It’s the first day of the new school year, 2019/20. We all had that sparkle in our eyes, filled with excitement, hope, a little nervous. We had done the normal back to school things, made introductions, set classroom rules, read a couple of books. Then it was time to try something new, give each other feedback. Yes, I decided that if I wanted to create a culture where feedback was welcome we had to start by giving feedback on the first day of school. I have always been an advocate for giving students feedback through conferring and small groups but after having taken a course from my school district about Project Based Learning (PBL), taking an inspiring course about Design Thinking at the Henry Ford Learning Institute, I decided it was time to build a culture of feedback in my classroom where students gave feedback too. I entered the school year asking myself how can third and fourth graders give each other effective feedback?
Having done a similar activity in the PBL summer course I was inspire to try it in my own classroom to introduce the idea of giving feedback to peers. First, we gave each student a piece of paper to create a name tent. Off they went, busy for about 10 minutes. We met back at the carpet and watched “Austin’s Butterfly,” a video with Ron Berger. In this video Berger does a great job describing to students all about feedback.
Austin’s Butterfly: Building Excellence in Student Work from EL Education on Vimeo.
We talked about warm fuzzies and feedback to help us grow, how we need the help us grow kind of feedback because that’s how our work will get better. Off they went, we did a gallery walk with post its in hand, giving each other feedback. Students returned to their work, read their feedback and made changes. We did the cycle again, focusing on the idea that a draft is an ok place to be and that improvements can always be made. Finally, students were ready to work on finishing their name tents.
Something as simple as creating a name tag had helped set the tone for a year of giving and receiving feedback. Building a culture of feedback into our classroom was everything I hoped it to be and more. It helped students be more independent and articulate about what they were learning. It also helped us when we did many other projects through the year. (More on that to come!)
I look forward to doing an iteration of this lesson this fall, stay tuned for what we do. If you have ideas about taking this lesson or a similar one digital, let me know, connect with me on twitter or in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
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