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Error correction and feedback: How much is too much?

6/10/2019

4 Comments

 
As a language acquisition teacher, we are tasked with helping our students write (as well as speak) accurately. We all know that feeling when we take up a piece of work and we see those errors that we feel like we have repeated a million times in class already! I am sure we also remember that feeling when we were a student: getting back a piece of work that we felt like we had worked so hard on, but it is covered in the teacher’s red pen. So how should we go about error correction and feedback then? How many errors do we correct? How do we ensure the feedback is meaningful and used to push the student’s learning forward, rather than so deflating that it pushes them back?

In short, the language acquisition research argues that most students can actually acquire only 3-4 new words or phrases per 1 hour lesson. Yes, that is all. By acquire I mean, the word or phrase is engrained in long term memory and recall. The same is true with error correction and feedback in writing. If you correct every tiny little mistake and missed accent, the student will only remember the ‘sea of red ink’ and it will do very little to develop their acquisition. 

However, it is important not to forget the ‘outliers’; those students who, like us as their teachers, are linguists, grammatical nerds, who want to know every tiny error and why it is there. In my experience about 1 in every 20 students falls into this category. They are the ones who ‘ask’ about those sticky grammar points when you are mid-flow, sideways-laughing, at a funny part of a story. As you get to know them, you can and should correct all their errors but quietly explain to them that you are also a ‘grammar nerd’ and you knew they’d want to understand why the direct object pronoun is placed beside the indirect object pronoun. Then invite them to a ‘geek out’ at break time and go over it in detail. They will feel loved and fulfilled so now you can focus on the 99% who do not need or want that level of correction.

Ok so which errors should we correct?
​

In the pictures below is a student’s re-write of a story we were doing in class. This is a 13 year old student who has just started her second year of Spanish. The writing was done under exam conditions in class (ie. with no help from computers, dictionaries or teacher) in ten minutes. We had been co-creating the story together for about 5-6 lessons.
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As you can see, I choose not to correct all the errors. Instead, I focus on the errors that were vital to our story, or that were part of our ‘target structures’. For example “compró” (he/she bought) was an integral part of the story so I am correcting that. The difference between “quiero” (I want) and “quieres” (you want) has been a target structure in previous stories and at this stage, it is something I want students to be able to differentiate. However, in the first paragraph, I did not correct spelling errors like “una persona” or “difícil”. Why? Because they were not the focus of the story. From the research on intrinsic motivation, we know that students need to “feel” competent, that they can do it. If we correct every tiny error, the basic psychological need of ‘competence’ (from Self-Determination Theory) is dampened and the student feels like they ‘just can’t get it right no matter how hard they try’. I know it is challenging to let your red pen glide over an error which is glaring to you as the teacher but pick your battles! Does this error confuse the message? Was it a key focus in your lessons recently? If not, forget it. It will come later with more reading. 

So what about feedback? 

I like to use Geoff Petty’s ‘medals and missions’. It translates easily into Spanish and students immediately understand it. Pick 2-3 medals and 1-2 missions. Yes, you need ‘more’ medals than missions no matter how difficult this seems, you have to find them. However, and here is the kicker: in the ‘medals’ it is vital that you focus on the ‘process of language acquisition’ rather than the ‘quality’ itself. Praise the student with things like “I can clearly see you are reading at home” or “you are obviously listening intently in class”. That way, the student sees that they will be praised for going about the process in the correct way rather than just getting the answer right by whatever means. I only started doing this in the last year but I have seen huge differences once I reframed my feedback on the process and not product.

For the missions, I will usually give them a goal to improve the language like ‘use more description’ or ‘include connecting words to give your story more fluency’ rather than on the language itself. Sometimes, 1-2 short bullet points on a particular area of language is a good idea though. The students also use this ‘medals and missions’ way of giving feedback when doing peer assessment together in later tasks.

A further point that has really improved the way I give feedback is that I always try to read through the entire piece once before putting a single red mark on it. Yes, this is soooo difficult to do, it's like the red pen has a little red mind of its own at times! But if the piece is not too long, I try hard to do this. Then I ask myself: Ok, did I understand most of that? Were there lots of details from the story? Did it flow together? Has the student been listening to understand? It really focusses my mind on what is important and then allows me to pick out just 4-5 errors to concentrate on.

What happens next with the feedback?

For homework, students must write out their corrections. No ifs no buts. They write them always in the same place in their notebook so that all their corrections are together as they go through the year. We do this in a specific way:

  1. The student writes out the correct version of the sentence
  2. Next they use a different colour to underline or circle where the error used to be.

At the end they have a list of 4-5 sentences for each piece of written work that has a circle on the correct version, where they used to make mistakes. I always tell them this is the page to study or look over before any assessment. It is like having a teacher on your shoulder saying “psst.. remember, its quieres to say ‘you want’”. It means each student has a page of corrections that is specific and unique to them. I also encourage them to look over these corrections before they start their next written assignment. 

Let’s be honest, grading and marking is not why we got into this job. It’s never going to be ‘fun’ but at least with this method, it is time efficient and focussed on improvement. Most importantly, it maintains student motivation. It prevents them from feeling like a failure as they will never again receive a page of red pen that deflates and destroys all their hard work trying to get it right. Have a go and let me know what you think! Or if you have a better or more effective way of grading then please share… I’m all ears!
4 Comments

What does the ideal language classroom look like?

9/2/2015

2 Comments

 
PictureStudents working together on a 'running dictation'
Over the last month or so our language department meetings have focused on trying to agree some common ground on what the ideal language classroom looks and sounds like. What is 'good' or 'effective' language teaching and learning? How do we achieve it? Whittling all those 'good things' we try to do down to a list of just 3 or 4 is actually a much tougher task than it seems.  An easy way to find out is of course to just ask the students! So here are my two key points from my 8 years of teaching, lots of conversations with other language teachers, a look at the relevant research and literature in the area and, of course, asking the students what they think. I'd love to know what you guys think so please leave your comments below:

1. 'Use' of the Target language is key:
Both by the students and the teacher. The teacher should speak almost entirely in the target language but at a level understandable to the students so they get that all important 'comprehensible input'. Students need to wrap their mouth around the new words and sounds they are hearing so should speak the language with their peers and teacher in every class. Pair work and group work is a great help here as are things like 'exit tickets'. As I often say to my students: Do you play an instrument? Do you play a sport? Will you improve your guitar or football playing by just watching someone else do it and studying how their feet or hands move? Maybe a little, yes. But how do you really improve? You need to actually play the guitar or kick the ball. It is the same with learning  language.

2. The classroom should be Active, Supportive and Cooperative:
  • Active: Varied tasks that get students up and moving at least once during class to keep them awake and concentrated 
  • Supportive: Everyone should feel comfortable making mistakes and asking questions in the target language 
  • Cooperative: Students should frequently work together on varied tasks using the target language to communicate.

If, like me, you are a language teacher trying to find this elusive ‘ideal language-learning environment’ maybe all we need to do is follow the advice we routinely give our students: “If you are unsure, just ‘ASC’”.

Below is a paper I wrote entitled "Towards a model for the ideal language learning environment for secondary school adolescent pupils" for anyone who like to read a bit more on this topic. Please do leave your comments below or tweet me @liamprinter. 

Towards the Ideal Language Learning Environment

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Presenting at FEILTE 2014 in Dublin

26/10/2014

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PictureOur stand at FEILTE 2014
Every year the Irish Teaching Council organize 'FEILTE' - the Festival of Education In Learning and Teaching Excellence where a mix of showcases and workshops spanning projects from across the education sector, demonstrate the innovation happening in teaching and learning at the moment.

This year the event took place on October 4th and I was lucky enough to be selected to present on my use of on-going feedback and specifically "How student feedback changed my classroom". The official title was "The Irish Abroad: A look at the action research projects undertaken by Irish teachers in a Swiss International School". My colleague, Dublin born Ronan Lynch, joined me and he started our workshop with an overall presentation on the professional learning programme here in our school. I then went on to explain how I use feedback in my class to increase motivation and student ownership of their learning by modeling various methods of feedback collection I use in my class.

PictureFeedback workshop
Some of the most popular ones with the group were the really simple ones like "close your eyes and show me with your hands your understanding of how to give feedback. 1 finger being no understanding at all and 5 being that you consider yourself an expert". This is such a simple method that can be used at any time in the class to get into the heads of your students and find out what they really know or understand about a concept. It is also a very safe method for the students as they can safely say they have no idea without the fear of being ridiculed or feeling silly in front of their peers.

PictureOne minute summaries
Another very simple method that the participants really liked was the 'one minute summary'. We actually did this with them at the end of our workshop where we asked those in attendance to write down two things they liked from the session and one burning question they had. The idea is they first see if the person next to them can answer their question and if not then the teacher can answer it in the next class. This can be adapted in lots of different ways but essentially you use the 'power of the post-it' to get some quick feedback from the class as to what methods are helping them and what they still need help with.

Please feel free to contact me directly for any further information on the use of feedback in the classroom. You can also check out the full Prezi by clicking here.

2 Comments

Feedback loops that move the learner forward?

23/9/2014

2 Comments

 
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As teachers we always want to provide detailed feedback to the learner that really moves them forward, right? Hattie's famous (2007) study on feedback found that "feedback has more impact on learning that any other general factor". Agreed, right? We all know it is important, but how do we know our feedback is useful and effective, and that it is actually moving the student forward in their learning? And more importantly, how often do we actual engage in giving high quality detailed feedback to each student? 

One thing that can be a challenge to us as teachers is that many of us have a different meaning for the word "feedback". In Geoff Petty's (2007) book - "Evidence Based Teaching" he breaks feedback down into three distinctive parts that I have found to be highly effective in my classes:

1. Where am I going? (Goal) - Feed up - Clear and challenging criteria
2. How am I going? (Medal) - Feed back - Informative comments; Process (how) as well as product (what)
3. Where to next? (Mission) - Feed forward - Challenging but achievable clear targets based on last piece of work

Right now of course most teachers reading this are saying "this is all well and good, but when am I supposed to find time to give this kind of detailed feedback to each learner?". Yes, you are right. It can take time to furnish your students with the high quality detailed feedback they need but I think I may have found a way to at least put us on the right track


PictureProforma
Feedback Loops & Proformas:
When students submit a piece of writing they must first complete a self assessment sheet (or a 'proforma') answering questions like "I achieved the teachers objective", "I made 3 clear points" or "I made a plan before starting". Immediately there is some accountability on their behalf and they know that if they didn't answer yes to all the questions then they may not achieve the grade they thought it was worth. 

The 'teachers objective' is the 1 or maximum 2 specific language focused goals I gave them after their last piece of writing. It can be as specific as "Use the phrase..." or it could be based on format like "include a title". This specific, achievable and realistic goal moves the learner forward. At the end of the proforma I will then give them a new objective for their next piece of writing which they copy on to their next proforma and so the loop continues.

PictureMedals & Missions
Ok, ok so this all sounds great but what about correcting the actual piece of work? This is the key element. On their proforma they fill in the question "Teacher, please look at and give me feedback on these 2 things in my writing". They then tell me exactly what they want me to look at. So it could be "verb endings" or "adjective agreements" or more general like "the format" or "my conclusion". Now when you correct you have to hold back that red pen and only correct and give feedback on those elements they asked for. We all know how discouraging it is to get a piece of work back covered in red pen but when it is just a few flicks of red here and there, looking at specific, student centered, goals then they can, and will, really improve.

The final part of the process is the "medals and missions" sheet I complete for them. Once again, I ensure I only give them feedback on the items they asked for. Medals are things I like and that they are doing well. Missions are areas to improve on. All specifically related to what they asked me to look for. You can be sure that once you give them this kind of feedback and they do their corrections they will give you something different to look at next time as they feel they have mastered this part, or they might ask you to look at it again if it wasn't very good the last time. The key in all this is that the student is negotiating the feedback and correction process with you. They feel like they are receiving the guidance they need and you have less corrections to do! Everyone is a winner!

2 Comments

    Author

    Dr. Liam Printer:
    Host of The Motivated Classroom podcast, keynote speaker, presenter, lecturer, language teacher, teacher trainer, educational consultant, published author and basketball coach. 14 years teaching experience in a variety of educational settings. Currently I am the Teaching & Learning Research Lead and Approaches to Learning Coordinator at the International School of Lausanne in Switzerland where I also teach language acquisition.

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