Reflection 14: Feedback

Feedback is an area that I concentrated on improving the last two school years. It began with our PBIS strategy of 3:1 (positive interactions between teacher and student should have a ratio of 3 positive for every negative interaction). By greeting students at the beginning of each class with a smile, recognizing their accomplishments outside of the classroom and thank them for their contributions were all part of more normal routine. So I thought about how to move it to a deeper level, to connect positively in different ways with my students. Considering that most "negative" interaction between students and school staff is related not just to behavior, but also to assignment feedback had me evaluating how I assigned points and addressed areas where students had not met mastery standards in my classroom. Now, I treat point gathering and assignment feedback with the same 3:1 strategy. Most often, my conversation, written or recorded feedback begins with what the student did well. I then continue to address areas that need to be reviewed or redone. Including suggestions for remediation if necessary remove the "wrong" stigma and reinforce the concept of mastery.