Are you fully aware of how to move forward from your feedback?
After years of classroom teaching, I would be rich if someone gave me a pound for every time a student shouted across the room to a friend “what did you get?” during feedback lessons. Students seem obsessed with the number/grade and how they compare with their peers, rather than looking at specific targets and comments which teachers generally spend hours and hours on, only to be overlooked.
If this cycle continues, students will only continue to make the same mistakes and will become disheartened when their grades don’t improve. So here are some tips on how to use feedback to effectively move forward.
Focus on the positives first, it’s a great feeling to know that your hard work has paid off.
Now zoom in on some of the areas where you didn’t score so highly, this could be language analysis or misinterpreting a question.
Ask your tutor/teacher if you don’t understand their comments so they can explain them to you in more detail.
Re-write the section of your essay/exam that you didn’t quite do so well in, making sure you have looked at examples or specimen papers first. Ask your teacher to mark your rewrite to see if you have understood the task.
Ask your tutor/teacher to model good examples so you know how your writing should be structured.
Make sure you understand the mark scheme and can see exactly what you need to do to move into the next band. Again, ask if you are unsure because mark schemes are written for examiners so your teacher should be able to explain what these mean.
Email or ask your teacher after school if you are embarrassed about asking questions in front of the class.
Be proactive. Don’t push those exam papers to the bottom of your bag because you want to bury your head in the sand and you are disappointed with the result.
If you need any help/advice in this area, please drop me a message.
