The Handbook for Poor Students, Rich Teaching. Eric Jensen

figure 5.4 (page 56). This gives you a better idea of where to start a unit.

      2. “I Decide, You Decide” (average effect size of 0.89): Students in pairs alternate deciding and sorting information. Students have the content information on cards, papers, or digital media. You call out the decision to make, and the two students work out the answer. For example in science, you might say, “Compare and contrast oxygen and helium.” The students can create a Venn diagram showing the overlap between the two elements, do a mind map, or just make two columns. Then, they share it with the class and get feedback.

      3. Graphic organizers and mind maps (average effect size of 1.24): Show students an example first and then a blank framework. Figure 5.5 (page 56) highlights one such example, and you can find many others online (visit http://imindmap.com). Sell them on why this is a great way to learn (“It is just like your brain works—it goes from idea to idea to details, then it connects them”). Your students create their own personalized representation of what they are learning and then add illustrations, pictures, or emoticons. Once they are done, they trade organizers with a partner for peer-editing feedback. Then, ask them to turn in their organizers and recreate it from memory. The version they turned in to you can be for their final feedback.

Figure 5.4: Plan a quiz with feedback options.

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Figure 5.5: A student mind map.

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      This chapter has four more high-performing feedback strategies that draw on the five benchmarks.

       SEA for Qualitative Feedback

      Students have no control over their DNA, their parents, or their neighborhood. However, students do have a huge amount of influence over the choices they make (strategy), how hard they work (effort), and the mindset (attitude) they bring to learning. The SEA strategy is a way to reinforce these in the classroom and ask, “How am I doing?”

      You will find that although SEA is specific, the real reason it is effective is that you don’t want to have to think in the moment, “How can I give specific feedback?” It has to become automatic and fast. SEA does this by giving you three quick ideas you can use without having to rack your brain. Each of the SEA qualities is a clear and potent replacement for using delayed tests (effect size of 0.31; Hattie, 2009) or saying “Well done” or “Good job” (effect size of 0.09; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). Instead, using SEA, teachers give specific feedback in regard to strategy, effort, and attitude. Figure 5.6 offers a format to give students effective SEA assessment by simply attaching a quick note to the work you return to students. You could also give these blank forms to students for them to self-assess.

Figure 5.6: Use SEA feedback.

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      For example, you could offer the following feedback for strategy, effort, and attitude.

      • Strategy: “I loved how you kept trying so many strategies on the third problem until you got it.”

      • Effort: “I like that you refused to give up. That extra effort will help you succeed again and reach your goal of mastering this content.”

      • Attitude: “Before you began, you thought you could succeed. Your positive attitude showed that you had a growth mindset and helped you come through.”

      Use the SEA feedback to build drive and long-term effort by changing who, when, and how often you give feedback. The who means you should never be the only source of student feedback. The majority should come from the student him- or herself, peers, computers, the physical results of actions, a rubric, or a standard set as a model or a checklist. The when means that sooner is better than later. The how often might be the most important question of all. Because feedback’s contribution to motivation, learning, and achievement is so high, ensure that your students get some kind of feedback (by their peers, the activity itself, reflection, or you) at least once every thirty minutes, every school day of the year. By using specific high-scoring, self-awareness feedback strategies with an effect size of a huge 0.74, you give students the gift of affirmation and light a fire (Marzano, 1998).

       3M for Quantitative Feedback

      The 3M (milestone, mission, and method) feedback process focuses on orienting students to learning in an empirical way. The beauty of it is its simplicity. This feedback answers the three most essential questions students have about how they are doing: (1) “Where am I?” (milestone), (2) “Where am I going?” (mission), and (3) “How do I get there?” (method). The effect size is a whopping 1.13, which tells you it is highly effective (Wiliam & Thompson, 2007).

      The 3M process involves using feedback with students and training them to use the process, which includes three steps: (1) teach students the 3M process, (2) ask students to track their progress, and (3) guide students to improvement. Let’s look deeper at each of these.

       Teach Students the 3M Process

      Before students can use the 3M process on their own, you need to first teach them its critical pieces. Give them a filled-out 3M notecard like the one in figure 5.7. Later, I will show you a version you can give students to set and track their progress over time.

Figure 5.7: Introduce students to 3M feedback.

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      Once you begin to use the 3M process with students, they will see its value. Over time, students will learn to self-assess.

       Ask Students to Track Their Progress

      For students to self-assess, they need data to track how they are doing. The data are simply their scores, which can come from self-assessments, a returned assignment, a student-graded quiz, or any other form of written, numerical score. So, quality data could be as simple as sixteen out of twenty points on a quiz. Provide them with a tracking sheet to track all scores for a unit and for any score less than 100 percent, instruct them to write notes about what they must do to improve. See figure 5.8.

Figure 5.8: Track progress.

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      When tracking their data, students should be aware of their mission during this step. The mission is always simple; it is 100 percent. You may have students with special needs who start at a much lower score than the rest of the class. In their case, the mission focus is on 100 percent improvement (from three correct to six correct is a 100 percent improvement). These high expectations are a critical part