Tell Me So I Can Hear You, by Drago-Severson and Blum-DeStefano. In this post, I want to continue the summary by focusing on constructive feedback and bridging feedback into action. Action is where the impact of change is felt, and where we can develop more equitable schools and teaching practices.

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Effective Feedback

Three months ago I started learning to play the piano. I’m using an app that listens to what I play and gives me feedback. It slows down if I need a slower pace, and has me repeat sections that are difficult. I also get emails indicating if I haven’t practiced in awhile and congratulating me when I’ve completed a practicing streak. Reflecting on this positive experience and how quickly I’m learning to play and reflecting on the conversations in which I have received valuable feedback, I decided to reread and synthesize a few books on giving feedback to educators. Today I will summarize one of the books: Tell Me So I Can Hear You, by Drago-Severson and Blum-DeStefano.

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