Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Using instant feedback in class.

Instant feedback is only beneficial in the learning process if something is done once a mistake is realized. In  my earlier classroom experiences, students completed an exercise and usually did not find out if they were correct or not until I got around to correcting it or going over the answers in class as a group. By then students had forgotten the thought process that went into the answers they arrived at.
In submitting answers electronically and providing students with instant feedback the thinking can be corrected and extended right there on the spot leaving very little time for the incorrect thought processes to linger. I encourage my students to do homework corrections immediately when they see they have a mistake.
In the last couple weeks I've seen them grow in the reflection process and have been happy to see the improvements students have been making. They are becoming more self-directed in their learning and formally explaining their mistakes and demonstrating their corrected thinking.
Here are some examples of student work in the reflection process.
Student 1

Student 2

2 comments:

  1. I love seeing their thoughts gel in their written work! And it's always fascinating to see the variety, like one saw the product of -1, and the other as negative reciprocal. But do you correct EVERYTHING they do? I usually give the answers in a separate document right away, to save time of course. Question about your googledocs assessments: Have you figured out a way to ask questions that have any kind of images in them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I only correct the problems they submit for corrections and not everyone does corrections. Students are required to do corrections if the assignment is below 70%. They receive the correct answers so I'm looking more for correct understanding than looking at each individual answer on the correction form which speeds it up. Late work is still submitted online so I get scores still that way for those assignments. For questions with images/graphs/diagrams I am still relying on the text and referencing a specific problem number there for them to complete. On tests they still get a paper copy of the test, the form is more or less where they are putting their final answers. I still look over the test for work, understanding, etc when they turn it in.

    ReplyDelete