the pursuit of those goals, and self-monitoring—all important 21st century skills (NRC 2012). Active
student involvement in the assessment process is vital in developing student self-direction in learning.
Crucial to student involvement in assessment, feedback is a critical factor in developing students’
insight into their own learning and understanding (NRC 1999; OECD 2005).
Feedback
Feedback indicates to students what they have done
well—the degree to which they have met learning goals—
and what they can do next to improve their learning
(Bangert-Drowns, and others 1991). Importantly, feedback
from teachers or peers should focus on tasks, processes
students use, and students’ self-regulation, rather than on
students themselves (Kluger and DeNisi 1996; Hattie and
Timperley 2007). Feedback, especially peer feedback, should
avoid making comparisons with other students (Black and
Wiliam 1998; Wiliam 2007). As Wiliam (2011) suggests, feedback should prompt a cognitive reaction
(in which the learner focuses on active steps to achieve mastery) and not an emotional reaction (in
which the learner experiences anxiety or embarrassment).
Long- and medium-cycle assessments usually produce a score indicating the status of
achievement. While the scores typically tell students what they have achieved, they do not tell them
how or why they achieved what they did. The role of teacher feedback in relation to these types
of assessment results is to help students understand where they were successful or not and to set
goals with students that inform them about where and how they need to improve. This approach
requires that teachers spend time with students discussing assessment results and setting goals and
strategies for improvement. Even when teachers use rubrics and provide evaluative scores, students
still need feedback about how to improve. Although time consuming, the benefit for students is more
assessment transparency and increased goal orientation and ownership of future learning.
When considering feedback to give EL students on their developing English language use, teachers
should focus first and foremost on effective communication and meaning making. They take note of
language resources (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical structures, discourse moves) students employ and
plan ways with students to increase their use. Teachers encourage EL students to take risks when
using English and establish a safe and supportive environment in which students are free to make
mistakes—that are in fact normal developmental steps—in approximating complex academic uses of
advanced English. For example, a student might ask, “How fast
the lava go?” If a teacher stops to correct the student’s grammar
(e.g., to tell the student they must use the word does), the focus
on meaning can be lost and the student may be discouraged from
taking further risks. Instead, teachers think carefully about when
and how to provide feedback on particular aspects of students’
language use, including grammatical structures, vocabulary, and
register. The teacher may at that moment simply acknowledge the
student’s question and recast the statement, thereby providing
implicit feedback (“That’s a great question! How fast does the
lava flow? Let’s read to find out.”). In this example, the teacher
also writes the recast question on a chart or using a document
camera to provide a visual reinforcement of the oral modeling,
and referring to a list of questions students have generated, the class chorally reads them together.
In addition, the teacher notes what the individual student said and makes plans to address the
grammatical structure of questions more explicitly during designated ELD. These examples do
When considering
feedback to give
EL students on their
developing English
language use, teachers
should focus first and
foremost on effective
communication and
meaning making.Feedback indicates to students
what they have done well—the
degree to which they have met
learning goals—and what they
can do next to improve their
learning.846 | Chapter 8 Assessment