As I prepare for my college writing courses, I am realizing more and more than I was not trained in giving formative feedback in students’ writing. Yes, I can mark up students’ papers but I do not think that I have given students useful information on how to improve. I’ve identified their problem (run on sentence; lack of vivid description) but have not helped them to translate that into an specific improvement action. Certainly, phrases like “awkward sentence”, “write better sentences”, “be more descriptive” and “use the same tense” do not provide the learner with practical information to be able to improve; those statements are observation statements, not formative feedback.
I am trying to create checklists and success lists so that students know what is required and how they can do it. I am struggling to find resources to help me.
Imagine if all English teachers worked together to identify students lapses in learning and suggested a specific way to improve for each lapse. If each English teacher contributed one lapse and one practical suggestion for improving the students’ writing, we could create a powerful learning environment.